I remember the first time I read J. Drew Lanham's very brief essay "9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher" in Orion--I immediately decided my creative nonfiction students had to read it, and then I made them write their own essays in the form of lists, which is not nearly as easy as Lanham makes it look. His nine brief rules beautifully braid together ideas about race, extinctions, expertise, and, of course, birds. I've read other things by Lanham over the years but nothing that made me happier than the news announed this week that he's one of this year's recipients of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant. Sometimes good things happen to good people, and when they do, this makes me very happy.
I didn't feel much like a genius this morning when I showed up to my composition class prepared to discuss the wrong reading assignment. Someone mis-read the syllabus and that someone was me. Oops. Somehow I pulled together a meaningful discussion but if my teaching skills were evaluated solely based on this morning's class, I'd be seeking another line of work.
But I did do one brilliant thing this week: I invited a former student to share his considerable expertise with my Honors Lit students, who are working their way through Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. My former student spoke about Civil War weaponry, using pictures, props, and hands-on activities to help my students understand the experiences of soldiers on the battlefield. It makes me happy to see a former student shine in front of the classroom, so I was grinning my head off this morning. Someone should give that dude a prize!
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