new endeavors

The summer months speed by...what else is new? Every teacher laments how quickly days turn into weeks during the summer season.

I'm thankful for the travel opportunities. Seattle. Tomorrow, a wedding in Illinois (two former students). Next week, off to Snowbird, Utah, for the American Democracy Project meeting, where I'll spend three days learning about service learning in first-year courses. Good timing, as our campus is launching community-based writing sections of first-year composition and I'm teaching two of them. The ADP meeting is held at a ski resort complete with spa facilities (pool and hot tub on the roof, with views of snow-capped mountains!), so, like with the RSA meeting in Seattle, I'm taking advantage of the geographic locales of professional gatherings. Did I mention that Snowbird has a few inches of the white stuff today?

I'm writing, but not forcing a quick pace. The big project is working through the data gathered during last academic year's service learning courses. That research looks to be evolving into two or three articles, but I'm going slow and steady. The small project is a book review for the WPA journal.

And my Peace&Justice group continues to be an enjoyable time commitment. Working on plans for our fall retreat already as well as our next book club gathering. Through P&J colleagues I got hooked up with July's Homeless Count in Detroit, a project I'm going to make a priority in the next month, and one which I hope will spill into one of our fall projects in the first-year courses.

Not just thankful for the travel opportunities, I'm thankful too for all that Detroit continues to offer, personally, professionally, and all points in between. Juggling endeavors that are rewarding is a reminder that moving was a very, very good decision.