Another Guest –Hey, I’m busy reaching my writing goals for the summer

August 12, 2015August 12, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

I’m busy with my fiction and playwriting, but here’s another great guest article. This is from The Atlantic–“The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt–interesting read. It comes through an organization I support called FIRE–Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. They support and promote free speech on college campuses–even speech the general college population doesn’t want to hear. I like that about them. They are quoted in the article, which is about the pervasiveness of political correctness on our campuses that is quenching free speech and maybe even harming the psychological well-being of students.

Here’s the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

Katie Goes on a Tear

July 25, 2015September 18, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

Classical Liberal Arts

Recently a posting about the cost of education in America compared to countries that offer “free” education got me really going on a tear for some reason. Some of the comments by people I know, like and admire, made me realize how many misconceptions people have about a liberal arts education. First of all, I understand people’s frustration with the current state of higher education in America–it’s a case of paying too much for too little. However, it isn’t entirely the learning institutions’ fault, though they certainly share the blame.

No, the biggest reason behind the failure of our high schools, colleges and universities is that we, as a people, do not understand the true nature of a liberal arts education and therefore devalue it. Listening to some administrators, students, their parents and the general public, I conclude that most people view getting an education as a means to an end–getting a job. Many people seem to think that when they, or the government, pay tuition that they are basically purchasing a diploma, certificate or degree that they need in order to become employed, like purchasing transportation or clothing or anything else that makes work possible.

See, I’m still on the warpath, but I’ll get over it. I’ll have to in order to keep my sanity. It did help to vent on the hapless people who commented on my comments on Facebook, and I thought some of my points were pretty darn good, actually, so I’m going to re-print them here.

Point #1–There is something to be said for providing high performing high school students with at least the first two years of college, like in Georgia. It’s not free–students have to work very hard in high school to maintain a B average to get a Hope Scholarship. Getting an education is the goal–not getting a job. We need citizens who know how to read and write well and most importantly how to think critically. We need to give people an incentive to truly learn something in high school, and we need to give parents an incentive to push their kids to do well in school. We could do this if we adopted something like what Georgia has.

Point #2–Getting an education is about more than getting a job–it’s about learning how to think critically and problem solve and be autonomous, not under anyone’s control except God’s. It’s power to the powerless, it’s learning how to appreciate art and literature and music. It’s about making life better for yourself and the people you love. We have lost our way; we have forgotten what a real education is, and we have substituted it with this paltry idea of mere job training. Show me a person who is truly educated–and I don’t mean has a degree–I’m not talking about degrees, and I’ll show you someone who has a career that fulfills him or her. And if that thinking person doesn’t have a job, then he or she doesn’t want or need one. (A bit hyperbolic but I was fired up)

Point #3–We need to start realizing that education is for everyone and start making our middle and high schools places of real learning again. I don’t think everyone needs a four-year degree. I think we need to start coming up with alternative ways for people to get their education, but the biggest concern should be helping people see the value of an education–of learning how to read with real comprehension, to write clearly and effectively, to use modern technology to do meaningful, practical research. Diplomas, degrees and certificates are meaningless unless people are learning skills like problem-solving that will benefit them no matter what they do for a living because more than likely they will be changing careers and jobs more than once in their lifetime, so they need to learn skills that will help them adapt to new work situations quickly–they need to learn how to critically think–we still have that in this country but it’s quickly being lost to this idea of utilitarian education that has been proven (just look at the results of the Industrial Revolution)–it’s called a liberal arts education and it works but only if the public understands the value of it, and right now liberal arts education is under fire and too many people don’t see its value. That is a crying shame.

Traveling the Book: Teaching Deep Research in 200-Level Online Literature Courses, Part II

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

It took me a while, but I finally finished my sample “Traveling the Book” Project for my online American Literature I class that I’ll be teaching in the fall. As I explained in my last post, the major research project in the class is to research a book of literary and historical importance to the time period we are studying, then write an annotated bibliography of ten scholarly sources, concentrating on the biographical details of the author, the historical context of the author’s life and of the book, as well as the setting of the novel.

I have had great results with this project in my British Lit. I and II online courses, but I wasn’t sure how it would work to make travel plans for a literary tour of the U.S., but my sample imaginary tour turned out great!

The students start their presentations with a summary, then a historical timeline. Next comes a 14-day itinerary of their plans that must relate to aspects of the book and/or the author’s life. Finally, there is a detailed itemized budget.

I hope you’ll take a look at my project presentation whether you are a teacher or not. I think you’ll like it. It certainly was a great deal of fun to produce.

Note: All the photos used are purely for educational purposes.

The Coquette

Traveling the Book: Teaching Deep Research in 200-Level Online Literature Courses

May 28, 2015May 28, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

Imaginary portrait of Eliza Wharton, the tragic heroine of Hannah Webster Foster’s 18th Century American novel–The Coquette.

* * *

I have been teaching 200-level literature classes for some time now, having developed three from the ground up–World Literature II, British Literature I and British Literature II. This summer I’m working on my fourth online literature course, American Literature I. Now that the state has for some ungodly reason pronounced only American Literature I and II as universally transferrable, there is more demand for American literature than British, which is ridiculous to me since our language as well as many of our ideas and values originated in jolly old England. But that is a topic for another post.

Today, I am excited because I have been working on the major project for my American Literature I class, which is based on the major project I first used in my world literature class and now use in all my online literature classes–the Traveling the Book Project. I have also called it the Travel Project and the Traveling the Novel Project, but Traveling the Book seems best for American Literature I since there are few novels but many historical writings, important collections of essays and short stories as well as books of poetry that students may wish to “travel.”

The assignment has been made up of two parts: An annotated bibliography of sources about the author and his or her work and an itinerary of a two-week literary tour, including a summary or description of the work and a daily itinerary of places in the modern world people can visit that are related to the book and/or author. Students must also include an itemized budget, explaining how they will spend an imaginary $10,000 dollars, not including air fare, on accommodations, food, travel, entrance fees and miscellaneous cost. For American Literature I, I am asking students to also include a timeline of important events in American history as they relate to the author and/or work.

I have learned a great deal over the years about what works and doesn’t work concerning this assignment and continually refine it to help students reach the goals of the project which include coming to a better understanding of a major work of literature and its author, of course, but perhaps more importantly, learning how to pursue the deeper, more significant research they will hopefully be expected to conduct when they transfer to a four-year college.

One of the things I have learned is that students don’t really understand how to do deep research, so they have a hard time grasping the requirements of the project, so clear directions on completion are essential. I also limit the number of sources students can locate using simple web searches, encouraging instead the use of scholarly databases, e-books and print sources. I also disconnect the sources used to find general travel information from the annotated bibliography, which should be more scholarly in nature.

Although detailed directions can help, many students are grateful that I post examples of the annotated bibliography and the travel itinerary presentation on the course home page for reference purposes The process of generating the samples for each class has become an enjoyable part of my summer. (I know, I’m strange.) I learn so much from each project I complete and going through the same process I want my students to go through helps me anticipate their questions and give them a real idea of how much time they will need to spend on each part of the project. (I worked ten hours or more over the course of four or five days to complete the sample annotated bibliography for American Lit. I.)

Creating the sample also allows me to model deep research, which means

reading the original source actively and thoroughly
reaching past general biographical information
searching primary sources rather than relying only on criticism and other secondary sources
researching certain aspects of the work including primarily historical context and setting
applying the research to the itinerary

I have just completed the annotated bibliography sample for American Literature I. The novel I chose is The Coquette, an epistolary novel by Eighteenth Century writer Hannah Webster Foster, and is considered to be the first American novel written by a woman. I will be adding the required summary of the novel before I actually post the example, but here are the ten required sources and their annotations to give readers an idea of what this part of the project looks like.

When I finish it, I will post the travel itinerary presentation example.

Katie Winkler

ENG 231

Instructor Winkler

May 28, 2015

A Woman on Her Own:

Hannah Webster Foster and the Independent Woman in Early American Literature

Brown, Richard D. “Daughters, Wives, Mothers: Domestic Roles and the Mastery of Affective Information.” Knowledge Is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700-1865. Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press,1991:160 196. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 27 May 2015.

Chapter Seven discusses the role of women in Early American society and the importance of Bostonian women’s importance to the publishing industry, especially newspapers, as well as the growing importance of novels, such as The Coquette. Although this source doesn’t mention Hannah Webster Foster or Elizabeth Whitman directly, it does have a wealth of information about the role of women in the time period when Foster lived and wrote. In addition, I have found that Foster’s first publications were political articles in Boston newspapers and that the first newspapers in America were printed in Boston.

There are several interesting aspects of the chapter that make Brown’s book relevant to my itinerary, especially a discussion on life as an upper class woman in 18^th Century, particularly the life of Mary Holyoke of Salem, who kept a detailed diary of her social, political and domestic concerns as the wife of a prominent man in society. The woman described sounds very much like Eliza Wharton, the heroine of the novel. Other interesting information in the chapter is the importance of newspapers to women in all levels of society, the sensational nature of much of the newspaper reporting and how the patriarchal society of America attempted to suppress the reading of novels.

Davidson, Cathy N. “Hannah Webster Foster.” American Writers of the Early Republic. Ed. Emory Elliott. Detroit: Gale, 1985. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 37. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 May 2015.

A short biography of Hannah Webster Foster and a critique of The Coquette, which yields some interesting information about Foster and Elizabeth Whitman, the woman on whom Foster modeled her heroine. The author lived her whole life in Massachusetts, first in Salisbury and then in Brighton after she married John Foster, who became the minister of the First Church in Brighton, Mass. She had six children with Foster. Her first novel of two, The Coquette, was published in 1797 after the birth of her first child. This article mentions, as have other biographies, how Foster moved to live in Montreal with two of her daughters, both writers in their own rights, following her husband’s death, although I am not sure if I will include Montreal in my itinerary, which will probably include locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut only.

The article also offers a critique and analysis of The Coquette, and interesting to my purposes, also posits that Pierrepont Edwards, the son of the important “Great Awakening” preacher, Jonathan Edwards, was the father of Elizabeth Whitman’s child and the model for Major Sanford in Foster’s novel, convincing me to do some research on Jonathan Edwards and Pierrepont’s situation and perhaps add some relevant locations to my trip.

“Elizabeth Whitman: The Mysterious Coquette of 1788.” New England Historical Society. WordPress, 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.

Speculates on the life and loves of Elizabeth Whitman, the real-life Eliza Wharton from Foster’s novel, The Coquette. Not only gives some background on Whitman, but also speculates on her suitors and the men who possibly fathered her child, including Pierrepont Edwards, the philandering son of Jonathan Edwards, the firebrand preacher central to the Eighteenth Century’s Great Awakening, a protestant spiritual revival. Edwards lived In New Haven, a town that Whitman frequented. Another reason to visit New Haven is that many of the letters written by Eliza Wharton in Foster’s epistolary novel are penned in New Haven.

Other possible models for the character of Major Sanford, the seducer in the novel, are U.S. Senator James Watson and even, Aaron Burr, who became the third Vice-President of the United States, as well as Timothy Dwight, future president of Yale University, who helped with the cover up after Whitman’s untimely death. Helped me to make up mind to visit Yale as part of my trip.

Grove Street Cemetery. Friends of the Grove Street Cemetery, n.d. Web 28 May 2015.

A website that gives detailed information on the cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, where the fictional Eliza Wharton penned most of her letters. Pierrepont Edwards, youngest son of the prominent theologian, Jonathan Edwards, is buried here. Edwards is believed by many to be the model in the novel for Major Sanford, the man who seduced Eliza and abandoned her. In real life Edwards is the most likely candidate to be the one who seduced Elizabeth Whitman, impregnated and then abandoned her.

Also, buried in this cemetery is Timothy Dwight, one of the early presidents of Yale, who is also sometimes mentioned in connection to Elizabeth Whitman, either as the seducer himself or one who helped the Edwards’ family cover up the scandal after Whitman’s death. The website gives quite a bit of information about Dwight, all lauding his accomplishments. Nothing, of course, about the scandal. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of information here to help me with my travel plans, including a self-guided tour map, listings of prominent people buried in the cemetery and a short video about the important Revolutionary figures buried at the Grove Street Cemetery.

Marchione, Dr. William P, PhD. “Hannah Foster: Brighton’s Pioneer Novelist.” Brighton-Allston Historical Society, 2001. Web. 26 May 2015.

Excellent article that gives me actual addresses to places in Brighton Center (a suburb of Boston) related to Hannah Webster Foster. I can plan much of my itinerary for the Brighton leg of the journey from this article. I found that the building (10 Academy Hill Road) where Foster wrote the Coquette, was then the parsonage for the church her husband pastored, but is now in disrepair and a store front, but Dr. Marchione, the author of the article, petitioned to have a plaque put up to commemorate the building’s importance, and the plaque was supposedly erected. I plan to look for myself to see if it is there.

In addition, I plan to visit the first residence of John and Hannah Foster, The Ebenezer Smith House on Peaceable Street 15-17, which is still standing, according to the article, and is thought to be the oldest building in the Brighton Center area. The third residence caused some stir in the area as it was a huge, elaborate mansion and some residents thought it inappropriate that a clergyman should build such an expensive and opulently furnished house. Only a portion of the original house stands at 181 Foster Street, so I will plan to visit there. Since I have all of the addresses, I can simply plug them into my GPS and head on out!

Olver, Lynne. “Colonial and Early American Fare.” The Food Timeline. Lynne Olver. 1999. Web. 27 May 2015.

An important part of any trip I plan is doing my best to order foods that relate to the book I am “traveling.” In this case, The Coquette is about an upper class woman in the 18^th Century who lived in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and I found wonderful information at this site. I discovered that popular foods in New England during this time included pies, cakes, chowders, baked beans, roasted meats, breads, salt pork, bacon and ham. I will also keep my eyes out for a special dessert called “Election Cake” and unusual fish choices like Hannah Hill and Black Fish.

Because this website breaks down cuisine by time and place, I can very easily pick and choose foods that I will want to keep in mind when looking at menus to plan my trip. In addition, there are interesting cultural tidbits of information on the site as well as a myriad of links to other sites, including the helpful source, American Cookery, which is a facsimile of the first cookbook written by an American.

Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery. Hartford: Simeon Butler, 1798. Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project. Michigan State University Libraries. 31 August 2003. E-book. 27 May 2015.

American Cookery is the first cookbook written by Americans for Americans and is a great resource to discover what New Englanders were eating during the time Hannah Webster Foster was living. In fact the cookbook was originally published i n 1796, just one year before Foster’s novel, The Coquette. In addition, the book was published in Hartford, Connecticut, which is where the real life Eliza Wharton (Elizabeth Whitman), the tragic heroine of the novel, lived and will be one of the stops on my trip.

The cookbook discusses raising, preparing and cooking all manner of dishes, including seafood like lobster oysters, cod and eel; fowl like chickens, geese and duck; vegetables like potatoes, onions, beets, asparagus, artichokes and carrots; fruits like pears, apples, currants, grapes, even watermelon, and other foods, including a whole variety of legumes, lettuces and cabbages. The next section of the book includes recipes: roasted meats, stuffed turkey, chowders, stews, pot pies and minced pies as well as desserts like apple pie, rice pudding, Indian pudding, bread pudding, apple dumpling, puffed pastry tarts, custards and syllabub, which is a sweet custard flavored with wine or liquor. This information will be very helpful as I choose authentic meals to eat during my travels.

“Tragedy in Tale of Love: What an Old Weather-Worn Peabody Gravestone Tells.” The Coquette and the Boarding School: A Norton Critical Edition. Eds. Jennifer Harris and Bryan Waterman. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013: 327-332. Print.

Published first in the Boston Sunday Herald in 1902, this article is a testament to the enduring popularity of Foster’s first novel that was a best-seller in its day and for decades afterwards. The anonymous author of this article makes a compelling case for the idea that Nathanial Hawthorne used Foster’s Eliza Wharton character as a model for Hester Prynne in his magnum opus, The Scarlet Letter. My trip to Salem, and Peabody where Elizabeth Whitman is buried, will now include a trip to The Salem Custom House where Hawthorne lived and worked while he was writing The Scarlet Letter.

The article also gives more in-depth biographical information about Elizabeth Whitman, the model for Eliza Wharton, than some other articles have given me, especially about her enduring religious faith and her upbringing in Hartford, Connecticut, including her father’s position as pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Hartford, which is still a functioning church (now called South Church) and one of the oldest churches in America. I’ll definitely want to visit there.

Waterman, Bryan. “The Elizabeth Whitman Paper Trail.” The Coquette and the Boarding School: Norton Critical Edition. Eds. Jennifer Harris and Bryan Waterman. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013: 302-307. Print.

Waterman’s name keeps cropping up in literature about Foster and Whitman. This article, first appearing in the William and Mary Quarterly in 2009, reprints several excerpts from articles about Whitman that appeared in newspapers around New England, including a notice of death appearing in the Salem Mercury and Pennsylvania Mercury, but none in Whitman’s native Connecticut. The wide interest in Whitman’s story generated brisk newspaper sales and is an example of the growing power of the newspaper.

The article also contains one of Whitman’s poems written late in her life, lamenting that her lover is late in joining her as he promised. Mention is made of Foster’s high position in Hartford and New Haven societies and her death in Danvers, Massachusetts (now Peabody) at a wayside inn not long after the birth of a still born child.

—. “Who Reads an Early American Book?” Common-Place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life. 9.3 (2009). Web. 25 May 2015.

Waterman gives detailed information on the grave site of Elizabeth Whitman, the model for Foster’s Eliza Wharton in The Coquette. Explains the continuing interest in Whitman’s story—a popular and prosperous young unmarried woman from Hartford, Connecticut, who travels alone and pregnant to Danvers, Massachusetts, now Peabody, checks into the Bell Tavern, lives there until she has the baby and dies soon after. The plot of Foster’s novel follows closely the real-life situation of Whitman, so naturally I will want to include Peabody, as well as Hartford, in my travels, including, of course, the gravesite.

The article also gives information about the new gravestone, next to the original, that was erected in 2004 by the Peabody Historical Society that has gone to great efforts to restore interest in the story of Whitman, her alter ego, Eliza Wharton and Foster’s novel.

Throw Back Sunday

May 17, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

My Work Home

I used to write a BRCC column a couple of times a month for the Hendersonville Times-News. Here’s one of those columns, from back in 2003:

A series of events the past few weeks has caused an identity crisis in me, forcing me to ask that question teachers often find themselves asking. “What exactly do we have to offer—what is our role?

Should we be entertainers? After all, it is difficult to keep students engaged, especially when many have grown up passively viewing a television screen or matching wits with an exciting computer-generated opponent. Sometimes we try to “jazz things up,” yet no matter how witty our illustrations or detailed our demonstrations, despite our high tech visual aids, we teachers can’t match the special effects of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

Of course, teachers should make attempts to prompt student responses through group discussion and student comments, but in the end it is the teacher who has the responsibility to bring student discussions to the sticking point, to summarize key points of any discussion. I know it’s become a dirty word in some circles, but sometimes we even need to lecture. For many students, that’s not entertainment.

If it is not a teacher’s role to be an entertainer or merely a facilitator, is it to be an encourager? Everyone needs praise. Good teachers know this and try to find real reasons for praise. One word of encouragement from an admired and respected instructor can fuel some students for an entire semester. Sometimes praise can even change a student’s life; however, constructive criticism has also been known to be the making of a person.

Teachers sometimes see themselves as physicians, highly trained professionals who diagnose problems and offer cures. But others sometimes see us as nothing more than dispensers of grades—recorders. I do the work; you write my A in the grade book and raise my self-esteem.

Are we here to make students feel better about themselves? Are we counselors? As a writing teacher, I sometimes find it difficult to even constructively criticize a student’s work if I’m aware of his or her difficult circumstances. I ask myself, what if he or she takes my criticism personally. Could my words so sting that the student becomes so angry or discouraged that he or she drops my class or quits school?

In the end, good teachers know avoiding the errors in student performance, no matter what the students’ difficulties, can only block their ability to learn. Our job is to assess students and inform them of their problem areas, not to assure them, “Everything is okay.”

At the beginning of the semester in my freshman composition classes, I relate to students my educational philosophy by describing a scene from the movie All That Jazz, based on the life of Bob Fosse, the late choreographer and Broadway director of Chicago. The Fosse-like character becomes frustrated with a beautiful young dancer who gets her job more for her sexual appeal than her dancing ability. When the young woman breaks down in tears, the choreographer stops the music and goes to the girl, saying something like this: “I can’t promise you I’ll make you a great dancer. I can’t even promise I can make you a good dancer. But if you work real hard and listen to what I say, I’ll make you a better dancer.”

Like the choreographer, we can’t make many promises. We can’t say for sure that our students will be stimulated or get A’s or even pass. But we can make the promise that if they will listen, even if the delivery is not of their liking, even if the grade is not what they expect, they will learn.

Reminded then of our promise, our role becomes clear. I know what it is we have to give. It’s not entertainment, not unreserved praise; it’s not a shoulder to cry on. The only thing we can offer our students is what we know—about our disciplines, about learning, about life.

The rest is up to them.

The Quality of Mercy

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

Maggie Smith, one of my favorite actors, as Portia 
in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice--
the BBC's 1972 version of the play

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, …

Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

That, in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much

To mitigate the justice of thy plea;

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice

Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.

— The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1

I am so much like Shylock. I believe strongly in justice. Just like Shylock, I don’t just seek justice, I demand it. But unlike him, I hope, in dealings with my students anyway, I see the wisdom of Portia, one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s female characters, and I know that it would have served Shylock well to heed Portia’s words and render mercy. And indeed, many times when a student asks for mercy, and I choose to give it, we are indeed both blessed. The student gets a chance to rectify whatever problem there is–attendance, poor performance in class, misbehavior in class, whatever it may be, and I get the satisfaction of helping a student succeed and truly learn something valuable.

Sometimes, however, that mercy is given, the student takes it, and then uses my act of mercy against me. This just doesn’t happen to teachers, of course, but I find that the teaching profession seems particular vulnerable to the ungrateful. I get so disheartened when this happens that I want to make a list of strict rules and never show any mercy whatsoever. Sometimes I think my colleagues and supervisors would be happier if my mercy were a bit less freely given. Now, I do have rules and high standards, but I temper them with mercy if I see that I can help the student. I just have to, you see, because of the mercy shown to me.

I remember when I was a senior in undergrad school. I was struggling, like a lot of my own students, with who I was and where I was going next. I was pretty smart and had a way with words, but I was so caught up in my life –meeting people and learning a new language and becoming a woman and discovering hidden talents, like acting and persuasive speaking, that I had, frankly, lost interest in my English studies.

I procrastinated with my paper and put it off and off that last semester of my first senior year that when I finally started working on it in earnest, I realized that it would be impossible for me to finish. I had to ask for an extension. I was truly scared when I walked into my professor’s office. He was intimidating because he was so brilliant as well as being the head of the English department. I didn’t think he even really knew my name. I was standing there and couldn’t speak. He finally looked up and said something, I can’t really remember, and I blurted it all out. Not all of “it” was absolutely true either, but he had mercy. He gave me the extension I requested without hesitation. Then he did something I never expected–He pointed to the chair and said, “Now sit down and tell me what’s really bothering you.”

I finished the paper that first semester of my 2nd senior year. I never had worked so hard on anything in my life. 35 pages comparing the works of Flannery O’Connor and Franz Kafka–two displaced people who didn’t fit in anywhere, so they became writers or maybe they were writers and that’s why they didn’t fit in. I still don’t know. Anyway, I could say I finally found my way while I was writing that paper, and it would be a lie. I could say I stopped procrastinating and learned my lesson; that too would be untrue. No, I worked that hard out of gratitude to the professor who showed me mercy. His mercy, freely given, was twice blessed.

So I lean towards mercy when I think that mercy is going to be best for the student, when the student has a chance of making real change in his or her life. However, the quality of mercy is not strained (or forced). If the mercy is to be at all, then it must come freely given from the person granting that gift. For example, Portia is a wise judge. She knows she cannot legally force Shylock to have mercy because then that mercy would simply be a violation of justice. True mercy requires true justice. So she appeals to Shylock’s sense of justice when she appeals to his mercy. But he doesn’t want justice. He wants revenge.

As we see later in the play, Shylock made a grave mistake not granting mercy–it led to his bankruptcy and loss of his only child–making the play a tragedy more than a comedy in my mind, so great is Shylock’s loss. But Shylock’s fall is inevitable because Shylock is so full of anger, justifiably so perhaps considering the anti-semitic society in which he lives, that he can not show mercy because mercy must be freely given.

Therefore, even if a student takes my merciful action and uses it against me, it is still a gift freely given in an attempt to help that student. If now that student is demanding mercy, I can not give it because it is not freely given and would corrupt justice.

However, if I truly believe that I am standing my ground for the sake of the student as well as the integrity of my profession, then I am blessed no matter how the student misuses my gift. If no one ever acknowledges that I did the right thing and some people rally against me because of my stand, I will still be blessed because I didn’t allow others to pervert my deep sense of justice.

I will continue to seek justice by upholding established policies and procedures, to fight for what is right, and I will continue to show mercy. Not because it is in my nature–it is not; not because my faith demands it–it does not. I show mercy out of gratitude–gratitude to the one whose unmerited favor has given me such a wonderful, abundant life.

Ronda J. Dalenberg: Sister Teacher

April 11, 2015April 11, 2015 / Katie Winkler / 2 Comments

My sister Ronda during her last summer trip with our extended family
Gulf of Mexico--August 2009

Four years ago my only sister died. She was my age now, 54, and for some reason, that makes this anniversary of her death especially painful for me. Until she had to retire early because of her illnesses, she worked for the federal government, Rural Housing, making low-interest loans so poor people could have a decent place to live. One day when I was visiting Alabama where she lived and worked, she drove me around to show some of the houses she helped build. She stopped in front of one that she was particularly proud of. It was a cute little brick home, but not just a little box like so many government houses I had seen. It had a large arched window in the front, white accents and other interesting features. She told me that the contractors she was working with now had found ways to make the houses unique but still keep the price low. “It doesn’t cost much to make a big difference in people’s lives,” she said.

Ronda loved science when she was in school and thought about being a veterinarian when she first started attending Auburn University, but she ended up getting her degree in Animal and Dairy Sciences. She thought when she was in school that she would end up managing some sort of barn or farm. She loved horses and dogs, especially, but no, she ended up working for the government making loans. When she first started working for the government, her department was called Farmers Home Administration. She needed to know about the economics of farming to assess lands, equipment and livestock when making loans, but things began to change and her main work at the end of her career was making home loans.

Ronda never seriously considered a teaching career. I remember that she tried to do some substituting at one time in her life and had a really bad time one day. She shook her head and said to me, “Why would you ever want to be a teacher?” Then we laughed at all the horrible things those little hellions did to her that day in the way people sometimes do when the bad times are over. I didn’t say anything to her then, but when I think about it now, I realize that my sister was one of the best teachers I ever had.

Ronda was the oldest and we used to tease her about how bossy she was. We compared her to Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip. She reveled in this comparison, holding her hand up to one of my brothers, saying, “I’ll give you five good reasons to quit that.” Then, one by one counting and curling her fingers to create a fist, just like Lucy famously did over and over in the Sunday funnies. She didn’t stop her bossiness when we became adults either. It used to infuriate me that she would dare to have an opinion about education and/or teaching when I was the professional educator, by golly! How could she tell me anything about education?

Things changed over time, of course. As I matured, enduring many successes and even more failures, I gained some of the humility that most acquire with time. There is one time in particular that Ronda made a comment about my teaching that ultimately changed my attitude about my career, even though at the time the comment stung like one of my Great Aunt Jane’s peach tree switches.

I was visiting my parents’ home where my sister was living. Her husband Donald is a truck driver, so he was gone a lot and her health was getting to the point that she didn’t want to live alone. As I often did, unfortunately, I was regaling the family about all my troublesome students, how they didn’t listen to directions and didn’t seem to care and how some were bilking the tax payers, just going to school to get a government check and on and on, ad nauseum. Ronda listened a long time and when I finally took a breath, she said, “You don’t sound like you like your students very much.”

I don’t remember what I said or did after that but I do remember that at first I was so angry at her. “How dare she?” “Doesn’t she know I was just blowing off steam?” But I couldn’t shake the feeling that my sister was right. It was then I knew I needed to go back to the reason I became a teacher in the first place–to help people be productive and find happiness in a job well-done–to help them lead better lives because of what they learned in my classes. How could I teach them effectively if I didn’t even like them? How could I care?

After that, I went back to teaching with a renewed sense of my students’ intrinsic worth. I began to look for the things I liked about my students–their humor, their love of life, their eagerness, their youthful spirits, their drive. I even found myself being somewhat amused, or at the least not angered, by their student-like failings–their procrastination and arrogance and rebellion. I know I’m a better teacher now because I decided that liking my students, enjoying them, makes me a better teacher.

I don’t know if Ronda ever knew in this life time what her simple observation did for me, but it is only one example of the way my sister has taught me to be a better teacher–and a better person. I think of her and I miss her all the time, but here on this fourth anniversary, the intense pain of her horrible death has been replaced with the joy of her life and what it meant to me and all those who have been blessed to have known her as wife, daughter, sister, cousin, friend, colleague, mentor and teacher.

More from the CAMPUS

March 11, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

Another frustrating day, so another installment from my musical in progress CAMPUS–a Satire of Higher Education in Appalachia. This song is sung by the arch villain of the piece–Mr. Mediocrity. An actor friend living in Raleigh who did a reading there for me suggested I rename him Governor Mediocrity. I might just do that. Anyway, here it is, folks, me venting my spleen, yet again.

Bread and Circuses

By Katie Winkler

(from the musical CAMPUS)

I consider myself

A student of history

The Romans had power

That’s no mystery

But how did the elite

Keep their society replete

With ignorant masses and slave labor

Don’t forget the gladiators?

How did they keep them from starving

Or stop them from harping

About their miserable condition?

Do you know what the secret is?

I’ll tell you

Bread and Circuses

They certainly do have their purposes

Everything will be just fine

If you keep them wined and dined

With a little food and relaxation

They’ll be ripe for some taxation

So give them

Bread and Circuses

Just not too much

I consider myself

A student of psychology

I sure know my way

Around society

Just a few things that they need

Enough to go out once a week

We keep open all McDonald’s

And Cracker Barrel too

These schmucks will pay good money

For that kind of food.

The finer restaurants need not fear

The rabble go to Red Lobster just once a year

Just give them

Bread and Circuses

I’m sure that’s what the answer is

As long as we don’t discriminate

Denying advancement to every race

Enough bad food and home entertainment

Will keep the proper containment

So give them

Bread and Circuses

Only just enough

The secret to giving them satisfaction

Is lowering their expectations

This is the secret to our democracy

Let the rabble live long, long lives of mediocrity

Living on

Bread and Circuses

If you want to know where the power is

Then open up your eyes

It’s the people who fill them with lies

That there’s no hope for anything more

When you’re born southern and poor

Just give them

Bread and Circuses

Then look away,

Look away

Dixieland.

Teaching Online–I Think I Like It

February 18, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

Kind of Fun to Teach Online

When I first started teaching online I found distance learning far inferior to traditional. Teaching has always been so interactive for me, so I didn’t see how I could capture the same dynamic in an online environment. I have found that I was absolutely right. The two environments are vastly different and require distinct teaching styles. However, that does not mean teaching online can not be as effective as teaching in the traditional classroom, and at times, I find online classes to be the better way to teach literature.

Of course, I have been teaching 200-level literature classes online for quite a few years and have had the freedom to develop my courses the way I see fit. I also am blessed at my college with an incredible distance learning support staff that have helped me solve problems and supplied me with the technological skills I need to continue improving my classes and lessening my grading load.

Earlier this semester, I presented a session on teaching 200-level courses online at the North Carolina Community College’s annual conference in Raleigh and thought I would share some of the information I presented there:

Course Structure

Provide Students with Resources, including
Examples, in Folders
Number Assignments
Provide Due Dates in Multiple Places
Post a welcome Letter and/or Video
Use multiple Avenues of Communication

Assignments–Combine Traditional and Non-Traditional

Traditional

Lecture (video or audio taped)
Class Discussion (through Discussion Forums, On-line Chats and Skype)
Written assignments (reader responses, essay tests, literary analysis

Non-Traditional

On-line Reading Quizzes
Kaltura Assignments
Audio/Video Response
SCROM Packages
Online Presentations

Some of My Favorite Assignments

Creative Projects
- Rewriting a scene from Beowulf using a different perspective
- Writing a Japanese Chain Poem
- Writing a poem in the style of one of the Romantic Poets
Film and Video
- Film Assignments—Watching a Modern British Film
- Youtube videos
  - Resources
  - Assignments
Kaltura Assignments (For Moodle Users)
- Lectures
- Directions
Travel Project–My All-Time Favorite
- $10,000 imaginary dollars to spend on the trip
  of a lifetime!!!
- 20% of the grade in this course
- Choose author and/or work to research
- Annotated Bibliography
  - Scholarly
  - Related to author, work and countries associated with both
  - Should not be purely biographical
  - Research the places in the work, too
- Travel Itinerary Presentation
  - Powerpoint or some other software
  - post on Travel Project Forum for all students to see 1
  - 14-day itinerary of a literary tour
  - I provide detailed examples of the annotated bibliography and the presentation.

If you would like more information about any of the above information, just contact me here at “Hey, Mrs. Winkler!” I’ll be glad to share.

On my next blog, I’ll discuss some advanced grading methods I use online to help with the heavy grading load that can be generated when teaching upper level online classes

Today Is What It’s All About

February 7, 2015February 8, 2015 / Katie Winkler / Leave a comment

Yesterday, I was discouraged, but today is a new day. Why? I went to rehearsal of my college’s new play. We’re performing a stage version of the movie Clue that is based on the old sleuthing board game so many of us know and love. The movie has an all-star cast, including the late great Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry (of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame), the fabulous Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren.

At auditions, there were so many fine actors that our director, head of the drama department, decided to have understudies for some of the roles, include a “household staff” that will serve as entertainment between scenes and then get their shot at the big roles during two additional shows. Great idea, and it’s what directors who are primarily good educators at community colleges do–make their lives much more complicated for the sake of their students as well as the community members who are also significant stake holders in their college.

Today’s rehearsal reflects what community colleges are all about–play production students coming early and staying late to work on the set, more seasoned actors helping the newer ones, agreeing with the director without argument, offering suggestions, happy to have them accepted or not, the director’s quick and non-embarrassing corrections when new actors make mistakes, each actor creating a story for his or her character, an occasional harmless joke, the joys of physical humor leading to laughter and a true knowledge of an art form that only comes with actually getting up and doing it.

This is educational theater and the essence of what liberal arts is all about–following directions, creative problem-solving, collaborating and creating. I’m so glad to once again be a part of it.

Also, today–my positive day–I want to give a shout out to the colleagues, support staff, administrators and students who helped me so much during this past discouraging week. I complain sometimes, but I truly just want to make things better for my fellow instructors and my students, especially my students. Nevertheless, I want to find more time to praise the people I work with who also have the welfare of all of our students foremost in their minds. I also appreciate those students and friends who have reached out to me this week, offering me respect and encouragement. Thanks, guys–you know who you are.