Suicide Hill

As of the year 2000, I had promised myself to live the rest of my life by myself. Then I met my wife Megan, and I had to rethink all those promises. Because I believe writing is a tool for knowing, I mentally drafted “Suicide Hill” while proctoring 8th grade students taking state tests in North [...]

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iHunt Morel Mushrooms

The past week I’ve been putting together the rewards for those who pledge to support the documentary film The Mushroom Hunter. Look for details soon when I launch the Kickstarter campaign. I’ve been working with musician Jeremy Vogt and artist/teacher Keegan Laycock. Keegan was a student in a Language Arts class I taught over fifteen [...]

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Funding for Documentary The Mushroom Hunter

There’s a poll at the bottom of the post. This isn’t me asking for money. This is me asking you to help me plan to ask for money. Have you heard of Kickstarter or Indiegogo? In short, they’re websites that help people raise financing for projects. I’m going to try using one of those platforms [...]

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Are You Talking to Me? Dad Starts Off The Mushroom Hunter

“Tell me about this trail,” I said to my dad. We were at France Park, just outside Logansport, Indiana. I’d driven 700 miles over Easter Weekend 2012 to film Dad while he hunted morel mushrooms. The park used to be a rock quarry, and now it’s filled with water and used for fishing, swimming, and [...]

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Dear Reader,

Ever since a former professor of mine introduced me to the idea that writing floats on a sea of conversation, I’ve thrived on the energy that is derived from interacting with others who care about stories and the teaching of writing. I’m a writer and filmmaker who teaches in the Institute For Writing Studies at St. John’s [...]

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I Stand With My Father

It’s the day before Easter, and I stand with my father on a gray-gravel parking lot in what is called France Park. This is not an exotic European location, but a rock quarry turned park located just outside of Logansport, Indiana, the town in which I was born. We have come to hunt mushrooms, or [...]

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Watch the Video & Take the Quiz: An Experiment in Multitasking

I used an activity similar to the one described below as a discussion starter for the writing courses I teach at St. John’s University:   Is there a wrong time to multitask? Description: I told students we were going to watch a video and take a quiz. Each student was to decide if they were [...]

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New Canaan, Connecticut in the Nemo Blizzard

This morning I went out and took pictures of New Canaan, Connecticut following the snowstorm named Nemo. Naming these storms, it’s a branding/marketing ploy, right? You Should be Thinking Rocky IV   in case you didn’t get the Rocky IV allusion   If you want the super big image, click on the photos below twice: [...]

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Talking College Writing and Twitter with Emily Simnitt

Welcome to Torg Stories February 6, 2013 Edition. I talk with Boise State University composition instructor Emily Simnitt . I met Emily at the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) annual conference in Las Vegas during November of 2012. We did separate presentations related to Twitter and the teaching of writing. Emily is a [...]

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Tweet the Super Bowl with Me?

Hashtags: #torgchat #superbowl I’ve started using Twitter in my writing courses at St. John’s University. I thought it might be a fun introduction for some of the students to tweet the Super Bowl as a class. That got me thinking that some of you might like to join me too.  Here’s my invitation to the [...]

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