Professor Monkey

As part of her capstone class for her creative writing degree, Monkey got to teach a 200 level writing class last week. She created a 20 minute lesson for the 17-person class, some of whom attended via zoom, so she was dealing with many different modalities.

Her lesson was talking about the power of choosing the right word and how many of the famous quotes we all know would have been lost to time if they'd been phrased even slightly differently.

For example:

“I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King.

Or,

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

She walked the class through rewriting famous quotes to see how they "felt,' when changed, and then she gave them words to use in creating their own quotes.

Some of the word options were:

The whole family got involved in this adventure. Buds, Buster, and I had chances to be practice students and to write our own quotes. The morning of the lesson Monkey and Yessa worked to create a professional, fun outfit that suited her personality while allowing her to feel ready to lead.

She was nervous before the class, but once she walked through the classroom door, the Vivacious Monkey appeared and carried her through the next 40 minutes. I had helped her carry the items she needed for the session and waited outside the door for her. I couldn't hear the specific words, but I could hear the timbre of her voice and the responses from the gathered students. I could hear the laughter and the consistent engagement, and I definitely heard the clapping at the end.

She walked out the door, glowing with a job done well. The group was engaged, and even the Zoom attendees chimed in to share their thoughts and quotes they had created. She was a dynamic success.