Recently in teaching Category

Here's hoping that all of you dear readers had lovely holidays and a felicitous, peaceful, and smooth entry into the beginnings of 2012. During this time of year, I often hear from students who have either graduated recently or long ago and who I now call friends.  Two friends who I mention here are former students from our English Department at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln:  Lenna Pierce is a gifted musician and singer and Emily Danforth is a gifted writer whose first novel comes out in February.  

I had coffee with Lenna Pierce last week. She had just returned from her cross-country one-woman concert tour:  from Lincoln, Nebraska to New York.  It was intriguing listening to her road stories.  She recounted experiences in bars, dives, and very nice concert venues.  Most interesting to me were her descriptions of the music she heard along the way, the musicians she met--alternative, experimental.  Lenna is in a world far and away from popular culture.  The kind of music she creates with her cello, voice and words, transcends anything that is on the radio or I-Pods right now.  I find it literary, creatively multi-layered, so complex in its lightness. Before Lenna went solo, she performed with Rachel West (who accompanied Lenna's cello with an accordian) and they called their duo, "Das Hoboerotica."  They played various venues here in Lincoln, Nebraska until Rachel decided to pursue other interests.  Now Lenna has broadened her concert card to a number of states between here and New York (inclusive of NY). You don't meet many alternative cello playing singers.  Lenna says the cello, "just feels so right.  You know, it's big and warm but it's dark too.  It's not a simple instrument, but it is a beautiful one." Lenna's music reminds me of the Argentine singer, Juana Molina.  Juana sings in what I call "Rioplatense Spanish transcendency." Rioplatense is the regional Spanish she chooses to use in the writing of her songs.  Listen to her here: (CLICK) and also here: (CLICK). She is in a kind of trance, repeating words, verses, shifting chords that shift the listener, move us into another space. Sometimes I imagine Lenna Pierce playing with Juana Molina. What a collaboration that would be!

If you're in Lincoln, Nebraska tomorrow (Friday, January 6th) you can hear Lenna Pierce at Meadowlark Coffee House at 8p.m. (1624 South Street).  

Emily Danforth received her PhD in creative writing just last May 2011 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  She is now an Assistant Professor at Rhode Island College in Providence.  

Her soon-to-be-published book, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a coming of age novel and it is riveting, told in gorgeous descriptive prose. 

When I read Emily's words, I am literally there lying on the Montana fields watching those slow moving clouds above me.  She carries you from there to heartbreaking and bittersweet first love, loss, and maturity. The book is already a "starred review" from Kirkus Reviews:  "Rich with detail and emotion, a sophisticated read for teens and adults alike."  Booklist also starred it:  "[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age."  It will be released February 7th.  You can also pre-order from your local bookstore!  

Lately, book publishers have been marketing their books with youtube mini-films.  It's brilliant.  Emily's publisher, Balzer and Bray have come 

out with a sweet, lovely "trailer" so to speak, to whet your appetite.  Here it is: CLICK HERE.

I always wish for our students to find what makes their hearts leap, to pursue a passion-- not to pursue what someone else thinks they should be doing. I hope for students to dig deep inside themselves and find their true gifts to develop. Lenna and Emily are passionate about their work.  It shows.  It delights.  We are lucky to have them share their gifts with us.  

And on that note, today I read a wonderful article in the New York Times regarding professors who are taking their lectures "to the bar" or to concert hall venues, or main stages of clubs-- giving lectures for free-- trying out their ideas in public.  This is wonderful.  Here's the article about it entitled:  "Continuing Education, at the Bar."  These are people who wish to reach a different audience from the 8a.m. class.  It's a way to spread the love of learning.  

With every writing workshop, participants often ask, "How can we continue writing?" or they worry about going back to their routines where for them it is a struggle to carve out time to write.  Maybe you are in that same situation.

If you are, I am posting here a link to Laurie Halse Anderson's site:  "Write Fifteen Minutes a Day Challenge."  That's all--just fifteen minutes. Leslea Newman wrote in to Anderson's site and said she's going to use this challenge to write a poem every day for the month of August.  Andale!  

Here are some other writing tips that I have found helpful:  Macondista Beatriz Terrazas and I discussed how we like writing first thing in the morning.  Another Macondista, Joy Castro, does the same thing.  You wake up and have your writing journal, computer, paper right next to your bed or you immediately get to your writing space and take the first hour, two or three to write.  No interruptions--no excuses.  First thing.  As Beatriz says--"then you've got it out and you have the entire day ahead of you and you feel good.  You have success right away!"

I have been taking the morning to write and then the afternoon/evening to edit.  But everyone is different.  Some of you may not be morning writers.  You may be better equipped after the 9 or 10p.m. hour.  Well--do the same, just in reverse!  Orale.  

It's August 1st-- think positive!  Lots of great writing ahead.  This blog is dedicated to my fabulous Macondista writers!  I'm cheering you on Gabriela, Veronica, Laurie Ann, Anel, Barbara, Charles, Juan-Luis, Rene, y Pata!  And all of you writers out there who I do not know--I wish you good writing energies as well.

I also want to give a shout out to my lovely film students who are doing a great job in their weekly discussions and writing. Last week, with just minimal preparation, they prepared and performed a strong oral reading of Chicano poet/activist Corky Gonzáles' "Yo Soy Joaquin." Then we saw the film adaptation of the poem (done in 1969).  Their observations of the film version were insightful, fresh.  The discussion became even more in-depth when I added the 23 minute "Yo Soy Chicana" (done ten years later in 1979) by Sylvia Morales.  Morales had received a $5,000 grant while a film student at UCLA.  And with that money, "Yo Soy Chicana" became a reality.  Later, she received $10,000 for a Spanish version of the film.  The students quickly noted the linear, heavily historical aspect to the Morales film while "Yo Soy Joaquin" ascribes to a romantic view with a non-linear presentation. Both are fascinating to connect. 

Next week, we will be reading the play, _Real Women Have Curves_ in preparation for analyzing how plays are translated to film.  My friend and colleague, Joy Castro, will be entering into the conversation as a guest speaker.  She has written on both the play and film version of "Real Women Have Curves"!  Yay for collaborations and literary/film discussions!  

And by the way, if you haven't checked out Joy Castro's website, go GO--click here!  Check out her blog!  

Sending you all, lovely readers, good wishes! And felicidades again to Lorraine López!

Grandin did not speak for the first three and a half years of her life.  She experienced years of ridicule at school for "acting weird."  Initially, doctors who diagnosed her suggested that she be institutionalized for the rest of her life.  That would have happened, if it had not been for parents who believed she would learn to speak, read, and write. Thank goodness also for teachers and mentors along the way who did not shy away from her but instead challenged her in and outside the classroom with visual/spatial projects.  The key was recognizing her gifts. And for Grandin, the key was to believe she could follow her passions.  

And this is the key for all of us--to recognize not only our own gifts, our own passions, but those of others. I often  either ask or work hard to observe what interests my students, what sparks their passion.  Years ago, when I taught high school English, I remember a student I had (1980s) who would sit in the back, did not talk, remained aloof.  In my almost 30 years of teaching, I've had many students who fit this description. Teachers either have a choice:  (1) ignore and hope the student will remain quiet and will just sit there, or (2) interview, gently coax, and see what happens.  I have always chosen the second way.  In this case, I interviewed her and found the student counting the days until graduation. She didn't care about barely passing because all she wanted to do was graduate and then drive a truck for a living--see the country.  So I encouraged her to learn about trucking and trucks, map out a national route and learn about the various cities/states along that route. And together, we found books on either travel, geography, out-of-the-way trails in certain areas of the country.  That's all she did for the entire spring semester before graduation.  She rejected my invitation to give a presentation to the class about her findings (and there were many findings!). She remained in the back of the class, but the difference was she never looked bored, there was energy and an alive-ness present--she even smiled and began speaking to other students.  She was invested in her passion.  

When I graduated from high school, I won a number of "English" and writing awards.  I was literally surprised and even went to the school counselor to ask why I had been given these awards (yes I was that naive).  I had not applied to any of these "awards" or even knew they existed.  The counselor looked at me and chuckled, "You really don't know!"  Then he explained that no one else had ever taken every single literature and writing class offered at the high school (this high school, at the time, offered a number of electives in English in addition to the required courses) and passed every one of them with the highest scores.  "But I just like it," I answered.  I suppose I had the idea that an award was something sought or desired and then with much suffering, obtained.  I was obsessed with reading and writing.  I still am.

Then the counselor told me something key.  "Keep recognizing and following your passions."

This single piece of advice has been very important.  

American cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel (Author of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic) explains her penchant for writing and drawing as a "positive compulsion" where "you're not only sitting at your computer and writing, you're hunched over your drawing board like a monk."  She writes about getting lost in her obsession.  

Psychologist Eric Maisel writes, "In what sense is it normal to work at a job that constricts you and bores you rather than risking everything on a life that challenges you, even as it frustrates you?   Much of what we call normal behavior is simply based on fear.  Indeed, the average person might even prefer a negative obsession, despite its horrors, to a positive obsession rooted in excitement, passion, and active meaning-making, so wild and unafraid would she/he feel if she/he were obsessed that way." (Newsletter #28, Oct. 2002) 

The HBO film on Temple Grandin underlines what Maisel points out regarding fear and positive obsessions. There is the Grandin story but there is also the brilliant work of actor Claire Danes whose gifts allow for Grandin's story to unfold into a riveting film. In her interview with NPR, Grandin says, "I want to emphasize the importance of building on a person's strengths."  

I often wonder what this world would be like if every person was encouraged to discover and develop her/his own gifts and if each of us were also fearless enough to follow our passions in order to arrive at active meaning-making in our lives.