I need to do a semester analysis as we wrap things up, and I've also been doing some great reading as I apply to M.Ed programs and school districts, working my way towards a unified concept of why and how I teach. So look for some thoughts on that soon, maybe next weekend as the Powers That Be don't let me teach on the Saturday before Memorial Day. :4) It's alright; my fantastic students are all drowning in standardized tests and end-of-year projects and certainly deserve the break.
However, if it's not too sappy and self-indulgent to do so, I wanted to post a link to the blog of my boyfriend, an aspiring fantasy writer. I thought he had some thoughts on why one writes in fantasy/science fiction, and especially as most of my students seem to read and write in that genre, they might enjoy this:
Errors, Wrong Turns, & Exciting Opportunities
The generalized thoughts on fantasy start about halfway down the post.
Relatedly: I wrote fantasy/science fiction above. I could have written "speculative fiction," this being the term I've seen thrown about occasionally. On the one hand, it seems to come from the same market-driven, oh-heavens-let-it-seem-anything-but-GENRE repackaging that lead to the frankly sexist rebranding of the Sci-Fi channel as "SyFy". On the other hand, like so many meaningless-brand phrases, it becomes more interesting if you actually unpack it. Speculating! Both in the sense of imagining/contemplating/theorizing, and perhaps even in the sense of gambling. Hmm. Or maybe I'm just language-geeking a bit too much.
