Sampling
I got this thing I'm looking at, this undertaking, and the folks on the other end want a 2-3 page writing sample. Although not specified, I'm assuming expository rather than narrative, analytic rather than reflective, and focused on big think, hot topic issues in education rather than any of my own personal obliquely boring life-shit.
There is nothing in the many pages I have churned out to earn both a preliminary and professional clear credential that sparks emotions even distantly related to the notion of pride, such that I'd want to submit those. This same lack of self-satisfaction is generated by all writings written in the pursuit of a Masters degree. (Whether this is substantially more embarrassing for me or the various institutions of higher learning I have attended, remains open to interpretation).
Thus and therefore, I think I'll send over some of the work that's appeared on this here Internet locale, appropriately edited where necessary to remove references to drinking, South Florida punk rock, or various biological functions. Because I've never been satisfactorily proficient in the arena of self-evaluation, I need some assistance in selecting the one or two posts to forward. Admittedly, this is self-indulgent, and annoyingly self-referential, but there's this post-post-modern literary maneuver, wherein the act of acknowledging the conceits, ploys, and devices inherent in some written undertaking -- up front, open-handed -- like, disarms the off-putting nature of those very conceits, ploys, and devices. That's what I got going on here.
So. What should I send over?
■ Fix This
■ On NCLB
■ The Ledge
■ ELD Transgressions
■ ELD Functioning
■ Data Has Other Uses, Too
■ Use What You've Learned
Thanks in advance.
There is nothing in the many pages I have churned out to earn both a preliminary and professional clear credential that sparks emotions even distantly related to the notion of pride, such that I'd want to submit those. This same lack of self-satisfaction is generated by all writings written in the pursuit of a Masters degree. (Whether this is substantially more embarrassing for me or the various institutions of higher learning I have attended, remains open to interpretation).
Thus and therefore, I think I'll send over some of the work that's appeared on this here Internet locale, appropriately edited where necessary to remove references to drinking, South Florida punk rock, or various biological functions. Because I've never been satisfactorily proficient in the arena of self-evaluation, I need some assistance in selecting the one or two posts to forward. Admittedly, this is self-indulgent, and annoyingly self-referential, but there's this post-post-modern literary maneuver, wherein the act of acknowledging the conceits, ploys, and devices inherent in some written undertaking -- up front, open-handed -- like, disarms the off-putting nature of those very conceits, ploys, and devices. That's what I got going on here.
So. What should I send over?
■ Fix This
■ On NCLB
■ The Ledge
■ ELD Transgressions
■ ELD Functioning
■ Data Has Other Uses, Too
■ Use What You've Learned
Thanks in advance.
posted by Kilian Betlach at 9:08 PM
4 Comments:
vote from china: i love "fix this" and "the ledge". think that the two part series on "making it better" are very well written and concisely argued, but i don't know enough (read: anything) about us public schools to determine whether you're correct or missing a key piece of the puzzle.
final decision depends on what the people reading your writing sample are looking for, really...
I know you think I'm terribly negative, but in fact I used to like your blog. You got very cryptic, jargony, and self-absorbed in the last few months.
Data has other uses, too, is excellent. The rest of the entries ding one or more of the three aforementioned adjectives. I guess The Ledge is probably the best of the rest, in that the self-absorption and angst is well-communicated.
You can only write what it comes to me to write about, Cal, and I can only do it the way I know how. If things fall short, if they're changed, we gotta play em as they lay. As for cryptic, some of that is the whole private events vs. public internet conflict.
Doing the best I got.
The Ledge, if your audience includes current/former teachers (not sure it'd be as strong to non-teachers).
Post a Comment
<< Home