Lessons from the back of the sled

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Journalism, Reporting, Students, Teaching

Out of my inbox…

Brendan Meyer came into my orbit his last year at Mizzou. Charming. Creative. Cocky. And a bit caught up in the notion of where he wanted to be instead of the steps along the road to getting there.

He graduated from the J-school last year with limitless ambitions and dreams (ESPN! Sports Illustrated!), limited experience and limited traction. But he took butt-kicking pretty well, from me and others at the School of J.

It seems his tires have caught — that traction thing — and, in the parlance of where he is now, he is finding the cattle beneath his hat.

Out of my inbox

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Editing, Interviewing, Journalism, Reporting, Students, Teaching, Writing Tags: editing, journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, teaching, writing

I cringe when I think of the practical wisdom buried in years of disorganized and deleted email exchanges.

I’ll send up a flare when I’m struggling with a deadline project and get quick help back from some generous soul who knows stuff I don’t. That’s a whole lot of souls.

Or I’ll get a ping from a student, journalist or first-time Thanksgiving dinner cook desperate for some career or craft counsel. The pleas pile up my inbox. I scan, reply best I can, hit SEND – then move on. As Jed Bartlett would say, “What’s next?”

Incoming, Outgoing. And over time, a trove of lost treasure.

Simple brilliance, and folding panties

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Students, Teaching, Writing

I spent way too much time fretting about my “teaching philosophy,” which I finally had to file with the University of Missouri after 15 years of teaching here, and which you can read about in my previous post. The actual writing of it was a chore, as writing can be. Thinking about it brought joy because it allowed me to think about the amazing teachers, of all stripes, I’ve had in my life.

And, as these things tend to do, it raised my radar for related things. Like this tribute by John Dickerson, published in Slate, to his 10th grade English teacher, Neal Tonken.

Learning to teach, teaching to learn

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Journalism, Reporting, Students, Teaching, Writing Tags: Missouri School of Journalism, students, teaching, Writing Process

The University (in the capital-U sense) wants my “teaching philosophy.” Reasons for that request are happy, which isn’t always the case with a cap-U request. But happy doesn’t get the work done. So…

First: Thank God and Whoever Else had more important things to attend to while I taught at Missouri for 15 years without figuring that bit out.

Second: Even greater thanks, with apologies, to the students on the receiving end of me figuring it out as I go. And a deep bow to the Missouri Method – learn by doing – which doesn’t end with students.

Third: I have to write something. Cue anxiety, procrastination, much abuse of the F-word, coffee and wine.

Mourning, memory and paying it forward

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Editing, Journalism, Students, Teaching, Writing

I’ve been in mourning this week about the Packers’ loss to the Seahawks. I’ll get over that. Maybe not by Super Bowl Sunday, but someday. What I’m not over, and never will be, is the loss of Deborah Howell, my fiercest editor-foe-fan-believer. She died five years ago in New Zealand, when she popped out of(…)

Feb. 22 – March 4

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Trail

“The poor have an incredible amount to teach us about patience and thankfulness and an openness to life. We’re not poor so we’ve never had to wait. But that’s what the poor have grown up with – having to wait and having to share, because nobody can have it all.”

Feb. 19 – Feb. 21

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Trail

We witnessed our first death today. Only like everything else in Sudan, not even that was definite… I could not be so passive in the face of death or hunger or political maldistribution. But I’ve never been bombed or shot at or burned out of my home, either.

Feb. 15 – Feb. 18

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Trail

I am now convinced that hell is not the firepit of religious lore. Hell is the complete loss of privacy, dignity and self-determination.. It is bathing with a dirty cup of water in the street, defecating in an open field as people walk by, having no curtain to draw while you make love, displaying your sickness and sores to the world in the hope someone will make them better…

Feb. 12 – Feb. 14

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Trail

If my pen is shaking, it is fitting. Twice today, people have told Jean and me we are brave. Right now, I feel anything but. I feel shaken and scared and like having a good cry. Or a cold beer. Either would do. (Although a beer right now would certainly lead to a cry.)

Feb. 8 – Feb. 11

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Trail

The folks from the American Refugee Committee are wonderful, the kind of people with the inner peace necessary to tackle such a mission. And while they know that about themselves, they seem to harbor no disdain or even impatience for others who blind themselves to world pain and who refuse to be moved out of their own self-absorption.

StoryLines

Jacqui Banaszynski

About Jacqui Banaszynski

Posts by Jacqui Banaszynski:

Lessons from the back of the sled

Out of my inbox

Simple brilliance, and folding panties

Learning to teach, teaching to learn

Mourning, memory and paying it forward

Feb. 22 – March 4

Feb. 19 – Feb. 21

Feb. 15 – Feb. 18

Feb. 12 – Feb. 14

Feb. 8 – Feb. 11