Holiday Blog Tag, Revisted
Before winter break, I was tagged by my friend Rebecca at Writopia Lab, when there was still all sorts of warm holiday spirit in the air. I was asked to do a post answering, “Who are the teachers who have most personally influenced you and how?”
At the time I was finishing a big paper and getting ready for Christmas and New Year travels. Down in Naples, Florida, a lamp post, some rain, and a bundle of cable got in an argument about race, so there was no internet for an eternity. On 01/03/08 I came home to properly celebrate the self-invented Misfits Day (138) and since then, have randomly declared myself to be On Vacation when I wasn’t working on wonderful things.
A few days ago I twittered thinking about an old teacher, snuggled back down into my delicious vacation, and knew that soon I’d get back to posting more than 140 characters at a time.
I have always wanted to thank my fifth grade teacher Ms. Criste for teaching my class grammar up through the eighth grade level. Not at all pushy or competitive, she made everything interesting, and was supportive and generous when it came to whatever interested us. I used to love writing these awful clause and preposition-laden sentences that I would then ask her to diagram on the chalkboard like this. Ms. Criste is undoubtedly the reason I was in advanced classes later, why I felt comfortable learning other “languages” (programming too) and probably the first person who pushed me beyond what would have been acceptable performance.
Before my MFA program there was lots of DIY workshopping, and it was lead by Rebecca Wallace-Segall, who is an amazing critic, teacher, advice-giver, truth-teller and friend. I met her with a few others every week for two years in her Upper West Side apartment. She helped edit some of my grad-school application manuscript, wrote me recommendations, and is currently inspiring me to teach. She also loves bunnies on the for real.
I’m not going to tag anyone, because it could feel like homework, but if anyone wants to keep this going I encourage it. Let me know if you do. xo
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