A Sense of Doubt blog post #1286 - A self-Introduction - For my students

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1286 - A self-Introduction - For my students

As many of you, my readers, know, I am currently still a teacher, despite my efforts to make a career change.

Today, Wednesday 1808.29, I re-entered the live class room for the first time and stepped up to do "THE SHOW."

I have a spiel. I get by.

I gave them a self-introduction assignment. Though this is NOT QUITE the form I have asked them to produce, it's what I have so go with it.

MY TEN THINGS LIST:

https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-sense-of-doubt-blog-post-1419-ten.html

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Greetings, Though my log-in reads as Christopher Tower, please call me Chris.

EDUCATION

I have worked as a college instructor of English, writing, communications, and media studies for over 20 years and as a professional, published writer for over 30 years. I have a Bachelor’s from Kalamazoo College in English and Theatre; I have two Master’s degrees: an MA in literature and an MFA in creative writing/fiction, both from Western Michigan University.

TEACHING CAREER

Over the last two decades, I have taught all manners of composition from basic grammar and introductory courses to literature analysis, business writing, technical writing, and creative writing. For the last ten years, I taught a media studies course examining intersections of gender and popular culture framed in a feminist perspective, as the course was offered by the university’s women’s studies department. I consider myself a critic of popular culture and its viral infotoxins:

BREAK THE MEDIA TRANCE!

WRITING

As a writer, I began my publishing career while still in high school writing a weekly column about magic (which I also used to perform) for the local village’s newspaper. Since then, I have published my fiction and poetry widely but have had more success with a variety of non-fiction, including work published in newspapers, regional and national magazines, reference books both academic and mass market, and private work for businesses. I maintain a couple of blogs as time permits and still publish theatre reviews in a local newspaper. Though I have not yet attained my dream of publishing a novel, I am at work on several and hope to finish one soon.

PERSONAL LIFE

On the personal side, I was married (0910.03) and have a wonderful family, as my wife has two kids. She is quite literally the woman of my dreams and the love of my life. I am ecstatically happy. Her kids are awesome, too!! Piper (23) is not quite done with college and may go to law school as of (1709.28), and Ivan (20) is the leader of a small surf-punk-rock band and often tours the Midwest. My wife and I smother with love our two dogs: our adorable BEAGLE puppy, Satchel Paige Tower [5] and Ellory Queen Tower [1 year in October of 2017]. They go on many long walks.

In August of 2017, I moved from my home in Michigan to Woodland, Washington, just north of Portland, Oregon. I am still not unpacked.

Ellory Queen

Ellory and Satchel

Satchel Paige

SCOTTISH!

Other family stuff, I am Scottish. I am actually more things than Scottish, but I have Scottish on both sides, so Scottish. My mother is Clan Angus.

STUFF

I volunteer at a local food co-op and am committed to promoting organic, local, healthy food. I play ultimate frisbee (which is a marvel of genetic engineering at my age), bicycle, and read voraciously. I also cleave to Baseball almost as if it were a religion (and thus giving the word its due capitalization). GO TIGERS!!!!!!! GO CUBS!!!!!!

BLOGS

Starting in March of 2013, I began a blog dedicated to t-shirts. It’s a daily writing exercise that I refer to as “my life in geek.” You are welcome to check it out if you wish. It’s to be located at

http://365-tshirts.blogspot.com/

You will find many explanations and tons of entries at that address. Enjoy exploring my world if you do look.

But lately (as of 1408.17), I have been blogging more at

http://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/

Check out my recent work there.








BACK TO SCHOOL

Also, I am going back to school myself (as of 1408.17) and studying Computer Science, so I will be able to commiserate with many of you about managing to get homework down around jobs, family, and life.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I am excited to be part of the faculty team at  FILL IN THE BLANK University. My teaching philosophy can be summarized best by the phrase: “student-centered.” I care deeply about my students and feel I put myself in their shoes as I provide them with helpful feedback. I teach writing as a writer, not just as a professional writer, but as a student of writing, still learning, always engaging critically with the written word and how I can use it to express ideas about the world.

As for my metaphor as a writer, I am Batman. I only come out at night, it’s very dark, and I punish the guilty.










INTERESTS
I am being quick with these lists and avoiding proper punctuation and such for expediency.

MUSIC: This is such a finite list. For the full spectrum, look at my blog, especially this entry here:

http://365-tshirts.blogspot.com/2013/06/t-shirt-97-kraftwerk.html

BUT... soundtrack to _Bladerunner_ most of the time.
Other times I am recently grooving to Cocteau Twins, Sade's _Love Deluxe_, Beth Orton, Portishead, Ani Difranco _Reckoning_, Radiohead _Kid A_, Bowie's _Low_ and _Heroes_ instrumentals, DJ Shadow, Moby Ambient, Eno's ambient one for airports, hooverphonic, Stereolab, art of noise, and Moby.

MOVIES and TV: Battlestar Galactica! What else is there? Handmaid's Tale. Game of Thrones. Singin' in the Rain. When Harry Met Sally. Bladerunner (and the new one). Heathers. Thirtysomething. Most SF and Creature Features. STAR TREK more than STAR WARS. That new Christopher Robin movie was AMAZING.

Me in Dawn Treader via Liesel - 1008.17

BOOKS: Oh so many... Again, lots of this on my blog.
A pretty good list is on GOOD READS:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1554684-chris-tower

Margaret Atwood is my favorite author. One of my favorite books ever is Wuthering Heights.
Here's a few more: House at Pooh Corner, the Tap of Pooh, Songs of Fire and Ice, Lord of the Rings, Dune, Handmaid's Take, Ready Player One, RedShirts by Scalzi (most anything by Scalzi), Walkaway by Doctorow (most anything by Cory Doctorow), Stephen King, The Martian, Binti, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Warren Ellis, esp. Planetary, Terry Pratchett, Orson Scott Card, esp. Ender's series, The Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and so many more.

Sports: ULTIMATE!! Then Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Football.

THE GOALS

Short term: Start riding my book. Lose some weight. YOGA. Get more teaching gigs (oh, just did that). Climb Mt. Hood (part of it). Organize my crap, esp. bills and stuff. Take a trip with my wife.

Long term: Get a job as a software developer. Finish one of my novels and publish it. Go all the places on my list (Iceland, Peru, Thailand, Italy).

Peace and huckles, chris

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1808.29 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1152 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

Stashing a bunch of images here that I use a lot in teaching.