lydamorehouse: (ticked off Ichigo)
 Continuing the list of "Things That Probably Prove That I Have Never Grown-up," I absolutely FAILED to remember last night in class that adults are afraid of their own dumb ideas. I mean, I'm guessing? But, I suspect that's what happened.

Picture it: there I am writing up my notes for class lecture yesterday.  I feel especially clever because I am organizing my lecture about hooks/beginnings in a 5-W's fashion: Who, What, Where, When, Why (plus How.)  I get to the HOW part and I'm like, yeah, I could list examples of what it's like if you start with an image, dialogue, in the middle of the action, etc., OR I could pop open a whiteboard and see if the students can help me come up with on-the-fly examples.

Class notes, in which I realize, too late, that whiteboarding is a bad idea.
Image: Class notes, in which I realize, too late, that whiteboarding is a bad idea.

In class, as silence is stretching, I cross this off my notes and write in all caps "BAD IDEA!!"  I totally forgot that I am atypical. Not just of a human being, but especially of a Midwesterner/Minnesotan.  I will totally shout ideas from the back of the Zoom room with zero concern that they be any good. Most adults even when told "no idea is a bad one, let's just brainstorm," utterly freeze up and try to be a small, harmless animal who will no longer meet the eyes of the predator in the room, aka the teacher, ME.

OMG, what a disaster. I mean, at least it was only 15 minutes of excruciating silence and some technical difficulties. 

To be fully fair to my students, some of them did pipe up. Because I didn't require them to actually shout out their ideas, things did appear on the board now and again sort of mystically. It'd be like PAINFUL SILENCE, PAINFUL SILENCE, Me: "Oh, here's one! Ah, this is really good, thank you to whoever put this up... so, um, here's another one from me, I guess?"

But, WOW, it was not the energy building, bonding exercise I'd hoped for. 

I'm learning things! Just when you think you know everything about how to teach, the universe reminds you that, nope, you have to keep adjusting and shifting with each new classroom. 

I will say, though, that thanks to my super organized lecture notes, class went fairly well otherwise. The first half, anyway. I was expecting to need the full second hour of class to teach critique, but it turned out that I either didn't, or was not as good going off the cuff about it as I thought I would be, so we had a solid half hour at the end where I ended up just answering random questions about writing and submitting to agents and editors. I don't think that's terrible, but it always leaves me feeling like I was just scrambling and fumbling by the end. 

At least next class we will be starting workshopping in earnest, so there is hope that I will regain my student's respect after that.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
Last night I went to a costume party. Ostensibly, it was for our children, but almost every adult came in costume, as well. There was at least one family that was entirely on theme: dad came as Han Solo, mom as Leia, and eldest son as a Clone Trooper (one of the Wolf Pack, I believe,) and the baby as an incredibly adorable Yoda. Another family was mostly on theme, with a mom in a complete Disney evil queen, youngest daughter as Snow White (with apple), and then their eldest daughter veered off into some kind of furry cosplay (a wolf? a cat? something with ears and a tail and a cute furry vest!) and dad out of it and utterly mundane. I told dad that, since he had a beard, he could have come as the huntsman. All he would have needed was a box with a heart in it. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. Apparently, it's been a while since they all saw Snow White, because I'm pretty sure that's in the movie... where the huntsman collects a deer's heart instead of Snow White's? Anyone? Bueller?

Since my hair is long, dark and stringy, I went as a young (female) Professor Snape. I guess this was my first foray into crossplay. But, I think I pulled it off pretty well; I attempted brief moments of Alan Rickman like gravitas, at any rate, and drawled out one, "Obviously."

Mason went as a skeleton. I guess we could be on theme if you imagine I was dasterdly enough to have used an unforgivable curse on my own son, and somehow his Avada Kedavra'ed corpse was up and wandering around.

I have to say, however, there's something innately amusing about standing around in someone's living room with a bunch of adults in costume. The kids, of course, were having a grand time, running around and screaming at each other. But, all the adults managed to look embarrassed and miserable, except for the few of us who have no shame. Stuck forever in my mind will be the guy dressed as Han Solo, sitting on a folding chair with a beer in one hand, looking absolutely shellshocked and dazed as kids ran past him one by one shreiking at high decible levels.

Priceless.

Probably the best adult costume was the woman who came dressed in a giant binder. She was a binder full of woman. Awesome.

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