Two Feet In | Writing and the Institution

"School Board" sounds quaint, but the Aldine Independent School District can't be described as quaint. It's about 110 square miles of variously developed and undeveloped suburbia north of Houston. Aldine -- Largely Latino, 2012 In my second semester course, students choose a local "concern" -- local being limited to sub-county level administration -- and perform various rhetorical analyses on their peer stakeholders (similar community members; not the government entities), the "state" (gov), and texts the "state" produces to address the concern. Plenty of reading genres they've never seen, talking to neighbors they've never spoken to, understanding local political structures they've never heard of. Ironically, Texas insists on multiple exposures to state government and history through secondary and higher education, but apparently little education is provided to actually empower citizens in their local ecology -- where t...

I had been asked to give a presentation to the Cultural Awareness group on campus, co-sponsored by the Phi Theta Kappa chapter, an update on my study of the rhetorical ecology of Aldine and the effect of that ecology on (often) FTIC students at a community college. Attendance was strong, food was served (doesn't hurt attendance), faculty from various disciplines, some deans and administrators. Tech worked fine. My data are up to date. The discussion of public sphere is up to date with current theory, etc. Stumbled over the Heisenberg principle, but not important. Well received, applause, questions, one of which was in fact irrelevant to my presentation and I believe this was because literacy theory isn't discussed here much and I didn't think to define it strongly enough. Ironically, a student afterwards and off to the side asked a question about street art that showed she understood current literacy theory than the faculty who had asked the question, and we had an engagi...

You are invited to the  East Aldine Management District Quarterly Civic Forum that will be taking place  Thursday, September 25, 2014 from noon  to 1pm  inside the district's office which is located at 5333 Aldine Mail Route Rd. Houston, TX 77039.  If you are going to attend, please let me know at your earliest convenience simply by replying to this email.   We would also like to use this opportunity to invite you to NCI’s focus group, which will take place right after the luncheon. They will be doing this focus group to present the themes and program opportunities that have come out of the interviews that they have conducted around the East Aldine community. They will be doing this to get your feedback and perspective of the themes and program opportunities.   If you can attend please RSVP at this link :  https://aldinefocus. eventbrite.com    and if you know someone in the community that is interested in the new center and ...

Dozens of students in Spring 2014 found it helpful to find a safe place off campus and just write  and as needed, get feedback from peers about their writing. Most of this writing was academic, but not all. I'll continue to host Write Club in Fall 2014, with some significant changes: The night will change to Tuesday .  1. This is because the LSCS Board meetings are held once a month on Thursday and I want to permit all students, faculty, parents, taxpayers to attend the Board meetings. 2. I want to avoid Wednesday night when most people who attend church do so. I realize that some people attend church on Tuesdays, but I'm trying to accommodate as many as I can. 3. I've found that too many academic projects are due later in the week. Perhaps even one or two more days of revision will help. The place will change to Aldine , specifically (for now) Starbucks on I-45 and West Road, in front of Best Buy (I hate the product placements I just dropped, but those who are look...

Staring Saturday 13 September 2014, I'm hosting a cycling ride for everyone. Here are the specifics: Second Saturday every month, rain or shine or snow, holiday or not. Meet at MacArthur High School (Big Mac) front parking lot. Ride 10 miles or so. I'll post the route the night before. We'll almost always hit Keith Weiss Park, for sure. Open to everyone, but if someone comes under age 16, I want him to be with someone over 18 for contact purposes, etc. Anyone -- gender, nationality, ethnicity, ability, age -- is welcome and encouraged. Make friends, take pictures, burn a few calories. We'll stop half-way at a local business for a guas frescas or tacos or whatever, then return to Big Mac. Twitter, Instragram, other hashtag is #aldinecycle  Rules Helmets required. You can purchase inexpensive helmets at Academy Sports (a Texas company). Water required. Please reduce, reuse, recycle. We'll also stop to refill. This is not a race . Everyone starts, e...