Summer of the Sublime

This summer was one of "terrible beauty," to borrow a phrase from W. B. Yeats.  One moment, I'm photographing the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen, utterly transfixed by their weird architecture, their alien and exotic anatomy. 

Yellow Lady Slipper, past its prime, Munger Trail

The next moment, I'm walking down a hot, humid Memphis street, in an economically-depressed section of town, turning the corner and looking up at the iconic Lorraine Motel sign that marks the spot of one of our nation's greatest tragedies. 

Not long after that, I'm looking through the window into the very room Martin Luther King, Jr occupied before he was killed.  

Room 306, Lorraine Motel, National Civil Rights Museum,
Memphis, TN

I'm a very visual thinker, so the clash of images was not only sudden and extreme, it was sublime--that particular mix of beauty and horror that has long fascinated the philosophers.  As I took pictures of the Lorraine Motel, I was aware of many things: 

Lorraine Motel sign, National Civil Rights Museum,
Memphis, TN

• One, that I was trying to get good shots of the Motel, just as I had tried to get good shots of the flowers; that I was thinking like an amateur photographer about composition, framing, lighting, etc; that I was trying to produce beautiful images; 
• Two, that trying to produce beautiful images of a tragic place might be inappropriate, might even be sacrilegious, might ultimately soften the viewer's consciousness of the horrible events that took place there;  
• Three, that I was in Memphis to attend a conference for educators and while the schedule of events included a party on Beale Street, there was no mention of the National Civil Rights Museum; that the exhibits are clearly designed for school-groups, and they directly address teachers, asking them to reflect on their civic and social responsibilities (the NCRM is a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience that helps turn memorial sites into springboards for positive action);  
• Four, that museums and educators alike must face the question of how to produce attractive (or engaging) exhibits and lessons about horrific histories; that beauty draws us in to look and learn, and then horror asks us to question our comfortable assumptions; that maybe it's those collisions of beauty and horror that stick with us the longest.    

  

  Small bee inside Yellow Lady Slipper, Munger Trail

   

I don't know…What do you think?  Let me know!  

Students in both English 12 and AP Lit & Comp will explore the concept of the sublime this year, in relation to several texts, but especially while reading Frankenstein.  Beauty and horror, people--that's what it's all about.  And, by the way, those beautiful flowers?  They're monsters who love to capture little insects!  

Year of the Guinea Pig!

So, beginning with the 2013/2014 school year, all Upper School students at Marshall will have laptops and bring them to class each day.  That will change things in ways I can imagine (I'll never have to sign out or bring my students to a computer lab ever again!) and ways I can't (ask me at the end of the year!).

I'm very excited about all the possibilities.  I can plan for more in-class writing opportunities, and I can also take immediate advantage of ideas for technology-based activities that arise in the course of a lesson or class discussion.

One possibility I want to explore is blogging.  I hope to be able to get each senior in the class of 2014 to blog regularly.  What will students do in their blog posts?  I'll ask them to explore and reflect on

• what we're reading, studying, and discussing in class; 
• their ideas for papers and projects;
• their experiences during their final year at Marshall;
• and their college application and decision process.

I also hope that their blogs will eventually become a place where they can share parts of who they are with the school community by posting creative pieces in all kinds of media (writing, photography, music, video, etc).

Besides writing/creating their blogs, I hope students will also read their classmates' blogs, so that eventually we'll have a digital writing community in which everyone is sharing thoughts and ideas all the time.  

This is going to be a year of experiments, for teachers and students, and while we won't always be successful in everything we try, I hope we will all be willing to take some risks, do new things, and see what happens!  Let's all be guinea pigs together!

Snapshots of my Summer

When I think back on my summer, two experiences stand out, one personal and one professional.  Below, you'll find some pictures I took that are related to both.  

Cypripedium parviflorum, Munger Trail

As is my habit in the summer, I spent my mornings biking on the Munger Trail, taking pictures of the wildflowers that grow there.  I've taken hundreds of photos of the Yellow Lady Slippers that are so common along the trail, but each year as I get to know the trail better, I find new patches of them.  This year was no exception.  

Cypripedium reginae, Munger Trail

I also set a new goal for my summer:  to see a Showy Lady Slipper (the state flower), and I did!  I found one blooming on Munger Trail, and I also travelled up near Bemidji, along the Lady Slipper Scenic Byway, where many more Showy Slippers bloom.  I was able to get there at the right time to see them at their peak.  I was astounded by the quantity of flowers growing right by the side of the road.  I am already planning to go there again next spring and take more pictures.  

There are even more Lady Slippers (hundreds of thousands, so folks say) up near Baudette, so maybe next year I'll go there, too. 

Cypripedium reginae, Lady Slipper Scenic Byway, near Bemidji, MN

Later, in mid-July, Madame Greenan, Ms Oswald, Mr Lockhart, and I went to Memphis, TN, for the Lausanne Learning Institute Conference.  I hadn't been to a professional conference in a while, and this was supposed to be a good one, focused on helping teachers use technology effectively in the classroom.  (I guess it was a good conference, because here I am blogging, and thinking about ways to get students to blog, too!)  I think we all felt like we learned a lot.  One of the best things was finding out that many, many other schools are going through the same 1:1 transition that we are.

Lorraine Motel, National Civil
Rights Museum, Memphis, TN

When we weren't attending conference sessions, we checked out the National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis.  It consists of a couple buildings, one of which is the Lorraine Motel, where Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated.  You can walk up on the balcony and look in the window of the room he occupied, which has been preserved.  Mahalia Jackson sings "Precious Lord" over the sound system as visitors walk past.  The motel is being renovated to turn the rest of it into additional museum-space.  The current exhibits are across the street in the boarding house from which James Earl Ray shot MLK.  

Lorraine Motel sign, National Civil Rights
Museum, Memphis, TN

The now-converted boarding house not only exhibits an extensive collection of artifacts from the investigation into the assassination, but it also chronicles the entire history of the Civil Rights Movement.  We spent an intense and unforgettable few hours there, and I'm really glad I had the chance to see it.  The finished museum is scheduled to open next year.  Madame and I want to go back next year, perhaps to present a session at the conference, and also to see the finished museum.

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