BLOG 602 is the latest project from Keep Alex Weird, an effort to write a 900-word essay each day until Jan. 7. This is the fifth entry. We're still one behind, and trust us, we feel bad.
Today was one of those mildly-frantic “Christmas is right around the corner so we should probably go shopping and actually buy things rather than just walk around like we usually do” days. That was a good idea, so good that apparently everyone else with a car thought the exact same thing. Fort Wayne = pandemonium.
I spent a majority of the time book shopping. Bookstores have this effect on me, something about being around that much creativity gets the creative juices flowing. Usually I hang out in the magazines (cool fonts and pretty pictures!!!!!!!) but today I spent a lot of time with the art books (umm… cool fonts and pretty pictures!!!!). Anyway, the combination of creative juices and the approaching semester have proven to be a potent combination.
The closest thing to a day job I have is teaching COMM 210, Ball State’s basic public speaking course. The head of the COMM 210 program is amazing, and gives us graduate assistants lots of room when it comes to planning our individual classes, and while we have some basic guidelines, the way we accomplish the goals of the course are pretty much up to us.
Here’s what I’m thinking: what if you get rid as much of the traditional academic system as you can and replace it with a structure that encourages imagination and requires students to bring their own experiences into the classroom, rather than just memorizing a speech on why we should switch to solar power.
Let’s take the desks out of rows, and realize that doing that isn’t enough, if you’re going to create a sense of community, you can’t fake it, at some point you’ve actually got to create a community. Let’s ask big questions and not rush to trample over the silences that might just be the sound of thinking.
Rather than entering the semester preparing students to give informative and persuasive speeches over any old topic, let’s challenge them to tackle big issues and then spend the semester getting them to think about ways to go about it.
Let’s act like we work in a design studio, instead of a classroom. Let’s bust out the pipe cleaners and spend twenty minutes making twisty animals. Let’s discuss what Superman would have inscribed on the back of his iPod. Let’s plot out the world’s most interesting video game, or least interesting documentary.
Let’s give extra credit for toting around a notebook for writing ideas down, and more extra credit for writing things down.
Let’s accept the fact, please, that this is a class everyone has to take whether they want to or not and the least we can do is try and make it interesting. Let’s stop pandering to the least common denominator and remember that, regardless of what their application essays or SAT scores looked like, at some point everyone tied a towel around their neck and jumped off something or spread pots and pans on the floor and rocked the hell out.
Let’s consider the possibility that imagination can be revived in everyone, and that’s the key to good writing and good speaking. Forget everything else and remember what people look like when they’re explaining the great time they had over the weekend. Everyone’s a good speaker when they’re doing that, it’s something they know and care about. Let’s work to create that feeling as much as possible.
Let’s encourage coffee in class and silly hats and not raising your hand and Soulja Boy and admitting the fact that we’re only learning something because it’s on the final.
Let’s reward questioning everything; especially why this class looks nothing like anything else, especially any of the other classes students are required to take.
Sound like a plan? Sound like a not fully fleshed out plan? Good eye, skip. This is also a little short of my self-imposed limits, but I’m in a rule-breaking mode.
Peace.
