A Great Big Howdy from an English Prof Who Gets Lit

Hi, y’all! My name is Renée ( @nayzer ), and I joined Steemit at the urging of my best friend, @jrhughes—since she’s basically the smartest person I know, I tend to take her recommendations to heart—so now I’m busy exploring and learning the ropes around here. Thus far, I’ve seen that one of the best ways to get started is to take some time to write an introductory post, so here I am and here it goes:

I’m a professor of English at a community college in East Texas. My husband and I have been married for a little over 14 years, and we have two wonderful daughters. The best way I can describe myself is as a geeky nerd (but in a cool way) and an intellectual/philosophical dabbler. I imagine I’ll mostly be using Steemit to write about my experiences in post-secondary education and read what others have to say on the subject. I’m especially interested in reading about others’ teaching strategies and instructional activities. I may also try my hand at some book/movie/television reviews, and I’ll almost certainly be a frequent visitor of the humor blogs.

My educational background is in literature and linguistics, and I like to put that to work in the classroom side-by-side with my interests in pop culture and gaming. I teach mostly freshman composition courses, which means each semester I get to attempt the nigh-impossible feat of effectively teaching standard American English grammar without boring my students to tears. Luckily, I don’t have to stop at grammar; I also work on elements like critical thinking, argument, analysis, research, and style.

Don’t get me wrong; I adore grammar, just not in that terribly restrictive, always-correcting-people way that you might be thinking. Instead, I think of it as a sort of technical skill that many people haven’t needed to nurture much in the course of their lives because “poor” grammar doesn’t particularly impede their communication (I mean, look at how many people have absolutely no idea what to do with apostrophes [not apostophe’s] and are still doing just fine). I’m also a big fan of slang and colloquialism because I find language change fascinating, but that creates a bit of a snag when part of my job is to help students achieve an academic tone in their writing.

When I do teach literature (typically as part of the second half of Freshman Comp, but often American Lit to 1865), I find that most of my time and energy is spent on demonstrating to my students that the texts we’re working with can be relevant to them even if they never take another English course in their lives. It’s no easy endeavor, mostly because almost all the students I teach are only in my class because of their degree requirements, not their love of reading (in the four years since I began teaching, I’ve taught only three English majors). When I have a room full of students who really, really don’t want to be there, and who really, really don’t like reading, I take it as a personal challenge to “convert” at least a few of them.

Some other things you might like to know about me are that I enjoy genre fiction (especially dystopia, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror), video games (mostly RPGs), board games, word games, movies, TV, language, memes, and puns. My favorite topics of thought and discussion (and sometimes ranting) are equality, liberty, feminism, and psychology. I’m by no means an expert on any of those topics, but I go where my curiosity leads me and I have a genuine love of learning and growth.

I’m looking forward to being part of the Steemit community, so thanks in advance for your interest and support. I'm sure I'll start finding some great folks to follow in no time!