Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast

I've kept a blog now for just over seven years on a Blogger site, and I am excited about this first blog on my new site! The title of this post is one that my husband uses from his days in the Army, which is "slow is smooth and smooth is fast." I think this idea really sums up what the first two thirds of 2021 has looked like for me. Coming out of 2020 I was excited to update my blog, jump back into the semester, and get on with a more "normal" school year. I don't think that any of those things turned out the way I thought they would, and my spring 2021 semester ended up being the busiest I've had in years, on top of being pregnant with our second child. It was a lot, but I realize looking back (and now at the beginning of a new semester and just a few weeks out from the baby being born) that moving slowly and steadily through the last semester and the summer has actually resulted in quite a few check marked items!

The spring 2021 semester was definitely still part a pandemic school year. There was no spring break in order to keep students safer on campus, but man, that was rough. Our fall semester had been shortened due to the break schedule, but the spring semester was the full sixteen weeks, and I don't think it's an understatement to say that everyone struggled to get over that final finish line. I was tired, but I felt way worse for my students who were dealing with multiple classes, jobs, family, sickness, and other personal issues with almost no time off to recover or catch up or just sleep. For me, though, through the lack of breaks, being a mom to a toddler, and first semester pregnancy tiredness, I actually taught four classes, had a course release to do department work, co-chaired a workshop for the 2021 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), presented at Olivet's 2021 Scholar Week, and completed The TESOL Core Certificate (TCCP) 140-hour blended-learning program.

One semester highlight was seeing some of my students' work externally recognized! Two of my students, Erica and Stephanie, won departmental awards for creative writing work they composed in our 300 level creative writing class from the spring 2020 semester. Another of my students, Mare, won first place in a departmental composition writing contest for work she composed for our spring 2021 class. I also had another student, Jordan Neese, have work from our fall 2020 Advanced Writing class published in a national student journal: Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research, vol. 7. So proud to have worked with these accomplished students and all of the others who put forward such good work and energy this past school year.

Courses & Department Work

My spring department and teaching work was somewhat unique in that I was doing more than before, but I also had the opportunity to do some new things! Namely, I taught a Block Four (last eight weeks of the semester) 300-level online ESL course for students training or interested in being ESL teachers. This course was called Cross-Cultural Studies for Limited English Speakers, and we studied definitions of culture, discussed our own cultural literacies, and dove into how those understandings intersected with future classrooms and students. I really enjoyed the course content and the students in this course, as the discussions were reflective and rich.

For the full semester courses, I taught one section of College Writing I and two sections of College Writing II. I hadn't taught College Writing I for a couple years, so it was a good reintroduction for me to the type of work and help that the students need in this foundational course. My primary departmental work also tied into this class because there were some structural changes that affected both how and what we taught in College Writing I, and I helped to spearhead an initiative to survey students and suggest practical ways to move forward within our department's composition committee.

Continuing from the fall, I also participated in our department's antiracist book club and really appreciated reading and discussing concepts related to race and equity and how that affects our students and classrooms on a daily basis. Our spring book selection was I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown, and it was a revelatory text for me.

CCCC 2021 Feminist Workshop

For the third year in a row (fourth as a participant), I had the opportunity to serve as a co-chair of the CCCC 2021 Feminist Workshop that was held on Wednesday, April 7th at the start of the CCCC. This year's workshop was called "Coalition as Commonplace," and it was the fulfillment of the workshop that was planned and then canceled for the 2020 conference. This year's workshop was held via Zoom, and I had the responsibility of being the social media liaison before and during the workshop. The workshop is hosted in partnership with the 4C Feminist Caucus, and I took over both their Twitter and their Instagram for this event.

I wasn't sure how the workshop would feel or work via an online platform, but I think there was actually some really cool coalition building the happened by listening to really wonderful workshop speakers, asking questions, and discussing larger ideas in groups. There was a large group gathered from all over the world, and I still felt the idea sharing and camaraderie that I always have even through the online forum. I was glad to still be able to participate and engage with this group, especially after the year off.

Scholar Week

As my one blog post in 2021 on my Blogger site, I did actually include an announcement with information on my presentation from April 13th called "ONU Scholar Week Presentation." I presented for the conference virtually, and there were attendees both in person and over Zoom. The presentation went well, and I was really glad to have the opportunity to share about both my research and pedagogy regarding grading contracts that I used in my spring 2020 instruction for Writing Fiction and Poetry, a 300-level online creative writing class within Olivet's English Department. There were some good questions, and my colleagues who attended or watched the recording were very supportive and encouraging.

TESOL Core Certificate

Since I graduated with my Ph.D. in 2017 I haven't had much desire to go back to school or classes; however, since being at Olivet, I had started to think about the possibility of earning a TESOL certificate to be certified to teaching English as a second language. It would open up future teaching possibilities both locally and abroad and at Olivet, it would also help me to be better prepared to teach teachers who want to teach English as a second language. I talked to my department chair and another mentor/ colleague about the possibility and options, and I applied to TESOL International at the end of last year. I was accepted and Olivet purchased a membership for me to TESOL International Association in order to help defray some of the cost of the certificate. The 140 hours of the certificate was made up of three separate sections. The first was a 60-hour online foundations course that ran from the end of January to the first of March. The second was a 60-hour speciality course for teaching adult learners that ran from the middle of March to the end of April. Finally, I completed the last twenty hours by observing my colleague's ESL course at Olivet and then teaching my own ESL course through the department. I submitted the final documents for that process in mid-June.

The process, overall, was very rewarding. Like I said, I hadn't been a student since beginning teaching full time at Olivet, so it was a good reminder to be in the student position, particularly in a totally online class, which is what I teach. I was reminded of some pedagogical realities that I hadn't been as attentive to, and I learned some good theory and research that I had been previously unaware of within the field of second language instruction. My instructors and peers were in locations literally all over the world, so it wasn't just the material that was multicultural in nature but the whole experience overall. I'm glad I did it, and it feels great to have it done!

Pregnancy & Planes & Parties, Oh My!

In addition to work, we have also personally been keeping busy this year! As I've mentioned throughout, Baby Bruce #2 is scheduled to make their arrival in September, and we are looking forward to having our second September baby in as many years. In some ways this pregnancy has been harder (re: toddler at home), but in a lot of other ways I have felt much more prepared and aware of what my body needs and what it is doing than I was the first time. I'm in the home stretch now, and we're getting ready!

In total in the year 2020 we had nine canceled trips/vacations from March on, which was quite a bummer. We have still been cautious and aware of the continuing virus spread this year, but we have made up some lost time with some trips closer to home and one visit out west! We started the year in Lake Geneva, WI in a cute Airbnb with my sister and her boyfriend, and it was a lovely way to ring in 2021.

Following the new year, we were home for that very busy spring semester, but then literally 24 hours after grades were posted we boarded our first plane with a toddler and flew out west! I was born in New Mexico so seeing the southwestern mountains peak through the clouds from the plane window always feels like coming home. We spent about eight days in Albuquerque, NM and Phoenix, AZ. Cohen did great on his first major trip minus some motion sickness on the plane ride home. We enjoyed visiting friends, family, and old favorites from our previous southwestern homes. Best of all, we got to see and celebrate my Grandpa Koury's 90th birthday with him!

In mid-June we took a family trip as a belated celebration for my Nana's 90th birthday. My mom, sister, and Nana also traveled from here, and my cousin and her family traveled up from Indianapolis to meet in Grand Rapids, MI. We were there during a very rainy weekend, but we made the most of the time with family meals and visits to fun spots like markets and museums. In early July, Wade and I went on a two night babymoon in Door County, WI. We ate, got massages, walked on the beach, and enjoyed some time with friends and time to just be together. A couple weeks later, we took a family road trip to Kankakee and Chicago, IL to celebrate a special little three year old's birthday party and enjoy some time as a family. Decided to stay put after that to get prepped for the baby, but we sure enjoyed our fun summer outings.

Grand Rapids Public Museum

Shoreline of the Green Bay in North Sister Bay, Door County, WI

Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

One other highlight from the summer was that on August 5th, 2021, Wade and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary! We had a lovely dinner together on our anniversary, and then we hosted an outdoor vow renewal ceremony and dinner for close friends and family the next night. It was a really special time, and we loved sharing it with our closest people, each other, Cohen, and the sweet baby growing inside. It was also fun to reminisce not only on our wedding day but on the last ten years together! I posted this on Instagram: "In these ten years we’ve said goodbye to one sweet pup, had two babies, two houses, and two dogs, lived in three states, earned four degrees, traveled to five continents, weathered six years of school, lived in seven cities, worked at least eight jobs, coped through Wade’s nine years of Army service, and ended up here with ten years of marriage!" We had a lot to celebrate!

Life events can sometimes happen with unexplainable timing, though. It was definitely a summer of celebration, but just before Wade and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and I moved into the ninth month of pregnancy, my grandfather passed from pancreatic cancer. I was so glad to have seen him in May, but I was so sad to lose him and really heartbroken to not be able to attend his funeral in Albuquerque due to the advanced stage of my pregnancy. He was a wonderful man, and we thankfully were able to join his funeral via a livestream and join my family in remembering his incredible life. We all miss him already, but I'm so grateful for him and his legacy. Here's to you, Grandpa Koury! Until we meet again.

If you got to this point, thanks for reading all the way through! I know the remainder of this year will be quite busy and fly by but come back for future blog posts! Please reach out in the comments and please subscribe on the home page to get updates! Thanks!