I spend the afternoon at Wooster Middle School working with Write Out, Poetry Comics, and good instruction. This followed a successful submission for sabbatical, as I was eligible last year but never found any time to finish the application. This year I was smarter about it, chiseled at it all year long, and finally sent to the next steps so it is off my plate. If awarded, I will get a semester free from teaching and university service. Such time is precious. I won't get away from CWP work, but if successful, I will have emancipation from the campus life. I had a sabbatical in 2020, but it was a bust with Covid, schools shutting down, and then a whole litany of online projects. I hope this one will give me more space to think, than the last one that was simply national dread.
Also took Karal back to the Vet, this time for an eye infection. She's been oozing green slime from her right eye and where I first thought it was allergies, I soon realized it might be a little more. It's like the Ghostbuster slime and that stuff from those Nickelodeon game shows. And if you know me, you know I have a hatred of the movie The Blob because I have always been traumatized to think gelatinous material would one day consume me. Eye boogers. Nope. Karal, you're getting treated, so off to Stephanie we went. Conjunctivitis. All better now.
Going back to school visits, yesterday. It is something to have time with good teachers simply to hear them talk. The profession has always been impossible, but it used to be enjoyable. The top down micro-managing and the skill-policing in all directions with assessments and administrative surveillance has classroom teachers set up for the impossible each and every day. I figure, if I can stop by with a a few hours of laughter and joy, then I'm doing a good thing. Leaving book gifts behind is also appreciated.
Back to campus we go today, although I was there off an on this weekend. I'd be fine, if they just canceled all the meetings.
