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[TheWalkingContradiction]

It has been such a delight going through this thread and "seeing" all of you.

Here are photos of me that I scanned from my university's yearbook a couple of years ago.  I assume the ones of me teaching dramatically were snapped by students with camera phones.







Here is a slightly more flattering self-portrait, although, unfortunately, you can also see my weight gain in it over the past few years.  I am dieting and exercising like a fiend, and then of course I have to keep it off for life...  I hope, at some very distant future date, to post thinner me with pride.  

[Amicale]

TWC, I love those pictures of you! Thanks for sharing! The yearbook ones are great, it looks like you have awesome enthusiasm for teaching. I bet your students love your classes!

[DeterminedJuliet]

Aww, you're a cutie

[Stevil]

Seems that you would be a totally un-boring teacher.

[Sweetdeath]

nice pics, TWC~

[TheWalkingContradiction]

Thank you, everyone!    

...it looks like you have awesome enthusiasm for teaching. I bet your students love your classes!

For me, teaching is even better than sex!

On a more grounded note...

We all have a good time, and I learn as much from my students as they learn from me.

And...

As a skeptic and a former Fundamentalist Christian once afraid to think about such beliefs critically, I make sure to insert critical thinking into English as a Second Language.  Here, for example, is something I have done a few times with very advanced classes of college-age students.  Cut and pasting from something I posted to young people elsewhere on the Internet...

---

On a number of occasions, I lie to my class. I tell them that our Founding Fathers based the Declaration of Independence and Constitution on the writings of the lost continent of Atlantis. I then spew forth nonsense and even write an 'example' of the Atlantean language on the board: karooka kawakka karinga karoopagoo. (Actually, Karooka Kawakka Karinga Karoopagoo is the name of a woman in a science fiction story I wrote when I was much younger.)  

When I say "Copy down all the karooka," they scribble away dutifully.

Sometimes a student objects, saying that this cannot possibly be true. (Such students will go far in life.) More often, however, I can have the class going for ten or fifteen minutes. Everyone believes me.

At that point I stop and say that everything I have told them is a lie. Students are stunned. Teachers don't lie.

Heck, of course we lie! We then have a discussion about why they believed me: I am the authority figure; I am a nice guy; I seem intelligent; I speak well; teachers are supposed to give true information... Yet, I lied.

We then talk about things we read in textbooks and newspapers, things we see on TV... And the word propaganda comes up. I am a liberal, but I am the first to admit that we liberals are full of as much crap as conservatives and radicals. Of course all of us lie, exaggerate, and quote biased references to sell you our viewpoints and get you to join our political parties, religious (or non-religious) institutions, social cliques, and so on.

The bottom line: Don't believe it because a nice guy tells you. I tell my classes that I will be lying more often, and that they have to decide when to believe me and when not to believe me. I want them to have critical minds when listening to others.

Don't believe it just because it is in print. Even people who mean to tell the truth can make mistakes. I have found many mistakes in The New York Times, for example.

Trust yourself. There are of course many correct things said by people and found in print--but you have to find your own beliefs yourselves. Remember that you can always change your views. And remember that life is about living with uncertainty.

[Buddy]

I'm really happy that you are enthused about your job. My favorite teachers have always been the ones that made class interesting. I love it when they mix things up and aren't afraid to make learning fun.

[Ali]

You seem like an awesome teacher!  So animated.  And love the lessons on not believing everything you read or hear.   

[En_Route]

Thank you, everyone!    

...it looks like you have awesome enthusiasm for teaching. I bet your students love your classes!

For me, teaching is even better than sex!

On a more grounded note...

We all have a good time, and I learn as much from my students as they learn from me.

And...

As a skeptic and a former Fundamentalist Christian once afraid to think about such beliefs critically, I make sure to insert critical thinking into English as a Second Language.  Here, for example, is something I have done a few times with very advanced classes of college-age students.  Cut and pasting from something I posted to young people elsewhere on the Internet...

---

On a number of occasions, I lie to my class. I tell them that our Founding Fathers based the Declaration of Independence and Constitution on the writings of the lost continent of Atlantis. I then spew forth nonsense and even write an 'example' of the Atlantean language on the board: karooka kawakka karinga karoopagoo. (Actually, Karooka Kawakka Karinga Karoopagoo is the name of a woman in a science fiction story I wrote when I was much younger.)  

When I say "Copy down all the karooka," they scribble away dutifully.

Sometimes a student objects, saying that this cannot possibly be true. (Such students will go far in life.) More often, however, I can have the class going for ten or fifteen minutes. Everyone believes me.

At that point I stop and say that everything I have told them is a lie. Students are stunned. Teachers don't lie.

Heck, of course we lie! We then have a discussion about why they believed me: I am the authority figure; I am a nice guy; I seem intelligent; I speak well; teachers are supposed to give true information... Yet, I lied.

We then talk about things we read in textbooks and newspapers, things we see on TV... And the word propaganda comes up. I am a liberal, but I am the first to admit that we liberals are full of as much crap as conservatives and radicals. Of course all of us lie, exaggerate, and quote biased references to sell you our viewpoints and get you to join our political parties, religious (or non-religious) institutions, social cliques, and so on.

The bottom line: Don't believe it because a nice guy tells you. I tell my classes that I will be lying more often, and that they have to decide when to believe me and when not to believe me. I want them to have critical minds when listening to others.

Don't believe it just because it is in print. Even people who mean to tell the truth can make mistakes. I have found many mistakes in The New York Times, for example.

Trust yourself. There are of course many correct things said by people and found in print--but you have to find your own beliefs yourselves. Remember that you can always change your views. And remember that life is about living with uncertainty.

That's an eloquent demonstration of experiential  learning. In my academic career, I found students becoming increasingly instrumentalist in their approach; they were exclusively concerned at securing good grades and had no interest in the subject matter in its own right. If I had told my class that the content of my lectures was a pack of lies, they would be likely to have responded by saying- okay, fine, but will we still get marks for it in the exam?

[Amicale]

You seem like an awesome teacher!  So animated.  And love the lessons on not believing everything you read or hear.   

Agreed! Awesome.  I may just need to 'borrow' this method to use with my advanced students!

[OldGit]

Sitting on a block in the middle of the ruins of Skenfrith Castle ...

[Asmodean]

I deploy the evilly lurking Asmo behind a less-than-suspecting human in response.

[Buddy]

Photobombing. Nice.   

[Asmodean]

Just dug up my old-ish album and decided to share a pre-lip piercings pic of His Grayness. And that one just happenes not to diminish my coolness too much.

[Buddy]

Sitting on a block in the middle of the ruins of Skenfrith Castle ...

You look very sophisticated!