What's the first day of the year for you? For me, it's not January 1st--it's never been, really. The first day of the year for me is September 7th, or 4th, 6th, or whatever day school starts that year.
My life has always been about school. Really, I've been in school for 43 years now. I went to school until I was 26 and then I've taught for the last 23. Basically I love school.
I love school because I love to learn. I love to be taught things. I love to discover something I've never known before. And then I love to take what I've learned and find a way to teach it to other people.
About 15 years ago, I switched to teaching part-time so that I could try out some other careers. I ran a petting farm for a while, I tried my hand at freelance writing, I became a New Age healer and a psychic. No kidding.
But you know what happened? Once I learned how to do those things, I started teaching other people how to do them! I even started teaching people how to be a psychic. It doesn't matter what I do, I can't stop myself from teaching.
The thing is, when I have to teach something, I have to learn it in a whole new way, and so I get to learn even more. Really, even teaching is about learning.
The Japanese writer Aiko Morita once said that "curiosity is the key to creativity." And that is so true for me. Teaching is a creative outlet for me. The more I teach, the more I learn: the more I learn, the more I create.
It's a fabulous circle. And I love to go around and around.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
If we were all really old, there'd be no pop culture
It's true. The older I get the less pop culture matters to me. When I was in high school, I knew what albums were #1--Elton John, The Police, Michael Jackson--I knew the names of everyone on Cheers and Mash and One Day at a Time. I knew that the jeans I was wearing were NOT the right Levi's or Lee's. I knew that when I got my first bomber jacket, I was momentarily cool.
But with each decade, I've gotten less attached. In my twenties, okay, I still knew the stars in the big movies, but maybe I didn't watch the Academy Awards, and maybe I still knew who the big singers were, but I didn't have to see the Grammy Awards. And as for style, well, in university I don't think I wore anything other than a sweatshirt most of the time.
In my thirties I went through my "ignore culture entirely" phase. I stopped watching TV, I stopped getting haircuts, I let my ear piercings grow in, I only shopped in Thrift Stores, and I stopped shaving. When I told my grade ten class that the other day, they were mortified. First, who wants to know anything personal about their teacher in the first place. Second, OMG, she didn't shave her armpits??? In the end (of my thirties, that is), as I told them, I'd let go the idea that it's a good idea to ignore culture completely. I think they were relieved to know that the legs under my teacher slacks were probably not extra-hairy.
What I discovered from my little foray into the abyss was that pop culture does matter. It does play a role in grounding us in our era, at least a little bit. I don't think I was as good of a teacher as I could have been during those years because I couldn't make references to the water in which my students were swimming. I didn't get their references to Seinfeld. I didn't know who any of the up and coming rap artists were--and so I still don't--I missed a whole generational movement. Now, I do know who Kanye West is, and although I don't like his music, by me knowing who he is and what his appeal is, I am understanding more fully the world in which I live. And the better I understand the way my world works, the more useful I can be in it.
Oh, and for those women out there who've never let their leg hairs grow out--it's a great way to cool down in the summer--man's greatest secret.
But with each decade, I've gotten less attached. In my twenties, okay, I still knew the stars in the big movies, but maybe I didn't watch the Academy Awards, and maybe I still knew who the big singers were, but I didn't have to see the Grammy Awards. And as for style, well, in university I don't think I wore anything other than a sweatshirt most of the time.
In my thirties I went through my "ignore culture entirely" phase. I stopped watching TV, I stopped getting haircuts, I let my ear piercings grow in, I only shopped in Thrift Stores, and I stopped shaving. When I told my grade ten class that the other day, they were mortified. First, who wants to know anything personal about their teacher in the first place. Second, OMG, she didn't shave her armpits??? In the end (of my thirties, that is), as I told them, I'd let go the idea that it's a good idea to ignore culture completely. I think they were relieved to know that the legs under my teacher slacks were probably not extra-hairy.
What I discovered from my little foray into the abyss was that pop culture does matter. It does play a role in grounding us in our era, at least a little bit. I don't think I was as good of a teacher as I could have been during those years because I couldn't make references to the water in which my students were swimming. I didn't get their references to Seinfeld. I didn't know who any of the up and coming rap artists were--and so I still don't--I missed a whole generational movement. Now, I do know who Kanye West is, and although I don't like his music, by me knowing who he is and what his appeal is, I am understanding more fully the world in which I live. And the better I understand the way my world works, the more useful I can be in it.
Oh, and for those women out there who've never let their leg hairs grow out--it's a great way to cool down in the summer--man's greatest secret.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
What isn't prejudice?
My grade tens have just finished writing their essays on Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. So, I've been reading a lot about prejudice. And that means I've been thinking a lot about prejudice.
This is the first year I've taught this book with a student in the class who is black. I know that for some teachers out there, that's hard to believe, but here at Elmira high school we're mostly all just variations of white. I myself happen to be really-really-don't-put-me-in-the-sun white.
Because Emeka, that's the student's name, was in this class, I found myself thinking more carefully than usual about every word I was saying when I talked about the book. I wanted to analyze my own language to make sure I wasn't being in any way exclusionary. You know, using any language that was of an us/them variety. Now, does the fact that I found myself extra-aware of my whiteness and his blackness during this unit make me prejudiced?
I don't think so. I don't think that noticing differences and being sensitive to differences is what we call "being prejudiced." I think that's just human nature. But I do think that pre-judging (the root of the word prejudice) someone based on a physical trait could lead to unfair actions--to "being prejudiced."
But it could also just be common sense. Here's what I mean. I'm really short and heavy for my height. People might pre-judge that I would not be a good marathon runner just by looking at me. Now, in fact they'd be right. I can't last past 5K without wanting to go read a good book. But, I wouldn't be offended by their pre-judgement of me--it's a sensible conclusion based on my physical appearance. I wouldn't be offended, that is, until their mental pre-judgement evolved into a negative action. If I went to enter the Toronto marathon and someone said, "You're too short and fat to be in this competition," then I'd be livid. I would feel that someone who first pre-judged me has now acted on that prejudice and has limited my human rights.
So, is it human for me to recognize Emeka's blackness as I teach a novel about racial prejudice to an otherwise all-white class? I think so. Is it racism? I don't think so.
I'll ask Emeka and see what he thinks.
This is the first year I've taught this book with a student in the class who is black. I know that for some teachers out there, that's hard to believe, but here at Elmira high school we're mostly all just variations of white. I myself happen to be really-really-don't-put-me-in-the-sun white.
Because Emeka, that's the student's name, was in this class, I found myself thinking more carefully than usual about every word I was saying when I talked about the book. I wanted to analyze my own language to make sure I wasn't being in any way exclusionary. You know, using any language that was of an us/them variety. Now, does the fact that I found myself extra-aware of my whiteness and his blackness during this unit make me prejudiced?
I don't think so. I don't think that noticing differences and being sensitive to differences is what we call "being prejudiced." I think that's just human nature. But I do think that pre-judging (the root of the word prejudice) someone based on a physical trait could lead to unfair actions--to "being prejudiced."
But it could also just be common sense. Here's what I mean. I'm really short and heavy for my height. People might pre-judge that I would not be a good marathon runner just by looking at me. Now, in fact they'd be right. I can't last past 5K without wanting to go read a good book. But, I wouldn't be offended by their pre-judgement of me--it's a sensible conclusion based on my physical appearance. I wouldn't be offended, that is, until their mental pre-judgement evolved into a negative action. If I went to enter the Toronto marathon and someone said, "You're too short and fat to be in this competition," then I'd be livid. I would feel that someone who first pre-judged me has now acted on that prejudice and has limited my human rights.
So, is it human for me to recognize Emeka's blackness as I teach a novel about racial prejudice to an otherwise all-white class? I think so. Is it racism? I don't think so.
I'll ask Emeka and see what he thinks.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I'm so tense about tense!
Well, at my last writer's group meeting, I came to an impasse.
I'm at about the 35,000-word mark in the second version of a novel I'm working on. I've got two main characters in two different time periods: Saint Columba in 560AD and Rose 2007AD.
I've been writing both sections, which more or less alternate, in present tense. My readers, both of whose opinions I respect, told me that my choice of present tense in the Saint Columba sections is getting in their way. They say it sounds as if I'm trying too hard.
I know they're right. I find myself as I write forcing the present tense. I wrote the whole 100,000 words of the first version in past tense. Then I purposely decided to use present tense for the second version--I think I wanted it to sound more immediate and perhaps more contemporary. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Now, I'm debating about whether to switch back to past tense. I really need to make the decision before I go any farther because it affect every sentence I write--every sound, every word. It will be laborious to go back and change the latest 30,000 to past tense--it's just not as easy as just switching tenses--some sentences just don't sound right anymore when I just switch the verb. Hmmmm.
So, this past weekend, I started the next section and I switched back to past tense. It feels easy and comfortable--and somehow a cop-out. But maybe that is because I was trying too hard to be something I'm not yet. I don't think I'm a good enough writer yet to pull off present tense, especially in the historic fiction sections where I have to refer to the past and then the past of the past and sometimes the past of the past of the past.
I'll finish this next section and throw it to the lions at my next writer's group meeting. I hope it survives:-)
I'm at about the 35,000-word mark in the second version of a novel I'm working on. I've got two main characters in two different time periods: Saint Columba in 560AD and Rose 2007AD.
I've been writing both sections, which more or less alternate, in present tense. My readers, both of whose opinions I respect, told me that my choice of present tense in the Saint Columba sections is getting in their way. They say it sounds as if I'm trying too hard.
I know they're right. I find myself as I write forcing the present tense. I wrote the whole 100,000 words of the first version in past tense. Then I purposely decided to use present tense for the second version--I think I wanted it to sound more immediate and perhaps more contemporary. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Now, I'm debating about whether to switch back to past tense. I really need to make the decision before I go any farther because it affect every sentence I write--every sound, every word. It will be laborious to go back and change the latest 30,000 to past tense--it's just not as easy as just switching tenses--some sentences just don't sound right anymore when I just switch the verb. Hmmmm.
So, this past weekend, I started the next section and I switched back to past tense. It feels easy and comfortable--and somehow a cop-out. But maybe that is because I was trying too hard to be something I'm not yet. I don't think I'm a good enough writer yet to pull off present tense, especially in the historic fiction sections where I have to refer to the past and then the past of the past and sometimes the past of the past of the past.
I'll finish this next section and throw it to the lions at my next writer's group meeting. I hope it survives:-)
Friday, September 11, 2009
My Newly Connected World
When I first started teaching at Elmira twenty-three years ago I was only the second teacher in the whole school to have a home computer. Mr. Clausi, the math teacher, was the first. My computer was an Apple 2C, and it was a blast to use! I'd just come from working at a private computer firm where even back then we already had in-house email--and believe me that was pretty unheard-of in the mid-eighties. Short and long of it, when I first started teaching I was pretty darn connected.
Then five years later I decided to switch to part-time teaching so I could investigate other things in life. Those other things did not much include technology. I think I decided that creative people (whatever the heck I meant by that) really didn't need to be bothered with technology. I went through a phase, and a wonderful phase it was, don't get me wrong, of withdrawing from the world--we didn't even have a TV for a while.
So, thirteen years later, when I decided to go back to teaching full-time, I was not even close to being on the cutting edge of technology. I didn't own a cell phone, I didn't know how to text. You get the idea.
Then a couple years ago, I started watching what was happening to my dad. He's a man who retired just as computers hit the business world--and he never bothered to try to keep up. Heck, he never even bothered to figure out video machines, let alone computers or cell phones. Now, he's so far out of it, there's no catching up. At a time in his life when he would be less lonely if he knew how to use email, he can't. At a time in his life when, if he could use the internet, he'd had lots of fascinating reading to keep him stimulated, he can't. I decided I didn't want to be him.
So, I got off my creative-people-don't-do-technology high-horse and got to work catching up. And you know what? Technology doesn't get in the way of my creativity at all-- it actually helps it. And now I'm having a great time applying the new Web 2.0 technology (see me throwing the cool terms around?) to my teaching style.
What we've all started to realize over the last few years is that this new generation of kids is a different breed. For members of this new generation, technology is the water in which they swim. They work best when they can multi--task, collaborate, customize their world around them. And these are the exciting people I'm in a classroom with everyday. The more I start to use things like wikis and blogs and Smartboards in class, the more I get to see their abilities shine.
Mind you ,I have to be willing to be embarrassed at the front of the room when I can't get the Smartboard to do what I think it should do, but what the heck. A part of what I'm teaching them is that we've all just got to jump in and swim! Someday they may be the ones who've fallen behind whatever their kids are discovering. I hope that the least I can do for them now is show by example that we've all just got to leap in and have a go at it, whatever the next 'it' will be.
Then five years later I decided to switch to part-time teaching so I could investigate other things in life. Those other things did not much include technology. I think I decided that creative people (whatever the heck I meant by that) really didn't need to be bothered with technology. I went through a phase, and a wonderful phase it was, don't get me wrong, of withdrawing from the world--we didn't even have a TV for a while.
So, thirteen years later, when I decided to go back to teaching full-time, I was not even close to being on the cutting edge of technology. I didn't own a cell phone, I didn't know how to text. You get the idea.
Then a couple years ago, I started watching what was happening to my dad. He's a man who retired just as computers hit the business world--and he never bothered to try to keep up. Heck, he never even bothered to figure out video machines, let alone computers or cell phones. Now, he's so far out of it, there's no catching up. At a time in his life when he would be less lonely if he knew how to use email, he can't. At a time in his life when, if he could use the internet, he'd had lots of fascinating reading to keep him stimulated, he can't. I decided I didn't want to be him.
So, I got off my creative-people-don't-do-technology high-horse and got to work catching up. And you know what? Technology doesn't get in the way of my creativity at all-- it actually helps it. And now I'm having a great time applying the new Web 2.0 technology (see me throwing the cool terms around?) to my teaching style.
What we've all started to realize over the last few years is that this new generation of kids is a different breed. For members of this new generation, technology is the water in which they swim. They work best when they can multi--task, collaborate, customize their world around them. And these are the exciting people I'm in a classroom with everyday. The more I start to use things like wikis and blogs and Smartboards in class, the more I get to see their abilities shine.
Mind you ,I have to be willing to be embarrassed at the front of the room when I can't get the Smartboard to do what I think it should do, but what the heck. A part of what I'm teaching them is that we've all just got to jump in and swim! Someday they may be the ones who've fallen behind whatever their kids are discovering. I hope that the least I can do for them now is show by example that we've all just got to leap in and have a go at it, whatever the next 'it' will be.
It's also our jobs as teachers to make sure they are literate in the 2009 sense of literate. And that means being able to negotiate all sorts of communication online--blogging, wiki-ing, linking, not just texting and Facebooking. This era's idea of literacy is much more than simply being able to read and write.
Well, I have to go and check my Facebook and Twitter and my class wiki because my grade tens are writing a good old-fashioned short story this weekend, and someone may have a question for me. And after that's done, I'll sit down and work on my good old-fashioned novel that I'm writing on this brand new Dell laptop.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The First Day is the Fastest
Today just flew by! I'm glad it's over because it's the only way to get to the second day. First days are strange days to me--I'm facing a sea of (mostly) new faces and really I just want to get to know everybody's name and get a feel for our new group. But instead I have to do seating plans and administration stuff and all that jazz.
It's once I know everyone's name that I can really settle in and have a good time. Then the room stops feeling as if I'm having company over and instead more like family dropping in for a while. You know what I mean?
It's once I know everyone's name that I can really settle in and have a good time. Then the room stops feeling as if I'm having company over and instead more like family dropping in for a while. You know what I mean?
Monday, September 7, 2009
T'was the Night Before School Starts
T'was the night before school starts and all through the house
nothing was stirring not even a mouse
because my husband killed four of them in traps this morning. They were cute and fuzzy but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time--and hungry. Sometimes it pays to leave the cheese where it is.
And tonight I leave my summer where it is. Lots of learning new technology (well, new to me), lots of running in circles with my big dog, lots reading great books.
I'm ready to meet you, my new students, tomorrow. I'm really excited about some new ideas I've had over the summer, and I hope you'll like them too. I'm a person who's excited by new ideas--it's one of my great joys in life. And I love to share them--I guess that's what makes me want to be a teacher year after year after year.
I'm going to go finish off the book I'm reading by Jane Hamilton called A Short History of a Prince. It's a good read about a boy, and then a man, who is a dancer and then a teacher, who is passionate about music and movement. He's also gay in an era when he's uncomfortable about coming out about it. I don't know where the story's going yet, but as with all her other books, she'll keep me till the end.
Sleep well, new students. May the morning bring us all new ideas.
nothing was stirring not even a mouse
because my husband killed four of them in traps this morning. They were cute and fuzzy but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time--and hungry. Sometimes it pays to leave the cheese where it is.
And tonight I leave my summer where it is. Lots of learning new technology (well, new to me), lots of running in circles with my big dog, lots reading great books.
I'm ready to meet you, my new students, tomorrow. I'm really excited about some new ideas I've had over the summer, and I hope you'll like them too. I'm a person who's excited by new ideas--it's one of my great joys in life. And I love to share them--I guess that's what makes me want to be a teacher year after year after year.
I'm going to go finish off the book I'm reading by Jane Hamilton called A Short History of a Prince. It's a good read about a boy, and then a man, who is a dancer and then a teacher, who is passionate about music and movement. He's also gay in an era when he's uncomfortable about coming out about it. I don't know where the story's going yet, but as with all her other books, she'll keep me till the end.
Sleep well, new students. May the morning bring us all new ideas.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
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