Scissors.

The activity today that will stick with me was our post-lunch discussion about the cutting of the essays. I'm grateful to have been the one to have re-imagined Brea's essay, for it really helped me think about how I give feedback to my students at Hocking, whose whole purpose in Comm I and Comm II is to write the personal essay. We all have these stories, pieces of our lives that are so powerful and emotional (either wonderful or painful) that putting them out there is terrifying, and I try to remember this with my Hocking students, who seem to carry with them some of the most astonishing stories I've ever heard.

Brea and I talked a little later, and both agreed that we'd have liked more time after it was over to process all of this with the person whose paper we worked on. I also wish she had had my paper so we could have spent the follow up time talking further about our the re-imagining activity. Logistically speaking, I would have liked to exchange papers with someone than pass it down, because at the end we didn't have the opportunity to share our own stories because we had one person's and another person had ours, and I really wanted to talk more with the person who had my paper and the person whose paper I had.

For me, it was a relief to give my paper to someone else because it is really bothering me right now. I was itching for some radical ideas of rearranging that might help shake things up and put me back on track (Thanks, Kelly!)