I'm Putting on My Overalls

I spent some time this afternoon looking at all of the blogs that the CADRE teachers are making and I found myself having two recurring thoughts:

1. I wonder if I could teach myself to create a blog...

2. There has to be something I can do to alleviate the stress they are feeling over the literature review...

And then BAM! Those two thoughts came together and I decided that I would spend the evening learning to create a blog and then fill it up with helpful hints and fixes for most common errors. CADRE teachers could post questions that I (or their peers!) could answer. Brilliant, right?

Well, I was so excited that I came home and got right to it...Okay, that's not exactly true. It is Monday, I'm a night owl, and I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, so the nap had to come first! Once refreshed, I did find myself really excited about the possibilities of a blog and dove right in to create it. I was moving along quite well until it asked for the title of my blog...This is a huge decision! How could I distill all that I wanted to say about this blog and the possibilities that it held in just a few words? I decided to take a break and catch up on the last episode of The Hills while I let this question roll around in my brain...And yes, I watch The Hills...I have a 21 year old daughter and have been watching with her since the Laguna Beach days...We usually watch it at the same time in our own houses and text each other about how much we dislike Spencer or how crazy Audrina is to even think about Justin Bobby again...I even agreed to drive around Laguna Hills with my daughter to see if we could find any of their houses the last time we went to California for vacation. We all have our guilty pleasures...But I digress...

Well, watching a little unreality television did the trick! If you remember back to the day Char and I shared our favorite quotes, one of mine was by Thomas Edison and went something like this:

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and it looks like work."

I also shared with you how my students would come into class and ask if they had to wear their overalls that day, and I would respond with, "Yep! Time to put on your overalls," meaning that we would be working hard. I think this is the perfect title for my blog, because you all will be working hard to write this paper, but it is also an opportunity for you.

This is an opportunity for you all to make sure that your writing is at the graduate level in a very safe, supportive environment. None of you would have gotten into this program if you were slackers, so I don't expect that any of you will give anything less than your best on this assignment either. However, just like with your students, effort will only get you so far. You must also have the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. My job is to help you gain those essentials so that you can be successful.

My promise to you is that if you give your best effort (wear your overalls), you will be successful, not only in my class, but hopefully in all of the writing you will have to do. What an opportunity.