Carving the niche

We're getting there! Of Ferocious Tigers and Wild Strawberries is now titled, addressed, and ready for posting.

Methinks I hit a milestone.

Thus, time to set a new one: publish the first post! It's in the works -- believe it or not I'm writing a draft or two or ten before hitting that wonderful "publish post" key!

(Where did this side come from? Since when did I draft anything? Must've appeared in that personality blip I had, right about the same time I started typing my lecture notes and developing PowerPoint lectures.)

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For the curious, two answers:

1. The "niche" is to put my left-handed view of the world, my tendency to liken teaching to the business world, and my refusal to be left-brained into reworking the classroom. The same brain that made a former principal insane (she was often heard to mutter that I "just didn't get it," usually after I did something horrible like sit on my desk while having a discussion with my students) is now going to put fingers to keyboard on the topic of education and see what happens.

Last week I (figuratively) "resigned" from teaching. I told them it was their turn, that I was through with all this lecturing stuff, and that I wanted to treat them as employees and not students. The vast majority like the idea, so I'm going to run with it. Ferocious Tigers is going to explore this brave new lecture-free world.

2. Part of this niche was inspired by two particularly uninspiring workshop presentations I encountered last week. Both made me think about pulling my teeth out with a spork -- it would've been less painful. Both were so blah that I had no choice but to begin questioning what passes for conventional wisdom in the post-secondary classroom. I walk in each day and look at up to three generations in the seats before me, women who are bruised from their latest encounter with the ex, men whose long pants hide the ankle bracelet, and fresh-faced young adults who had a few kids before they were old enough to legally drink.

Let me tell you, if one more "expert" tells me that ice breakers will pack the students in and make them feel like school is the most important thing in life, I'm going to start convulsing from the utter stupidity of it all. I fail to see how a "tell me two truths and one lie about yourself" getting-to-know-you guessing game will make school more important then working overtime when the landlord threatens eviction.

(Can anyone clue me in on that one, please?)
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There you have it, readers. I'm carving that niche.
The next blog you read will be ferocious!