Live Twittercast on YA Novel *The Fault in Our Stars* Later Today.

Students from my YA lit class at Washington State University will be twitter-casting thoughts on the first 18 chapters of John Green's masterpiece The Fault in Our Stars today (4.22.14) starting around 4:15 Pacific.

Ellie and Emily will facilitate the discussion, and you can join them via #FIOSCoogs.  I think those two see the text much differently than do I, so I expect an intriguing discussion. I've even invited the author himself, so who knows who might show up!

At the very least, I expect the twittering to be....

Thanks to Teri Lesesne for putting the bug in my ear about twitter-casting. I know I'm late to the game regarding using twitter in education settings, but there has to be a first time for everything. The discussion is scheduled to run around an hour.

See Some of the Documents That Didn't Get Me Hired at Washington State University

I'm sharing the versions of the cover letter/teaching statement, vita, and Appendix I used to apply to the English Education position at WSU. See my previous post for how well that worked out. Click this link to access my Google Drive public folder. The items are PDF's and are labeled clear enough for you to find them. And if you have to dig through my other, non-application-related documents, well, I put them there for sharing, didn't I?

The Appendix shares letters of recommendation from students and colleagues, sample syllabi, and student evals.  I wanted to upload my writing sample as well, but since it will be published in a few months, I decided against it. Further, the five or six confidential references sent along to the search committee are not included. But I can tell you three women and two men wrote on my behalf, for what it's worth.

Marvel at my ineptitude! Point out any and all spelling errors! Sentence fragments too. Care to brazenly point out split infinitives? Be my guest. Ask yourself, "What the f**k are these people looking for if not someone like Bucky?" Tut-tut as you see how my blatantly-activist, anti-corporate reform stance may have been my undoing! Consider how your opinions of this change when you realize the search committee consisted of absolutely zero people with terminal degrees in English Education! "But some of them had public school teaching experience," you say? I've taught Shakespeare to students from middle school on up. Think that'd qualify me to be on the search committee for a British Literature professor?

Live it up.

A Hell of a Way to Know; A Hell of a Way to Go

Many of you may know I took a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Washington State University over the summer and started that job this year. This Spring, WSU advertised for a tenure track position in my field, and I applied, the only caveat being that I asked the Department Chair and Search Chair to inform me the moment I was considered a candidate no longer.

They didn't follow through. Instead, today I learned that Skype interviews have been scheduled.

I was not asked for an interview.

Thank you, Academic Jobs Wiki.

A phone call to the Search Chair beginning with "Are you familiar with Academic Jobs Wiki?" soon lead to a confession and a quick end to the phone call.

I'll keep you informed of what happens next, how much agency I had in the actions taken, and whatever the fallout for me may be.  In the meantime, I have to go stock up on rice and beans, I guess.