Thanks, Ms. Ruddle

I'm a writer today because of one extraordinary teacher: Ms. Marilee Ruddle. Yes, that's her real name and I hope she googles herself and reads this.

Ms. Ruddle had a reputation for being ridiculously tough. She famously didn't give A's. Overachievers like me with a 4.0 GPA got their parents to get them a different teacher for English 11. I was not so lucky. I got Ms. Ruddle. Ha! Turns out I was the lucky one after all.

Prior to my junior year, I'd always been praised for my writing, getting good grades, winning contests, feeling confident and pleased with myself. That was soon to change. I got my first essay back with a C+/C-. Top grade for mechanics, bottom grade for content. I was stunned to say the least. Angry. Treated unfairly. And for the first time, my work had turned all red. What was happening?

“This paper is all fluff and no content. You've made careless grammatical errors. I expect so much more from you.” Talk about developing insecurities. Who was wrong here? All my other teachers? Ms. Ruddle? Or was it me? I labored over the re-write of that essay. Got it to a B-/C+. Damn. This was going to be a long year.

As it turned out though, it was a fun year. We memorized poetry and recited it for a grade, during private appointments with her. THAT I got an A on. “You put such emotion into your recitation, and not only did you know them all, you seemed to enjoy yourself.” Now we're talking!

We sat in a circle and listened to an old, scratchy piece of vinyl that spun in circles before us.  It was Dylan Thomas himself, reading “Fern Hill”. 

We learned of art, it's various styles, and memorized the name of the painting, the name of the artist, and the years the artist lived. Again, we had private appointments and she held up a print, and we would say, “American Gothic, Grant Wood, 1891-1942.” (I only had to look up the years. Show me those 25 paintings today and I'd probably get a respectable B, if I don't have to recite the years. Everything else stuck. I can still recite the poems, too. Would you like to hear The Road Less Traveled or Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening?)

Fourth quarter we spent on a research paper, learning the entire process step by step. I worked my butt off on this. I remember lying in my bikini, all oiled up (we all had to be tan back then...) in my yard, books spread about me, and making index cards. I lamented the amount of work, but I persevered. I was jealous of those not in her class who had free afternoons.

I hardly dared look as she passed them back to us. I almost fainted when I saw the grade: A-/A. Unbelievable. As I paged through the ten, painstakingly typed pages, I came across one with only one line of red. It read, “This page flows quite nicely.”

I was a writer. I may not have gotten an A on my report card, but I got an A on a paper. The most important paper of the year. Ms. Ruddle liked it! I had my confidence, and I WAS a better writer thanks to her relentless pushing.

What inspired you to start writing? Maybe thinking back, and putting it on paper will give you a confidence boost. It worked for me. Thanks, Jeremy, for prompting me.

*****

The Insecure Writer's Support Group, brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh, posts first Wednesday of the month. You can join us. There's a tab at his blog.

Q ~ Quality Teachers

These are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone before...please come along on Adventures in America.

Note: this is not the post I was going to write, but I had quite the day yesterday. I've been undergoing a battery of tests at a specialty hospital for my asthma, and yesterday The Swede drove me to those procedures. We had an accident on the way – no big deal, rear-ended in rush hour traffic, no need to get anyone involved, but hey, it was an accident. Then I had two nasty procedures which you can look up on wiki if you'd like...a “tailored barium swallow” and a “bronchial provocation test”. Well, they sure succeeded in provoking my bronchials. I spent most of the rest of the day in bed. No energy to write.

What I came up with instead as I lay awake contemplating today's appointment (the fun never ends) was that I'd just make a list. Yes, these are their real names, and I'm using them because maybe they google themselves to see if anyone remembers them. I do. You shaped my life, some of it in hard lessons, some of it with love and great teaching, but regardless, you made me who I am today. Thanks.

3^rd Ms. Cummings and Mr. Barnett (team teachers)

4^th Mrs. Lougee (ESL teacher, yeah, not a good fit for me...)

5^th and 6^th Mrs. McGinn, Ms. Varoff (who married and became Mrs. Wheeler) Mrs. McCoy and Senior Ley. Open classroom.

All the rage in the 70's.

7^th Mrs. Brody, algebra. Finally someone who could challenge my math skills. No more sitting in the back of the room with busy work while the rest of the class learned something I already knew how to do. Not bragging, God just gave me a good math brain. That's what my degree is in.

8^th and 9^th Mr. Schultz and Mr. Calvert.  GT program, we had them for social studies and science, respectively.

10^th Mr. Yehle, band director. First band director who was a clarinet player like me. I loved band. And all the band nerds!

11^th Ms. Marylee Ruddle. I hated her at the time because she didn't give A's so she ruined my GPA, but she made me a writer. Thank you, Ms. Ruddle, for that and the love or art and poetry I now have. You were the best of them all in the end.

12^th Mr. Neerhof, Bible teacher. Influenced my faith tremendously, and helped officiate in our wedding.

I hope you have an accident free, breathe easy day. Back tomorrow with a story.

~Tina

P.S One of my minions, AJ, wrote an amazingly intricate pick-your-own-plot post for P.  You gotta check it out!

Getting to Know Tina’s Terrific Team! Philip Verghese ‘Ariel’ !

Please welcome the last of my team members to introduce themselves...Philip!  

As someone said, I too had the intention of keeping myself away from the audience while I write, so in the beginning I adopted the name ‘Ariel’ as my pseudonym.  But at a later stage I understood the value of revealing myself to the general readers.  And I came out with a write up about myself on “HowI got my pen name?” And now I firmly believe and recommend that one (If he or she is a writer) need to have an identity to be revealed in the writing field, just ghost writing will not fit the bill.  And  the present trend at writing field is much more than that, unless and until you reveal yourself the audience may not get into it or sometimes even just neglect even though your thoughts or imaginations are in a high caliber.  

This lesson I learned it while I was actively involved in Google’s Knol pages.  Since then I started promoting myself and my write-ups through different social media.  

For such activities there is an other side too, I received lot of criticism when I started promoting my resources.   I just neglected such talks and am still going on with my promotion as often as I can.  And ha,  Note that unless you do the promotion for your work who else will do for you? Think of this!  On this line recently I published a post at my blog page under the title. 9 Tips to promote your blogs…. to read ClickHere 

Now here at A to Z  Co- host Tina Downey of Life Is Good gave me an opportunity to expose myself and my writings  to the web word by selecting me as one of her A to Z promoters or ambassadors.  Thus this question and answer part.   Though I am a bit late here I am with my answers:

My Full Name is  Philip Verghese ‘Ariel’

I am a freelance author and an Editor of a Christian Bi-Monthly.

I do have few blogs in English (Philipscom) as well as in Malayalam,(Ariel's Jottings) my native language. 

My main hobby is philately, writing and photography.

Here comes my answers to some of the questions asked by our readers:

Q.1. "Where do you go to "Get away from it all"?"

OMG!! Good question, but I have no answer to this instead I have a question to ask back:

Where is the time? I feel 24 hrs is not enough. LOL.

Q 2. "Where do you hail from?"

I hail from Kerala a Southern State in India, quite often known or called as God’s Own Country.

Q 3. "Name an item that you have too much of."

No Doubts. BOOKS, Books And Books  and of course STAMPS too!!! LOL

Q 4. "Who is your favorite fictional character and why?"

Shakespeare’s Tempest’s character ‘Ariel ‘ the good spirit. -  I feel this is one of the best characters the great author ever produced, and the way in which it enacted will no doubt be a praiseworthy one. 

Q 5. "Do you know how to 'Gangnam Style?'"

Yep! Of Course A BIG NO. That’s all! No more explanation!

Q 6. “What items could you typically have in your pockets?"

Home Keys, vehicle keys and of course the purse contains my cards etc…

Q 7.  "When writing, do you prefer to compose your first-draft by hand, on your computer, or using Morse Code?"

Yes, my first draft I compose with my pen, most of the time I use my ink pen for this, then only it goes to the computer.

Q 8. "Cake or pie?"

I like cake but, I love soups for that matter any type like most

Q 9. "Coke or Pepsi?"  

A BIG NO to both, instead I prefer Lime Juice.  No, because, these days in many parts of India cola items are used as pesticides since it is cheaper than other pesticides and more effective too. So after came to know about this fact I said a big NO to these items. :-) 

Q. 10  "What makes life worth living?" 

Well this is a good question I think all should surely find an answer to it.   Our life on this earth is very temporal and let us utilize it well for the utmost satisfaction of our Creator God.  Yes, He created each one of us with a Great Purpose, "To live a life which is pleasing to Him, that is to live like Him, and to be good to our neighbors as well even to our enemies.  As I quite often am reminded and quote, "Let us share our blessings to others, at least the one who have not.  Tomorrow when we leave on this earth,  let others say that there was a man or a woman who lived a life which is pleasing to God as well as to his fellow being."  That is the life worth living!

Is there any more questions you have, please don’t hesitate to ask me: Just drop a comment at the comment box or you can contact me directly through my mail I've given elsewhere in my blog or at my Google+ space, Sure  I will come back to you soon with an answer to your utmost satisfaction.  This is for sure.

OMG! Time is up for the A to Z Blog Challenge.

Wish You All A Happy Blogging Ahead.

Thanks for your time and patience to be with us.

Thanks Philip for taking the time to share a bit about yourself with us.  I'm so glad you're on my team - you're a very reliable and fast worker!

~Tina