A quick trip through some ideas about writing that I personally would like to live forever—a companion to last month’s crowdsourced theme “The Idea about Writing You Most Want to Die” that I discussed with that brilliant panel of educators at Bread Loaf (004).

Five-paragraph essays. Writing for the teacher only. That careful writing is for English compositions but not lab reports. That there's a formula for "good" writing. What is the idea about writing (or the teaching of writing) you'd most like to die? For this episode, a panel of current Master's students at the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English consider a range of answers to this question. 

Paula Roy is the teaching supervisor who hired me to work at Westfield High School in New Jersey in 1997. In our conversation, we talk about the possibilities and the challenge of supervising teachers; how to establish a safe, yet challenging space for classroom discussion; why sarcasm doesn't work in groups; feminism as an f-word anybody can embrace; and poetry as a way to see how everything is connected. 

The current state of political discussion shows that somebody's got to provide a place for people to learn to listen and challenge each other respectfully. Veteran principal Dr. Robert G. Petix shares some ideas about this, as well as the difference between really leading a school and merely managing it.

My pilot episode showcases a conversation with Kevin Johnson, sound engineer, director, television teacher--and a former student of mine. We open with Quentin Tarantino's definition of the frame as the basis for cinema. From there we discuss the technical (but useful) distinction between learning and acquiring skills, characters' names on Cheers, the many demands facing teachers today, and a different take on designing a school's master schedule.