Ho Chi Not Hoochi

I spent the day at an area middle school giving a photography slide show presentation on Vietnam to 8th grade world geography students.

Even though I used to be a full-time middle school teacher myself, I forget how gruelling it can be to stand in front of five different twitchy, 30-people crowds and do your deal over and over and over again.

It's hard work being a teacher and even though I mastered the art of voice projection during my own years in the classroom, my vocal chords have forgotten all about being worked for hours on end!

The funniest moment of the day came while I was talking about the fact that Vietnam's biggest city has two names: Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City.

One smart aleck boy on the fringes of the darkened room smiled as only an 8th grade boy can do and said, "Hoochi."

But he didn't whisper softly enough. I heard him (teacher ears come in handy).

"Not Hoochi!" I said loud and proud to a chorus of laughter. "Ho. Chi."

That's one group of kids that won't forget the name of Vietnam's biggest city.

Photo: An alter to Ho Chi Minh himself at the Cu-Chi Tunnels.

Teaching Travel Writing

I spent Saturday talking about travel writing at a local writer's festival, which was hosted by the Bloomington Center for the Arts, an area arts organization.

I taught two classes back-to-back. In the first, I spoke to about 20 people. The second class was a smaller group, just seven attendees.

It was energizing to talk about something I love to interested listeners.

And I was reminded that I'm teaching another travel writing class in the upcoming months -- this one, however, just for kids.

In July I'm teaching a week-long travel writing class in the Youth Summer Program at the Loft, the nation's largest literary center, which is located right here in the Twin Cities.

Thanks to Steve Peterson for the photo!

Patagonian State of Mind

Over the noon hour, I spoke to a senior group about Patagonia.

The talk was arranged through a local school district's community ed. department. This particular district has an arm-chair travel group that meets once a month to see a photography slide show about a far-away place.

I spoke about Patagonia today, but last month I was also the featured guest. That time I spoke about Myanmar (Burma). There were many returning faces in the crowd and it was fun to have the whole room fill up; about 40 people were in attendance.

Afterwards, several interested parties stuck around to ask my advice. It seems I got a few listeners into a Patagonian state of mind.

Learn more about my presentations.

Classroom Connections

I spent the day in an 8th grade classroom speaking to world geography students about Latin America. They are just getting started on their unit study of the region.

It was fun to be back in a middle school classroom and it made me miss my own days as an 8th grade teacher. But I'd forgotten what havoc five straight hours of talking can wreak on my voice. I'm sooooooooo hoarse.

Since coming home from my big trip around the world, I've been speaking to different groups about my journey. I've spent a lot of time with elementary students and adults, but not so much time with 13 and 14 year-olds.

I wish I had more engagements with this age group. It wasn't all that long ago that I was interacting with them every day.

It's because of my years as a middle school teacher that the word "dude" permeates my speech. It's a bad habit, I know, but it's also one I just can't break.