See Me After Class

Something that Dr. Cauthen said in class on Wednesday continues to ring in my head as I read Lindemann’s book. “We have to stop this I can’t write business” maybe that’s not a direct quote but its close. As writers, teachers of writing, and just plain old literature nerds; we are constantly putting ourselves against the stone wall waiting for creativity to ooze out of our pores. More often than not that wall becomes our firing wall. A place where we go to execute ourselves after each failed attempt at writing a masterpiece. I question my writing every day and nothing calms my anxiety when I am providing my words for others to view. Even this blog leaves me cringing. Will they understand what I am saying? Do I sound profound? Am I contributing to the class? Do I care, or is it just my angst getting the best of me?

I hope that one day I will leave this fear at the door when I begin teaching. After reading Lindemann’s Chapter 14 I realize that this fear can be detrimental to teaching. I envision my life as a teacher. I often day dream of walking into my class room singing a perfect Disney tune, scribbling the day’s assignment, while I eat on my shiny red apple that my students left for me on my desk. I know that won’t be the case. More than likely my future school will be in a low income neighborhood, where books are scarce, let alone apples. So my approach to teaching students should be thoughtful and precise. Lindemann reinforces the notion of teaching writing through discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter, as much as enjoying a chapter regarding grading papers can be. But she gives insight to the type of teacher I hope to be. One with new and fresh approaches to composition; one who doesn’t fret at the sight of a dangling modifier, but one who wants to pull up their sleeve and get to the root of the problem…the root of the student. Where do their strengths lie? What can the student do to improve their writing? What steps do they take to get there? All the same questions that we as “bad” writers should ask ourselves.