Tag Archives: books

Student Blogs

Finally Getting to the Good Part

Part I of my thesis was supposed to be completed by the beginning of October, and although I am slightly behind where I originally hoped to be, I finally feel like I am moving into the part of this process that I have been most excited about. Getting through theory is always difficult for me. I understand how necessary it is, especially for grounding the arguments I want to make, but working through theoretical material takes a different kind of attention than analyzing the texts themselves. Now that I have made it through much of that foundation, I can finally turn more of my attention toward analyzing my readings and source material.

This is the part I have been looking forward to because I genuinely love these pieces in different ways and could probably speak about each of them endlessly. Ironically, that has also made the process more difficult. The challenge has not been figuring out what I want to say, but deciding what I should not say. I had to narrow my focus and choose specific sections of the episode and readings that will allow me to develop the argument without trying to analyze everything at once. I finally feel like I have made those decisions, which has made the writing feel much more manageable.

My goal is to have this section completed by the end of the week. Now that I have submitted all of my students’ grades, I have intentionally designated time and attention specifically for my thesis. I am realizing that this semester requires me to be much more deliberate about protecting that time.

For some reason, all of the semesters before this one seemed easier to manage. This school year has only just begun, and I already feel tired and somewhat burnt out. Part of that may be because I have more than forty additional students compared to last year, along with juniors who somehow already seem to have developed senioritis. Balancing teaching, grading, planning, and my own graduate work has definitely been more demanding than I anticipated.

Still, December is slowly approaching, and I can finally see the end of the tunnel. There is something motivating about knowing that I am getting closer not only to completing this section, but to completing the degree itself. For now, I am trying to focus less on how exhausted I feel and more on the fact that I have finally reached the part of the thesis that reminds me why I chose this project in the first place.

Student Blogs

Sailing the Seven Seas

Disclaimer: For all intents and purposes, especially for the purposes of a legal matter, all of the following is a joke. Again, any references to any hypothetical theft, piracy, or crimes (punishable by law within the fifty states of the United States of America) are purely hypothetical scenarios made in jest in order to entertain an audience. The persons and events in this blog are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional. Please don’t sue or arrest me. I’m broke and too pretty for jail.

Anywhoseits, on a completely unrelated note, I refuse to pay the NYT, or any other major news corporation for that matter, any amount of money in order to read a document. (And before you say anything, the writers have already been paid! Any money I hypothetically did not spend on the subscription would have gone to the the shareholders and upper management.) It’s also just so much fun. If you wonder where I get this sentiment from, please watch the video below. 

In order to circumvent this, I may have, possibly, allegedly, hypothetically, stolen a bunch of articles for my thesis. I currently, may, have about 45 articles hidden in a google drive folder. I definitely didn’t do this by clicking on the article then hitting command+A before the paywall arose. And I would never open up a blank google doc and paste everything into that. And I most certainly didn’t go through each article to get rid of the ads and find more victims articles. I definitely wouldn’t recommend anyone do the same. 

“Freedom is so much the essence of man that even its opponents implement it while combating its reality; they want to appropriate for, themselves as a most precious ornament what they have rejected as an ornament of human nature.” -Karl Marx

How’d that get there?

Now that I have finished my, entirely hypothetical, warning of what not to do when finding sources, let me get to what I have actually done. 

So, for those who don’t know, my plan is to write a speculative horror fiction anthology focusing on the impact LLMs are having within writing centric spaces. I am drawing inspiration from works like Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, and The News (Dun Dun duhhhh). By “The News” I mean that I only want to use events that have already happened or have a foundation in things already happening, similar to the approach Atwood took to Handmaid’s Tale.

““Somebody asked me on Twitter recently, ‘How do you come up with this shit?’ My answer was, ‘It’s not me who has come up with it, it’s the human race over the past 4,000 years.’” – Margaret Atwood

The section I am working on right now hits particularly close to home. The chapter follows a teacher who, over the course of a year, is replaced by the very AI she trained. There are a few precedents I am drawing on as inspiration for this story.

  1. There is a large push in the education field to integrate AI into both our professional practices and the classroom. We are being told to use programs like Chat and Magic school to create resources, lesson plans, and activities for our classroom. At the same time, they are telling us to have students use AI chat rooms for activities and project creation. 
  2. Earlier this year, Melania Trump praised AI in the field of education and suggested that it could/should replace teachers in the classroom. (Which is ironic, coming from one of two first ladies who hasn’t completed a degree since 1897.)
  3. While Linda McMahon disagrees that teachers should be replaced, she does cosign that it should be integrated into the curriculum and classroom environment. (Also ironic, considering the fact that she has never actually taught a class.)

My general virtial for the government aside, the move towards AI being a staple in the classroom is terrifying. 

So the plan is to draw on that sense of dread that I experience that keeps me up every night, staring into the dark abyss, contemplating my existence. Write what you know and what not. 

I want to give a special shout out to Dr. Sisler! Dr. Sisler has helped me a lot with establishing a basis for the research. She was nice enough to send me some links to articles (for legal purposes, these links are completely unrelated to any links mentioned in the prior, completely made up, story.) that really helped when it came down to a starting point for the research. 

I’m having fun writing it, so far, and I’m excited for what the other stories have in store. 

Until next time, Dear Reader.

Student Blogs

I thought I could paint it red, but I couldn’t find enough goats…so I scrapped it

If you get the reference, Dear Reader, you have my respect.

So, full transparency, I was completely lost on what I was going to do for my thesis.

I had a few vague ideas but when I was sitting in that first class my view kind of shifted on what I wanted to do. Initially I was thinking of doing something that I found more challenging; the plan was to write an existential horror fiction. But I couldn’t figure out how that could tie into what I want to do professionally or what that kind of research would look like.

So I scrapped that idea.

I looked back at the thesis proposal I wrote, it was how algospeak impacts our perception of information. While I do have more of a foundation for where I could take this research, I’m not sure if that is really something I want to spend a crazy amount of time on. I also couldnt see how that ties into my job or career goals.

So I scrapped that idea.

Then their was the piece I was working on during the writers retreat. It was a horror cookbook. It was a pretty narrative heavy story but each story centered on a recipe. It kind of was supposed to be reminiscent of those food blogs that tells a whole story before it gets to the actual recipe. I was quickly running out of recipes that I felt comfortable remaking (ingredients are pricey) and I wanted it to work as a cookbook too, so the recipes would actually have to be on point.

So I scrapped that idea.

I have a bunch of writing ideas/prompts that I put down on a note for ideas over the years so I opened it and went through what I had written down.

A murder mystery that take place on a lovecraftian train (Murder on the Oriental Express meets Infinity Train)

Nah.

A YA Urban Fantasy about 2 black kids (The daughter of a witch and the don of a demon hunter) being framed by a white witch and her cop husband.

Nah.

I very quickly ran through my list of prompts.

It was time to consult a real one.

So I turned on my voice memos and started ranting.

After 15 minutes, I realized… I wasn’t actually recording anything.

I started again, with a lot of the fluff out of the way.

I talked about my goals, realistically considering how far I was actually willing to take them. The plan is to shoot for an ELA department district supervisor as a 9-5, and teach college courses at nights. As far as my education goes, I currently see at least 1 MFA, 1-2 Phd(s), and for gits and shiggles, I might just knock out a psych major (I only need 5 undergrad classes for it), but that’s just me being extra.

With that being said, I wanted to do something with relevance to both my teaching career and a field that is prominent and evolving. It didn’t take long to conclude AI would be a good topic to center in on. I deal with it in my PD’s as it intergrates more and more into our jobs. Since it is still evolving rapidly, I can see a lot of space in the research I could conduct. And of course, as a writer, I have very violent strong feelings about AI.

With the topic being chosen, I just had to figure out how I was going to approach the subject. I still wanted to do research but I really wanted to do something creative. I just find it easier and more enjoyable to write. So I played with a couple ideas but I finally settled on an anthology fiction piece that draws on real events and research (kind of like Black Mirror meets Handmaids Tail).

Dr. Sisler and Dr. Z have both given me some reading reccomendations so I will be making my way through those soon!

Since you made it all this way, the least I can do is give you some kind of treat.

The following is the rough dedication (cause all the best stories have dedications):

How does one contest with their own finality? 

How does one hear the rolling wheels of change over the cries of the countless left in their wake. Their blood, sweat, and tears acting as lubricant for the impending “well oiled machine” that harbinges their demise.

How does one find the sun and stars when the sky is blocked by the looming shadow of the grave? 

To those who will create a universe in the dark sand

Until next time, Dear Reader.