For the last two weeks I have been teaching a creative writing fiction workshop at PCC. While my degree is technically in Creative Writing Fiction, all of my teaching experience has been in literature and composition. So, it was with a degree of timidity that I walked into that classroom two weeks ago. I was mildly sweaty and unsure of myself.
Later that day, I even drove out to Forest Grove to talk with my mentor from grad school. He was in town from Michigan and I had to pick his brain. He asked me how I laid out the class, what were my assignments, and then he simply nodded and said, "Yep, sounds about right."
That was my first sign that things were all right.
My second sign came in the classroom today. I had decided before the class had even begun that I would translate my graduate essay into a lesson or two. Today was that lesson. As I showed them examples of stories I loved and the craft elements I had identified, I saw students nodding. The lecture made sense to them.
This lesson plan was developed from about a year and a half of the most intensive reading and writing I had ever done. It was the labor of months. To see it translated in the classroom today, to know that I had developed an "expertise" on this topic made me take a deep breath and relax into my role as workshop leader. I may not know it all, but I know some stuff that will be useful to these young writers.
We begin workshopping stories on Thursday. Color me excited!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment