Blogolith

This afternoon I went for a run that almost did me in (even a day removed from last week's events, I still feel like I inhaled all 10,000 lakes of Minnesota) but during it I had a brilliant idea.

About teaching. This past year, I had my students create a "personal anthology" for which every day they would copy out a poem of someone else's and write a short response to it. It was a good assignment, but it was annoying to collect and respond to, and between messy handwriting and being in my bag for weeks, it didn't end up being something that students would want to keep. So next time, I'm going to go online and do an anthology blog. Everyone will be able to read everyone else's, so fear of embarassent should improve the quality of thought a bit, it will be super-easy to keep track of, and I think it will actually be fun, for me and the students. I have to work out the mechanics, so if anyone knows a good interface for a combination individual/ group blog I'd love suggestions, but I think this will be great, and that everyone else should do it too. I would even post entries myself, which would be good for my reading habits.

I often have brilliant ideas when running. I usually have them right after cresting a hill; going up is better exercise, but panting too much distracts me from thinking. The anthology blog idea came as I was running through mountain lion territory atop University Hills, looking down on the 73 winding its way through the mega-churches and identical housing developments of Irvine. In Williamstown, I used to figure things out on the steep part of Gale Road going down to Water Street, a pretty, small-town route lined with old houses and with autumn leaves crunching underfoot. It's funny how similar these two runs feel to me, because they have nothing in common except a big hill.