Before I was constantly grading papers and posting required forums and blogs....I really wrote once. Here is an old poem I found from years ago. I had just re-entered college at the age of 40 and was required to take the second semester of a Physics class. (Don't ask--it had been 20 years since I last had Calculus.) Just remember--I could write once.
Black Hole
His slightly messy head looks up from his cluttered desk,
he has a hopeful, helpful look around his eyes.
He move the pieces of bent wire, student exams, and lab pitures
to find a scrap piece of paper. I bend
over the equations he is scribbling,
his hand seems to be going the speed of light.
I race down the libraries of my brain,
searching for these formulas in the abandoned file cabinets.
Where have they all gone?
Into the Black Hole of 20 years.
I want to shout--
"I'm really not this stupid"
"Ive touched Michelangelo's David"
"I've laid under a sky of shooting stars on the banks of the Colorado"
"I've been on a first-name basis with micro-oganisms you will never know"
But instead I steady myself as I peer down at the mass of numbers and letters.
I am launching myself into that dark space.
Can he translate the ever-expanding universe
and make this explorer agin see home?
--CGR
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Reading in the Dark--a proposal to teach a film class
Cindy Renshaw
Creativity and Community
Final Project Proposal
January 2007
Thinking in the Dark: How to Bring the Reluctant Learners
into the Creative Community
Ahhhhh. A snow day. A blessing for procrastinators all over the world. As I lounged around today in my old sweats and slippers, I thought about what my final project would look like for my Creativity and Community class. Erin Brady, my co-worker at Bishop Dwenger, is hoping to get a Writing Center up and running for our high-schoolers. As a member of the same English Department I am sure I will be required to help out with that venture, but I thought I might submit a more personal proposal for my own project.
The State of Indiana has a strict policy when it comes to English credits necessary for graduation. Every student MUST complete 8 semesters of some sort of English credits in order to be granted a diploma—including the basic, the Core 40, and the academic honors diplomas. This requirement is usually easily met with a variety of grammar, American and British Literature, speech, and writing classes. But for a small percentage of lower achieving students this requirement is a difficulty. Often these students will fail a required semester of American or British Lit.—leaving them with the only option but to “double-up” and take 2 English credits in one semester to fulfill the State’s regulations. Teaching a new kind of English class might attract this type of student and show them that writing can be fun!
Another goal that has been adopted by my high school is that of improving critical thinking skills in our students. The dictionary defines critical thinking as “the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.” I tried to come up with a plan that I could actually USE in the classroom to teach critical reading skills and to fulfill a required English credit for a diploma.
My project would entail a proposal made to the curriculum committee in my high school. I would like to offer a new class to all students—one that could even be taught in summer school sessions to help alleviate the stress of the “doubled-up” English semester that is a hard task for low achieving students. I would like to teach a Film Analysis class. This class would entail viewing of modern movies and writing a variety of papers about the camera work, acting choices, themes, and viewpoints of the films themselves. I would have to design an actual class syllabus – showing a proposed calendar of actual films viewed and the papers assigned and their due dates. I think an actual lesson plan would also be helpful to convince the curriculum committee of the validity of the Film Analysis class. These artifacts would be what I would complete and present in my Creativity and Community classroom also. I could even show a film clip and we could work on a bit of a lesson plan that I would actually teach in the class.
One of my main goals would be to convince my audience that many of life’s questions can be answered by viewing movies! The world is a very different place from the world in which many teachers themselves were educated. Today’s students are very visual. They would benefit from a class in which they could hone their critical thinking skills using the visuals art form of film. I thought I could even assign a final project to the students in which they would read a book, see the film adaptation of that book, and write a comparative paper on the two. That should appease the folks that think reading is the only way to deliver a lesson. The other assignment options are limitless—persuasive papers, argumentative research papers, compare and contrast, reviews and analysis papers to name a few.
This project would be something I could actually use—first to convince my curriculum committee audience, and then to teach my classroom audience—my students.
Creativity and Community
Final Project Proposal
January 2007
Thinking in the Dark: How to Bring the Reluctant Learners
into the Creative Community
Ahhhhh. A snow day. A blessing for procrastinators all over the world. As I lounged around today in my old sweats and slippers, I thought about what my final project would look like for my Creativity and Community class. Erin Brady, my co-worker at Bishop Dwenger, is hoping to get a Writing Center up and running for our high-schoolers. As a member of the same English Department I am sure I will be required to help out with that venture, but I thought I might submit a more personal proposal for my own project.
The State of Indiana has a strict policy when it comes to English credits necessary for graduation. Every student MUST complete 8 semesters of some sort of English credits in order to be granted a diploma—including the basic, the Core 40, and the academic honors diplomas. This requirement is usually easily met with a variety of grammar, American and British Literature, speech, and writing classes. But for a small percentage of lower achieving students this requirement is a difficulty. Often these students will fail a required semester of American or British Lit.—leaving them with the only option but to “double-up” and take 2 English credits in one semester to fulfill the State’s regulations. Teaching a new kind of English class might attract this type of student and show them that writing can be fun!
Another goal that has been adopted by my high school is that of improving critical thinking skills in our students. The dictionary defines critical thinking as “the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.” I tried to come up with a plan that I could actually USE in the classroom to teach critical reading skills and to fulfill a required English credit for a diploma.
My project would entail a proposal made to the curriculum committee in my high school. I would like to offer a new class to all students—one that could even be taught in summer school sessions to help alleviate the stress of the “doubled-up” English semester that is a hard task for low achieving students. I would like to teach a Film Analysis class. This class would entail viewing of modern movies and writing a variety of papers about the camera work, acting choices, themes, and viewpoints of the films themselves. I would have to design an actual class syllabus – showing a proposed calendar of actual films viewed and the papers assigned and their due dates. I think an actual lesson plan would also be helpful to convince the curriculum committee of the validity of the Film Analysis class. These artifacts would be what I would complete and present in my Creativity and Community classroom also. I could even show a film clip and we could work on a bit of a lesson plan that I would actually teach in the class.
One of my main goals would be to convince my audience that many of life’s questions can be answered by viewing movies! The world is a very different place from the world in which many teachers themselves were educated. Today’s students are very visual. They would benefit from a class in which they could hone their critical thinking skills using the visuals art form of film. I thought I could even assign a final project to the students in which they would read a book, see the film adaptation of that book, and write a comparative paper on the two. That should appease the folks that think reading is the only way to deliver a lesson. The other assignment options are limitless—persuasive papers, argumentative research papers, compare and contrast, reviews and analysis papers to name a few.
This project would be something I could actually use—first to convince my curriculum committee audience, and then to teach my classroom audience—my students.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Constraints, Contexts, and Composing
Tick tock—it is 10:44 pm on Tuesday night and still no blog, forum post, or correct word count. When did writing become so constrained? Writing flowed much more freely when I was single, when I was a stay-at-home mom, when I was just a student. Now they expect me to TEACH also. Yuk. But now I do feel what it is like for my own students when I constrain them. I always thought they enjoyed it as much as me (okay—I enjoyed it a little more than they.) Students always complain about paper length—wait a minute—didn’t I just do the same? Anyway, to grant their wish I always give them a short assignment. Kids, remember that 2-3 page movie review that you just finished? Next, I want you to pretend you are writing for a newspaper entertainment section and I want you to distill ALL your movie opinions down to a single paragraph synopsis—that’s right—ONE paragraph. The class feels suddenly tricked.
I think that the Summerfields would call my above example an “enabling constraint.” I believe they would enjoy my creating an “artificial crisis” to “rouse the brain’s resources.” Condensing one’s writing into a short form is like writing poetry—you have to make every word count and learn to leave out the “extra” stuff. Erin already mentioned the six-word memoir we use to jump start our personal narrative assignment. (Note to self: In the future—Post before Erin.) She credited me, but I stole it from NPR (my husband’s a big fan.) The great example I use in class is Hemingway’s “For Sale, Baby shoes, never used.” Someone in my class wrote: “I found hypodermic needles and knew.” There’s always the “Too many books, too little time” example we all know and love. I enjoyed the article and the great ideas from the Summerfields. Constraints can be good. I just hope no one writes in my class about being devoured by a carnivorous teacher or dismembered and marked inefficient!
Oh, yeah. Dr. Welch and revision. Ahhhh. “Learning to teach means learning the uses of chaos.” AMEN.
I think that the Summerfields would call my above example an “enabling constraint.” I believe they would enjoy my creating an “artificial crisis” to “rouse the brain’s resources.” Condensing one’s writing into a short form is like writing poetry—you have to make every word count and learn to leave out the “extra” stuff. Erin already mentioned the six-word memoir we use to jump start our personal narrative assignment. (Note to self: In the future—Post before Erin.) She credited me, but I stole it from NPR (my husband’s a big fan.) The great example I use in class is Hemingway’s “For Sale, Baby shoes, never used.” Someone in my class wrote: “I found hypodermic needles and knew.” There’s always the “Too many books, too little time” example we all know and love. I enjoyed the article and the great ideas from the Summerfields. Constraints can be good. I just hope no one writes in my class about being devoured by a carnivorous teacher or dismembered and marked inefficient!
Oh, yeah. Dr. Welch and revision. Ahhhh. “Learning to teach means learning the uses of chaos.” AMEN.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
"In order to be creative, it seems that you must be slightly crazy."
Thank goodness for that quote by Temple Grandin in her book about autism and thinking ability—Thinking in Pictures. I was more that happy to find out the creative people—writers, artists and such—often suffer from depression and other emotional maladies. That explains it. When asked how they perceive my personality strength, many of my co-workers exclaimed of my constant cheer and good-naturedness. They didn’t know of my predilection for depressing music, books, and movies. They never saw that I have feelings of sadness more often that those of cheerfulness.
So, this morose character trait may be good for my creative writing. I do love the quote that the musician Sting used when speaking of writing songs. He paraphrased Jung by saying, “If you don’t have pain in your life, you had better find some.” It has always been easier for me to write when I was upset or sad. Sometimes I put on gloomy instrumentals, just to get me in the mood.
I also enjoyed Grandin’s anecdote about Einstein. He was a bad speller and had a poor memory for things that did not interest him. The author and I share some characteristics with Einstein—we both spend the weekends to wind down and wind up our creativity and writing—ALONE. I too spend the entire week in front of an audience—my classroom. This is where a blog or a forum can connect us back to our creativity community. When we are composing alone, it is good to check in with our peers in cyberspace—on our own terms and time. If we find it distracting, we can always turn the computer off!
So, this morose character trait may be good for my creative writing. I do love the quote that the musician Sting used when speaking of writing songs. He paraphrased Jung by saying, “If you don’t have pain in your life, you had better find some.” It has always been easier for me to write when I was upset or sad. Sometimes I put on gloomy instrumentals, just to get me in the mood.
I also enjoyed Grandin’s anecdote about Einstein. He was a bad speller and had a poor memory for things that did not interest him. The author and I share some characteristics with Einstein—we both spend the weekends to wind down and wind up our creativity and writing—ALONE. I too spend the entire week in front of an audience—my classroom. This is where a blog or a forum can connect us back to our creativity community. When we are composing alone, it is good to check in with our peers in cyberspace—on our own terms and time. If we find it distracting, we can always turn the computer off!
We are all in this together.
I find the whole idea of blogging a little familiar. Remember Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein. In those novels much of the exchange of ideas is done through letters. Captain Walton writes his sister after he rescues the waterlogged Victor Frankenstein in the Artic. Elizabeth Bennett writes her sisters and everyone else as she waits at home. Many great romances are based on epistolary relationships—writing letters back and forth. That is how I see blogging—just Victorian letters set in cyberspace. I jot a quick note to anyone who is listening and the reader responds. Is anyone listening?
As for our reading—especially that of Lewis Thomas as he explores the interconnectedness of cells and human beings. I have always felt connected to my fellow humans. In fact, that may be the only thing that I do well. Sometimes when I am meandering through the shopping mall (yuk) or the supermarket I get this overwhelming sense of warmth. I am on the verge of telepathy. I can “feel” my fellow shoppers and when I look into their faces I can almost make out what they are thinking. Certain people give out a “cheerless” vibe, and others make me feel uneasy. Most of the time I just feel kinship—that everyone is in the same boat. Lewis Thomas makes this same sort of point in his book Lives of a Cell.
We human beings are not separate entities. We are all functioning blocks of a bigger consciousness or community. Thomas makes this point by showing how our own bodies are made up of billions of tiny, microscopic bits and pieces that all do a routine job daily to keep us eating, drinking, breathing. To think of ourselves that way will help us to accept that we are all part of a bigger community of interconnected human beings.
As for our reading—especially that of Lewis Thomas as he explores the interconnectedness of cells and human beings. I have always felt connected to my fellow humans. In fact, that may be the only thing that I do well. Sometimes when I am meandering through the shopping mall (yuk) or the supermarket I get this overwhelming sense of warmth. I am on the verge of telepathy. I can “feel” my fellow shoppers and when I look into their faces I can almost make out what they are thinking. Certain people give out a “cheerless” vibe, and others make me feel uneasy. Most of the time I just feel kinship—that everyone is in the same boat. Lewis Thomas makes this same sort of point in his book Lives of a Cell.
We human beings are not separate entities. We are all functioning blocks of a bigger consciousness or community. Thomas makes this point by showing how our own bodies are made up of billions of tiny, microscopic bits and pieces that all do a routine job daily to keep us eating, drinking, breathing. To think of ourselves that way will help us to accept that we are all part of a bigger community of interconnected human beings.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
The beginning
This is only the beginning. Due to an assignment in a graduate CREATIVITY class (that's correct), I am now a blogger. But not to worry--"Come what, come may, Time runs through the roughest day." --Macbeth
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