Archive of ‘teaching’ category

lifestyle teaching

Dear Dakotah

Dakotah and I

Dear Dakotah,

This is it.

Tomorrow you leave for college, for art school.

Tomorrow the old adage “This is the first day of the rest of your life” will never ring more true.

Tomorrow you leave for college and I’ve promised myself I won’t cry. So I’ll do what I always do when I need to fight back tears — I will write.

In an attempt to live up to my title as your mentor I feel I should offer you some wise words of advice as you enter this new stage of life. But I often feel that over these past three years you’ve taught me more than I could ever teach you.

But here goes…

Go to class — most of the time.

Turn things in when they’re due — all of the time.

Do you best work — not for a grade, not for your professors, but for yourself.

Take yourself seriously as an artist, but never get caught up in your own hype. Be humble, but never dismiss the well-deserved rewards you will receive.

Grow up, but never stop being a girl.

Never stop being a girl who creates art not for accolades but because she just can’t help herself. Never stop being a girl who squeals loudly with excitement in a quiet coffee shop and doesn’t care who stares.

Never stop being a girl who believes in sisterhood and friendship that lasts forever. Never stop being a girl who believes women are worth worshipping.

Never stop being a girl who loves pink.

You once told me you dress like you just left a luau on the moon. Never stop being a girl who says things like that.

Don’t wear pajamas to class. You have too many cute clothes in your closet to engage in such nonsense.

Take naps.

Exercise 4 days a week — not to be skinny, but to be strong.

Eat pizza at midnight at least once and have no regrets.

Credit cards are evil. Cupcake ATMs are from God.

Don’t let New York change you, but be sure to change it. Make your mark and make it beautiful.

Remember the world owes you nothing, but you owe yourself the world. So go after your goals with reckless abandon.

I do not know the secret to understanding men. Don’t trust people who say that they do.

Break all the rules — even these — if that’s what it takes to be true to who you really are.

Don’t panic if you have no idea who you really are. That’s the purpose of the pursuit of higher education. Self-discovery, not a degree, makes college worth the price of admission.

Never forget things could always be worse.

Never forget you are always enough.

xo,

Javacia

teaching

Back to School Commandments

sylvia plath

In my classroom is a quote board and I don’t care how cliche it may be for an English teacher to have one. The first quote I post each year is by author and poet Sylvia Plath: “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”

Not far from the quote board is a portrait of Plath. When seated at my desk poring over lesson plans and pitiful thesis statements, I glance across the room and look into her eyes. They seem to say to me, “Keep going.”

While a student at Smith College, Plath once wrote herself a list of Back to School Commandments, beginning with three rules on how to behave around her new beau.

Image via OpenCulture

Image via OpenCulture

Inspired, I decided to pen commandments of my own for my love and my labor.

1. I will not overwhelm him with panic, stress, and worry.

2. I will not throw temper tantrums when he simply asks me to sort through my mail and receipts.

3. I will kiss him and adore him as if he were my high school crush.

Back to School Commandments

1. Keep a CALM FRONT always.

2. Research papers — don’t get upset. Every year you’re convinced they’ll be the death of you. Every year you survive.

3. Report cards — Resist the urge to panic no matter how many tests, essays, and journal assignments you have to grade at the end of the quarter.

4. DO NOT STOP WRITING. You must practice what you teach.

5. Say “Good morning” to every one, every day, even when the morning is anything but good.

6. Write down everything. Clean your desk. Vacuum your rug. Wash your mug. Throw away dry erase markers that no longer work.

7. Do not skip workouts to grade papers. Your job is not worth your health no matter how noble your profession may be.

8. Stop staying up late. Teaching teenagers is no excuse for adopting their sleeping habits.

9. Remember 10 months is not an eternity. 9 weeks is not an eternity. Even if it looks that way now.

10. Make sure you’re always having fun — even when you’re teaching Puritan lit or MLA. If you’re bored your students will be, too.

P.S. – Remember — your class will teach your students more about life than literature and that’s exactly the way it should be.

Love,

J.