teaching journal

gettin' grown

2006-04-05T05:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Prof. Greer:

I loved both Color Blind and Gettin' Grown! Thank you so much for bringing your work to Alabama A&M University and for spending so much time discussing your ideas and experience.

OK, why did I like Gettin' Grown? Very sensitive character portrayal. That is, even for the characters who appeared on the screen for a short period of time (the gangly kid who says he can't go to the drugstore with Eric, the neighbor who asks Eric to fill her prescription -- which ended up being birth control pills? a diaphragm?, the male owner of the drugstore), I had an instantaneous sense of who they were. I'm not articulating this well. That is, each character seemed full, even when we only saw him/her for a short bit, and even if s/he presented a short part of the narrative.

The main characters were only more so deeply and complexly portrayed. The sick grandmother who fights for control overtly (contradicting daughter's methods of childraising) and covertly (getting Eric to buy her candy); the mom who wants to help her boy grow up and protect him at the same time; the father who wakes his son in the middle of the night and then commiserates over the conniving uncle.
I love this later scene with the father, who is so dedicated to his kid that he takes him in the middle of the night to Walgreen's so the son can successfully complete his task -- both parents teach Eric about consequences and accountability with a huge amount of love. I loved the ending, too, when Eric's mom says, "Now make a big wish and blow out the candles," and Eric does just that. I'm left with a sense of expectancy, wondering what Eric has wished for and knowing somehow that his future challenges may be equally difficult, equally dangerous, but also fully supported through his family. I want to know Eric when he gets older, want to know how he turns out.

And that's one reason I'm happy about your revision and eager to see what you've done with the addition of a present frame for the current film, which becomes a flashback. I'm also curious about the choice of snow for the frame of the revision. I'm already seeing a huge visual contrast between frame/present and flashback. And I wondered about Eric's name, too. He chooses to give up the remote-contolled car and claims the 76ers jersey with his name, "Snow," written on the back. His uncle mentions something about "snow" as Eric approaches him outside the bar.

I also loved the portrayal of extended loving family in Eric's home. That kitchen was a powerful place.

Sincerely,

Sandra Shattuck

douglass research

2006-03-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

I'm going to gloat a bit about finishing my blog assignment the same day I assigned it. Here's my question: Who was Douglass' second wife, who was white?
Answer: Helen Pitts
Research path: google - typed in "frederick douglass" and "second wife" -- perhaps the most informative link was the one from the Mt. Hope cemetery in Rochester NY, where Douglass and his first wife, Anna Murray, and his second wife, Helen Pitts, are buried. Then I typed in "helen pitts," and wow, did I find out a lot of stuff. Let's see if I can summarize.

Turns out Douglass had several affairs. The first was with Julia Griffith, a British abolitionist who lived in the Douglass household in Rochester tutoring the children and acting as Douglass' manager and secretary for work on the newspaper, the Northern Star. Griffith eventually moves out to decrease negative publicity for Douglass. A lot of the information on Griffith I got from this Timeline of Frederick Douglass and Family.

Then, Douglass has this 28-yr. affair with a German-Jewish journalist, Ottilie Assing, who was from Hamburg and visited Douglass to interview him. She translated some of his work and spent each summer for 22 years at the Douglass' household. She also tutored Douglass' children, taught Douglass German, and got him to read Feuerbach so that Douglass would become more of an atheist. Much of the material about Ottilie Assing came out in 1999 with Maria Diedrich's publication of her book, Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass. I like this review of the book by Christopher Irmscher. Assing wrote the introduction to her German translation of the Narrative, and I would love to be able to read that but am having a hard time finding it. At any rate, Ottilie belittled Anna Murray Douglass, who remained illiterate all her life in spite of reading lessons. As Douglass became more famous and more educated, Anna seems to have faded more and more into the background. She and Douglass had five children. I keep wanting to hear Anna's story, but she hasn't left us a written record of her experiences. Someone I read suggested (I think it's in the review above), that Anna's illiteracy was a conscious choice on her part, perhaps partially because Douglass' increasing knowledge seemed to take him closer to white western culture and farther from southern African(American) culture.

Douglass' and Assing's relationship started to cool off, at least on Douglass' part. After Anna Murray died, Douglass married Helen Pitts, an abolitionist and suffragist twenty years younger than Douglass (Helen was also his secretary). Ottilie Assing was convinced that Douglass would eventually marry her. A few months after finding out about Douglass' marriage to Helen Pitts, Assing committed suicide. She had also found out she had breast cancer. Apparently she left her $13,000 estate to Douglass, and the money was to be paid out over many years. Hmmm.

Pitts parents, who were both abolitionists, were not pleased with her daughter's marriage, just as Douglass' children were upset. On Douglass' death in 1895, Helen Pitts wanted their home in Washington D.C. to be declared an historical monument, but Douglass' heirs wanted the home sold and the proceeds divided up. Helen Pitts worked hard to ensure the house remained a public site and the home is now maintained as part of the National Parks system.

Finally, I found out that Jewell Parker Rhodes has written a novel called Douglass' Women, published in 2003, which is about Anna Murray Douglass and Ottilie Assing. Guess I've got another novel to read soon!

I have to admit that my admiration of Douglass has been roughed up a bit. I want to say, "Typical man!" And I really want Anna's story.

such writing!

2006-02-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

I kept writing "Wow!" at the start of a lot of my commments, because I kept reading really creative pieces of writing. I wish Baldwin were still alive so we could send these pieces to him. I bet he would love it! In her What I Learned posting, Traci said that most of the stories provided some kind of closure, which everybody seemed to want. I agree. And although the happy endings probably outnumbered the disastrous endings, most of the pieces were equally believable. Thanks to all the writers who created more poetic blues!

a younger brother's journal

2006-02-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

Today my Uncle Sonny probably saved my life. I've been off drugs for two weeks after overdosing and almost killing myself. I'm eighteen years old and living back at home after getting out of the hospital. And today my dad just drove me crazy. He keeps asking me where I've been, if I'm clean. And even though he doesn't say it directly, I know he compares me to my older brother, Keith, because Keith is in college and has never had any drugs that I know of. I know Dad and Mom are worried about me, but Mom talks to me. Dad just gives me his evil eye and I don't feel I can tell him anything.

Then Sonny came over for dinner with Aunt Faye and my little cousins, DeAndra and Charlie. I guess Sonny knew I was having a rough time, because all through dinner he kept looking at me. After dinner, he just said, real casual like, "Bobby and me, we're just gonna take a little walk. Faye, baby, you go on home. I'll be there soon."

Uncle Sonny just put on his coat and acted like I had agreed all along to this walk. So I put on my coat and we got outside. It was cold! Just breathing hurt my throat, but Uncle Sonny said, "We'll walk a bit brisk now, and you'll warm up quick."

The next thing I know, Uncle Sonny's telling me about my grandpa and my grandpa's brother. He tells me how his dad tried to take care of his little brother, but the brother was murdered one night when they were out drinking. Uncle Sonny said his dad was never right after that, and he drank a lot. Just to try and forget. Sonny said he only learned about his uncle after my dad told him when Sonny got out of jail. He said that my grandma told my dad this story so he would take care of Sonny. Sonny said my dad felt responsible for Sonny getting into trouble with drugs. But my uncle looked me straight in the eye holding onto my shoulders and said, "We both know that no one pours that alcohol down our throats or shoots that junk in our veins. We do that all ourselves." He also said that no amount of any kind of drugs can ever make us forget. Just like even when I got high, I'd still think of my baby sister Gracie and how she shouldn't have died like that. I still miss her funny squeaky laugh.

That night I had it all planned out how I was going over to one of my old connection's place. I was so mad at my father and his high and mighty ways and how he compares me to Keith, even when he doesn't mean to. I just wish he'd listen to me sometime. So I guess Uncle Sonny saved my life tonight. If I had got ahold of some stuff, no telling if I'd be alive to write this. My Uncle Sonny has been clean and sober for eleven years and he was on heroin. He's been going to these group meetings and he says it's what saved him. I'm going tomorrow night with him. I'm scared. But Uncle Sonny will be with me.

more "Sonny's Blues"

2006-01-26T04:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday we had a fantastic discussion using the agenda method originated by my undergraduate literature professor. It's pretty simple but effective...if folks read. Everyone comes in and makes comments, offers questions on the reading and I write all the stuff like a fiend on the board. Then the readers choose which items to discuss and we're off.

I keep saying in class that I've read this story a gazillion times and I still learn something new each time. Tuesday, that happened again when I learned two things I'd never noticed before. Readers said that not only does the narrator remain nameless but all the male characters are unnamed, except for Sonny and Creole. So we made a list. And the only characters who are named are Sonny, Creole, Isabel, and Gracie. Everybody else is nameless. Why?

The other observation was that every time characters in the story are having a deep conversation or revelation, they're looking out the window. And it's true! The narrator is looking out the subway windows when he reads about Sonny at the start; the folks on Sundays look outside at the darkness they see; the narrator and Sonny look out the window when they have their first honest talk about Sonny's drug use...but the huge scene at the end when the narrator listens to Sonny play, there is no looking-out-of-windows. Does that mean we need to look inward...or look AND listen to others for the answers we need?

When we were talking about Baldwin's use of dark and light imagery, someone said, "That's too deep," and it wasn't a good kind of "deep." You know, when someone says, "Wow, that's deep," and you both marvel at the complexity of something. This was more like, "That's just too much thought about all that." And I remember when I was first studying literature, I used to complain in class that analyzing just ripped apart the piece, took away its art, somehow...as if to respect a piece of artwork, one just has to experience it, not analyze it. Something must have changed because today I make my living studying literature. Today, I think that studying literature just means creating new stories. We make up stories about the stories. And we do that so we can make the story we read ours in meaningful ways.

"Sonny's Blues"

2006-01-23T16:18:00.000-08:00

I wonder if I'll ever get tired of teaching this story, reading it with others? I'm tired right now cuz I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm not thinking too creatively. I think Baldwin was ahead of his time in describing family dynamics of addiction, for instance. "Sonny's Blues" was published in 1957 (just two years after Alcoholics Anonymous started up) when there was so much less known about addiction and significantly fewer treatment options were available. As we say in AA, an addict who keeps on using has one of three places she or he can end up: jail, insane asylum, or grave. Not much of a choice, eh? So it's nothing short of heroic that Sonny shows up every day and doesn't take that hit of heroin. And that's what Sonny himself says when he and his brother have that first honest conversation about drugs, when Sonny gets out of jail and the brother thinks of searching Sonny's room for drugs. Sonny has just come back to the apartment after listening to the street revival, and he tells his brother that listening to the woman's voice on the corner felt something like heroin. Sonny talked about needing to be in control and the brother asked Sonny if that's what Sonny needed...to be in control when he played piano. Sonny replied that "they think so," that others believed they needed drugs to play the music. The narrator asks Sonny what Sonny believes and Sonny replies, "It's not so much to play. It's to stand it, to be able to make it at all. On any level....In order to keep from shaking to pieces" (2007).

I think my favorite part is when the brothers are discussing Sonny's desire to play music and the narrator keeps pushing Sonny to do the supposedly responsible thing and get a real job ("Can you make a living at it?") and Sonny says, "...sure, I can make a living at it. But what I don't seem to be able to make you understand is that it's the only thing I want to do." The narrator replies, "...you know people can't always do what they want to do --" and Sonny says, "No, I don't know that...I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?" (2001) I think the brothers represent the struggle of any artist: how do you pay the bills and still create, still follow your passion if your art isn't what pays the rent and puts food on the table?

Spring 2006-introduction

2006-01-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

Hey - my name is Dr. Shattuck, and I'll be your co-pilot for this flight. Since we have approximately forty co-pilots in this class, we should be able to get to wherever we wanna go. English teachers are not supposed to write "wanna," but I like to write that word when I feel like it, because it sounds right. Ya know?

How else should I introduce myself? I'm fifty-one years old. Yup. Got a thirteen-year-old son. I'm a single mom. I love teaching, reading, writing. My son says I'm a geek. In eighth grade, I was voted one of the most popular, so I can't be too much of a geek. Geekiness is good, though. What else? That's enough. I'm looking forward to reading your blogs this semester!

Black Poetry Day

2005-10-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

Friday, 21 Oct., 8pm, Engineering Building auditorium

Whale Talk

2005-09-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

I'm getting angrier and angrier about the banning of Whale Talk in Limestone County. While I was researching banned book stuff yesterday, I read an article online in the Decatur Daily called Forbidden reading - Limestone County, like nation, seeing trend of book challenges. In March, 2005, Limestone County Board of Education banned the book from its libraries after a challenge was filed in November, 2004 by Christi Brooks, a parent at Ardmore High School.

I also printed out Chris Crutcher's letter To the Citizens of Limestone School District, and to the Board of Education, in which he talks about his books and others as a means to help kids sitting in the classroom. He says, "I worked full time as a therapist in the world of child abuse and neglect for fifteen years, and continue to do pro-bono work even today. I hear stories like these [like Heidi's story in Whale Talk] and stories far worse on a regular basis. I am struck by the fact that the kids I hear them from, populate our classroom. They do not tell their stories because many of them feel shame because they are treated that way, and they hold the secret; the only real power thay have over their situations." His books (and books by many other young adult writers like Judy Blume and Walter Dean Myers and Sharon Draper) are about reaching out to readers who often have little or not support in their own lives.

I'm not sure I'm making much sense, but I'm upset about the banning of Whale Talk, because I got it out of the library yesterday afternoon and read it. I already knew which passage supposedly caused the banning, so it was weird to read the novel up to pp. 68-69 and then read this one scene taken out of context. The scene in context is a powerful statement of how racism kills. I mean, there's this little girl - 4 1/2 yrs. old - whose mom is white and whose dad, a paralyzed football player who left Alicia and their daughter Felicia, is African American. The widowed mom then marries a racist character, and they have twin boys. The stepdad, Rich, changes Felicia's name to Heidi, because "it was the 'whitest' name Rich could think of."

Felicia/Heidi is in a therapy session with Georgia when the main character of Whale Talk, T.J. Jones, arrives at Georgia's home. T.J. is multiracial (Japanese-, African- and European- American) and adopted. He also went to Georgia for therapy when he was much younger. As T.J. enters Georgia's home, she asks him to into the therapy session and Felicia/Heidi decides that T.J. must play the bad dad role. Felicia/Heidi, the 4 1/2 year old, is the one who yells the racist obscenities that got the book banned -- but she's repeating the abuse her racist stepdad heaped on her.

Now, no question Whale Talk is about race. But the novel is complex: it's about outsiders, left-out kids, arrogance of pampered jocks, long-term atonement for accidental sins. Lots of meaty stuff going on in the novel. Whale Talk gets banned because of racism...but what does that mean? Racist language is used to depict how racist beliefs maim others. The novel is fiercely anti-racist. So why does it get banned? I wonder if most of the novels banned on the basis of race actually are anti-racist books and the folks who challenged them actually were against the anti-racist stance and hid behind the offensive language as a way to get the books off the shelves. I mean, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou all have books on the banned books list.

I've written enough. The Decatur Daily article said that when Limestone County banned Whale Talk, Crutcher donated five copies of his novel to the Athens-Limestone Public Library. So Limestone County schools might not have this excellent novel on its shelves, but readers can still find the book in the public library.

today's class

2005-09-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

We didn't do any of the things I planned for class. That's actually great, because everyone in class knew what they wanted to do, which was to just talk about the first six chapters. We got into a discussion about whether or not Benjie should have been more respectful towards Butler Craig by now, until someone who had read ahead said Butler had only been living with them for one year. I guess it pays to read ahead, eh? We started out talking about how the book is relevant and then we were off and running from there!

blog assignment #1

2005-08-30T07:35:00.000-08:00

I love A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich! I've taught the book once or twice in African American literature classes at the University of Southern Mississippi, but it's been a long while. I also think Alice Childress is one of those under-appreciated authors. But what I like most about the beginning of A Hero is how easily I can identify with two really different characters - Benjie and Butler. Both of their voices catch at me and I can see where each of them is coming from.

Welcome!

2005-08-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome to blogging in World Literature II! Use this space to let your creativity sing...or dance...or speechify...or draw...whatever moves you. Let us know what you think. Write! Read! Think! Enjoy!

bleep eeek aaarrrpp

2005-03-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

The title of my post reflects my thoughts as I realized I have only written ONE post for this semester. Horrors...big blogging horrors. Can't seem to do everything in the class I want to do. If I focus on grading quizes and exams, I neglect blogs. If I work on blogs, I neglect the other stuff.

Today we did the "When I think of Africa, I think of..." freewriting in preparation for discussing Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The TTh class has four African students (three from Zimbabwe, who speak Shona; and one from Nigeria, who speaks Yoruba). Shingi, Batsi, and Charlene all wrote at some point, "When I think of Africa, I think of home." Well, actually, Shingi's was shorter. He said, "When I think of Africa, I wonder what I'm doing here."

I wish we could do an entire African literature class instead of just one novel.

Welcome to blogging!!!

2005-01-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to blogging in World Literature! You are about to embark on a bold and wonderful enterprise. I hope you enjoy your blogging experience.

OK, a real post. What do I want to say? No clue. We had a great discussion in the Thursday class today, I think. Shingirayi asked this really interesting question: "If the boys in the movie theater are watching glamorous movies, which blind them to the conditions of their own lives, then why are they full of rage?" (He was referring to the fifth paragraph of "Sonny's Blues.") Several people spoke up and talked about the discrepancy between the glamour shown in films and the reality of their lives -- so you sit in a theater, watch an illusion of wealth, go outside, and hit that "low ceiling of actual possibilities" -- thus the rage. Another student (I think Jessica?) had read that paragraph in a really interesting way. She said that the darkness of the movies showed violence and addiction, and the boys' lives were filled with violence and addiction, so there was no difference, and that's why the darkness of the movies blinded the boys to the darkness of their lives. I think. Then we talked about placing the literature in context and how Jessica's (I hope it was Jessica...I haven't learned names yet) reading would be perfect today but wouldn't necessarily fit the 1950s, when the subject of movies was quite different. I always think of Richard Wright's Native Son and his powerful portrayal of the disjuncture between the illusion in movies and the reality of living conditions outside the movie theater.

Oh, also a lot of folks like the vocabulary idea. So we're doing that this semester. I've got to figure out where to put that stuff on the website. Any ideas?

commenting on poetry

2004-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

We are poems who have 0 (count 'em, 0) comments and we need to be read! Please read us and comment! [here follows a list of poems with author names and links to blogs - but I'm deleting that list now cuz y'all did a great job of commenting]

blog evaluation - help?

2004-11-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

We're at the end of the semester with no more blog assignments pretty much. When we get back from Thanksgiving break, I want to give an evaluation sheet on blogs to everyone. I'm working on an academic paper that looks at how the use of blogs in the classroom helps student writing/thinking, but I'm also focusing on how blogging has affected my own teaching and writing. I'm constructing the evaluation now, and I'd love some help. I want the evaluation to be narrative...so I'm looking to solicit some writing from each of you about your experience with blogs this semester. Are there any questions you think I should ask? Any information I should try to get? Any ideas at all?
Your insights and creative thinking would be hugely appreciated.

203 magnetic poetry

2004-11-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what this means (maybe a little) and I'm a little bit embarassed to put it up -- don't know why. But here goes (I used the Artist kit):

every hard green scream
balances each free passion
rhythm & imagination
electric metaphor
one write
a shard
a symbol
our picture
wild raw sometimes mean
experiment with harmony
feel how we paint music
a little masterpiece
common and alive

whazup?

2004-11-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

ok, i haven't blogged for a bit. ok, last update says 9 nov. -- that's a week ago. i have nothing to blog about. do i? i like writing without capital letters. i wonder why? i wonder why it looks fine on a blog but not in my journal? hmmm. now i'm just blathering to blather. is blather really a verb? noun? i'll have to check the dictionary. how's the blogging going, y'all?

203-Everyman

2004-11-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

We're finishing up Everyman and trying to figure out how to transpose this play written around 1475 into 2004 and A&M University. Someone in the 10 o'clock class suggested that The Summoning of Everyman could be translated into Bring Yo' Ass EveryA&Mstudent!, which I think catches the meaning pretty well. Someone else suggested that the event that wakes up Everystudent is to be expelled. I asked folks to identify the problem for the A&M revision (in Everyman the problem is that God is upset with humans because they've forgotten the spiritual and focus on worldly goods) -- so what's the problem for Everystudent? forgotten they're here for learning not grades? forgotten they're here for grades not partying? The solution in Everyman is that God sends Death to Everyman, who is informed he has to die pretty soon, but he does get to take a quick pilgrimage first. If the solution for Everystudent is to get expelled but to go on a pilgrimage first, what does the pilgrimage look like? I'll be interested to see what folks come up with on Wednesday.

204-Achebe

2004-11-09T00:50:00.000-08:00

We started one of my favorite books today -- Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. We did the freewrite I usually do to start off our discussion: "When I think of Africa, I think of...." There were about thirty-three of us in the room and only one person had been to Africa -- one student went with her chorus for three weeks to Accra, Ghana. She said it was nothing like she expected, and she admitted that she expected the stereotypes that mainstream U.S. TV has miseducated us to believe.

creative minds

2004-10-21T19:21:00.000-08:00

I thought the 204 class came up with some really deep questions about the Narrative. We talked a bit about LaChandria's question - what would have happened if Mrs. Auld had continued to teach Douglass? - and about Thelma's question - why does slavery exist? We also talked about what motivated Douglass, what kept him going, whether he got to a place where he didn't feel that despair he describes...the pain of knowledge. Would be amazing to have a whole course just on Douglass ... he wrote and acted at such a crucial time, and he left so much for us to read and ponder.

203 rubric/peer review process

2004-10-17T02:12:00.000-08:00

OK, I know that a good number of students really don't like doing the peer review or using the rubric. Someone said that students shouldn't have anything to do with grading papers and that I should be the only one responsible. I don't know if I can address all that right now, but I need to do the blog assignment for this week -- let's see if I can just comment on the rubric and the peer review process: what do I like and dislike?

I really like that the rubric is a teaching/learning tool, not just a place to record a grade. But I'm not sure the rubric is really working. I'm not sure the categories are effective. That's one reason for this blog assignment -- I need to know what's working and not working with the rubric. I guess it's not so much the categories but the different criteria under each category that I wonder about. For instance, I've got mechanics as the last category and then I've got a list of things like comma splice, fragments, tense ... many reviewers just highlight the whole box, so I have a sense that this box may not be really helpful. There are other things that I comment on papers, like "introduce quotations" ... and there's nothing on the rubric on how to use supporting evidence from the text.

It's so quiet in class when we do the peer reviews, which is pretty cool, because it means reviewers are paying attention to their peers' writing. I like that students look at each other's papers first. I really think that writers are more conscious of a broader audience and their writing improves. I dunno...it's one thing to write an essay exam for the teacher; it's quite another to write an essay exam when you know the first reader will be one of your peers. What's the shift? Writers are more concerned about their writing when peers read it; writers are more concerned with grades when the teacher reads it. That's what I think. I'm hoping y'all will enlighten me if you agree or disagree.

I still don't think the rubric and peer review process are helping writers to really focus on their strengths and challenges. For instance, when the writers respond to the peer review, most writers seem to try to get through this part as quickly as possible. I don't think writers really look at the highlighted sections on the rubric and think about whether or not they agree with the reviewer. I think writers tend to read reviewers' comments and respond to those. Does that mean that a more effective rubric would be a letter? more writing by the reviewer? Again, these are all questions I can only answer with a lot of input by the writers in class.

204 questions on Douglass

2004-10-17T02:09:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to know more about Douglass as a newspaper editor/founder/writer. I'd like to read those papers and get a better sense of him as a writer/thinker when he was older. I also know that he supported women's rights and that he influenced law. I'd like to know more about both these areas.

204 today

2004-10-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

We had another good discussion today. Lots of keen thinkers in class. Jeffrey asked this intriguing question when we were talking about the incident Douglass describes in which Colonel Lloyd is riding somewhere in the woods and sees a man walking. Col. Lloyd stops the man and asks him who his master is. The man replies, "Colonel Lloyd." Never disclosing his own identity, Lloyd then asks the man if Colonel Lloyd treats him well. The man says they work too hard, and for that impertinence, he is yanked off the land in two weeks and sold off to a trader in Georgia. Jeffrey's question: Why would Colonel Lloyd care at all what his slave thought of him as a slaveowner? Good question.

Really made me think about the perversity of slavery. I mean, here's Colonel Lloyd, supposedly a god-fearing man, and he has no trouble lying to others, beating them, selling them off. He wants his slaves to think well of him, but if they don't...he sells them. Utter capriciousness and evil of power. What does it mean to be a "good" slaveowner? That's the kind of perversity I'm talking about. That even such a question (What is a good slaveowner?) can exist.

blog glitch & Antigone readings

2004-10-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

The links to student blogs on the right of my page stop right after Melony H.'s blog, and then there's a huge gap you have to scroll through until you get to the rest of the blogs. I checked my template and everything seems ok. Chris volunteered at 10 o'clock to take a look at the code and he couldn't find anything. Dunno what's up. [Looks like everything's working ok now. There was a weird glitch with the tag for the Mobile Register link. Don't know if that was affecting the sidebar somehow.]

Two interesting readings of Antigone. First of all, someone mentioned that Creon did not follow Tiresias' suggestion of going to the vault and freeing Antigone first, then burying Polynices. As someone else said, Creon was bullheaded again and buried the body first, then went to the vault...and it was too late. The other interpretation came with these lines of the Leader: "The king himself! Coming toward us, / look, holding the boy's head in his hands. / Clear, damning proof, if it's right to say so -- / proof of his own madness; none else's, / no, his own blind wrongs." Some read this to mean that Creon carried Haemon's head in his hands and that proved Creon's madness. Someone else had seen a movie of Antigone and said that Creon just held Haemon's head while Haemon was on the bier. I'd never thought of these two readings. This is when I'd love to know the original language and see the original script. Otherwise, interpretation is up for grabs -- dependent on the translator's skill and the reader's insight.

what i forgot [read repressed, blocked out] about class

2004-10-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Fascinating that I completely blocked out one thing we talked about in class during our Douglass discussion. A student mentioned that recently in Mobile, a young African American man was found hung -- supposed suicide, but a possible lynching or "hate crime," as the paper calls it. I mentioned that the height of lynchings was late 1800s to early 1900s and that it's still happening a century later. When I wrote about class later on in this blog, I completely blanked out on this part -- most of us would rather not remember the things we'd prefer to forget. But memory won't be quieted. I wish the world were a better place. I wish we were better beings. But that doesn't mean I get to rearrange reality.

I just googled "lynching Mobile" and got a lot of hits on history. Then I googled "suicide hanging Mobile" and got this link from the Mobile Register. 15-year old Woodrow Riley is the name of the deceased.

204 discussion - Douglass

2004-10-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday we had a great discussion on the first two chapters of Douglass' Narrative. We used the SmartBoard in Library 118 to pull up some blog entries and to see if others related to the writers' thoughts. Thelma was a bit resistant ("I didn't know I'd have to show the whole class...") but volunteered to go first anyway. We ended up talking about Toni Morrison's Beloved (great continuum...Douglass to Morrison) and about how we might have acted in Douglass' place. The only light in the room came from the SmartBoard...I wonder not having bright overhead fluorescent lights made it easier for some folks to speak out...?

questioning the teach

2004-09-27T14:31:00.000-08:00

In my 10 o'clock class, Tony rolled his eyes when he heard my description of the blog assignment for this week. (Lots of students don't think teachers really see them....) So I asked if he thought the assignment was kinda stupid. He was very brave and said yes. Then I broke it down -- and the assignment made sense to him. Unless he was just being nice and trying to get me to be quiet. But my point is...most students don't ask the question in the first place. Why? Because they often are not encouraged to ask the question, because they're sometimes shot down when they ask a question. Anyway, I figure this is a collective enterprise, this teaching/learning thing. If the purpose of an assignment isn't clear, always ask me...say something...I know I do assignments much more willingly or with some kind of interest if I know the assignment has a reason, a purpose...there's some kind of pedagogical thought behind the thing...not busy work, not regurgitation.

inquiring teachers want to know...

2004-09-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

I've been teaching a long time, but I'm noticing a shift in my practice. A lot of it has to do with participating in the AAMU Writing Project in June 2003. But I'm focusing more on my feelings and experience as teacher. Let's see if I can explain this better. For instance, I believe that grades hinder students' learning. Now, how can I really deal with that in a system that requires me to grade. Well, let's take the in-class essay exam for 203 & 204. Until this semester, this is how I structured assignment:

pass out format & discuss

thesis workshop

students write essay in class and hand in

I read essays, highlight rubric, add comments, give grade

if students want to revise, they meet with me

students write summary of conference, revise paper, write summary of what they did to revise & hand it all in along with original paper and rubric

I read revision, conference & revision summary, and mark rubric with a different colored highlighter & assign new grade

What's wrong with this picture? Writing a summary of how one has revised helps to focus attention on revision process but only after the revision is done.

This is how I'm revising the in-class essay assignment:

same as steps 1-3 above

I check off that essays have been done and staple rubric but don't look at essays

hand essays out in class for peer review
1. reviewers scan paper & highlight 3 sentences on writer's paper: thesis, reason 1, reason 2
2. reviewers read more carefully and highlight rubric
3. reviewers write additional comments & return to writer
4. writer & reviewer can discuss review
5. writer responds to reviewer's comments in writing and turns in

I take essays home and read essay, read rubric and peer reviewer's comments, comment on all of that and add my own highlight on rubric

return essays & students read all comments & write a revision plan

I collect essays again, comment on revision plan, return papers

writers revise, hand in, I highlight rubric, assign grade, return

BIG risk

2004-09-25T06:44:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning thinking about class and all this non-grading and revision stuff. That means I am either a dedicated teacher or I'm a workaholic or I have no life besides work and parenting or maybe a bit of all of the above. Teaching is an art. Creativity comes at odd moments. Let's leave it at that.

OK, with each word I write, I'm conscious that my readers are primarily my students. Here's the BIG risk: while thinking about setting up this teaching journal, I keep assuming that I'll have this space -- which is ok for students to read -- and then I'll have another space -- where I can really talk about everything. I'm afraid that if I'm honest about my teaching practice then I might reveal too much, or I might offend readers/students. But I think I need to take the BIG risk of being honest right here. No other secret teaching journal. This is it. Here is where I write about teaching.

I'm also afraid that students will give up on reading my postings...because I tend to write a lot. Blogging stimulates my thoughts, increases my writing. Oh well... that's how I write. And I want to be as honest about my writing as I am about my teaching.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR BLOG

2004-09-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

OK, I just set up a blog for my son...hope he's ok with that...cuz I wanted to see what each page looked like so I can give better directions. I'll go ahead and post the new directions to our class website, but it might not hurt to include here:

GO TO WWW.BLOGGER.COM AND CLICK ON THE ORANGE ARROW AT THE BOTTOM THAT SAYS CREATE YOUR BLOG NOW

1) CREATE AN ACCOUNT

choose a user name -- this is the name you'll use to login to Blogger. Your user name can be anything you want -- just make it something you can remember easily.

enter password -- make up your own password

retype password -- you know the drill

display name -- name you want to use to sign your posts

email address

click the box next to "I accept the Terms of Service."

click the orange arrow that says Continue

2) NAME YOUR BLOG

Blog title -- think of something that expresses you; what do you want your webspace to be called?

Blog address (URL) - this is how readers will find you on the internet. This line shows "http://___________.blogspot.com" and you need to fill in the box. Again, pick something that expresses you (it can be the same as your blog title, your username, or something completely different).

IGNORE the "Advanced Setup" and click on the orange Continue arrow at the bottom

3)CHOOSE A TEMPLATE

you'll see about six different boxes -- choose the template you like and click in the circle at the bottom of the box (you'll have more choices once you get started)

click on the orange Continue arrow at the bottom

and VOILÀ, you have a blog!

Blogger's new look

2004-09-23T05:41:00.000-08:00

I like Blogger's new interface a lot. The dashboard is a great idea...the concept of a dashboard as opposed to a menu. Blogging as driving? Hmm...But the new look is cleaner, less cluttered, much easier to navigate, more fun. The icons are cartoony, the reliance on the tan color instead of so much orange, fewer buttons to choose from, buttons are positioned clearly and easy to find and use.

I really hate to ask students to forget about Tabulas and start using Blogger, but Tabulas was just not working out. I chose Tabulas because of the community feature...seemed a lot easier to create a multi-authored blog. But as far as I can tell, Tabulas is run by one person, and I think the system just needs more personnel. The main problem was that students kept getting error messages even when they'd gotten correct user id and password. I also wished there had been more templates. Ah, well. Let's see what happens with Blogger.

no grades

2004-09-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

handed back essay with no grades...asked students to write about their reactions. will be interesting. there's got to be a better adjective for the turmoil, the possibility....

Let me back up a bit. It's now close to 12pm and my 11 o'clock class has just left. I've gotta jet in a second to go help celebrate the induction of new Sigma Tau Delta members (the English Honor Society) which is around the corner in the 1st-floor conference room of the library. But right now, I'm still in room 118 with the SmartBoard, using the thing as my personal computer. I find I usually post more insightful stuff if I post right after class. The stuff at the top of this posting I wrote during my 10 o'clock class when I was setting up this blog. I don't like the title of my blog, but I haven't been able to come up with anything different yet.

I believe that grades hinder learning... that is, students get back papers and immediately flip to the grade. Once they've seen the grade, any learning that might have taken place gets thrown aside as the student wonders what s/he did to get the teacher upset, pleased, indifferent...the focus is on the teacher and what the teacher wants. The focus remains outside the student, not where it needs to be...squarely placed on the student's own perceptions of what & how s/he has learned and will continue to learn.

I'm frustrated with my writing right now. Feels so dry. And I'm talking about exciting stuff. Not much more exciting than learning something. I didn't say learning was always a skip along the beach. Learning also happens through fiercely painful experiences. But learning itself defines us. How do we approach learning? Fearfully, arrogantly, contritely, with a sense of discovery and wonder and gratitude?

My job as a teacher is to help students learn. What does that mean? It means I get creative, get my hands messy, figure out how to get out of the way so students can get in the way...of their own ideas, collaborations, passions. Not an easy thing to do. Especially not when the institutional weight of education tends towards traditional models that judge students according to numbers, that allow abusive teachers who discourage and belittle students, that assumes knowledge is something to be consumed and regurgitated. "To study is not to consume ideas but to create and re-create them" - Paulo Freire. That's what a teacher does: creates an environment where we all create and re-create ideas. Better get off my soapbox and go visit the party. I'll be back.