A Second Night at the Walsh Gallery, "To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common Home" -- This Time with Graduate Students Before They Read Ann E. Burg's FLOODED

One of the highlights over the years of teaching at Fairfield University is the special collaborations with the Bellarmine Museum, the Walsh Gallery, and their staff's expertise and vision. CWP-Fairfield and my classes have benefited from their work during Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters, as art often incites a wonderful connection to writing (and visual literacy). Their exhibit, "To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common Home" features three artists and their artistic reaction to climate change. The prompts given to the students, as well as Michelle DiMarzo's discussion, was a perfect way to kick-off Beers & Probst ideas about what a text purports, as well as Rosenblatt's Reader Response Theory. 

As always, I overplayed and got to 1/20th of what I hoped to accomplish, but I still believe in community, sharing, and bringing humans together to discuss ideas. I don't want it to be Bryan on the stage, but rather students staging themselves with their expertise. Sometimes, the conversations are more fruitful than what I had planned anyway. It's just I feel compelled to get the research citations in there so they know that how I go at instruction isn't some sort of whim. 

This morning I'm heading to Hill Central for World Read Aloud Day and to work with 4th and 5th grade classrooms. I only have an hour to give them, and I'm bringing students, so it should be a lot of fun. 

Temperatures have dropped once more and writing projects accumulate, so we'll see where the rest of the day goes forward. I keep saying to myself I can only control the spaces I occupy, the students who I can reach, and the people I love and will continue to love. All of what is happening is alarming, but it was promised, so this is where we are. The votes came in. Now I hope that intellect, law, knowledge, and history fight back. Only time will tell. 

And with that, I'm on the road again.