A couple weeks ago, I had my students write a rhetorical analysis. This is one of the hardest assignments that I give my students and many of them struggled with it. One girl, however, made an unexpected, life-changing, discovery. For her analysis, she reviewed the lyrics of one of her favorite songs. Up to that point she had thought the song was about suicide and she had planned to write about that, but as she looked at the lyrics again and considered the timeframe of when it was written, she suddenly realized that it wasn't talking about suicide at all, it was talking about 9/11. This discovery opened a whole new world for her. Excitedly, she told me, "I never thought about looking for that sort of thing before, but now I see it everywhere! There is a lot more out there than I thought." I gave her my best "wise professor look" and sagely observed: "It's a whole new world, isn't it?" She nodded vigerously. Her experience reminded me of a line in The Giver by Lois Lowry. In that story, the main character is chosen to be the "Receiver of Memories" because of his ability to "See-Beyond." In the context of the book, it means that he can see color which most other citizens of the novel--by choice or lack of knowledge--can't. For me, that is what rhetorical analysis is like--it is "Seeing-Beyond" the public fascade to the worlds that exists just out of sight. It is discovering a world of treasures hidden to anyone who doesn't choose to seek them, doesn't think they are important, or doesn't want to break through their own persoanl boundaries of perception. It reminds me of the "feed the birds" scene in Mary Poppins. In that scene,  The children, excited for their upcoming outing with their father, exclaim, "We'll see all the sights, and father can point them out to us." Gently, Mary Poppins corrects them, "Well, most things he can. But sometimes a person we love, through no fault of his own, can't see past the end of his nose." The sad part for me is that this inability to "see past the end of [our noses]" is self-inflicted, or at least society-inflicted. We have established ways of perceiving the world and most aren't willing to even try a new way. In the immortal words of Horton the Elephant from Seussical the Musical: There are secrets on a leaf, In the water, in the air, Hidden planets, tiny worlds All invisible! Not a person seems to know. Not a person seems to care. There is no one who believes a thing I say... Well, I'm fairly certain At one time or other, Great thinkers all feel this way! I often wonder how much we miss because we don't open our eyes and "See-Beyond." How many worlds have gone undiscovered because we wrote the whole task of discovery off as unimportant or too difficult or didn't even notice the possibility for discovery in the first place? And then I think of what it feels like to find those worlds, the rush of discovering that past your limited view lay a whole, undiscovered country. And it makes me want to look even more. Again, I think Horton describes it best: Yes, I have wings. And I can fly Around the moon And far beyond the sky. I jsut wish the rest of my students could feel that as well.

So, I'm halfway through my first semester as a professor. It has been a very hectic ride with many ups and downs. I absolutely love it! I have learned a ton about what works for me and what doesn't and, before I forget, I thought I should write it down. Over the next few posts I plan to write about some things I've learned about my teaching specifically and teaching in general. I hope the information helps others. I'm certain it will help me.

Attendance Activities

Taking roll sucks. It sucks the energy out of the class, it sucks the creativity out of the teacher, and it just suck period. It isn't any fun and it wastes precious class time. Unfortunately, it is also required. For the first part of the semester, I would stand at the front of the class and read through all the names. It was dull and I hated it. Then, I had an epiphany. I was talking with my brother-in-law about how I was planning to focus on grammar for a couple of weeks and he passed on some advice from his father, a former English teacher. "Don't try to teach grammar all at once," he said, "it will just bore everyone. You need to spread it out and teach a little here and there." I knew he was right. My first attempt at teaching grammar led to a couple of students literally sleeping in the back of the room. But the more I thought about what my brother-in-law had said, the more I realized that I could use grammar for attendance, too. Now, instead of taking roll, I do a 10-20 minute activity at the beginning of each class. Each activity has a worksheet or handout of some kind. The students do the activity on the worksheet/handout, write their name on the top, and turn it in at the end of class. I take those and mark my roll accordingly. I have also found that they don't just work for grammar. I've had them do writing prompts with freewriting (I'm doing 6-Word Memoirs this week--more on this later), evaluate themselves on how much they participate in class, and next week I will have them format citations in the proper format. So far, it seems to be working. the students seem much more engaged and they are actually getting practice on grammar and other things without me having to drone on and on about it. And I don't have to take roll!  I am always looking for new things I can do with these activities. Any of you have good ideas? Let me know!