Random Question Meme

Don over at Gookins presented an opportunity for a meme and how could I pass it up?
Here are his questions and my answers:

1. Since you are an English instructor, your first question is in traditional essay question format. Compare and contrast teaching college students to homeschooling your daughter.
Lil'Bug isn't jaded yet. That's the only contrast.

Ok, seriously... My classroom is an refuge sometimes for many of the students that walk through my door. I don't lecture and I don't teach. They teach, they learn, they help each other. I provide them with tools, hold their hands, and facilitate their discoveries. Oh, I grade and deal with red tape, but they pick the subjects to write about, they ask questions, I show them how to find the answers (even if I know the answer). It is as close to unschooling as a classroom can be. They leave my class with skills not just obligatory grades on paper. I also don't fail students who are willing to work and learn. If a student wants to revise over and over to get a better grade they have an extended time to do so. Learning comes from failing, not just from getting it right the first time. I can blog about some of the exercises I do that are interactive and student led if you like. It is exactly my approach to Lil'Bug. I encourage my students to find their passion and write about that. I "teach" process not content. It is way harder than the talking head/textbook model that I was (mostly) taught with in college. I model it after history teachers I had at Drake...they would take us outside and let us dig tranches with historical artifacts to learn about WWI, bring in food when discussing the royalty of France and their attempted escape across the French countryside, and we read Shakespeare with maps and special effects. It was way cool.

2. You are stranded on a desert island and can choose 5 books to keep with you; what would they be?
The Complete Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead (it was a toss up between this and the Army Survival Manual, but zombies won out. Same stuff plus bonus material on, well, zombies....)
The volume of the Theodore Sturgeon collection that has the short novella "Bright Music"
The Cajun to English dictionary: what better time to learn my ancestors language than when stranded on a desert island!

3. What’s in your CD player (or on your iPod) right now? Madness: the Peel Sessions

4. You’re restoring an old house. What is it about older houses that you prefer over new ones?
Materials, craftsmanship, and artistry. I love that the carpenter, an anonymous worker, left his mark in so many ways that when I go into another local house I can tell if it was the same guy. I love that the house shaped the lives of its inhabitants in so many eras including me and vice versa. I love how every detail has a purpose and reason: the transoms control droughts, the step that squeals, the old cistern, etc. Every detail also leads to a story. I love that the stories can lead us to common experience and demonstrate in real ways how history and major events affect people at home. I wrote my thesis on this theme. I can talk about it for hours, days, years on end. I've only been in a few homes built with as much detail and quality material and care that were built new. Even if I someday build a new house we will use salvaged architectural material.

5. Your pick. Choose at least one of the following questions:
-What was your most embarrassing moment?
When I was a new mom and just learning to breastfeed (and still on Percoset) I didn't button my shirt up properly (meaning, no undergarments and gaping open wide). I went the whole afternoon shopping and ended up at my MIL's. They said nothing either, but my MIL offered me a new winter coat. When I went to try it on I noticed. I was terribly embarrassed. They were kind enough to say nothing, but I cried the whole way home. I have a couple others that made the final list, but that was the most.
-If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would have purple hair, the same colour it was when DH and I were married in 1999.
-If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
Elemental. I would love to have Storm's abilities. Sometimes a good thunderstorm would come in handy.
-If you could be any animal, what would it be?
Kestrel.

Wanna play too?
The Rules of the Meme:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like [the title and artist of the song stuck in your head or a food that you cannot eat because it grosses you out]. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.