Teaching Thoughts for January

Happy start of second semester. Well, at least for us at Lincoln. It is hard to believe that we are at the half way point of the school year. As I was reflecting on what to write about for this message to accompany January’s Teaching Thoughts, I thought of a passage from Matthew Kelly’s Holy Moments, which the Men’s Prayer Group at St. Bernard’s bought copies of for the parish. I have been reading it each time I attend Adoration.

 

Kelly has this story early on –

 

            The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa talk about “the Two Hungers.” There is the Great Hunger and the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger yearns for food while the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning.

            “There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning. There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has meaning for you, it is irrelevant whether you’re happy or unhappy. You are content.” This was the beautiful and profound observation of the South African author Laurens van der Post.

            We pretend hunger baffles us. We try to feed our hunger in a thousand ways, but still our hunger remains, because it will only be satisfied with meaning. We cannot thrive without meaning. Our need for meaning is as urgent and unceasing as our need for water.

 

It seems to me that this is always a great time to reflect on what gives each of us meaning. In terms of teaching, I always go through this same roller coaster: I start each semester with immense hope, but then about six weeks in, I begin to wonder if I even know what I’m doing. Doubts like these creep in: Am I wasting my students’ time? Am I even making any type of difference? Are they truly prepared for college as a result of my classes? Do I really know what I am doing? Is anything getting through? What if they find out I am a fraud? I have never quite gotten to that ‘content’ stage of meaning when it comes to my teaching.

 

That roller coaster has been going on for the past 25 years now. It never gets easier. However, with about two weeks remaining in each semester, a little bit of hope shines through. A student will make a great comment during a class discussion or they will totally crush a final paper or I will hear two students talking shop during class as they guide each other through an assignment or I will see a student at a game and they will express how excited they are to have my class next semester or they will leave a kind note or text message . . . giving me hope for the new classes coming my way and for who I am as a teacher. 

 

I am reminded of some advice one of the greatest teachers I ever had, Dr. Mark Christianson, gave me: Be present for your students in the time you have with them. Listen to them. Guide them. Be the best you can for them in that time. Then, when they are gone, let it go. Don’t hang on to your frustrations or fears. There is always another class coming in for you to start all over again.

 

I will admit that, especially early on in my career, those words – usually delivered in weekly emails from Mark – brought much needed solace and contentment to me. His advice has been like a life preserver for me over the years. So, what advice helps you through the tough times and what gives you meaning in this crazy profession of ours? I would love to hear.

 

Inside the Teaching Thoughts newsletter for January, you will find –

 

Images – 

 

Check out the image on “The Impact of a Book.” It is amazing. I think one thing that gives me meaning as a teacher is the power of books. It might be seeing the power the book Wonder or The Giver had on my own children when they read them at CES and FMS, respectively, or the times I see students light up when they read a book on my classes. This might be tears at the end of Will Weaver’s Claws in my English 9R class. It might be when a student comes in shocked at the end of Of Mice and Men. Or even when they confess that they stayed up all night to power through the end of The Travelling Vampire Show because it was just that good of an SSR book! I would love to hear how books have impacted you and your students.

 

The World is a Fine Place – 

 

We all need as much positivity as we can, so I included three examples of positive news stories this month. Check out the third one. When I read that, it was the kick in the behind I needed to get motivated. How dare I sleep in, not workout, procrastinate blowing out the driveway when alligators are doing this! As my dear wife said, “Well, you know, there must be a reason they have survived for hundreds of millions of years.” Let their adaptation and perseverance be a lesson to us all.

 

Book of the Month –

 

I Love it Here by Clint Pulver. This was a gift from a friend, and it is just what I needed. The premise of the book is incredible – Clint runs “The Undercover Millennial,” which infiltrates businesses and lets their owners and leaders know what their employees and team members really think of the culture and atmosphere of the organization. Pulver opens the book with this scenario – he and several other leaders are talking with a successful business owner. The man is bragging about how his business model has adapted and evolved to fit the on-line shopping needs of his customers. Pulver then asks a simple question – “How have your employees adapted to this new business model?” This stopped the CEO in his tracks. He said that his employees are great and haven’t missed a bit.

 

Then Pulver decides to see for himself. And that is when the idea for “The Undercover Millennial” is born, for the first five employees he talked to were not happy with their roles and jobs at all. In fact, most were ready to leave the moment they found something better.

 

This was the jolt I needed because how often do we as teachers, coaches, administrators, leaders just assume that everyone is happy because they are showing up and doing the work? That is a massive assumption to make and one that can doom a team, staff, or organization.

 

Teaching Thought for January –

 

Take a look at this. If you are starting new classes, it is a great chance to put this tip into practice. Candidly, this is one of the most enjoyable things about my job and one that gives it so much meaning.

 

What I Love About Teaching –

 

Forging those special moments – even from mistakes – with students over the course of a class. There is nothing like them. You know the kind – these are the moments that when we run into each other five or ten years down the road, we will both grin and say, “Remember when you did . . .” and then share that moment again. I had the pleasure of having that just happen to me a few weeks ago when I ran into a former student at the gym.

 

Podcast of the Month – Remarkable People Podcast by Guy Kawasaki

 

Kawasaki is an amazing thought leader and venture capitalist. In this series of podcasts, he sits down with some legendary (hence the very title of the podcast) leaders to pick their brains. This specific episode features someone I had never heard of before (and isn’t that what is so great about podcasts – it’s so easy to have access to incredible new ideas from people we would never have heard of before) Tom Peters.

 

Article of Interest for the Month – ChatGPT? Will it Doom High School English Classes? Maybe That isn’t Such a Bad Thing.

 

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard about the AI bot/program ChatGPT, which basically allows the user to type in some parameters for a paper, poem, short story, article . . . and then the bot/program will write it for you. And it won’t show up on “Turn It In” or other plagiarism detection services.

 

If you are a composition teacher, this is The End of Times. But maybe it doesn’t have to be. How can we use this to our advantage? How can we devise assignments or methods of teaching writing – and I’m not talking about going back to the stone age of having kids write things down on paper with pencils in cursive – that ChatGPT just couldn’t pull off? That’s the kind of thinking we need.

 

And don’t think your students aren’t already exploring this. I just finished up all of my CC 1 final novel research papers. And there is one I highly suspect of using ChatGPT for the last half. I can’t prove this, of course, but I did raise questions to the student asking how could they – in the span of seven pages – go from misspelling the title of their novel and several of the main characters to then using the words “dissipates” and “correlates” correctly to analyze an example of their final theme? Something is fishy to me.

 

Bonus content of the Month –

 

Check out the link to the blog post on the Top 10 Tech Tools for 2023. ChatGPT is on there for sure!

 

Have a great 2023! Keep sending me feedback and ideas and resources. I love them all. 

 

Below is the link to Teaching Thoughts for January 2023 newsletter. 

Teaching Thoughts for November

 And just like that a quarter of the year has come and gone! I saw on social media that someone posted “Don’t forget to set your clocks from sunshine and happiness back to misery and despair this weekend.” I tend not to share that view point, but these last few years sure have felt like that. So here is to hoping this month’s Teaching Thoughts newsletter can extend some of sunshine and happiness awhile longer.

 

Inside this month’s newsletter you will find –

 

The World is a Fine Place and Worth Fighting For – See actor Jack Black take some time to grant a gravely ill fan a brief one on one performance as he sings a song for the young person from his classic, School of Rock.

 

Book of the Month – If you take nothing away from this newsletter, please take away this book recommendation (which Dr. Henry suggested when she spoke to my class a few weeks ago): The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. He has one of my all-time favorite TED Talks, and his book is an extension of that. Achor examines the backwards belief that success leads to happiness. He believes the constant drive to be successful and then changing the parameters of success to mean more success, which means longer hours, more sacrifices, less time with family . . . is really a recipe for disaster. And you can see that in the skyrocketing rates of depression, anxiety, and stress everywhere you look.

 

Teaching Thought for November – This tip works well with Achors’ book. If you’re a teacher, and you attend a professional development conference or find a new curriculum, don’t over extend yourself and try to implement too many new ideas. Aim for incremental improvements over the long haul. I have learned that lesson the hard way over the past 25 years.

 

Why I Love Teaching – Having a chance to make an impact. And I’ll be honest here, it is getting harder and harder to come up with these, even if I have reduced the number of newsletters I publish from once a week to once a month. So if you have examples of why you love teaching, please send them to me. I need the inspiration, and I would love to feature them in here.

 

Podcast of the Month – Entreleadership “How to Become a Better Leader and Stop Being Just a Boss.” You can rarely go wrong with the Entreleadership podcast. And this episode was just what the doctor ordered. The keys that doom leaders? Pride, lack of clarity, and fear. 

 

Video of the Month – Family Travels the World Before their Children Lose their Vision. This story is amazing. Talk about putting things in perspective. How dare I complain about something as trivial as not having more time to get our final grades in when there are families like this one sacrificing so they can cram a lifetime of images into the lives of their kids before their vision fails them!

 

Give This a Try in Your Classroom – Seminars. This comes from the amazing Jennifer Gonzalez and her blog/podcast The Cult of Pedagogy. Seminars are quick (10 minutes or so) mini-lessons that the teacher offers during class (and students are free to sign up for on their own if they need remediation or deeper content or to clarify a skill) while the rest of the class is working independently. I’m going to implement these in my CC 1 and CC 2 classes.

 

Article of Interest – My sister, Barb, sent me this amazing story. Again, talk about perspective. This article recounts a young man in California who graduated valedictorian while being homeless for his entire high school career! Again, I need to keep this guy’s plight in mind when things get stressful for me (like when our internet went out last week. That’s not a problem that a trivial inconvenience). What if we all had this young man’s grit and tenacity?

 

Bonus content of the Month – Think about implementing KRA’s in your classroom or with your teams. What are KRA’s? Key Result Areas. These help to clarify for students or your workers what areas they need to excel in – and thus what tasks or jobs they need to do in those areas – in order to be successful. Talk about a road map to success!

 

I hope you have a great second quarter. Enjoy it. Things are going to start moving quickly now with Thanksgiving coming up and then Christmas vacation. In fact, the day after Halloween, it was time to break out the Christmas songs!

 

PS – the background to this month’s newsletter is of Charlie Brown from his Thanksgiving special. I know technology is great in that my kids can literally watch any show any time they wish thanks to streaming services, but there was just something magical about knowing everyone in your neighborhood paused their nightly activities to sit around the TV and watch once-a-year specials like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and, in this case, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Teaching Thoughts for October

 Teaching Thoughts Newsletter for October

 

Can you believe we are already in October (one of my favorite months with one of my favorite holidays)? This week is already mid-term. Blink and the Christmas displays will be out in stores (if they aren’t already).

 

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves though, I thought I would share something that Nevin Lubarksi, principal at Sacred Heart in EGF shared with his staff at their beginning of the year in-service session. My nephew, Matt Schmitz, is Associate Pastor Chaplain there and told my sister, Barb Schmitz, about Mr. Lubarski’s incredible presentation. Knowing how much I love inspirational stories, Barb didn’t hesitate to share it with me when she made it to one of Kenzie’s volleyball games.

 

The main message of the presentation was on the dangers of negativity. Now we all have difficult days, but I don’t know if you have noticed lately, but a lot of negativity is going around like a terrible cold. I’ve had boughts of it too. But when I heard Barb narrate Mr. Lubarski’s story, it woke me up out of my negative thoughts and changed my perspective.

 

Mr. Lubarski talked to his staff about how negativity is a frame of mind. Too often, we view things as a “got to” task rather than a “get to” task. When I reached out to Mr. Lubarski to share the story he told, he not only gave me permission but he also talked about how he brought in Hunter Pinke, a former UND football player who was involved in a terrible ski accident that left him paralyzed. It was Pinke who presented to the Sacred Heart staff on the idea of “No Bad Days.” At one point, Pinke told the Sacred Heart staff, “Some people see the glass as half empty. Others see it as half full. I’m just glad I have a glass.” When you are hearing this from some who is paralyzed, how suddenly do your “problems” become trivial?

 

To help Lubarski and his staff and students combat negativity, he has a simple mantra: 172. Lubarski told his staff how several years ago his mother was diagnosed with ALS. Over time she lost much of her movement and was confined to her bed. Lubarski, though, visited her every day to lift her spirits and brought her library books to read. He knew she was done with her latest batch when they were free of her constant Post-It Note she used as a book mark. 

 

The important point, Lubarski said, was that as a lifelong reader and refused to let ALS rob her of that joy. She could have complained about losing so much in her life, but she stayed positive and found joy in the moment of simply still being able to read. 

 

One day after visiting with his mother, Lubarski brought her latest book, which his mother said she was done with, back to the library. It was then that he noticed the Post-It note was still in the book . . . on page 172. He realized that his mother had lost the ability to even turn the page anymore. Page 172 was the last page she had been able to turn over by herself.

 

Yet, rather than complain or let it get her down, she didn’t say a word to anyone. She just found joy in so many other things she still could do.

 

Now, whenever one of his staff members let something trivial get them down, Lubarski just has to remind them of the number “172” to know what a real struggle is like. He even told me that he was recently visiting the varsity quarterback who was complaining about having to play that night with a wet football since it was going to continue to rain all evening. They actually looked at each other and said in unison, “172.”

 

So what trivial matter has you down? For me it was losing a close game to the Green Wave Friday evening. It sucked. It stings. It likely cost us any chance at a home playoff game. It also means we probably won’t have as good of a record as last year, which means we will have a losing record. Still. When compared to real struggles, it is a joy to be able to play and coach some great young men who are playing a great game. In other words, “172.”

 

Inside this month’s teaching thoughts, you’ll find –

 

The World is a Fine Place – a fan reaches out to the actor Mandy Patinkin, who played the lead role in The Princess Bride. In a key scene form that film, the fan heard a rumor that to prepare for the emotions of this scene, Patinkin thought of his father who had died from cancer. Well, as it turned out, the fan’s own father had recently died from cancer. The two had always loved The Princess Bride. She was trying to reach out to Patinkin to see if that was indeed true. Sure enough, Patinkin replied to her that it was and that he would be pray for her father. The power of technology! It doesn’t always have to be about drama or cyber bullying. It can be used for the power of good!

 

Book of the Month – Tom Romano’s Blending Genre, Alternating Style. This text is all about one of my all-time favorite genres of research papers – the mulit-genre research paper. Check the post out to learn more.

 

Teaching Thought for October – I recount the power of voice and style and making connections to our students. In this post I recount attending the funeral for one of my former students and reading some of her work at it. Such a powerful moment. Such a gift to share.

 

Why I love Teaching – The inspiration I get from my colleagues!

 

Podcast of the Month – American Shadows. If you like the darker parts of history, check this podcast out. Perfect for October!

 

Video of the Month – Check out the story of Keanon Lowe, not only how he has transformed a school’s football team but also how he prevented a school shooting. Not all heroes wear capes. You won’t regret these 7 and a half minutes.

 

I hope you had a great September and have an even better October. Mid-terms are almost here as a parent teacher conferences. Enjoy these final few weeks before the snow flies!

 

 

PS – the background is an image of my favorite holiday – Halloween!

 

Drenched

It is hard to tell, but that is me in the middle of that throng. I am gettin drenched. This is after our first win of the football season, 32-0, over Fergus Falls. While it was not pleasurable at all - there is nothing like having ice cold water doused on you - unexpectedly on a chilly evening - to shock your system - it was worth it.

I should have seen this coming as the same thing happened almost 365 days before when we upset Fergus Falls in Fergus Falls by the score of 13-10 to win our first game of that season. Coach Hennings was the instigator that time.

This time, though, it was more rewarding because the players themselves were the ring leaders here. It was all their idea. I think you can tell on their faces, particularly Friedrich's and Rosendahl's how much fun they were having at the prospect of dousing me after our first win. Heck, even Potluck who was out with a knee injury even gets in on the action in his fur coat.

I love this picture because it shows what we are capable of as a team when we all work together. Not only did the offense finally come together in the second half, scoring four touchdowns, but the guys here all had to come together in order to pull this off. I was too busy making sure several of the younger players got playing time to notice the water cart getting closer to me and all the seniors grabbing water bottles and closing in. As soon as the time hit 0:00, I had the shock of the year as the water rushed over my head and down my back.

I took a steaming hot shower back home - I live about 3 minutes from the field - and went to Mr. Dyer's homecoming party with a huge smile on my face. Not because I got drenched but because the team performed so well for once as a cohesive unit.

 

Walter Freeman

These medical tools and this procedure seem like something out of a Saw film or the Hostile franchise. But they are the medical tools of one very infamous doctor.

Like many scientists and doctors, Walter Freeman began with the best of intentions.  He wanted to help subdue severely violent tantrums and fits that he witnesses psychiatric patients throw at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.  His intentions were truly benevolent. After all, he just wanted to cure the patients of their violent outbursts.  This wouldn’t just protect the patients, though, it would also protect the health care workers working with these patients on a daily basis.  

Initially, Freeman had to drill six holes into a person’s head in order to conduct a lobotomy.  The first few lobotomies were met with moderate success.  According to the website, Medicalbag.com - In fact, his first patient, “a 63-year-old woman who was suffering from insomnia and agitated depression.”  According to the doctor, “when it was finished she emerged ‘transformed’ and lived for another five years” (“Walter Freeman: The Father of the Lobotomy”).  It is clear that Freeman cared little for his patients.  Freeman argued that since little surgery was needed - just an icepick into the eye socket is all, that psychiatrists - really untrained in any type of surgery - “should be allowed to perform lobotomies by hammering ice-pick-like tools through patients’ eye sockets. And he argued that, while their patients’ skulls were open anyway, VA surgeons should be permitted to remove samples of living brain for research purposes” (“One Doctor’s Legacy”).  

Soon, though, an outcry came from the medical establishment and the general public once people began to actually die from the procedure.  His last patient was lobotomized in 1967, however, like many of his patient’s before, and they died during surgery when they suffered a hemorrhage and bled to death before him.

Teaching Thoughts for September

 The “all in” edition.

 

When Dr. Henry talked about her “all in” theme this year, I thought of this story that I head a few years ago via The Entreleadership podcast. A business leader was reflecting on his time in the seminary. The business leader talked about how he had a part time job working in the university cafeteria. As it happened, he had to get to the cafeteria early in the morning for his breakfast shift and he had to stay late after washing dishes after his dinner shift. He noted that when he was walking from his dorm to the cafeteria, he walked by the faculty housing. As it happened, he noted that very, very early each morning one of his favorite professor’s light was on. He also noted on his way back to the dorms when he passed by the faculty housing that this professor’s light was also on.

 

One day after class with this professor, the student asked him what he was doing up so early and so late. The professor smiled and said, “I am preparing for my lessons.”

 

The student asked, “But how long have you been teaching?”

 

The professor thought for a second and then said, “Twenty five years” with a wry smile on his face.

 

The student asked, “Shouldn’t you have it down by now? Why are you always preparing your lessons?”

 

Again, the professor got a smile on his face and said, “I decided long ago that I wanted my students drinking from a deep, fresh pool of water and not from a shallow, stagnant pond.”

 

Since I’m entering my 25^th year teaching, that struck home.

 

How do you stay relevant and fresh in terms of your content so you aren’t just going through the motions with your content and curriculum? I’d love to hear.

 

Inside September’s Teaching Thoughts newsletter, you will find –

 

Images of the month – “It’s Supposed to be Uncomfortable” To pull books from a public school recipe is an adult recipe for disaster. We can’t always be safe and comfortable in our content, curriculum, and reading materials. We have faced this issue ourselves here, and we became better for it. Here is a link to a letter to the editor I wrote about it.

 

The World if a Fine and Just Place – The cave explorers discovered something shocking deep inside a cave system: a dog. Their efforts to save it help restore my faith in humanity.

 

Book of the Month – Why They Can’t Write by John Warner. The author, a college professor, noted how, for many years now, his incoming students have struggled to write deep, thoughtful analysis. He pins the blame on the five paragraph essay. I can’t say that he is wrong. He offers a unique analogy. He equates the five paragraph essay to training wheels for young bike riders. Researchers have noted that training wheels are not a very effective way to get young kids to actually ride bikes. They rob them of one crucial skill for riding bikes: balance.

 

Bike enthusiasts now actually recommend avoiding training wheels altogether and instead suggest something called a balance bike.

 

Warner states that the nefarious nature of the five paragraph theme is that it is so simple and efficient for students – just like training wheels – that many professors note that students never develop “balance” in their writing – that is how to deep research and analyze things in more than just a three pronged thesis statement, how to deal with counterarguments, and how to develop different formats that better fit different topics and purposes than just the five paragraph theme.

 

Teaching Thought for September – Teaching IS Customer Service

 

This was so evident when I accompanied my son on his sixth grade Open House at FMS. While Cash’s teachers were great and engaging, there were two that stood out so much that they actually made me wish I was back in sixth grade again just so I could take their classes. These teachers stood out because they had a heart for serving the students in their classes. Again, this was so evident to every person in that room. How do you strive to serve your students so that they love coming to class?

 

One of way of thinking of this is to do this mental exercise – Imagine if your principal told the student body that they didn’t have to go to their regular first block/period/hour class. Instead, students were to go to the room where they felt the most engaged, the most cared about, the place where they feel inspired, where their voices matter. How many kids would be in your room?

 

Podcast of the Month – The Cult of Pedagogy

 

Jennifer Gonzalez’s episode on The Six Education Tools you Should Try in 2022 is excellent. Gonzalez also offers an amazing pdf document featuring hundreds of tech tools for teachers at all levels. She has videos, explanations, and examples for each tool. It is well worth the money.

 

Video of the Month – The Power of a Teacher

 

This is a short clip from an Adele concert. During the show there is a Q and A session. Someone asks Adele about her favorite teacher. Without hesitating, Adele talks about one of her English teachers from primary school. Unbeknownst to Adele, that very teacher was in attendance. When she comes up to the state, Adele’s reaction perfectly illustrates the power of a great teacher.

 

Thoughts from Twitter – 

 

Check out the tweet from Danny Steele about the best way to resolved a conflict with your child’s school or teacher. He gives two choices: A) post it to social media or B) call the school/teacher and have a conversation to resolve the conflict.

 

The answer is obvious, but I’m amazed how we rarely choose the right option here, and I’ve been as guilty as anyone, and I’ve learned my lesson. Remember, social media is an echo chamber. You are just going to get back what you want to hear, but that doesn’t actually resolve anything. It just fuels the fire.

 

Finally, Article of Interest – 10 Questions Parents Should Ask the Child’s Teacher Before School Starts. As I note in my newsletter, my favorite question is question ten - "What's the most important thing I can do to help my child be academically successful this year?"

  

Below is the link to September’s Teaching Thoughts. I hope you have a great year! 

 

PS – the background for this newsletter is a quick shot of my new classroom (the old German room).

 

 

 

Our Boys Day

 Since Kristie, Kenzie and our grandkids, who stayed a couple weeks with us when Casey brought them up from South Dakota, were going to visit KoKo and Theo in Nisswa for the day, Cash and I decided to have a boys day.

For us this meant a couple things: going to Grand Forks to watch Thor: Love and Thunder, hit up some comic book stores, stop at Scheels to conquer all the levels in Jurassic Park video game there, grab lunch at Texas Roadhouse, stop at Game Stop, and hit up DQ on our way out.

We didn't get all that packed into our day, but we had a blast. What I learned was how much Cash and I enjoy spending time together. I learned just how polite Cash is. I never once had to tell him to thank our waitress or anyone who was working in the stores we visited. He did that all on his own. 

It was nice to set our phones and technology aside for most of the day and just have some quality father and son time.

Cash was all set to go bright and early after church.

Conquering all levels in Jurassic Park. It only took us $15.00. Mostly because I was playing. Cash is deadly accurate in this game. Now we just have to find the old video game House of the Dead to conquer next.

Cash showing off one of the super balls he bought to give to Kenzie to add to her collection.

He was so excited to go to our favorite restaurant.

All smiles after trips to Schools and Game Stop.

His favorite from DQ: The triple Chocolate Brownie.

On Werewolves and Fear and My Passion for Horror Films and Lit

For 20 years now I have taught summer school at the ALC. First I taught just one summer session, but for the past 15 or so, I have taught both sessions, 8 weeks. For over a decade now, I have had the pleasure of teaching an elective class here on Science Fiction. For the past 10 years, I have even been able to teach a second term class called Science Fiction II. 

In this second class, I have been able to branch out into the realm of horror literature. So we now examine some of the major monsters of literature and film: werewolves, vampires, zombies, and - if time allows - witches.

So far this second session, we have focused on my personal favorite monster, the werewolf. We read Tannish Lee's great "The Werewolf," from the collection Curse of the Full Moon. In addition to that we also read the classic Saki story, "Gabriel-Ernest." In addition to those stories we watched the 2010 remake of the original The Wolfman as well as the 2020 film The Wolf of Snow Hollow, and we are finishing up with the recent film The Cursed.

We talked early on how the concept of the werewolf is really a metaphor for the duality of human nature, which is a concept as old as humans have been around. The werewolf is just one metaphor that is useful for illustrating that. Here is an excellent podcast, Lore, that explore this very concept in the episode called "Trees and Shadows."

Why is the werewolf my all-time favorite monster? I think it goes back to a very early memory of mine. My mother used to clean some homes as a part time job. She brought me to one of her friend's houses when I was young (probably four or so). While she cleaned, I naturally wandered around and explored. In one of the kids' rooms I found a poster of Disney's The Three Little Pigs.

I couldn't find a poster on the internet that matched what I saw in that bedroom, but this was the wolf from it for sure -

In the poster I saw, he was chasing the three little pigs. There was just something sinister about how this wolf was running on two legs and how eager he was to catch - and devour - the little pigs. I was terrified by the image and dashed out of the room. However, my imagination kept drawing me back there. What was this wolf's story? Why did it run on two legs? What did it have against these three pigs? How was it going to catch them and eat them?

The more I answered those questions with my mind, the more frightened I became. The more frightened I became, the more I found myself drawn back to that poster!

I would linger for a few moments staring at that poster only to dash back out, afraid that the wolf would come out of the closet after me. Then I'd be drawn back into the room, avoiding the poster at all costs until the urge to look at it was too strong. Then I'd linger a few moment longer staring at the Big Bad Wolf before racing back out . . .

I realized something now that I didn't quite understand then: I enjoyed being scared. 

I experienced the same thing a few years later when my brother, Kevin, turned to HBO (my father would never spend money for a subscription, but when HBO would have a trial where you could get it free for a week, we were all over that). What was on but John Landis' iconic horror/comedy An American Werewolf in London. 

I was drawn in as the two poor Americans hitch hiked their way across England only to wind up being kicked out of a small bar on the night of a full moon. They ventured out into the night, heeding the advice "Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Beware the moon, lads." Of course, the two hear a creature howling - though at the time in sounded like no howling I had ever heard of, and they take off running, leaving the road well behind them.

Soon the howling/roaring is circling them. The main character, David Kessler (played by David Naughton - of Dr. Pepper fame - and who would go on to play a bit role in a Seinfeld episode as Elaine's boyfriend in The Red Dot episode) falls into a small hole while running. As we get a moment of comic relief as his best friend, Jack Goodman (played by Griffin Dunne), laughs and helps him up, only to be pounced on by the werewolf and ripped to pieces.

It was at this moment that not only did David take off running, but so did I. I flew out of the living room, through the dining room, and into the kitchen - the well lighted kitchen - where Mom and Dad sat at the kitchen table.

I stayed there for several minutes before - just as with the Big Bad Wolf poster - I was drawn back to see what was going on with David and the werewolf. I returned just in time to see a nude David running through the woods and leap upon a deer and rip into its throat.

Well, that did it, and I was back in the kitchen.

I never finished the film . . . until a few days later when I had fallen asleep on the couch and Kevin came home late. He was sitting on the other couch eating on one of Mom's TV trays while he watched TV. When I checked what was on, I realized it was again An American Werewolf in London.

Yes! Now was my chance to finish it. I made it through the attack on the moors and was just to the part where David painfully transforms into the werewolf after having been bitten himself on the moors only to have Dad wake up and come out of the bedroom to see what was going on.

Of course, he sent me upstairs to my room to sleep while he left Kevin to finish the film.

Again, I was terrified. I covered my head with the pillow but I was certain I could hear the werewolf howling from downstairs as well as the screams of its victims.

I was frightened . . . and I liked it.

And that might have been the end of it until one day Mom, Dad, and I were over visiting my sister's husband's family at the dairy farm. Usually I hung around his brothers and we tore around on their three wheelers or leaped from the bales in the hayloft, but for some reason we were gathered around the TV in the living room while his parents and mine sat and played cards at the kitchen table.

We watched the Saturday afternoon movie, which just happened to be The Howling, the other iconic werewolf film of 1981. I figured here was my chance to make up for the disastrous attempts to watch American Werewolf in London.

But I was wrong. This was even more terrifying than American Werewolf in London. By far. These werewolves looked far more sinister and evil. Their transformations were more horrible than the ones in American Werewolf in London. In American Werewolf in London, the murders were never fully shown. They were just hinted at. In The Howling, even if it was just on regular TV, the killings were on fully display. You got to see the werewolves sink their teeth into their victims and rip them apart! Worse still, in American Werewolf in London, there was only ONE werewolf. But in The Howling, the whole damn town was full of them!

This film still has me in its grip. If it were on TV - and for awhile it was available for free on Amazon Prime - I don't know if I could watch it.

Of course, that didn't keep me from reading the book that it was based on, The Howling by Gary Brandner, when I found it in our little RLF library.

After that, I was hooked on werewolves. It would be several more years before a fledgling network called Fox would debut a series called Werewolf, which also terrified me. Unfortunately, it only lasted a season or two and then was cancelled just as the plot was finally getting really interesting. Then I read Stephen King's The Cycle of the Werewolf and watched my first full werewolf movie, Silver Bullet, based off King's book, at my friend Simon Geller's house one night in 1987.

But that all pales in comparison to the ultimate werewolf experience: Cry Wolf by Alan B Chorister, which must be a pseudonym for I have never found anything else written by this author, and the novel ends with one of the best set ups for a sequel ever too!

Up to this point, I had read my fair share of werewolf books, but when I got a copy of this from Pamida, I was hooked and terrified. This did for me what the film, The Howling did for me. This was truly horrifying stuff - there is an entire family at a vacation cabin that draws the attention of a pack of werewolves. They immediately transform and begin racing toward the cabin while the father ushers his family inside and they begin to shoot (no silver bullets though) at the werewolves. They are all wiped out in a truly horrifying scene. As a 8th grade, this was the best thing ever! I was hooked deeply now by my favorite monster, the werewolf.

Which in a very roundabout way brings me back to the current focus on Science Fiction II at the ALC, and some lists I decided to devise for anyone interested in delving in more to werewolves.

Best werewolf short stories -

10. "Gabriel-Ernest" by Saki. This is a short classic. So much irony and a creepy werewolf tale with some excellent description.

9. "The Werewolf" by Tannith Lee. Don't let the boring title fool you. This is excellent. Plus, it has one of the great chase scenes I've read in along while.

8. "The White Wolf of Kostopchin" by Sir Gilbert Campbell. As improbable as the appearance of this werewolf is, there is an amazing scene where the main character finds the remains of a hermit in the middle of the swamp who has been victim of the white wolf. It's creepy all the way around with some of the most pitiful child characters you have ever read. This one is on an audio book that the kids and I often listen to if we are stuck in the car.

7. "Dissertation" Chuck Palahniuk. He is more famous (or notorious) for his epic Fight Club, but this werewolf tale is one of the most original I've read. This is part horror story, part social commentary. A young research suspects that lycanthropy is evident in Native American tribal genes. She has evidence of a young girl from a tribe who was traveling on an airplane and transformed on the flight, causing it to crash and bringing news crews trying to make sense of the disaster. She seeks to meet with members of the tribe - and finds the brother of the girl how died on the plane. She is seeking to get them protective rights for their genetic anomaly. Finally, the brother agrees to take her to the tribe to interview them. Of course, is he leading her to her death as the tribe will want to bury their secret as they have for centuries or will they use her as an advocate for their rights?

6. "The Lame Priest" by S. Carleton. A werewolf tale set in the prairie as a lone woodsman is kind to a traveling, lame priest, who is cursed as a werewolf. Though the wolf is driven to seek human prey, he tries his best to avoid the woodsman's home . . . until he is driven there one full moon night.

5. "Cell" David Case. This one is creepy as it unfolds on you. A bachelor inherits and old house in the country from an eccentric aunt. When he arrives to explore it, he finds her husband's journal. In it, he discovers the cause of her eccentricity - her husband was cursed to transform into a werewolf on the nights of the full moon. In order to help him, they construct a cement cell in the basement. One day he notices a van leaving the house before he gets home. Then he discovers that his wife had a worker drill a peep hole into the cell so she can see the type of beast he turns into. This is when she finally decides to never let him out of the cell. But there is more to the story, and I don't want to wreck it for you.

4. "The Quiet Boy" by Nick Antosca. This is technically not a werewolf story so much as it is about a Wendigo, but close enough for me. It's short and terrifying, especially the elementary school who sacrifices everything (literally) to protect this strange little quiet boy in her class.

3. "Twilight at the Towers" by Clive Barker. If it's by Barker, you know it is excellent. In this tale Barker examines what would happen if during the Cold War both sides used werewolves as secret agents.

2 "The Skin Trade" by George RR Martin. This might be the greatest werewolf tale ever. It's The Maltese Falcon meets The Howling with a little bit of The Hound of the Baskerville's thrown in for good measure. And it's a wild ride that you won't forget. In fact, I just re-listened to it mowing the lawn the other day. Still as sharp and scary as ever!

1 "The Gentleman's Hotel" by Joe R. Lansdale - amazing. This features one of his constant heroes, Jebidiah Mercer, who is a minister who is cursed by God to travel the Wild West and kill all things evil . . . including a town ravaged by a pack of werewolves every night.

Best werewolf novels

10. Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King - A graphic novel that takes some liberties with all the key holidays falling on the night of the full moon, but it is classic King, which means it doesn't pull up on any of the attacks.

9. Mark of the Werewolf - Jeffrey Strand - This has one of the best endings imaginable for a werewolf story. This is the tale of an ancient werewolf, who has been looked after by a group of gypsies for as long as anyone can remember. However, when the man falls into the hands of some neo-Nazis, they use hypnosis to dig into his past, which is thousands of years old. He is cursed to live forever. He manages to pass the curse along with another man, who survives for thousands of years into the future. Which is where the amazing ending comes in - the man is on a space ship traveling through the galaxy, seeking refuge from the moon and death. However, he unfortunately arrives on a planet that has dozens of moons . . . with a full one appearing every hour! Classic!

8. The Wolfman - Nicholas Pekearo - What if a private investigator was a werewolf? Here is that tale.

7.  The Wolf's Hour - Robert R. McCammon - Building off of Barker's concept with "Twilight at the Towers," the British powers use a lycanthrope as a soldier and undercover agent in WWII.

6. Breed - Chase Novak - This is the story of a young yuppy couple desperate to have a baby. Unfortunately, the rouge doctor they find after all their attempts with other doctors fails has a method that does indeed make them pregnant, but it also turns them into werewolves . . . with a fierce desire to eat their young. The opening of this novel, where the parents rationally lock their children away inside their apartment, knowing they will be blood thirsty monsters just a few hours later, is as chilling as it gets.

5. Mongrels - Stephen Jones - One of the best modern werewolf books I have read. Jones examines the werewolf myth with fresh eyes and explores many issues that most books and tales never explore. For example, what happens when a woman gives birth to a werewolf? Hint - it kills her. 

4. Darker Than You Think - Jack Willamson - A classic tale of shape shifts and an insidious plot to bring them back to the glory days when they ruled over humans tens of thousands of years ago.

3. Those Across the River - Christopher Buehlman - This one I'm just finishing now, and it's excellent. Hint - "those across the river" are werewolves.

2. Wolf Hunt - Jeff Strand - If you read anything by Strand, you know it's going to be hilarious. This is one of the best and wildly original novels I have ever read. It is the story of two gold-hearted thugs who are hired to drive a man in a cage across Florida. As they set out, it is soon revealed that the man in the cage, Ivan, is a supposed werewolf. Strange things happen that cause our thugs, George and Lenny, to suspect that something odd is going on. Sure enough. Ivan is a werewolf. And he escapes. That means George and Lenny have to recapture him. And it's a wild and hilarious ride form there.

1. Cry Wolf - Alan B Chronister - Reading this in the summer of 1987 while listening to Judas Priest's Priest Live is one of the best moments of my youth. It was terrifying, and I didn't want it to end. Chronister is heavy on the attack scenes and the blood and guts. I have re-read it once, and it is just as good. I didn't want to mess with how I remember it, but it stood up to the test of time.

Best werewolf films

10. Silver Bullet - Based off King's The Cycle of the Werewolf. So what if the werewolf looks more like a man in a wolf suit, but this has some serious creepy scenes, such as when the werewolf - in human form - corners the boy who knows his curse on an old covered bridge during the day.

9. Wer  - A family is slaughtered while on a camping trip. Their camera footage is the only thing left. But it reveals that the family was attacked and killed by something. That something turns out to be a man who has what seems like hypertrichosis. However, once the doctors begin to poke and prod him, they realize he really is something terrible.

8. Werewolves Within - A film version of the classic role playing game.

7.  The Boy Who Cried Werewolf - I caught this campy B movie on TV one afternoon when I was six or seven. Though the werewolf is foolish by today's standards, back in the late 1970's, this werewolf terrified me. It is the tale of a young boy who, while in the woods fishing with his father, is attacked by a werewolf. The father fends it off but is bitten. I found something horrible about living with the person who was supposed to protect you, yet that very same person will be driven to attack and eat you on the nights of the full moon. And that's pretty much the whole plot of the film.

6. The Cursed - This one came out this year. And it's a unique take on the werewolf legend. Lycanthropy is a curse - and it is inflicted by a group of gypsies, who are later murdered, who have in their possession the cursed silver that Judas was paid to betray Jesus. The gypsies cast the silver into teeth, which when buried cause the children of the village to dream of them and drive them to dig them up. The young boy who digs them up is then driven to put them into his mouth. He attacks the first young man he sees. He is bitten and will become a werewolf and spread the curse.

5. Ginger Snaps - This is a fascinating film linking lycanthropy with becoming a young adult. This is the story of two sisters, one who is attacked by a werewolf and - you guessed it - has the curse passed along to her. This curse tests their bond as sisters.

4. The Wolf of Snow Hollow - Another modern film on the werewolf legend. This revolves around a werewolf killing females on the nights of the full moon in the small town of Snow Hollow and the young sheriff, who is battling his own demons, and his quest to save his town.

3. American Werewolf in London - The classic by which all other werewolf films are measured. Part comedy part tragedy and all horror.

2. The Howling- I've written about this previously. I have never made it all the way through after my first initial watch years ago. It is just too damn scary. I've seen the awful sequels and remakes many times, but nothing is going to top the terror that is this.

1. Dog Soldiers - released in 2001 by directed by Neil Marshall, who would go on to direct the classic, The Descent. This is the story of a military exercise in England gone horribly wrong. A unit of soldiers is sent in for a training exercise - of course, their weapons aren't even firing real bullets. Just blanks! What this group doesn't realize is that an evil commander is really using them as bait. To lure in a family of werewolves that have been prowling the countryside for decades. Luckily for the unit, though, the family attacks the commander's unit of elite soldiers instead. The commander is the only survivor. Of course, the test unit finds him - and the slaughtered elite unit - as the sun sets on the second day. They hear howls as the family is coming back to tie up loose ends.

The unit retreats through the woods, only to stumble upon a loan female traveler in a Jeep. They narrowly escape and seek shelter in the nearest farmhouse where they reload and tend to their wounded. Unfortunately, they learn that the werewolves has surrounded them. And they learn that they are actually seeking refuge IN the house of the family of werewolves! They just have to survive until dawn. A classic that deserves a sequel.