ETT # 243: Teachers Teaching Teachers

I started listening to my first ETT this morning. I must say that I am enjoying this somewhat less than the K12 online conference presentations. This format is longer, more rambling and something I would definitely listen to in a car, rather than sitting at a table being attentive... This episode features Alice Barr, from Seedlings, and Donovan Hohn, author of Moby-Duck.

His book actually sounds pretty good, it's titled: Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the BeachCombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them. Mr. Hohn was a high school English teacher in New York City, and every summer he assigned himself a writing project. During the school year, he taught a literary journalism class, and he asked his students to pick an artifact, anything fom oranges to bath toys, and a students project became the basis for his book. Mr. Hohn alludes to, and draws from, Mobby Dick and how "Ishmael searches for whales and for the meaning of whales." Apparently, container ships traveling from Asia to America lose cargo all the time, and several "great" spills happened in the 90s, Nike shoes and computer monitors most famously. During research for this book, Mr. Hohn was invited to beachcomb in Alaska with an oceanographer, and they found all manner of junk.

Alice Barr is making a guest appearance, and she is monitoring a chatroom, which asks: what are you doing this summer? Several people were attending conferences, camps, or participating in national writing projects. The first 30 minuted centered mostly around discussion of Mr. Hohn's book; however, it was noted that many ETT shows close down for the summer.