renée a. schuls-jacobson
Post-Museum Trippy Lessons on Drugs
Last Sunday, I took my 11-year old to see the recent exhibit at our local museum called “Psychedelic Art: Hallucinogens and their Impact on the Art of the 1960s.”
I could hardly have been less prepared….
Guest Post by Megan Killinger: Lessons From The Spectrum
This personal narrative was written by Megan Killinger, a student in one of my Composition-101 classes during the Fall-Winter 2010 semester….
Guest Post by Leanna Best: Lessons From Javan
This piece was written by Leanna Best, a student in one of my Composition-101 classes held at Monroe Community College during the Fall-Winter 2010 semester….
Lessons on an Elevator
On my last hour on campus during the fall-winter 2010 semester, during my last elevator ride down from the English/Philosophy Department, I experienced the most interesting confrontation/ conversation. Ever….
Teacher's Pets: It's Not What You Think
They say some folks are dog people and some are cat people.
Sadly, I guess we are the people who can’t be either….
End of Semester Gratitude
The Fall-Winter 2010 semester is over for me. My grades have been reported. My unattractive yet functional wheelie bag has been dumped of its contents and placed with the rest of the luggage — in the nether regions of the basement. Today, I am getting my hair high-lighted. It has been fifteen weeks since my last highlight or cut. (The straightening thing doesn’t count.) Don’t even ask about the state of my fingernails at the moment. I have a way of letting certain things go during the semester. But now it is time to catch up….
Cat Fight
Back in April, hubby and I went outside to play a nice light game of tennis, just to bat a few balls around – no need for keeping score, no problem with hitting a ball that has bounced three even four times.
In the middle of our friendly little game, a cat jumped from the top of the fence surrounding the court into a nearby tree. Squawks ensued and shplat! a whole nest of baby birds fell onto the court, right at hubby’s feet. One was critically injured. Its neck had been severed and its legs were spread out every which way. One hopped off into the nearby bushes to take cover (you might say, the smart one of the bunch), and the third hopped, stumblingly, across the court towards the net, trying to escape impending doom. Meanwhile, the mama bird screeched loudly. Shrieking. I imagined she was calling, “My babies! My babies!”…
Lessons From Nan, Who Passed On June 16, 2004
I will always remember Nan, wearing a snazzy pair of purple pants, sitting on the gold couch in my parents’ living room. Just sitting quietly, patiently, watching my brother and me as we made up games or put on little shows. Many years later, she would sit in the same place, doze off an on, awaking with an almost apologetic smile. Agatha Christie once said, “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable . . . but through it all, I know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” I believe Nan knew this, too….
Contemplating Quitting The Classroom
I have been thinking that this will be my last semester in the classroom. It’s been a hard year for a variety of reasons, but I have been thinking I just am not connecting with my students the way I used to. Part of it may be that I am getting older. I have somehow become an “old-fashioned teacher” who doesn’t show movies, rely on Smart Boards or Power Point presentations. In other words, I have always been able to “be my own show,” create my own bells and whistles, and that was enough. I was enough.
This year is different. I feel… old….
Grammar & Facebook Do Not Mix
While I am definitely a Facebook fan, I do not enjoy what social media (and texting and the media in general) is doing to our language. it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a set of rules upon which we can all agree are necessary to follow. Because, really, that’s all the conventions of writing are….