Environment

If nothing else my room is as original as any in our school. I am quite the toy aficionado. Adhered to one of my storage compartment doors I have Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, and William Shakespeare action figures - all still sealed in their packages. On my computer sits a mini Godzilla. If you press his chest, his eyes glow red. Stashed high on a shelf are a miniature Rasputin and Hellboy (from the film and graphic novel “Hellboy”) that were gifts from a student when she went to Washington. Above them is a larger action figure version of Hellboy. To the left of that shelf is another with a sculpture of Yoda, from Star Wars, that I painted with my mother when I was 8. On top of that is a Cincinnati Bengals Orange County Chopper - still in its package. In the spirit of Halloween, I have another shelf devoted to my favorite ghoul - the werewolf. One is Todd McFarlane’s science fiction take on the classic wolf man monster. It is very gruesome with the wolf actually bursting out of the man’s body. Lots of blood and entrails. That one has been a big hit with the kids. (Of course, it took a tumble off the shelf last night and one of the pieces must have bounced into the garbage, which was then taken out. What are the odds of that. I have to admit with all of these things around, I spend way too much time scouring my desk and floor for missing pieces!) The other werewolf is actually a playset from Monsters Playsets. This one contains the monster, a hunter decked out in camouflage and a hollow tree. What is unique about this set is that it allows you to dismember the hunter. His head, arms, legs, and torso are all removable. Then the tree is hollow so you can stash the remains there. Another big hit with the kids. I tell them that the dismembered hunter is my stance on hunting.

Besides the action figures, my corner of the room is plastered with posters. I have a great painting of a volcano erupting on some alien planet that one of my students had made for me by street artist on their choir trip to New York. I have a drawing that one of my science fiction students did in place of a research paper. It’s a sketch from Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.” Montang’s wife, whose name I can’t remember now, sits in front of her wall to wall television room staring at the screens with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I have another sketch on my wall of a bloody rose - it was the cover of our 2004 creative writing anthology. And then I have one of my all time favorite pieces, a GAP add showing Hemingway coming out of his home cradling a calico cat. The advertisement reads “Hemingway wore khakis.”

My desk, the very same one I’ve had all of my years here, has now become covered with senior pictures the kids have given me. They are taped all over. I also have bits of poetry, song lyrics, Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, and Farside cartoons all over it as well. One student found an advertisement for a graphic novel version of “Beowulf” and brought that in and taped it to my desk. Also taped to the desk is a poem I wrote about inheritinga this desk from a retired teacher --

“The old teacher’s desk:
stubborn, worn, cranky, and proud.

The teacher’s new mind:
sharp, idealized, eager, and determined.

One will outlast the other.”

When I wrote that, I was rather assuming that it would be my mindset about teaching that would change. But as I look at the desk now - and how it has changed and how it continues to change - I realize that I’ve outlasted the desk.