What It Feels Like to Be A Teacher

I’m taking a break from the Blog Every Day in May prompts today because I am f-uh-reaking out about finishing my dissertation prospectus while preparing to start teaching a new course on Tuesday.

I feel like the following clip illustrates the highs and lows of teaching kind of perfectly. Plus….Zooey Deschanel. Incidentally, this is from my favorite, favorite episode of New Girl, “Pepperwood.”

love, elizabeth

My office on campus

You guys, it's like the 21st century in here. Today I am blogging for the first time on my beautiful new iPad. I'm still waiting for the novelty of the touch screen to go away but I get it now. I totally get how someone could get sucked into the Internet by way of Apple technology. This is the view from my window. The theater looks out over the Olentangy River. I think we're pretty spoiled to have a window to the outside world and I'm looking forward to watching the seasons change from up here.

And thanks to Steve Jobs I can show you my office with the camera. The one built into my iPad! Dudes, my minds is blown right now.

So here's my office. I share it with other people but this is my little corner of solace at school. That's Gonga on the desk. He belonged to my mom when she was in the Navy and now he's my little reminder of home. He spends most of his time watching over my pencils.

It's Friday and that means my office hours are almost up and then I'll be heading out for a drink with some of my friends. What does Friday mean for you?

Love, Elizabeth

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no one is tiny

The other day I had an encounter with a younger student in my department. When she realized that the group of people around her were all PhD students, she looked embarrassed and immediately blurted out, “I feel so tiny. I’m just an undergrad.” It was a little moment but it touched me and it’s been lodged in my brain ever since.

I immediately blurted something back that made my friends at the table laugh and start teasing me about sounding like a greeting card.

“No one is tiny,” I said. “We’re all on a journey.”

And okay…yeah…Hallmark should just start paying me now. But I totally meant it. I think back to a year ago, two years, five years, ten years and I wonder what would have happened to me if the people I looked up to then had treated me like I was tiny. What if they hadn’t been so patient with me? What if they hadn’t given me the opportunity to grow and to change in my own way, in my own time? Would I be here? I am just so grateful for all the teachers and mentors and friends who have never made me feel tiny. It’s a good reminder for me. No one is tiny.

We’re all on a journey.

That’ll be 3.95 plus tax but you get the envelope for free.

 

I was going to kill two birds with one stone and tell you where I got my outfit but then I realize it’s all thrifted or vintage. So…that would be unhelpful to you.

And hey, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents won the giveaway from Katie for Thought! Michelle, I will be sending you an email later today. Congratulations! Want to check out more of Katie for Thought’s hand-painted creations? Go check out her Etsy shop here. And for a limited time, she is offering Love is the Adventure readers a 10% discount. Just enter the coupon code ADVENTURE1 at check-out.

Wishing you a good-luck Monday. You are not tiny.

love, elizabeth

The Paper That Wouldn’t Die

I don’t talk a whole lot about grad school on here because…well, because my blog is my happy, safe lala-land place where I don’t have to cite my primary sources or think too far ahead. But I thought I’d take a minute to talk about how thankful I am for school. I love my school. I love learning. I love teaching. I love my faculty. I love my students. I love my tiny mailbox in the corridor. I love my desk in the office. I love my stacks of library books and the bigger stacks of ungraded papers and my goofy student id photo. I even love the chilly early morning hike from the parking lot to my classrooms. School has been a great place for me to grow and figure out who I am, what I value, and how I can best serve my community and make art I care about at the same time.

But people…writing the modern drama paper I’m turning in today was like…well, it was kind of like this:

Every woman becomes a slave to…the paper that wouldn’t die.

love, elizabeth

Inspiration of the Month: Wayne Gilbert

Well, it’s September and I’m pleased as punch to present another inspiration of the month. And in honor of everyone going back to school, I thought I’d feature one of my all time favorite teachers. Meet Wayne.

Wayne was my very first college professor. I took English 101, Introduction to Literature, and two creative writing courses with him in my freshman year. I’ve told him this before and I’ll say it again, he has a way of approaching the students’ heart and work, as if they were equally important. Wayne taught me to look at the whole person, to treat myself and my journey (and the journey of others) with kindness, and to look at writing as a way to crawl inside the soul and shout with joy. Some of my best memories in a college classroom…Wayne jumping up and down, waving his hands, over the moon that he might actually get us to really, truly HEAR a poem. I could write and write about the ways that those first classes with Wayne shaped my views of education but I’ll simply say I would absolutely not be where I am today without him.

 

I also owe him a huge debt for all of the poetry I read/heard in his classes. Wayne is a working poet and has graciously agreed to let me feature one of his poems here.

 

mourning-jazz for my mom

(alice may gilbert, 1929-2010;

“what are human beings that you are mindful of them. . .” Psalm 8:4a)

when we were re-united the last time

my mother was young her head full of mirthful hair

i hear her laughing now behind the door

on my side it’s raining

the cold wind has followed me home

the price of my usual luggage was too high to carry on

the ice has split herself open

my head is full of icelandic ash clouds

i’m waiting

to be

magma borne gaseous plumes

envelopes of post-eruptive matter

job’s god screaming at the inert world his new word order

solar fistulas flying out of the universe

older than the first droplets of sacred water

imprisoned miles inside arctic ice

mother says

the dark for her is sweet now lazy now as chocolate streams in thick milk shakes

she says her body is    light

i’ve walked here without a cane

waiting            waiting i’m

medicinal herbs in a swallowed capsule

the chemical in the head of a match to be scratched

her last exhalation spilled into my brother’s cupped hands

i press my palms against the cold wood

mirth bleeds through the heavy slab into my withered hands

runic syllables bubble up gurgle scat on my tongue

the wind offers a reedy chord

the rain picks up the rhythm

we stand on the dark porch-stage

making     m   u   s   i   c       all night long

 

You can find Wayne’s book, Magma-Mystic, by visiting HERE. He is also available for readings and workshops, especially in the Rocky Mountain area. You can email him at magmapoet@comcast.net. He writes and performs in Colorado, most often under the name Magmapoet with a group of improvisational jazz musicians. Be sure to check out his work! I’ll be posting a link to his new website on my sidebar soon.

What about you? What teachers have made an impact in YOUR life?

love, elizabeth

PS: Incidentally, Wayne’s the first dude inspiration I’ve featured on Love is the Adventure so he should feel preeeeeeetttttttty special. Ha.

Inspiration of the Month: Jill

Hey everyone! I’m back to blogging regularly and now that it’s June, it’s time to introduce another inspiration of the month!
I’d like you to meet Jill.

Jill is a current PhD student in the theatre department. I’m actually struggling to find a way to express how much I look up to Jill as a scholar, an artist, and a friend. Jill is not just a brilliant (and hilarious) writer and student, but she’s also an actress, a comedian, and one of the finest teachers I have ever known. As a scholar, Jill is passionate about comedy (“People should laugh with someone every single day,” she told me). She also researches the role of wheelchairs on stage, as well as actors with disabilities and accessibility in theatrical staging. “I stuck with performing because I am terribly afraid of it,” she said. “I’m much more interesting on stage than offstage.” (I totally disagree with her. Jill is never boring.)

I find myself especially inspired by her attitude towards her students. “They live in a world where no one communicates with them,” she said. “So if they can feel when you come into the room that that’s where you want to be, they’ll become different people.” I am so encouraged as a young teacher to hear Jill speak so highly of her students. It makes me want to be a better, more compassionate teacher.

Five Fast Jill Facts
- Jill is a trained fencer (and her only fencing injury was sustained in a stage combat class)!
- When she was 13, she won a Beatles trivia contest and beat two grown men who had seen The Beatles perform live.
- Her wheelchair is named Chitara and she’s awesome. (Funny story: Chitara is NOT motorized but the first time Jill used a motorized chair, she accidentally stole a lady’s purse that got caught on one of her canes. The lady started screaming that someone had stolen her purse and Jill realized what had happened!)
- She used to write a column for The Antioch Record. In one issue, she interviewed her mother’s one-eyed cat, Dante, about his experiences of living with a disability.
- Her stage name as a comedian is the Wood Nymph.

Alright, everybody! Stay tuned – Madigan is posting tomorrow!
Love, Elizabeth