Project: A Better Litter Box Hider

How to hide the litter box more successfully:

Original box cover. Pros: helped a little. Cons: the front flap fell down a lot and lots of litter still got everywhere. Made in a pinch from fabric and trim, so not very sturdy.

Starting a new design based on this one. Thanks for the idea from the author whose cat looks just like Llyr except with extra toes. Instead of MDF I used particle board (1 4x8 sheet for $15 that I had partially cut down at Lowe's). I used gorilla glue as well as nailed the sides together while they dried.

Oops. Got excited and started gluing it together the wrong way, which wouldn't have been a big deal except I measured this one out so that Llyr's box would fit EXACTLY within the edges so when he kicks the litter out, on three sides it should fall back in the litter box.

Oops again. Sometimes my nails were a little close to the edge of the particle board and bulged out.

New jigsaw dad helped me pick out instead of borrowing his. Very handy. Notice I used the unfinished table as a work table.

How to cut a hole in the middle of the front: First draw outline of the entry hole.

Next, drill out several holes that your jigsaw blade will fit through. Mine are at the corners.

Place the jigsaw blade into a hole and cut from one to the next. Learned this in high school shop. Really glad I took that class and made a significant project. I was the only girl in my class and I made the biggest thing: a computer desk/hutch.  I am pretty proud of it. When I look at that I think, "Yes, I can build stuff." Ok, maybe I don't have all the handy tools that would make building stuff much easier and make the finished product prettier in some cases, but I do what I can.

Ta da! Entryway.

The top with trim. I used L-shaped trim so it covered the top and side edge. I made the top just barely bigger than the sides of the box, but it will just sit there, it doesn't actually slide over the sides.

Putting trim along the bottom. I hate cutting 45 degree angles. It is really hard to get them to fit just right. Used flat, plain trim on the bottom edge and thinner trim with rounded edges to cover the rough edges that showed on the sides and entry hole.

With two coats of "primer" . . . white ceiling paint left over from when my parents fixed up the house before we moved in. About to paint it Nottingham Green using a free paint sample from Benjamin Moore that I got with a coupon shared by my best friend, the queen of finding free stuff.

In place. The green is very minty, and in our cream/brown dining area I think it stands out a bit, but I could repaint it someday or put it in a room with a different color scheme someday when we move. Look, the exact fit worked! Only one side that litter can escape on, and I can just vacuum it up or use a scoop to pick up most of it and put it back in the box until it is time to completely redo the litter. Llyr is really messy with the litter. He kicks it everywhere, and then tries scraping outside the box to cover his waste. Crazy cat. I'll have to slide the box forward and lift from two sides when I want to redo the litter.

Realized that with rounded edges, some litter could escape into the back corners, so I taped up some paper to cover that. Not an ultimate solution, but fine for now.

I'm sure Llyr was flattered by this picture, but look, it works! He fit in the entry hole and used it fine, even overnight when I actually had the lid in place. After this picture I got him a treat to encourage him to keep using the new box, so he got excited and just jumped over the top edge, and some litter came out on his feet. But, soon I'll put a little mat in there to help knock some of it off, and so far it has been better.

All finished! Ah, much better, especially considering that the best place for the litter box is in our dining/laundry room. We don't eat in there a lot, but sometimes when we have visitors we do, and this will help hide it more nicely. I put up a tiny hook on the inside of the lid, too, and I'm going to buy an air freshener to hang inside the box so stinky Llyr won't make the box too bad for himself.

  Another project finished, finally!

Project: Chessboard Tabletop

I've been working on a couple of projects this past week and will soon be finishing up one that took up several days between cutting, gluing, nailing, and painting. In the meantime, though, I was able to get a couple of other smaller projects finished, one of which was a wooden top for our welded metal table. We bought the table for $20 at a garage sale last summer and it came with a glass top that was broken at one corner. Luckily, the glass was bigger than the tabletop by enough that I went to have the glass cut down to remove the broken part and it then fit the table exactly. Unluckily, we then knocked over some long boards that were sitting outside near the table and re-broke the glass quite worse than previously. So the table had no top for a while. We decided maybe a wooden top would be better since it is outside, even though the design of the table is pretty cool and Matt liked that with the glass it showed.

We bought a pre-glued pine sheet from Lowe's (pretty much the same cost as the table ... a bit expensive, but no gluing or planing for us to do, and it was about the right size that we didn't have to cut it down at all). We decided instead of just lacquering the wood we'd do something a little extra first. Here's what we did:

Putting polyurethane on the back side. Check out the cool table!

Top side: Ta Da! Chessboard burned into the wood with a soldering iron. I don't have a super-close-up here but if I did you'd see that the squares are not perfect. I made them in strips with a tip for the iron that looks like a flathead screwdriver, and it took a long time, but I think it is decent for outside use.

With the rest of our outdoor furniture: two chairs from Menards and the pew in the back that was rescued during summer work from a trash pile in the woods near a church (meaning: free!). And our many, many plants.

Practice set-up with the minifigures that we use for Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, we're nerds, but it is fun. Now I just need 28 more minifigures to make a whole chess set! Or we'll use some rocks and paint one side with the names of the pieces if we want to be cheap. Then we could paint the other side of half of them and have them double as checkers.

Another summer project in the bag just one week in! In two more weeks I'll have summer classes, but until then I hope the project streak keeps up. I'm excited!

Student Course Evaluations: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today I was able to read the evaluations that my students did towards the end of the year for my class. They are anonymous, but as with last semester, there are a couple that I can guess who wrote them. About twice as many students than last semester completed the survey this time, but it was still only about half the class. However, considering that I had 3 students officially drop in one class and 5 or 6 just stop coming in the other, 13/23 and 14/20 isn't too bad. 

Also as with last semester, the feedback was mostly neutral or good, but there were one or two hurtful or frustrating comments as well. These are ones that basically are negative but also don't fully explain what the student means or are totally off-base in my opinion. There were also some suggestions that are probably valid but also made me a little sad to hear. However, there were plenty of good comments as well, and as with last semester I'm choosing to believe that they are not trying to bribe me with those (since I made clear that I couldn't read them until grades were in) and that at least most of them are sincere. So that makes me feel better. 

I feel like when I'm reading all the comments, I can almost sort them into categories: positive but perhaps not that helpful, positive and helpful/justification, neutral but not very helpful, constructive criticism, and negative, frustrating, and not helpful. Some of them could also go really well in a "Things Students Say" journal.

Here are some examples from both classes, organized by the question topics, if you care to read them:

*Disclaimer: My comments are meant to show my initial thoughts of frustration, or relief, when reading some of these. I don't mean to sound as if I hate student evaluations - I actually think they are interesting, and sometimes helpful. Sometimes, though, it is hard not to get a little frustrated when it seems like a student is just saying things because they are upset about their grade in the class or when what they say contradicts what most of the rest of the evaluators say, because then I'm unsure whether they are sincere and I should take their comment into account. Looking back now I'm not as bothered by the harsh comments, although there are still a few that I think prove a tendency to a lack of responsibility on the student's part.

Presentation of Material/Pacing:

"It was ok...Sometimes boring" Ok.

"What was the most effective in helping me learn was the discussions because they are very easy to participate in. The material was presented very clearly. The class time was well used in both the lab and in the class room. The class pace was executed beautifully." When they say things like "executed beautifully" I sometimes wonder if they are actually being sincere, but overall I'd say this makes me feel like I did an ok job for this student.

"Mrs. C went over the material very thoroughly and was sure to use examples when things might not have been clear. The course organization was fine; it's hard to organize various writing styles in a meaningful way, so I suppose if she wanted to switch things around, it's still be fine. Class time was used effectively, but it did go a tad slow for me, most likely because I understand the stuff already." I like when someone says class went a bit slow but realizes that it may just be because they already understand the material. I hope it didn't seem too slow, but when most other people say the class was paced well, then I can see with this comment that the students who were at the top of the class realize that it only seemed slow because they comprehend the material easily.


"I was able to follow what was being taught easily and clearly. Sometimes things felt that the lessons themselves felt a little slow, but I believe that was just because the length of the class."

"The way the professor taught, she got on a college students level. She did not just tell us what to do she actually taught us how to do what we were supposed to do. It was really clearly presented. Yes the course material was organized well. Class time was well used. The
class always paced at an ok rate." :)

"Class moved a bit quickly for a Composition 1 class, but over all it was not impossible to keep up." Obviously some students thought it was fast - but it seems like overall the pace was good since only a few people thought it was slow and one thought it fast, and the rest said it was fine.


"I literally learned nothing more than I learned in Intro to College Writing. I think she needs to be more organized with tutorials. Information was presented okay, needs to be more clear on syllabus and not change it around." I'll give this person that I did change a few things on the syllabus, but I only ever pushed things back to give them more time when I'd put things a little close together. I'm guessing it is the same person that comments later on tutorials and why he or she thinks they were not good - so I'll save that for the tutorials section. It's not my fault that Intro to College Writing has the same material, I followed my given curriculum. I don't know if that is a high school class he or she took or a remedial college course.

Course Content:

"The lectures were dull." 

"Too much reading and writing, but I guess that's the name of the course." Uh, duh.

"Like I said, I already knew most of it. It was all very helpful review and I'm sure I learned some new things. The readings were all interesting and well chosen, and emphasized the points we were studying. I also really liked the Connect, as I did learn quite a bit from
that." Most people do not like Connect, so I felt glad that a couple students this semester said they found it helpful. It is basically a learning plan that students do at their own pace that focuses on grammar, punctuation, etc. It's tedious and boring, I know, but it is required because of the school's Composition 1 Course Redesign.

"The content of the course was good, but the class did not learn anything about grammar or any questions we had." I always try to answer specific questions in class, and the several-week long Connect learning plan should have helped some with grammar, unless maybe it is way over the students' heads or they can't learn things on their own. I really do think I went over some of the common problems of grammar in class.

"I liked the fact that we were given a list of the readings at the begining of the course, which allowed us to prepare for each assignment before we disscused it in class.
"The readings that were assigned help to explain the papers we were going to write. It was helpful in the way it was presented. I really liked the discussions they helped me to think about the readings again, which helped me understand them better." 

"not a fan of the reading." Obviously some people aren't, but I feel like the majority said they liked them.

"Most of the information felt random. When we took the midterm, many of the topics felt random as well" As with last semester, there's always that one student who is probably upset about his or her grade who thinks everything was terrible. I hope that topics didn't really seem random, I tried to tie most things back to why we were learning about them: because the concepts are useful when writing. And I had a "review day" where I listed the major concepts we'd discussed so far for the midterm - I didn't give out a study guide, but they could write down the topics and I didn't put anything on there we hadn't talked about.

"All of it was good." Nice to know, though not very specific.


Tutorials/Conferences:

"Were helpful because she explained ideas individually and it was easy to understand."

"The tutorials were a big help to me. The teacher sat down and talked me through my paper; what she liked, what she didnt, what to change, stay the same, etc..."
 
"Tutorials were amazing idea to improve our writing skills." Some students really liked the tutorials and peer review. I had several more like this one. They like one-on-one time.

"Definitely needs to be better set up with tutorials. Needs to make sure people are coming to class and they understand what the paper is about. She does not explain what the paper is about in good detail." Yes, you are totally right. Even though you are in college I should still have to email you every time to miss class or call you up to make sure you are going to be in class. That is ridiculous. It's not like I forget who is missing each day. I took attendance and saw no check mark next to several students consistently. They chose not to be responsible enough to come to class. Or if something happened and they couldn't come to class, emailing me about it several weeks later is still not my fault. I had some students who didn't understand the prompts come up and ask me about them (I feel they were pretty detailed, it wasn't merely "write a definition essay"), and this student could have done that too. If this student was not there for the two days in a row that I have the tutorial sign-up sheet available and was not able to get a time, that is not my fault. This is college, people. "Make sure people are coming to class." Psh. How?


"The tutorials were very effective because they gave a chance to improve our papers but most importantly our paper's grade." I think I know who wrote this one.
 
Student Evaluation/Feedback/Grading System:

"I felt the grading was fair."
 
"There was lots of room to talk to the teacher if it was needed, even though she had minimal office hours. She was always happy to answer any questions I had and always did so cheerfully. The grading system was explained in the syllabus and it was fine."
 
"the grading was fair and adequately explained she told us exactly what she wanted and how. she would grade the work based on the work not based on the person." I'm glad this student felt that way. 

"Most of the grading system was fair, but attendance wasn't mentioned as an actual part of our grade in the class. It may have only been gone over once, but it wasn't until I looked on blackboard that I noticed that it was apart of the grading." I think I did mention attendance being worth points (2 points per day) on the first day, and then much later in the semester, but I will try to emphasize it more next semester because some students obviously did not realize or did not care. I had a lot of students skipping and missing small assignments and attendance points. I will say, though, that even if attendance is not counted for points, does that make it ok to skip class a bunch? I don't think so.
 
"Grading system was not explained but it is set up the same across campus. She gave some feedback but you could tell she did not come prepared or have read the articles herself before class." First of all, the grading system is in the syllabus and I used a rubric on the first paper, although not after that . . . but the other part of the comment is what really hurt. I reread every essay before we discussed it in class, even though I'd already read them last semester, and I even mentioned having read them before I believe. I really hope I didn't come across as not having read them. I think what happened was that I sometimes would deliberate on which question I wanted to go over next or how to ask it, or would have to look back over the essay to find the phrase I wanted to point out, sometimes because something a student brought up in class made me think of a phrase I hadn't marked but knew was there. I can't know for sure if this student always did the reading before class, but I know there were days when almost no one had, and they admitted it or I could tell. I do feel like this comment is helpful in reminding me to be more straightforward and certain in the future, and to appear more prepared, because a few times I would forget something in the office or something at the beginning of class, but I really hope I didn't seem like I hadn't done the reading.
 
Additional Comments:

"She talk during class while we were trying to read or write individually. I need silence to comprehend what I'm reading or writing and she'd be quiet for a second and then start talking again. It was a distraction." I know what this student means, though I don't think it is as bad as it sounds. Sometimes I was making sure to give thorough instructions and say something I forgot, but I realize that sometimes I need to be very silent for some students to work. I don't think I really did this a ton, but I know I did sometimes during little things or short writings in class - not really during timed writings or big assignments I don't think.

"Thanks for being an awesome teacher!" Ok, there's no suggestions, but this did make me feel good.
 
"The instructor is a great person. She's really personable and funny. Sometimes when going over the material, she seemed a little flustered, but it was more of an awkward flustered. It only happened every so often so it wasn't a huge issue. She really knows the material and makes it easy to understand." This may have been what made that other student say I wasn't prepared. I know I did do this sometimes, but I feel like overall this semester was better than the last. I felt more prepared. There were a couple of times I forgot the order in which I wanted to do things or that I wanted to do an activity and I might have made that too obvious rather than pretending everything was just as I meant it to be, so I'll have to work on that. But I'm glad that overall it wasn't "a huge issue" to this student.
 
"You made English enjoyable to learn. I actually wanted to read and write and even found it interesting. I wish we could have had a class outside..but it was still really fun." I know who wrote this one because she asked for an outside class every day for the last several weeks. She was a good student. This one made me smile. 

"She was very relatable and easy to talk to!"
 
"Overall I thought the class was great. Normally for me I hate any kind of writing class but this class was actually pretty good and I enjoyed my time in it. I liked how open/broad the subjects we could write about for our papers. It made me to want to write and to write well." Success. 

"The course and instructor did a great job throughout the course of the semester however I feel like the inexperiance of operating a classroom showed. Students were talkative and would play on phones during class disrupting the learning experiance for those that were trying to pay attention." I should have been tougher on this - a lot of times I ignored it, and several times one student in particular would even take calls and go out of class without mentioning to me that she needed to take a call that day. I can't say I didn't know what to do. I should have just confronted the students who did this. A lot of the time I opted rather to keep going with lecture/discussion and try not to let myself get distracted, but I should have said something. Next semester I will try to be tougher about this at the beginning and throughout.
 
"I think the learning plan we did was not helpful and took up time that I did not have in doing it." I'm sorry, but as it is required, there is nothing I can do about this - but maybe the higher-ups will see comments like this and change it ... although I think not. Also I think it could be helpful in some ways, although I realize it is tedious. I will try to tweak it next semester when assigning it online to only focus on basic mistakes or something that could be more helpful to a wider range of students.
 
"Make sure you do not talk to student like the Elementary, even though you want to be a Elementary Teacher." :( I want to be a high school or college teacher and I think I even mentioned that in class. I think this sounds like it is from one of my foreign students, but maybe this person just didn't proofread. I just really wish I knew how I did this - was I too friendly? I thought I talked to them and explained things on their level. Not sure how to feel about this or how to improve.
 
"Everything was perfect." Again, no suggestions, but sometimes it is nice to hear that at least a few students had a good time. I know I can't please everyone, and I'm glad for the suggestions and constructive criticism, and comments like this one help me cope with the really harsh, hurtful comments that don't seem justified and are most likely from students who didn't do very well through their own laziness or the fact that they just aren't at a level to pass Composition 1 yet.


Another semester down, with some more ideas of things to work on for the fall. Overall I enjoyed my classes. I had some great students, some ok ones, and only a few who I was frustrated with, mostly for attendance and lack of responsibility. It sounds like overall it was ok for them, too, and some found it helpful. The majority of comments were positive so I think that means overall it was a successful semester. Here's hoping that a few months' break and more time to think over how to make the next semester better will help me improve. 

Calibre/Library Update

Made some new "art" (ok, it's just a bar graph, nothing too special) in Inkscape to compare the number of books we own* versus those we've read or want to read.

Just wanted to share!

P.S.: I created the graph to lay horizontally, but so that it is easier to see and read on the blog, I rotated it.

*By own, I mean books we own that are currently in the library at our house. There are more at Matt's parents' house still. I had to have all mine with me and he graciously allowed mine to move in first, leaving not enough room for all of his.

Project: Kittymobile

The first full week of summer vacation started out pretty good. I got several things done. The main project I worked on today was outfitting my bike into a kittymobile for Llyr. I brought the bike home from my parents' house the other night. I originally had grand plans to paint up the bike and make it look very modern and cool - but now I'm thinking that would be a difficult bit of work, and probably not really worth the time at this point when I have so many other projects. But, I continued with the plan of attaching a basket so we can take Llyr with us to the park easily and go on bike rides with him.

Here's what I did:

I bought a fold-out, metal bike basket but needed to create a top for it so Llyr couldn't jump out. I did this with fabric, though I could have maybe made one out of chicken wire or something else. I made a flat top with flaps that had Velcro. The flaps fold around the edge of the metal basket and stick to the underside of the lid. That's kind of hard to explain, but you can look at the pictures further down and I think it is pretty clear. This is a picture of the most annoying part, attaching the Velcro - it is the sticky kind, but that doesn't always stick permanently, so I had to sew them all down, and the thread kept jumping out of the needle on the sewing machine if I wasn't really careful. Also stopping and starting is bothersome to me.

Flaps with Velcro. I went all out and sewed them shut inside-out so no seams or edges show. Then I had to turn them right-side out ... with Velcro, which is not very forgiving or flexible. Another annoying part, but they look nice and not ragged.

Laziness kicked in. I stuck the soft-side Velcro to the bottom of the lid (figured out placement by lining it up on the basket and looking at where the flaps could fold around the metal bars) and then I just sewed one line all the way around. It is on the bottom, so it won't show. I used leftover vinyl-like material so it would be waterproof, although I don't plan to ride in the rain.

To sew the top and bottom pieces of the lid right-sides together and then turn right-side out (so the seam doesn't show), I lined up the flaps like they would attach to the soft Velcro side (but I didn't just stick them together, I left some room for going around the bars of the basket). I pinned them there and then laid the other piece of fabric on top, right sides together, and sewed, leaving a hole to flip it.

Okay, now you can see it and maybe it makes sense. This is the underside of the lid showing with flaps attached. Flipped over, the flaps can wrap around the top bar of the basket and Velcro shut.

The lid is on the basket.

And now the kitty is in the basket! He hadn't really liked getting in the basket with no lid, but once I sort of coerced him into it and shut the lid, he laid down and during our little test-ride around the neighborhood, he didn't seem to mind too much. Llyr mostly looked around or looked at me. I didn't hear him meow like he was scared, and with his weight to hold the basket steady it didn't wobble as much, which I'd been worried about when I was riding it around, testing the tightness of the straps. Notice the straps are dog collars. A bit expensive and a better alternative could probably be found. The kit came with zip ties as well as leather straps for "easy removal" but the leather was really, really thin and I knew it wouldn't hold up. But I wanted to be able to take it off if I needed, so this worked all right.

Llyr doesn't like riding in the backyard. It is bumpy. But on the road he seemed all right. Now we can take him to the park with us easily, without having to carry him. He's heavy and skittish and carrying him gets tiring, but this way he can see the sights and go with us.

Project Kittymobile: Completed!

Summer Projects List

This summer, I plan to get as many projects as I can completed. As I found out for sure this semester, Graduate Assistant-ing and teaching Composition I does not leave any time for significant projects. When I do get time for projects, boy, does it make me feel happy and creative. I'm hoping that getting at least one big, exciting project done a week this summer will build up those good feelings so that once it is time for the fall semester to begin, I'll have a store of them that will last me until Christmas, or at least Thanksgiving break. With work and summer school, I'm not sure how many I'll actually be able to get done, but I enjoy making lists [and even more, checking things off them], so even if they do not all get finished in summer, I'd be okay with looking back and seeing how many I did accomplish, or continuing on over the fall breaks. I also made myself a reading list for personal motivation. I have at least 40 books stacked beside the bed to read, and plenty others when I look at the list on Calibre.

Pinterest has "helped" me with me project list, though it is debatable how helpful or hurtful that actually is. In no particular order:

1. Litter Box Hider: Completed! 

2. Canvas Hammock: Completed! (But not a complete success)

3. Growth Chart Ruler: Completed!

4. Family Tree Oil "Painting": Semi-Completed! (As much of it as I can do at this point)

5. Llyr Pokémon Cards: Completed!

6. Jane Austen Cross Stitch: FINALLY Completed!

7. Read lots of books. See Reading List. Doing good so far!

8. Kitty Coop: for when Llyr wants to go outside but I can't be out there watching him. (This is pretty much complete, but I haven't blogged it yet. I still need to make a better door. Stay tuned.)

9. Kittymobile: Completed!

10. Chessboard Tabletop: Completed!

11. BONUS! Styrofoam Cooler Ottoman: Completed!

12. BONUS! New RenFest Costume with Rit Dye: Completed!

13. BONUS! Canvas Shoes for the RenFest: Completed!

Elizabeth's Reading List

Here are some of the books I want to read, most of which we already own:

1. Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (actually, I have an old copy that says "Samuel Clemens" as the author)
3. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
4. The Arabian Nights
5. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
6. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
7. Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
8. Bonhoeffer: Pastor Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
10. Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
11. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
12. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
13. The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler and Jared Wilson
14. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
15. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
16. Dracula by Bram Stoker
17. The  Jungle by Upton Sinclair
18. The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper
19. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
20. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien (read partway through years ago but did not finish)
21. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
22. Misery by Stephen King
23. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
24. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
25. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
26. The Prince's Pen by Horatio Clare
27. The Silver Cow: A Welsh Tale by Susan Cooper
28. Star Guard by Andre Norton
29. The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
30. White Ravens by Owen Sheers
31. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
32. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
33. Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
34. True Grit by Charles Portis
35. The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Tempest, Two Gentlemen, Merry Wives, Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, Much Ado, Love's Labour's Lost, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, All's Well, Twelfth Night, Winter's Tale, King John, Richard II, Henry IV 1, Henry IV 2, Henry V, Henry VI 1, Henry VI 2, Henry VI 3, Richard III, Henry VIII, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Pericles, Five Long Poems, and The Sonnets. (There are so many I thought I'd feel better to mark off one at a time which ones I have gotten through. Those Histories are going to take forever.)
36. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
37. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
38. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
39. Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
40. The Fault in Our Stars or Paper Towns by John Green


Ethnic American Lit and Gender, Genre, and the Gothic for Summer 2013:

1. Pushing the Bear by Diane Glancy
2. Malinche by Laura Esquivel
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison
4. Auto-Biography of an Ex-Colored Man by J. W. Johnson
5. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
6. The History of Caliph Vathek by William Beckford
7. Caleb Williams by William Godwin
8. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
9. The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
10. Zofloya, or The Moor by Charlotte Dacre
11. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner  by James Hogg