BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř - ECPv6.18.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř X-ORIGINAL-URL: X-WR-CALDESC:Events for şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:UTC BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:UTC DTSTART:20250101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261107T120000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261107T150000 DTSTAMP:20260828T155752Z CREATED:20260828T155752Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T155752Z UID:10003053-1794052800-1794063600@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:OUMA Community Days DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/ouma-community-days/2026-11-07/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-Shelley-and-Donald-Rubin-Gallery_2@-şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř-U-Museum-of-Art_credit-Fabio-Musio-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261113T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261113T220000 DTSTAMP:20260910T174656Z CREATED:20260730T200024Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T174656Z UID:10000020-1794600000-1794607200@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Fall Theater Show CYRANO DE BERGERAC DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/fall-theater-show-cyrano-de-bergerac/2026-11-13/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Cyrano.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261114T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261114T220000 DTSTAMP:20260910T174656Z CREATED:20260730T200024Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T174656Z UID:10000021-1794686400-1794693600@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Fall Theater Show CYRANO DE BERGERAC DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/fall-theater-show-cyrano-de-bergerac/2026-11-14/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Cyrano.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261119T130000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261119T140000 DTSTAMP:20260828T144218Z CREATED:20260828T144218Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T144218Z UID:10003051-1795093200-1795096800@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Museum Lab Series: Kendra Walker DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/museum-lab-series-kendra-walker/ LOCATION:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/OUMA-Update-Fall-2026-Skylight.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261120T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261120T220000 DTSTAMP:20260910T174656Z CREATED:20260730T200024Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T174656Z UID:10000027-1795204800-1795212000@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Fall Theater Show CYRANO DE BERGERAC DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/fall-theater-show-cyrano-de-bergerac/2026-11-20/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Cyrano.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261121T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261121T220000 DTSTAMP:20260910T174656Z CREATED:20260730T200024Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T174656Z UID:10000028-1795291200-1795298400@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Fall Theater Show CYRANO DE BERGERAC DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/fall-theater-show-cyrano-de-bergerac/2026-11-21/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Cyrano.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261122T140000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261122T170000 DTSTAMP:20260910T174656Z CREATED:20260730T200024Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T174656Z UID:10000029-1795356000-1795366800@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Fall Theater Show CYRANO DE BERGERAC DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/fall-theater-show-cyrano-de-bergerac/2026-11-22/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Cyrano.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261122T150000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261122T170000 DTSTAMP:20261012T171148Z CREATED:20260730T193042Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261012T171148Z UID:10000017-1795359600-1795366800@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Skylight Concert Series: "Voices Within" DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/skylight-concert-series-voices-within/ LOCATION:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lilly-Anayeh-and-Daniel-Karcher.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261204T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261204T220000 DTSTAMP:20261103T140549Z CREATED:20260810T192143Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261103T140549Z UID:10000401-1796414400-1796421600@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:The 82nd annual Boar's Head Concert and Celebration DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/the-82nd-annual-boars-head-concert-and-celebration/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DSC0109-scaled-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261207T193000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261207T210000 DTSTAMP:20260827T141314Z CREATED:20260827T133334Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260827T141314Z UID:10000402-1796671800-1796677200@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Musical Theatre Showcase DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/musical-theatre-showcase/ LOCATION:Lupton Auditorium\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30087\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DSC02161-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270207T120000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270207T170000 DTSTAMP:20260828T160421Z CREATED:20260828T160421Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T160421Z UID:10003054-1802001600-1802019600@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:OUMA: Super Museum Sunday DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/ouma-super-museum-sunday/ LOCATION:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-Shelley-and-Donald-Rubin-Gallery_2@-şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř-U-Museum-of-Art_credit-Fabio-Musio-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270219T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270219T220000 DTSTAMP:20260730T202547Z CREATED:20260730T202547Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T202547Z UID:10000388-1803067200-1803074400@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Spring Theater Show LITTLE WOMEN DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/spring-theater-show-little-women/2027-02-19/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270220T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270220T220000 DTSTAMP:20260730T202547Z CREATED:20260730T202547Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T202547Z UID:10000389-1803153600-1803160800@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Spring Theater Show LITTLE WOMEN DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/spring-theater-show-little-women/2027-02-20/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270226T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270226T220000 DTSTAMP:20260730T202547Z CREATED:20260730T202547Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T202547Z UID:10000390-1803672000-1803679200@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Spring Theater Show LITTLE WOMEN DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/spring-theater-show-little-women/2027-02-26/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270227T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270227T220000 DTSTAMP:20260730T202547Z CREATED:20260730T202547Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T202547Z UID:10000391-1803758400-1803765600@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Spring Theater Show LITTLE WOMEN DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/spring-theater-show-little-women/2027-02-27/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270228T140000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270228T170000 DTSTAMP:20260730T202547Z CREATED:20260730T202547Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T202547Z UID:10000392-1803823200-1803834000@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Spring Theater Show LITTLE WOMEN DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/spring-theater-show-little-women/2027-02-28/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270317T183000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270317T203000 DTSTAMP:20260730T205328Z CREATED:20260730T205226Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T205328Z UID:10000393-1805308200-1805315400@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Out Loud featuring Tracy K. Smith DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/oglethorpe-out-loud-featuring-tracy-k-smith/ LOCATION:Philip Weltner Library\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř-Out-Loud-2027-featured-image.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270319T190000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270319T230000 DTSTAMP:20260730T210107Z CREATED:20260730T210107Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T210107Z UID:10000394-1805482800-1805497200@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Last Looks Film Festival DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/last-looks-film-festival/ LOCATION:Conant Performing Arts Center\, 4484 Peachtree Rd NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Last-Looks-2025-Featured-Image.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270408T193000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270408T210000 DTSTAMP:20260730T193954Z CREATED:20260730T193954Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260730T193954Z UID:10000019-1807212600-1807218000@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:Jazz Night at Town Brookhaven DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/jazz-night-at-town-brookhaven-2/ LOCATION:Brookhaven Towncenter\, Town Boulevard NE\, Brookhaven\, GA\, 30319 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TreRice_JazzyPetrelsSource.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270409T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270409T220000 DTSTAMP:20260731T125121Z CREATED:20260731T125121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260731T125121Z UID:10000395-1807300800-1807308000@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Theatre presents NATASHA\, PIERRE\, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/theatre-natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812/2027-04-09/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270410T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270410T220000 DTSTAMP:20260731T125121Z CREATED:20260731T125121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260731T125121Z UID:10000396-1807387200-1807394400@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Theatre presents NATASHA\, PIERRE\, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/theatre-natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812/2027-04-10/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270415T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270415T220000 DTSTAMP:20260731T125121Z CREATED:20260731T125121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260731T125121Z UID:10000397-1807819200-1807826400@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Theatre presents NATASHA\, PIERRE\, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/theatre-natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812/2027-04-15/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270416T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270416T220000 DTSTAMP:20260731T125121Z CREATED:20260731T125121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260731T125121Z UID:10000398-1807905600-1807912800@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Theatre presents NATASHA\, PIERRE\, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/theatre-natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812/2027-04-16/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270417T200000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270417T220000 DTSTAMP:20260731T125121Z CREATED:20260731T125121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260731T125121Z UID:10000399-1807992000-1807999200@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Theatre presents NATASHA\, PIERRE\, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/theatre-natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812/2027-04-17/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20270418T140000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20270418T170000 DTSTAMP:20260731T125121Z CREATED:20260731T125121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260731T125121Z UID:10000400-1808056800-1808067600@oglethorpe.edu SUMMARY:şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Theatre presents NATASHA\, PIERRE\, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 DESCRIPTION:Jamie Iredell\, Ph.D. \n \n \n \n November 2\, 2026 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n I decided I didn’t want to be a cop. I didn’t become a teacher so that I could spend hours with AI detection tools\, trying to catch students cheating. Instead\, I wanted writing to be fun again. I wanted students to stop thinking about a writing assignment as an “assignment\,” and more like an adventure. So\, here’s what I did. There are myriad ways to demonstrate mastery over material in writing\, and the “traditional” essay is only one of those ways. I want students to engage with the stories they read by internalizing their rhythms\, duplicating their syntax\, and building on those stories’ characters. Students can learn by doing\, and everyone knows that it’s far more noble to play than it is to “work.” I invented excursions related to each of the required COR 101 texts. For the Epic of Gilgamesh\, I met students at the head of the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Trail\, or “Ogletrail\,” and after taking them on a brief jaunt through the woods\, they could write their own “Journey to the Cedar Forest\,” where their heroes could battle whatever “Humbabas” they might encounter. Along the way they were to mimic the rhythmic and linguistic signatures of Gilgamesh. A couple weeks later\, we met at the şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Museum of Art\, where students found an artwork that spoke to them—in whatever manner—of Antigone. They engaged in ekphrasis: writing artistically about another work of art to show the connections they saw and felt. Students wrote intricate and moving poetic pieces about a pair of young girl dancers who reminded them of silence and Antigone. They described the light hitting the facial expression of a woman reading a letter with concern and they imagined her to be Eurydice learning of Haimon’s death. Next\, we met at an OU women’s soccer match\, where students used the language found in Plato—truth\, justice\, accusers\, defense\, etc.—to respond to events in the game\, such as a yellow card foul called against our Petrels. Students stepped out into the quad in groups to act out Act 3 Scene 3 from Othello. They then regrouped in the classroom to compare and contrast the experience of reading Othello in solitude versus acting it out with their peers. In doing this they incorporated details like the warmth of the fall sun on their shoulders as they envisioned Iago’s deceit. Before the semester ends\, these students will be writing short paragraphs that connect these disparate pieces\, using a blend of natural imagery\, metaphor and rhetorical schemes in order to discover just what they think is “the self” they’ve found through reading these narratives and writing their own. My students are encouraged to be creative in organizing the paragraphs of these exercises such that one flows into the next\, but so that the overall effect is more of a collage-like work. What they are writing is\, effectively\, a lyric essay about what they’ve learned of the self from reading Gilgamesh\, Antigone\, Plato\, and Othello. This first week of November we begin class wide workshops. Since my background is as a teacher of creative writing\, I employ the poetry workshop model for providing students feedback towards working on revisions that will be due at the end of the semester. All students receive copies of their classmates’ essays\, and the students are added to a class schedule. Most days we’ll workshop 2 students. These workshops are frequently cited in student reviews as their favorite part of the semester. They gain valuable feedback on their work (we usually spend about 20 minutes on each student’s essay). While there has been a little hemming and hawing\, students have seemed to enjoy the excursions and writing exercises. All initial work was written longhand\, and I think they genuinely have been reengaged as writers this semester. I guess we’ll see what revisions the end of semester brings. But I’m hopeful that this process helps students to feel reinvigorated by the idea that they can write creatively and critically at the same time. Even after the soccer game excursion ended that Friday night\, by Monday morning most students returned to class saying they had a lot of fun. That’s what I would hope college is supposed to be. URL:/event/theatre-natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812/2027-04-18/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/conant-balcony-view.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR