New Semester, New Blogs

I'm getting ready for the upcoming semester, so in the next couple weeks I will be taking down the blogs from here to make room for the new classes. If you're still blogging on here and want to let me know, email me so I can follow your blog; or, if you like following someone's blog, make sure you officially "follow" the blog (there's an icon) because otherwise, you won't be able to track them once I take them off.

I hope you're enjoying what's left of the summer and wish you much luck in the upcoming semester!! :)

Ratemyprofessor.com

Wow. Well, I just took a peak over there and was quite surprised. It almost seems as if someone really didn't like me. And that's okay; I mean, I'm here to teach, not win a popularity contest. I just wish the comments would've been more specific. Actually, that applies to both positive and negative comments and for all instructors: if you're going to leave a comment, leave a detailed one of what worked or didn't work for that professor. Believe me, it's helpful!

I did want to clarify something, though. The title Assistant Professor, is just that - a title. It doesn't mean "assistant" in the sense of being an assistant to someone. When someone starts as a new faculty member (not an adjunct/part-time) with a Master's degree, one starts with that title, and as you all know, I began as a full-time Professor at BC in January. There's a range of titles for Professors: Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, and Senior Professor. They are all titles and usually are attributed to the professor's combination of experience and education.

I can't expect everyone to like me; heck, there are different learning styles and different teaching styles. While I try to do the best that I can, I am constantly learning, and by receiving constructive criticism as to what works or doesn't work helps me become a better instructor. I am a firm believer that we never start learning or modifying how we work, no matter the job, because when we do, we stop being effective.

Hope everyone's having a fun, and safe, summer!

New blog - for anyone that's interested

I wanted to share a new personal blog I created. It contains (or will contain) pictures and writings (poetry, fiction and nonfiction) that I take/do. I know some of you enjoy this stuff ;) so I thought I'd post it here for anyone that's interested.

http://musingsofwriterwannabe.blogspot.com/

Hope everyone's having an awesome summer!

Edwidge Danticat and Tananarive Due: Live at Historical Museum of SoFla

Hi guys,

I don't know how many of you are reading this, but I thought it would be interesting in case you are! In 1102, we read Edwidge Danticat's short story "Night Women," and it would be a wonderful opportunity to meet the author herself.

Here's the link http://www.hmsf.org/ and below is the info directly related to this event.

Event: African Diaspora Authors: Edwidge Danticat and Tananarive Due
Date/Time: Thursday, May 21/6:30 pm
Location: Historical Museum of Southern Florida
Address: 101 West Flagler Street, Miami 33130
Info/RSVP: For information, call 305.375.1492
Description: Miami is home to Black authors of diverse backgrounds. In this program, renowned novelists Tananarive Due, who grew up in Miami, and Edwidge Danticat, who lives here today, read from their best-selling works and discuss how living in South Florida has influenced their writing.

I hope you guys can make it!

The End of the Semester

Well, first of all I wanted to say thank you to all of you for a wonderful semester, craziness and all. You have welcomed me to the BC community and I thank you for that. I have truly enjoyed myself and I hope that you have as well, in between learning a few things here and there. ;)

My hope is that you've learned skills that will help you beyond ENC 1101 or 1102, skills that will help you in your future careers, not just in the rest of your academic stay at BC. These skills include critical thinking, following directions, incorporating research, preparing information, knowing audience and tone, and many more.

For those of you in ENC 1101, I hope that our readings and discussions (circle time anyone?!) were interesting and prodded you to think. After all, we should all be thinkers and not just follow a preset mold. You all have the ability to reason and think critically about topics - use it.

For those of you in ENC 1102, I hope that the selections of short stories and poems were interesting, too. I hope that the discussions we had helped you "read between the lines" and that they allowed you to have more focused strategy. I hope that you enjoyed the projects and that apart from skills discussed above, I was able to interest you (at least slightly!) in the lives and works of the authors we read. And I hope you found some enjoyment in Hamlet, especially when acting the scenes.

For both 1101 and 1102 students, believe it or not, the critical thinking that went into writing the in-class essays and out-of-class essays leaves in you specific skills that will help you in the future.

Thank you again, and in the words of Hamlet's Ghost: Adieu. Adieu. Adieu. Remember me.

I Am

From the Andes and the Amazon rainforest,
and from the sands of SoFi.
A mountain girl in the magic city,
bred with frijoles, sancocho and Burger King.
A speaker of romance whose tongue
becomes a contortionist -
Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril.
Roll your tongue, mija, ole, niña.
A gringa among my people;
a Latina among my people.
Confused for a stranger.
Across two continents, and two
languages, one woman,
mother,
daughter
lover.
A hyphen in an unhyphenated world.
A Paisa and Miamian born in Queens,
who celebrates Noche Buena with
buñuelos and natilla
then spends Christmas morning
unwrapping Santa Claus, Kris Kringle,
Father Christmas, El Niño Dios.
My father used to say in Latin,
de gustibus et coloribus non disputatum,
but we still argued
about the colors of our people.
My mother’s daughter,
a pseudo- perfectionist
who dreams of the Louvre and the Seine
while moving to Cumbia and Vallenato.
My mother’s mother and father’s father;
all the greats in one solitary shape.
Colombia patria querida.
America the beautiful.

© 2009 Alexandra Penaloza Alessandri

Someone stole my credit card number!

UGH! I got an email today from my bank that there were some questionable transactions. Great, I thought, but when we called, I nearly fell off my chair. Turns out that someone took my credit card number (because we had our cards) and charged over $17,000!!! The first transaction was done in Hialeah for the $17K at an auto glass shop 3 days ago, and the others were either gas stations or Home Depots in FL and MD! I felt like saying, are you serious?! I started trying to backtrack and see where I used my card last, but I guess it's almost impossible to track. Sigh. Just be careful with your stuff. You don't need to have the physical cards stolen to get robbed. I am grateful though that we were alerted today instead of when the next statement came in.... that would have been disastrous! And thankfully, it was the credit card and not the ATM/debit card. That would've been worse!

Hope you're all having a better weekend. ;) For those of you that celebrate Easter, Happy Easter! For those that are celebrating Passover, Happy Passover!