Ben-Shalom
My blogs
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Occupation | Instructor of English |
| Location | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States |
| Introduction | I am not your grandmother's English teacher! I have been a teacher for over 30 years; I love my work. I love words: Words are power. Words are cool. The more words one has at her/his command, the better one can express ideas and be heard. What is my teaching style? I am very fair but I do not suffer foolishness in my classroom. I will walk down any road with a student who is giving me her/his best, but I find silly excuses for late work distasteful and 99.9% of the time do not accept them. I strive to incorportate a diversity of views in literature and in essays that I use in my classes. I have been known to say that nothing is sacred in my classes and that ALL may be discussed, as long as it is done with respect and dignity; as a result, we have had presentations on Gay rights, euthenasia, the death penalty, and the holocausts in Bosnia and Rowanda. I do not say that I know MORE than my students: I know DIFFERENTLY. My instructional basis is INQUIRY BASED: I expect students to ask questions , to inquire, to research, to find out, and to challenge. Appropriately. Silence is not necessarily golden in my classes! |
| Interests | I like to hunt, fish, camp. I eat (and clean) what I take, but I never take more than I need. I also love reading, writing, and painting watercolors. Oh, yes, I am a gourmet cook, too. And I like organic gardening. |
| Favorite movies | Bladerunner, The Razer's Edge, Dune (both versions), Sicko, Schindler's List, Twelve Angry Men, Triumph of the Spirit, Sobibor, Malkat Ha K'vish (an Israeli film), The Gefelte Fish Chronicals, High Noon, Laurence of Arabia, Les Miserables (version which juxtaposes WWII on Jean Valjean's story), The Magnificent Seven, Close Encounters. . ., Bent, Gorillas In The Mist, Dances With Wolves, and any movie_ with lesbians in it_that ends well |
| Favorite music | old Bob Dylan, Gang of Four, X, Dead Kennedys, The Boss, Eagles, Chris Williamson, Klezmatics, Bitch, Pink Floyd, Tribe 8, any early 'women's music' artist |
| Favorite books | The Left Hand of Darkness, Dreams of Being Eaten Alive, Any book by Marian Zimmer Bradley, Beowulf (Shamus Heaney's translation), Hassidic Tales of the Holocaust, Maus, Night, A Lesson Before Dying, Frankenstein, Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek, The Handmaid's Tale, [plays] Antigone, Angels In America, Bent, Rent, and Cabaret |