Tuesday, October 25, 2011

What Does a Desk Say About Me?

I wrote the following about a year and a half ago and forgot about it. I found it when going through some things today. Some things have changed, but you'll get the general idea.


Contents of my desk:
The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Short Stories
What the Best College Teachers Do
Ungraded in-class work from my freshman writing students
A half-empty water bottle--red, with "Texas Tech"
A computer
A lamp (touch)
An alarm clock (seldom used?)
Quotes on sticky notes attached to a computer monitor (LCD):
President Monson "Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your task. Then the performance of your task will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle."
Elder Bruce C. Hafen "We can have eternal life if we want it, but only if there is nothing else we want more."
Printer (dusty, as is most of the desk)
Those black organizing/filing shelves, the top one for filing and so full the plastic is bending. The others about half full, each shelf designated for a class or purpose.
A large planner, written in, a lot.
Ann's House Cranberry Nut Antioxidant
Various containers containing paperclips and small sticky notes (the kind you put on the edges of pages).
Two staplers (one for more than 30 sheets of paper)
A bunch of pens crowded into a silver pen holder.
A Kleenex (or is it Puffs?) box.
A desk calendar on February 4 (it's April).
A Book of Mormon (Italian leather)
A notebook for writing scriptural thoughts; almost full.
A mirror and tweezers
Books and more books:
  • Several anthologies
  • Early American literature
  • The Smithsonian Book of Books
  • Victorian Sensation Fiction
  • MLA handbooks (two)
  • Teaching Literature
  • What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
  • Library books: Mostly early American print culture
Books I will (not) be teaching atop one another (it's annoying to get one from the middle):
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (3 copies)
  • The Mill on the Floss (2 copies)
  • Hard Times (2 copies)
  • Lady Audley's Secret
  • The Moonstone
Old mail (ads)
An iPhone (plugged in)
A pile of readings for a class (book history)
Sticky notes with words on them about things


In the intervening year and a half, some of these things have migrated off my desk and others have taken up residence in their place. Of note, I suppose would be the following:
Graduate Study for the 21st Century
Rolls for Relief Society 
Two new quotes:

"[A] spiritual education in the institute will shape the purpose and speed the process of [your] secular learning." Henry B. Eyring
"I believe that is a good way to face the unpleasant things in our lives, not complaining but thanking the Lord for the trust He places in us when He gives us the opportunity to overcome difficulties." Richard G. Scott
Empty paper bowl with a tissue in it

0 fellow novice learners: