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Category: Curriculum Planning

Oct292020

What is a Calling?

While I teach my students primarily online, I have some designated time with them in a seventy-five minute afternoon session, held once a week. While these sessions are designed to offer a space for continued study and socially distanced peer interaction, I also use this time as a means for getting to know my students on a level beyond academics. My afternoon sessions have become more of a reflection of self and purpose, both academically and personally.

In keeping with this theme, I am a fan of Oprah’s Super Soul Sundays because I can always find a short video clip of an interview seasoned with meaning and most fitting for personal reflection. This past week, my students and I watched Oprah’s interview with Steven Pressfield entitled “First Look: 4 Questions to Help you Find Your Calling.” Following our viewing session, some students were perplexed about the idea of a calling, while others were most confident about identifying the calling they finally had an opportunity to identify and share.

I asked students to select a question or two from below and share their response(s) on the classroom blackboard.

  1. What is a calling?
  2. Where does one’s calling exist?
  3. Is a calling spiritual?
  4. What is your calling?
  5. What wonderings do you have after watching the short clip?

Following our blackboard reflection session, we spent about twenty-five to thirty minutes sharing perspectives and questions. I was pleased to discover the following:

  • While the majority of students believed they were too young to know their “calling,” both my boarding and day student group included at least two to three students who identified their calling.
  • About half of my students believed that a calling is not spiritual. Rather, these students believed a calling is the result of lived experiences.
  • While the majority agreed that a calling should bring joy to one’s life, students couldn’t define the true definition of joy, so they settled for aligning one’s calling with a feeling of sustained happiness.
  • One student asked if playing video games is his calling because he is happy and looses track of time when he plays.
  • Every student coalesced with the idea that finding one’s calling must be prioritized as the ultimate goal in life.

What is your calling? How and when did you discover this calling? What are your overall thoughts about the idea of “a calling”? Also, if additional understanding is required, another great example by author Wes Moore can be found here. I’m always looking forward to your your responses…

 

Oct222020

Mr. George Floyd and Rhetoric

While my students continue to struggle and persevere in various ways with our new educational approaches (i.e. online learning, schedule changes, day and boarding student separation and pacing guides), my goal is to help them relate to the world by first understanding who they are as authentic beings preparing to launch beyond the (perceived and very real) obstacles at hand. This is my core reasoning and rationale for continuing to work alongside them. As I struggle, persevere, evolve and inevitably allow myself to shift as a result and in spite of year ‘2020, I produce creative works and projects as a means and portal of continual discovery. I am grateful to have spectacular students who enjoy the learning process.

In this spirit, while focusing on a rhetorical device unit and how speakers, authors, filmmakers and overall artists use rhetorical strategies in order to reach their audiences, I asked my students to create their own creative project incorporating at least two to three of the plethora of devices we’ve studied. Students were provided with an array of creative options to choose from. And of course, they also had the option of proposing their own creative idea. I had fun sharing the creative options because I have many creative souls in my courses, from photographers to singers, from poets to documentarians.

The following is my rhetorical creative project model for my charges. I chose to construct lyrics–incorporating several rhetorical devices–and sing a song about George Floyd whose life ended while in police custody. My written analysis, following the video performance is an example of the compositional/analysis component of the performance.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In9mTMn0nms

Mr. George Floyd

“Mr. George Floyd” centers on memoriam of an individual whose life was taken violently and cruelly while in police custody. Mr. Floyd’s murder was filmed by a bystander who was unaware, at the time, that this footage would spark protest and demand for reform of methods used by law enforcement when apprehending individuals suspected of a violation of law. I intentionally included three rhetorical devices—epistrophe, loaded words (in analysis) and hyperbole–for a more structured composition; however, most importantly, I aimed to pay tribute to Mr. Floyd by methodically and melodically–through song– appealing to human emotion in order to raise awareness regarding injustices still prevalent in our world, today.

Rhetorical devices incorporated:

  1. Epistrophe– “Mr. George Floyd”-Shared at the end of successive phrases for effect and as a reminder of the individual the piece is centered on; say his name…
  2. Loaded words-Violently/cruelly/murder-included to speak truth to what I witnessed. Ironically, law enforcement is responsible for keeping order and “peace;” In reality, law enforcement’s conduct was a demonstration of the exact opposite.
  3. Hyperbole and colloquial language—“this life just ain’t gon’ be the same”—life is not going to be the same following our witnessing of this murder. And it hasn’t been.  I understand that Mr. Floyd’s murder in itself will not transform all that is necessary for justice to prevail. Nevertheless, for those who needed a wake-up call and heeded to it following Mr. Floyd’s death, life is not going to be the same. I must emphasize that I share this phrase in the most positively connotative manner. Use of colloquial language was inspired by listening to the mother of Mr. Floyd’s daughter. In a saddened state of pathos, the language of her testimony will continue to resonate……

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Share your thoughts regarding rhetoric or creating with students. As always, I’m looking forward to reading your perspective…

Apr142020

Flannery O’Connor and the “Tennessee Waltz”

During this sudden change in classroom environment–in person to virtual–my students and I continue to grapple with the idea of God, truth and human nature in accordance with our current events and author, Flannery O’Connor. As a Christian/southern/gothic writer, O’Connor wrote about the complexities of human nature through her characters.  Mostly, characters are in a world of duality consisting of individuals who have “faith” in God juxtaposed with those who choose to follow self (or according to O’Connor, the devil).

This is the case for O’Connor’s character “the grandmother” in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” While some may argue that O’Connor displays “the grandmother” as vain and self-centered, others argue that she is a God-fearing individual who desires the best for her family. Whether one sides with the former or the latter argument, O’Connor provides no background information to suggest how this character evolves into what is encapsulated in this short story; or does she?

O’Connor’ s “Tennessee Waltz” allusion is perhaps the only information provided to suggest why “the grandmother” is characterized as the only “true” believer in God and at the same time, one whose interest in self leads to her family’s demise. The following are some questions to consider while exploring Flannery O’Connor’s choice of allusion in connection with her protagonist:

  1. What could O’Connor possibly be communicating about “the grandmother” in connection with the “Tennessee Waltz” lyrics?
  2. Refer to the “Tennessee Waltz” lyrics, “…my little darling…” What is O’Connor suggesting about the grandmother’s former relationship(s)?
  3. Could the “Tennessee Waltz” possibly explain the relationship between “the grandmother” and her son, Bailey?
  4. Is there important information we should know about the origin of the song in connection with Flannery O’Connor and her characterization of Grandmother?

“Tennessee Waltz” (Shantel’s Version on YouTube)

This week, I’m sharing my talent to raise awareness for A Woman’s Place, dedicated to envisioning “…a society where all individuals are safe in their relationships and can flourish.” Learn more at A Woman’s Place here. Be well as we work together to flatten the COVID-19 curve.

Please share any comments you’d like to contribute. I welcome all subscribers!!!

 

 

Apr42020

We Don’t Need No (COVID-19)

During this time, I’d like to ask my current and new subscribers to use your talents in order to raise awareness for charities in need of our help. This idea was birthed while discussing a Term 3 project with my students (who have shown resilience and grace in the midst of abrupt change and uncertainty). We are sharing our talents to raise awareness for a charity or cause in our local area. Personally, I’ve chosen Philabundance. Any donation can assist this charity with providing families with access to food while preventing the spread of COVID-19. Further information about this charity can be found through the following link: https://www.philabundance.org/

“We Don’t Need No (COVID-19)” (acapella song I’ve written and performed using the acapella app) can be accessed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVZigxqZN2g&feature=youtu.be

Be well…

Shantel