Curiosity Killed the Cat....but Satisfaction Brought Him Back

I suppose the allure of studying myths is their mystery-factor. They are stories accounting for things that are not quite understood or accounted for, and the very fact that they have not been—and often cannot be—historically or scientifically proven, makes them so much more attractive to those who study them. This, at least, is the reason why I enjoy them so thoroughly.

I believe that a common driving force amongst all humans in general is curiosity; therefore, I’ve always considered myths a product of our curiosity. I think this is why the activity of creating our own myths was so enjoyable. It gave me the chance to think about things I’ve always been curious about. I particularly liked the process of coming up with ways to link seemingly unconnected elements with the goal of creating one common goal: creating and satisfying my personal wonder, and at the same time, come up with a plausible explanation for seemingly unexplained phenomena.

I would hope to offer this experience to students in a classroom setting. I would first introduce them to a few common myths in order to draw parallels between their storylines and structures. I would also introduce ways in which the discussed myths could be told differently in order to further clarify their structures. I would then (like we did in class) ask the students to create a myth in order to internalize the structure and purpose of myths in general. I would emphasize the importance of audience awareness and encourage the students to consider creating myths that could satisfy their curiosity about a certain phenomenon. I might consider doing this project in groups to promote collaborative skills as well as students' creativity.

Both sides of the poetry spectrum...

I found myself thinking about my ex-roommate during our class the last couple of weeks. She was a creative writer, and I was “the lit kid,” as she would call me. I read and then wrote based on what I had read and researched, but she just wrote. She would sit at her lap top, hours on end, whispering and murmuring the lines and words she juiced out of her just to finish the assigned poem or short story that was due the next day. The reason why I’ve been thinking of her is because of the in-class assignments we’ve been working on. I think—no believe—that had she taken a more hands-on approach during her writing process as we did recently in class, she would have enjoyed her undergraduate years for more than just a time of “blood, sweat, and tears,” as she calls them. I think that creating poetry actively and engaging more creative senses than just writing (like pasting, cutting, and coloring) would have helped her tremendously, and most important of all, it would have made her writing process much more enjoyable.

As the “lit kid,” I am used to reading and analyzing poems. I’ve also (like many of us) been introduced to the ‘technical aspect’ of poetry: the breakdown of lines, stanzas, rhythm and rhyme. I’ve also been introduced to the conventional, classic and contemporary poems and have had to analyze the content, context and devices used by the author to create the poetry. However, besides the odd creative writing class I’ve taken here and there, I’ve never really been introduced to the techniques or tools that could help me create poetry. I was always just expected to spit out a piece of work onto the page. I think that activities like these would help students not only become engaged within the class and with poetry, but I think the activities will help them gain a sense of control, because oftentimes, the hardest part of writing poetry is not knowing where to begin, or where to end.

Hello and welcome!

My name is Sevan and this is my first blog. Ever. It’s not that I vehemently rejected blogs up to this point, or that I stayed away because I had no clue as how to start one (although the latter definitely added on to the overall reluctance), it was that I felt that I would not be able to feel engaged with something I knew absolutely nothing about. Even though I teach writing and have been reading other people's writing for as long as I can remember, I was convinced that I would never be able to include myself in the alien “world of blog” (insert voice echo here). So as I sit here in front of the screen of my pc, writing my first blog, I realize now that the barrier which was keeping me from delving into writing (and reading) blogs was probably one of intimidation. I never actually stopped to think about it, but I was (and still very actively am) intimidated by this whole process: I’m entering a cyber room full of people, and in a sense, throwing my words to the wind…

But now I'm thinking about my potential audience, something I remind my students of when they write any assignment: "Always remember who you're trying to communicate with." Even though I haven’t used blogging as a teaching device, I have used WebCT quite a bit, along with online research databases. But mainly, the internet is an integral part of the courses I have taught. It’s an invaluable source for students’ writing projects and research, but surprisingly, I find that the internet serves as inspiration for young writers. I think this inspiration stems from the fact that surfing the internet for information has become second nature to students; they’re comfortable in their virtual environment, and I wholeheartedly believe that incorporating media (including the internet, forms of mass media, and technology) creates a productive learning environment conducive to a student’s academic needs. Mmm...maybe I should start incorporating blogging into my lesson plans!