{"id":3109,"date":"2013-08-23T14:40:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T18:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsuenglish.wordpress.com\/?p=3109"},"modified":"2018-11-12T13:05:49","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T18:05:49","slug":"dr-merrielle-turnbulls-discusses-her-vbc-seminar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/english\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/dr-merrielle-turnbulls-discusses-her-vbc-seminar\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Merrielle Turnbull Discusses Her VBC Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 2013, Dr. Merrielle Turnbull taught a semester-long course at the Virginia Ball Center<\/a>. In the following post she discusses her experience with the Center and the amazing educational opportunity it provides to Ball State students.<\/em> <\/p>\n

The life of a contract faculty member teaching Freshman composition is pretty much the same semester to semester.\u00a0 Sure, there\u2019s 103 in the Fall and 104 in the Spring, but there\u2019s always 100 faces to recognize, 100 names to remember, and thousands of papers to grade.\u00a0 Yes, literally!\u00a0 So when some friends suggested I consider submitting a proposal to lead an immersive-learning seminar, I was intrigued, but hesitant.<\/p>\n

The Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry offers two faculty members each semester the opportunity of a lifetime \u2013 to choose a handful of students to work together over the course of a semester with no other obligations to other classes.\u00a0 Each seminar has a general topic, chosen by the faculty member, that becomes more defined as the semester goes on with input by students and with the community partner.\u00a0 I had attended previous VBC showcases and was very impressed with the level of commitment that the students showed in producing something extraordinary.\u00a0 What a wonderful experience for them to move beyond the classroom and do something meaningful!\u00a0 Of course, I also knew those brave faculty members were extraordinary teachers, which helped them achieve such lofty goals.\u00a0 I was, on the other hand, a darn good composition teacher, end of story.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have the confidence to explore new worlds and seek out new civilizations.\u00a0 Basically, I wanted to only boldly go into Lafollette and share my love of writing.<\/p>\n

What made me finally decide to submit a proposal?\u00a0 Was it the encouragement of friends who were previous VBC leaders?\u00a0 Was it talking to VBC Head Honcho Joe Trimmer who was enthusiastic?\u00a0 Was it the thought of not having to face thousands of essays?\u00a0 Yes\u2026 all of the above!<\/p>\n

My general topic was looking at the role of animal welfare agencies in their communities with a goal of creating educational materials, both written and film.\u00a0 This project linked my two passions: education and animals.\u00a0 It seemed like a project that students would have an interest in, and that certainly was the case.\u00a0 After a few well-placed flyers and help from Barb Stedman in the Honors College, students were selected.\u00a0 Then, I talked to department heads to see where the students could earn credit \u2013 they take 15 hours for the seminar, so each needed 5 courses.\u00a0 The students were from a wide variety of majors, so the classes needed to be as well.\u00a0 I must brag on our own department \u2013 Adam Beach was WONDERFUL in approving a variety of courses.\u00a0 Other courses came from biology, telecommunications, communication studies, psychology and the honors college.\u00a0 I admit it was strange to see that I was the instructor-of-record for a 400 level Biology course, especially since I\u2019d failed the class as an undergraduate in the 1970s!<\/p>\n

As the 14 brave students and I started our seminar at the Kittselman Center, we quickly found out that it\u2019s a challenge to be around the same folks every day \u2013 especially with so many BIG personalities.\u00a0 But the type of student who is willing to take on the challenge of an immersive experience needs to be exceptionally motivated and determined.\u00a0 And for our seminar \u2013 must love dogs (and cats)!\u00a0 All of the students matched that description, and it was an incredible experience getting to know each of them.\u00a0 They quickly formed bonds as well \u2013 something well beyond what happens in a traditional classroom.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t say it wasn\u2019t nerve-wracking for me and the students at the start.\u00a0 We floundered a bit as the project started to take shape.\u00a0 I told them it could go in the direction they wanted, and they did, shifting the focus more into pet ownership responsibility and the terrible tragedy of animal abuse.\u00a0 They took the project into territories I hadn\u2019t even imagined possible \u2013 what an educational gift to each of them!\u00a0 In the end, we prepared a variety of educational materials for 2nd<\/sup> -8th<\/sup> grade teachers, brochures and handouts for shelters, and two videos.\u00a0 The children\u2019s video has the appropriate humorous tone that children will relate to, yet also can lead teachers into discussions about pet care and responsibility.\u00a0 The documentary went into a darker place than I originally imagined by looking at the reasons for and the effects of animal abuse, and what a good choice made by the students who worked on it to do so.\u00a0 It hits hard \u2013 and that\u2019s perhaps the best testament to a documentary on such a serious subject.<\/p>\n

In my 22 years of teaching, I have never been prouder of students than I was at the public presentation of our project.\u00a0 Each student had a role to play, and they did it with grace and poise.\u00a0 I saw them with their families, just bursting with enthusiasm for what we\u2019d been through the past semester.\u00a0 And I made sure I thanked the parents I met for being so brave in allowing their kids to have this experience.<\/p>\n

So now looking back, what did this semester mean to everyone involved?\u00a0 For the students, it was a chance for them to grow in confidence and experience working closely with others that an ordinary classroom couldn\u2019t come close to offering.\u00a0 Each of them got so much out of it that will go with them through their lives.\u00a0 They made friends, developed their characters, and expanded their thoughts about what they were capable of.\u00a0 That seems like a pretty good definition of education to me.<\/p>\n

For me, this project was such a total departure from my normal teaching \u2013 I always joked with the students about how you go into teaching because you like to be in charge and that the seminar went totally against this!\u00a0 But what this semester reminded me of was just how much students can do when given the opportunity.\u00a0 What I\u2019ll take back into the composition classroom is that belief.\u00a0 Will it be tougher with 100 students than 14?\u00a0 Certainly.\u00a0 But my VBC seminar students have shown me the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 2013, Dr. Merrielle Turnbull taught a semester-long course at the Virginia Ball Center. In the following post she discusses her experience with the Center and the amazing educational opportunity it provides to Ball State students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1019,1561,1572],"class_list":["post-3109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-opportunities","tag-merrielle-turnbull","tag-vbc","tag-virginia-ball-center"],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Merrielle Turnbull Discusses Her VBC Seminar - Ball State English Department<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/english\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/dr-merrielle-turnbulls-discusses-her-vbc-seminar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Merrielle Turnbull Discusses Her VBC Seminar - Ball State English Department\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the spring of 2013, Dr. Merrielle Turnbull taught a semester-long course at the Virginia Ball Center. 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