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What Failure Taught Me, With a Nod To Author Markus Zusak
As part of the final in Magazine Writing, I asked my students to reflect on certain aspects of the course, including the readings, their writing, and the lessons learned, as well as their ability to construct a well-written response to a writing prompt. This year’s students were asked to reflect on writer Markus Zusak’s wonderful Ted Talk for Question #1 (Zusak is the author of the acclaimed novel, The Book Thief). I asked them to consider their own failure(s) or something that they are afraid to do that could possibly lead to failure. I got a lot of interesting answers, but most of them discussed how failure has led to…
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20 Years and Counting The Pleasures
I distinctly remember Beth, my neighbor at the time, and the assistant in the Humanities department, asking me the question: “Could you teach a public speaking class?” “Yes,” I said. “I was a mass communication major with a minor in speech communication.” It was the Thursday before Labor Day, and the course at the community college was scheduled to begin on Tuesday. In a matter of days, I read the textbook, outlined the goals of the course, and wrote my first syllabus on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, my friends encouraging me as I scribbled in my spiral notebook and they helped me brainstorm ideas. On Tuesday night of…
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Madonna: Please Eat Some Humble Pie
Oh, gosh. It almost pains me to write this post. When I was in college—and my friends can attest to this—I idolized Madonna. I dressed like her (which included wearing the lace see-through tops and black bras, black bangles up my arms, and leggings with black laced shoes), tried to dance like her, and just thought she was an all-around creative soul. I felt a kinship with her for some reason; perhaps it’s because we also happen to share the same birthday. However, last night, as I watched her accept her award at The Golden Globes, my stomach churned, and not in a good way. I spent ten years teaching…
