State Fair Fun!

Greetings,

This weekend some of us sisters serving in Nebraska gathered for fun at the State Fair! A weekend of prayer and play to rejuvenate our hearts and souls.  Saturday was spent cooking and catching up on all we've been doing since we returned to our missions (our parish and school work).  That evening we attended Mass at Sister's parish where she helps out with caring for others.  A big surprise for me was a familiar face!  One of my students who just graduated was at Mass with us!  He peeked over at me as I was peeking over at him...both of us unsure if we were recognizing the right person since neither knew the other should be there.  After Mass he came over to greet me with a big smile and hug.  It was fun to catch up with him at the start of his new college career...by the by...he was getting ready to show his hogs at the fair the next day. 

I loved seeing all the folk wandering up and down the streets of the fairgrounds.  Here we were watching the folk's check out a hay bale designed to look like snoopy flying one of his doghouses!  There were families with baby strollers, teens sporting their school-4H-FFA affiliations, young couples, and those who had seen many more fairs.  It was fun to watch them go by...

Important to all state fairs is the fried food on a stick! We tried fried Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies, HoHos, MilkyWays, Chocolate covered Bacon, Corndogs, and the winner...Fried Peaches!  They tasted like fresh peach cobbler with a little cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the top.  The peaches were sweet and juicy and all warm with a crunchy batter covering.  Hmmm...luckily we were all willing to share.  Between the giggles, we swapped bites of the sweet and the savory. 

 The fair had a marvelous exhibit with huge sand sculptures about the state.  This one shows a variety of the states fish, bird, flower and rock formations.  It was amazing to see these grand sized sand castles tower over the families and lookie-loos.  It was also amazing because they seemed to hold up against the wind and heat of the wide-open fair grounds.

While strolling through the quilt exhibit, we were amazing at this Triptych of panels telling the story of Christ's love for us in blocks and thread.  Each of the panels had a Bible verse stitched in to tell the message of the fabric.  The first began with "Come to me..." then the next was "I am with you always"...and finally "It is finished."  We paused quite awhile to ponder the images and what they could mean. 

 Sea lions and Tigers were the exotic animals of choice for the fair!  We tried to get to the sea lion show, but it was all the way across the fair and one of our sisters got overheated and needed a cool break.  So we trekked back through the 100 degree heat to a fan cooled exhibit hall and listed to some fiddle and folk music while sipping our cool sodas and lemonades.  Later, we did get to the Tiger experience with many other families.  The tigers were a bit slow and grumpy, but the tamers shared that they like to sleep through the heat of the day or cool out in pools of water.  Still, they thrilled the little kids and intrigued the grown ups.  We sisters decided we agreed with the tigers, hot days like our fair day were designed for laying low in the shade or cooling off in a relaxing pool with friends.

As we left the fair for our little convent home, the lights and squeals of delight from the midway carried all throughout the fairgrounds.  We had been all over the grounds by this time and were too weary to check out the goings-on but it was a beautiful reminder of fun and life and joy of the young and old we had been seeing all day long.  I had to take a quick picture as we made our way to the shuttle-bus, a picture of how I remember fairs when I was little, a picture of how the rural fairs still celebrate today. 

Blessings,

Ordinary Daze

Greetings,

Living these Ordinary Days have left my in an unordinary daze!  Summer at the monastery is always filled with a variety of prayer, work, and play that can leave a sister spinning if she doesn't write it all down (well, at least this sister anyhow).  I have been blessed with house ministries that keep me working with a variety of sisters throughout the house...

First, the garden, poor thing, has been receiving all due attention with weeding, watering, and loving care.  However, the lack of rain in our area has driven the rabbits, gofers, and a whole variety of critters into our fair acre and so very little of our beans, peas, and other lovey veggies have grown very far without being nibbled back down to nubs. However, Saint Benedict predicted that a monastery would never be without guests and it continues to ring true today.  Another of my works for the house is to assist the sister who cleans our guest rooms.  It is easy to forget how many people come to visit when we spend our days on the 'cloister' side of the house, but the mix of friends, travelers, and the curious continue to amaze me!  There are also the little works of the monastery are simply called 'charges'.  The house charges are the many little things that need to be done to help care for the daily needs of our family home.  I have Chapel cleaning on Fridays as well as supper and lunch dishes.

Framing all this is our rhythm of prayer.  Admittedly, this is my favorite part of being home for the summer.  Being with the whole community, the whole family for prayer and Eucharist.  A chance to look around Chapel and pray for each as we pray together.  A chance to fall back into the heartbeat of our pace in prayer...each house seems to have its own pace and spacing and it's nice to be home in our rhythm for awhile so as to carry it back to the convent apartment this Fall.

Blessings,

Monday Ministry

Greetings,

Yesterday was filled with a variety of service to community.  The Garden Sisters were dropped off at one of our four apricot trees...it was already ripening!  After a few reminders about picking, we started plucking the egg-yolk colored little fruits off the tree.  Sister Gardener would have given the tree another day or two so more fruit would be ripe, but our little corner of South Dakota was being buffeted by high winds and the ready apricots were starting to fall pretty quickly.

Once we had picked all that we could reach from the ground, we started up the ladders and this simple chore became a little more interesting.  Ahem...apricot trees have a lot of 'play' when being blown by the wind.  There were moments when we needed to stop picking and simply keep one hand on the ladder and the other swaying with the tree.  We weren't in danger of being blown off our ladders, but it can be a bit dizzying when the a the tree becomes a whirl of green and orange while your standing still.  The blessing was three boxes to begin our apricot season (several more will follow) and the 'breeze' was enough to keep all the gnats away!

The sisters were very excited to see the fresh apricots served for supper that night!

Blessings,

"There's No Place Like Home"

Greetings,

This is the first Saturday I have free and clear from school work.  My morning began slow with a cup of coffee, a Sacred Heart chaplet, and some quiet time with Christ.  I could take all the time my heart needed without worry of getting my homework done...

However, this afternoon will be filled with Suzy-homemaker chores and tasks.  After some teacher meetings on Tuesday, I will be going home to the monastery for the summer; so I need to leave my areas of the apartment convent ship shape!  My bedroom will become the 'Guest Sister' bedroom for the summer and little dusting and sorting needs to be done.  I'm glad to do this when I know that I get to be home at the monastery while another sister uses our convent apartment as a get away space.

Home!  I will be home in time for Vespers--Liturgy of the Hours--Divine Office with our sisters.  Our prayer together is the thing I miss most while working away from the monastery during the school year.  Sister Roommate and I follow the same prayer here at our apartment convent, but there is a big difference between two voices alternating and a hundred voices harmonizing. 

Sister Subprioress has me busy about the monastery for the summer: gardening, cleaning guest department, doing dishes, and scrubbing bathrooms; and I am excited to do it.  Charges (in-house work assignments) are a part of our Benedictine life.  Chapter 48 of the Rule of Benedict reminds us to balance daily manual labor and prayer in our daily life:

And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty should require that they themselves do the work of gathering the harvest, let them not be discontented; for then are they truly monastics when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, however, for the sake of the faint-hearted...Weak or sickly sisters should be assigned a task or craft of such a nature as to keep them from idleness and at the same time not to overburden them or drive them away with excessive toil. Their weakness must be taken into consideration by the Abbess.

My daily charges within the monastery aren't just work; they are a ministry of love for my sisters in community, a way of taking care of each other.  The work of weeding and gathering we do in the garden eventually helps to feed our sisters homegrown produce not just for one day but throughout the winter months as well.  The ministry of cleaning and caring for our guest rooms is an outreach of Benedict's call to receive all guests as Christ.  Even the daily work of doing dishes and scrubbing floors can be lifted above the mundane to the divine when we remember that it is done for the love of our Sisters.

While there will be much to do once I arrive home, I am excited to be there. 
There is no place like home!

Blessings,

Prayer...

Greetings,

Prayer in central to our Benedictine life. We gather morning, noon, evening, and night to pray as a community for our needs and the needs of the world. Lately our prayer has been very urgent and focused on the needs of those along the Mighty Mo. The flooding from the rains and snows on the far away mountains and plains of Montana is reminding us lowly land dwellers of the power of water.

The usual water level and calm below the Gavins Point Dam by this time of the year.


The 147,000 cubic feet per second release of water from the Gavins Point Dam!
This was taken by the Army Corps of Engineers on June 15, 2011.


The turbulent water from the Gavins Point Dam as it begins the flow downriver!
This was taken by the Army Corps of Engineers on June 15, 2011.

While we are blessed to live at the top of the bluffs on the South Dakota side of the Missouri River safe from harm, many of our family, friends, and folk (we only know through prayer) live in the dangerous flood zones of the growing Missouri. We pray for those endangered and evicted by the raging waters and for all those who seek to offer protection and aid. We also join in that offer of aid through cookie baking and other good will donations. The flooding is predicted to continue for many weeks as the snow continues to melt in the mountains...so to our prayerful intercession will need to continue.

Blessings,

More Monastic Works...

Greetings,

I have been working with our Sister Gardener for the last few days. Another Sister Teacher and I have been assigned to help while on break for the summer. Unfortunately, the spring and early summer has been quite a strange season of weather and it is taking the summer produce some time to catch up. Tuesday we weeded through the kale, onions, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, watermelon, et al. on one heck of a hot day...90 degrees with sweltering winds whipping up dust.

Wednesday morning it had cooled down to 75 degrees (or so) and it made for a wonderful day of spot watering and mulching the tomatoes. With the flood of the Missouri, our pump house by the river has been shut down. It is unusual for us to use city water, thus the 'spot' watering only. I know it will be surprising to hear, but while the river flows with powerful flood waters from Montana and Canada, the flat lands away from the river are quite packed and dry;
we could use some rain. Until then I will remain the 'water fairy' of the Monastery garden ;)

Today the temperatures sunk into the fifties! We bundled up in sweatshirts and flannels to continue our Monastic works. We began with picking chamomile for our sisters to dry and make teas and blends that we sell in our gift shop. It was cold, but wonderfully scented morning of quiet service. Our morning in the chamomile typifies why I love my summers in the various Monastic work assignments...the quiet service together allows time for prayerful reflection on the school year and years of life in community. We do have time to visit and tell stories throughout the work, but this sharing often leads back to time of quiet again. It is an enriching preparation to return back to our ministries at the end of summer.

Blessings,

Summer Charges

Greetings,

The Monday after our June Monastic Chapter heralds the beginning of the summer charges (chores) here at the monastery. My Monday charges include produce preparation from the monastery's garden and orchard. (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings I'll be IN the garden.) We are currently between seasons in the garden. The asparagus,lettuce and radishes are slowing down, but the other veggies and fruits aren't yet in season. However, rhubarb seems to create a timeline of its own. The morning began with cleaning and trimming a few boxes of rhubarb from our garden! Tomorrow the sisters will move to chopping it for pies, jams, and sauces!

It is a wonderful charge when we gather around the counters in the serving hall and begin to visit and tell stories as we work. There is a place for all the sisterly crew rinsing the stalks by the sinks, sitting on stools, or collecting the trimmings for our composting around the garden. We even had one of our wandering elders join us for a while in the trimming and stories, and when she was ready to move on, she rinsed her hands and wandered along.

It is a wonderful change of pace and focus from the school year. These daily exchanges are what settles my soul.

Blessings,

Corn Parties!

Greetings,

"The monastics should serve one another. Consequently, no one will be excused from kitchen service unless he is sick or engaged in some important business of the monastery, for such service fosters love" Let those who are not strong have help so that they may serve without distress, and let everyone reieve help as the size of the community or local conditions warrant"(RB 35: 1-3).

The cooler has been filled with three pickup loads of sweet corn and the sisters have just about had their fill of the fresh ears at supper; now it is time to begin the corn parties! Before the "Corn Party" sign goes up, some sisters volunteer to gather to husk and wash the corn of their silks. On my way to the corn cutting station, I happened upon a group yesterday as they were laughing, talking, and husking their way through several bushels of sweet corn.

The corn cutters gathered in the kitchen with knives, boards, and a few specialty corn cutters from the South Dakota Corn Palace. We were a bit quieter as we sliced our way through the cooled bushels of steamed ears. (The 'Corn Zipper' was an awesome tool to removed kernels from the cob without cutting too close or slipping!) Later a couple of sisters took away the barrels of husks and cobs and dumped them back in the field to mulch the future harvest.

Last year we cut and froze almost 500 pounds of sweet corn to eat during the rest of the year. Each bite is a treat from summer and a promise of the next year's field. It is also a great reminder of how much we can do together as a community.

Blessings,

A Prayer to Scholastica

Greetings,

The only story we have of Saint Scholastica, the sister of our founded Saint Benedict, retells the last time she met with her brother. To keep her brother from returning to his monastery and ending their holy conversation, she prayed to God with her head bowed as tears flowed from her eyes. A storm settled over the small house just as she raised her head from her hands and it rained so hard that Benedict needed to stay over night with his sister talking of the glories of God.

Dear Scholastica...please stay the rain! The skies opened over Yankton just after 11 AM and it rained over an inch and a half in the first two hours! It slowed a bit after 1:30, but just an hour later it is beginning to rain harder again. The difficulty is that there is nowhere for the rain to go. The summer has been so wet that the rivers are brimming over and the soil is saturated. The monastery is high on a bluff over the Missouri, but surrounded by little pools of water in every low spot on the grounds. It is also seeping through the stone walls of the chapel and into the sandstone blocks on the inside! So, please Scholastica, answer our prayer and stop the rain.

Blessings,

Where Did Summer Go?

Greetings,

I'm pondering where summer went. Tomorrow I will begin the Fall session at University. This semester is overshadowed by two classes that sound quite academic. I have the Research Practicum Course, during which time I will need to conduct and evaluate my own research gathered at a local educational institution. Please pray for me on Friday, that is when I will meet with the principal and induction coordinator to decide if I can investigate their first year teachers. The other 'big' course is the History of Education (yawn). However, I am told by my advisor that the professor is one of the most brilliant minds on campus. I'm not sure if this is a comfort or makes me a bit more nervous about the expectations/work load. I am taking a third course purely out of interest and for an elective. Differentiated Education for the Exceptional Child...aka...how do we teach all the different ability levels in the same room. This is a situation I know will occur in my classroom when I return to teaching, and I also know that any review and support in this area will help any Children of God I may have in the future. So...one for interest and two for requirements.

I'm still wondering where summer went. It isn't just the fact that school is beginning again that leads me to ponder this question. The weather here has been a bit loopy for August. Last night it was in the LOW 50's! Some places even dropped into the 40's. I know folk talk about the lake affect here and all, but that is a bit extreme for August! The warmest day since I've returned has been in the mid-70's! I've been in long sleeves! I've even broke out my fuzzy blanket for reading in a comfy chair! Crazy. I never thought I'd wonder where those dog days of summer have gone.

Grandma's Apron Strings

Greetings,

I was a last minute addition to my Mom's group of friends at the Dakotafest Women's Brunch in Mitchell, South Dakota. The theme for the brunch and the speaker was Grandma's Apron Strings. All of the committee coordinators and ushers were wearing gorgeous vintage and home-made aprons in an array of bright colors.

The invocation for the brunch was given by our very own Sr. Valerie! She started with a great story about the first lady's struggles as homemaker...Eve as the first lady by the way. The story was a great ice breaker and soon she had all the wives, mothers, and grandmothers in the audience on her side! After the crowd stopped chuckling at her story's conclusion, she led us seamlessly through a simple prayer of blessings.

The speaker was also a South Dakota girl...she too was dressed in an apron! Jane Green shared her wonderful sense of humor and lessons she has learned through stories from key points in her life. Her hope was that the women would be refreshed in Laughter, Love, and Living Life. She encouraged all of us to write the stories of our own lives that our lessons and wisdom could be passed on.

The following 'poem' was at each woman's place at the table. A few lyrical lines about the depth that the simple apron can share in our lives. Hmm...it makes me want to find a trusty pattern of my own to wear.

Blessings,

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The Principal use of Grandma's Apron was to protect the dress underneath, becuase she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought inot the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walking out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time-apron' that served so many purposes.

Sweet Corn

Greetings,

The sisters had picked over 140 bushels of sweet corn! The farmer who rents our land always plants some easily accessible rows so we can gather ears for the monastery. This year the small group of sisters was enhanced by our new chaplain and possibly a student from college.

The bushels of corn were immediately enjoyed on the ear, but much of it needed to be prepared for freezing. Shucking parties were held in the afternoons. Then the gardening sisters, both Sr. Virginia and myself, were moved to the indoors to scrub the corn clean of its stringy silks. Finally, two separate evening corn cutting parties were held. It may sound surprising, but it when we gather to cut the corn we have a good time together.

It is amazing how quickly we all fall into jobs on these corn nights. Most of the sisters join the group of corn cutters. However, some choose to pack the five pound tins of corn with cling wrap and tin foil. Sr. Henrietta, one of our elders, keeps deciding year by year if she can help out and there she was this year, sealing the final tinfoil layer. Sr. Carmy came back from preparing her classroom to help carry away the empty cobs and haul them out to the field. The first night we prepared 65 pans of corn for the freezer and the second we completed 48 pans...each a was five pounds of corn! So in total we have over 565 pounds of corn for the year! Whoo-Hoo! The Benefits of Community!

Blessings,

Done with Time to Spare!

Greetings,

Here I sit at the University library with time to spare! I have uploaded all my final papers to the online drop box and made copies of those same papers so the teacher will also have hard copies. I have reorganized and stapled my research doodlings and even included my certificate from the online researcher ethics quiz we had to take. I have an hour and a half to spare : )

So, after I log off this computer, I am going to ensconce myself in one of the cozy chairs in the cool corners of the library and read...Pride and Prejudice. I brought it along just in case I was able to reward myself with free time. Tonight, all I shall have to do is pack a bag, find a few toiletries, and seek some sleep for the drive home tomorrow!

See you all soon!

An Hour Lost...

Greetings,

Okay, I have long ago accepted that I am an English geek or book geek. I started reading book geek novels in grade school and it only increased in high school and college. Yes, there have been a few deviations from that path (Harry Potter) but by and large I've always loved the classics of American and British literature. I even passed my dismal junior high grammar class by reading and writing reports about Jane Eyre. Early novels that I loved included tales from The Odyssey and Arthurian Legends. Okay, now that you've been given this preface, I hope you understand my irritation as explained below.

I decided to watch a new NBC show "Merlin" as my morning break in reading. At first I found the deviations from the legends okay, but by the end of the episode I was irked! (Sigh) Prince Arthur has a same age servant Merlin who is just learning magic from Gius the castle physician. Lady Morgana is a lovely young ward of the King and doesn't know she is supposed to be an evil sorceress; her serving lady is Gwen (yup, she doesn't even get her full name). It's become a Middle Ages version of 90210 starring Merlin...Arthur is more of a side kick! However, all this I could handle until they reached the end of the episode. They had saved a young Druid boy from being executed and just as Arthur sets him free he asks the boy his name. Mordred. Oh please, I'm done! I love the legends more than NBC...I just lost an hour.

One more thought. I called Joy to tell her of this travesty and we began to think of how we could miscast all of Harry Potter...What if we needed more young handsome folk to sell the series? What if....Dumbledore was Colin Firth and Voldemort was Hugh Grant? What if...they needed a young Minerva McGonagall such as Kira Knightley? He, He, He, He....We envisioned the battles between Dumbledore and Voldemort occurring over tea with much apologizing and mumbling over crumpets. It made us both chuckle. Just a thought...

Any thoughts on who else we should miss-cast into the show? Remember, they would need to be British or at least European for the cast.


Blessings,

PS...Have a great day of Chapter Meetings Sisters!

Monastery Retreat

Greetings Sisters,

I hope that the Community Retreat at the Monastery has started well! I checked my calendar this morning and was reminded that you were all beginning the retreat at home! While I hope for all the best for each of you, I am sad that I won't be home to join you. So, I will keep the house in prayer as you gather this week.

This week my classmate and I will be beginning the field research at a nearby Catholic high school. We will be observing a recovery math course; there are three different sections of 8-12 students each...we will watch the last course which were the greatest strugglers during the school year. I am hoping that after observing and interviewing students for this mini-study I will be able to return to the school for my second (longer) study in the fall.

We have to write-up a possible organization to prepare for our study this Fall. I'm going to piggy-back reading I've done in my Spring class on my continuing work in the Fall. Hopefully, the school will allow me to look into the first-year teachers' expectations in the induction process. Please pray that my write-up gets accepted so I may carry it out in the Fall!

Blessings,

The Vatican & I Agree

Greetings,

I have long been an advocate for the Harry Potter series, and not just because I'm an English teacher who likes to see books with worn pages in the kids hands. They also carry some wonderfully well developed themes over the seven books of the series. She emphasizes the struggle for good to triumph over evil, the importance of friendship and guidance, the difficultly in choosing to do right, and the pain and sorrow of loss. They are interesting stories for all ages. Today, I found a statement from the Associated Press by the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican lauded the latest Harry Potter film on Monday, saying "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" made the age-old debate over good vs. evil crystal clear.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano even gave two thumbs up to the film's treatment of adolescent love, saying it achieved the "correct balance" and made the stars more credible to the general audience.
The newspaper said the film, which opens Wednesday, was the best adaptation yet of the J.K. Rowling series about the adventures of the bespectacled child wizard Harry Potter and his Hogwarts chums as they battle Harry's nemesis, the evil sorcerer Voldemort.
While criticizing Rowling for omitting any explicit "reference to the transcendent" in her books, L'Osservatore said the latest installment nevertheless makes clear that good should overcome evil "and that sometimes this requires costs and sacrifice."
"In addition, the spastic search for immortality epitomized by Voldemort is stigmatized," the review said.

Celebrate The Feast of St. Benedict!

Greetings,

Happy Feastday to all the Benedictines at home and abroad! The day is celebrating with me here in the East. There was a small rain (Scholastica) and now the sun is shinning bright with a gorgeous blue sky. It was a wonderful morning for a walk about the neighborhood.

Later, I will treat the Franciscans to dinner out on this Feastday. We will most likely go to the Cheesecake Factory that is just down the road. It won't quite compare to the steak and peacan pie that was served at the Monatery last night, but it'll do. We'll have wine and cheese to start with a toast to absent Sisters.

I also prepared some prayer using our Vespers booklet for the Feast of Benedict. Glen (copier helper) at Kinkos was very good natured about my questions and requests in making the short liturgy aide. He had a few questions of his own as he help me...apparently they don't get many nuns copying prayer booklets at his store.

Once I made the copies, I realized I needed to add notes for responses and such because their prayer style greatly differs from ours in some ways. However, the Franciscans are good sports and want me to make our prayer tonight as "Benedictine" as possible...So, I have arranged some liturgical environment for our prayer. It's quite a nice arrangement of plant, gold cloth, and an icon of Benedict if I do say so myself. A candle and my copy of the Rule will finish it off very neatly. I won't make them chant the psalms tonight, but we may have to try the Magnificat.

School works its way into the Feastday as well. While I'm working on my IRB (online research approval quiz), I'm listening to the prayer podcasts from the Benedictine Sisters of P.A. at Clyde. When I finally finsih this online reading and quiz to show I am an ethical and responsible researcher at the University, I get to read more about structuring qualitative research and write a rough draft of a proposal for research I'll share with another student in the class. The course is getting better, but I just feel like I'm always a day late and a dollar short even though I'm working ahead as much as I can. There is just so much "new" in this area.

Blessings,

Smoke

Greetings,

Well folks, I always saw myself as a fairly straight forward personality. It isn't always the best track to be so up front, but it's me. However, the teacher has posed a question that has brought me to decide to do what so many other students have done before me...I'm gonna blow smoke. She wants to know how we will use the skills learned in this research class outside of our University courses. Honestly, I put this learning in the "what doesn't drive ya crazy makes you a better person" catagory. Or even better...the line I've used on kids," it helps you think outside your own understanding and see things differently". The smoke I'll blow will have something to do with evaluating my own approach to education and teaching or something.

Keep Praying,

A Quantitative English Teacher?

Greetings,

The intermediate research methods course may be getting the best of me. I must admit; I always thought I could attack any reading you set before me. Give me the context of the course and I'd find that strain of thought within the reading. Nope. I give up. I give in! After almost 450 pages of reading in the first week, I still have no idea of what I'm supposed to be reading for in the articles. Do you read the 1968 study for how it was conducted or the outdated information? How do find the process of qualitative work in a 40 page account of some kid when it is just the researcher's retelling of the story?

I never thought I'd say it, but give me the structure of a nice little quantitative study and at least I know what I'm looking for there. The problem is the teacher (she isn't a professor yet) is the disciple of another professor here at university and he believes that qualitative is the end all and be all and doesn't lower himself to the quantitative research format. So far all the reading has been on qualitative research or qualitative research itself. Can you be an English teacher and have a quantitative research heart at the same time?

Seriously folk, pray...I am quite confused at how to approach this course and I've tried to express my conundrum to the teacher. Sigh... She says I'll be fine. So, I turn to all ya'll...any helpful tips on how to read research for learning how to do research? How do you give your soul over to qualitative research when you've heard the next research professor is all quantitative? I find myself asking my freshmen's favorite question. "Why do I have to take this anyhow? When will I use it in real life?"

Blessings,

Frugle Error

Greetings,

Well, I have deep wisdom to share with all students. Don't use standard shipping to save a few or even alot of money. When a professor decides to 'save' you money and 'lets' you order all your textbooks online, buy new from the company and pay extra for the fast delivery. Because the resale folk really mean 7-14 Days when they say it; in fact, they lean toward the 14 days.

A week before the course was to begin, I checked my school e-mail (thank God). There the new teacher (an M.A. on her way to a Ph.D.) requested we get our books online and gave us all the info to do so without a problem. In theory, I have no problem with this arrangement, except it can take up to TWO WEEKS to get your books through an online server. Ah, well...I can count myself lucky. Another of my classmates just let me know she had been on vacation when the suggestion was sent out and hopes to copy my book until hers can arrive.

Right now I am sending up silent prayers that God may guide the U.S. Postal Service with speed and efficiancy right to my doorstep!

I love school,
Blessings,