there are several moments in the prison engrained into my mind. these memories, while having come from just this semester, don’t feel fresh; the stagnancy that overwhelmed me upon walking into the lobby – and to the classroom and back – each thursday made sure that every moment felt like a vague memory even as i experienced it.

some of the moments were better than others. my initial reaction to the prompt of this paper – “begin with a 1-p. description of one important (vivid, definitive, symbolic?) experience that really stood out to you during our time there” – was to focus on a moment that was one of the more positive ones. the time spent with the incarcerated folks was not bad for me in and of itself, i don’t think, and so i thought i would represent that.

Remember:

Re – go back

Member – limbs of the body

When I remember, the limbs of my body are put back in place.

When I remember, I am whole.

When I remember – I go back, and only then, can I move forward.

It’s all already there, I just have to remember

--

So many questions I am having, and the answers are in front of me – in the past.

The past is in front of me, I can see it.

Since beginning this process, I have learned to understand that going back does not hinder the process of moving forward.

 When we began this process, I was ready.

There is an electricity in the room- a vibrant hum carrying through the giggles and big smiles of the whole room. After each group reads their revisionary thoughts to the rest, there is raucous applause. Everything from big changes to small ones is exciting. All, though, geared towards saving Antigone’s life, sometimes at the cost of Ismene’s if necessary. She is the criminal, but hers is the loss honor most protests. My group is the only one to act out the altered scenes; our changes are an enormous amalgamation of four people’s revisions, and still no one dies.

*pre-apologies and warning: abstract

The Question within the Answer

George Steiner in After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, has argued:

“any model of communication is at the same time a model of trans-lation... No two historical epochs, no two social classes, no two localities use words and syntax to signify exactly the same things, to send identical signals of valuation and inference. Neither do two human beings.”

The Contact Zone of Translation

When I learned from Bionic that I had been placed in this class, I was admittedly very unsure of what I had just chosen for myself. I had put two other ESEM courses as my first and second choices, and I was only vaguely interested in the course description for the one I ended up in. I was surprised that I was placed in my third (my last) choice for ESEM, and with only this limited knowledge of my academic schedule for my freshman year, I was feeling very anxious for September to swing around. None of my fears were assuaged by the first day of class, either. That didn’t come until a few weeks into the semester.

The Day We Lost Control 

I would like to credit Tumblr user ebriosity for my banner image. 

I was struck in my final conference by a kind of “revelation” I had about my experience planning for prison with regard to how I learn. I’ve encountered many pedagogies and pedagogical strategies that clash with me, for various reasons, which has caused a lot of frustration in my academic life. This seems to translate into my lesson planning, as I try to give activities the balance of structure and flexibility that I personally find helpful to me, in the hopes that it will be accessible to as many learners as possible (while realizing that any choice will exclude someone). I find that I thrive within certain types of structures, that too much uncertainty and choice is frightening and inhibiting.

I chose “Changing Our Story” not for its description because I could not figure out any “defined” topic it concerned but for the recommendations from upper classpeople who had taken classes with Anne Dalke before. I felt it was more important to have an engaging, interesting and constructively critical professor than a topic that was the most interesting to me. Well, those sage words of advice were accurate; being taught by Anne Dalke for my first semester was definitely worth it but also being taught by all of you was equally as wonderful. Thank you Anne and thank you all.

Changing my Story