Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration
Description
CREATIVITY, TEACHING, AND NATURAL INSPIRATION follows the evolution of a high school English teacher as he develops a creative and innovative teaching style despite being juxtaposed against a public education system bent on didactic, normalizing regulations and political demands.
Doherty crafts an engaging nonfiction story that utilizes memoir, anecdote, poetry, and dialogue to explore how mixing creativity and pedagogy can change the way budding students visualize creative writing: A chunk of firewood plunked on a classroom table becomes part of a sawmill, a mine timber, an Anasazi artifact...it also becomes a poem, a song, an essay, and a memoir. The long, slender feather of a Sandhill Crane evokes Muir, Thoreau, Audubon, Leopold, Carson...even parables of lore and magic.
Creativity holds the stitches of this book together and runs throughout each chapter like fragrant woodsmoke.
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Person
Mark Doherty was born and raised in the Colorado Rockies where he developed his passion for both the outdoors and music. After graduating from Western State College of Colorado with a BA in English and Writing, he moved to Moab, Utah where he worked as a guide, musician, and carpenter for nearly ten years. In 1993 he moved to the Salt Lake City area to work as a high school English teacher. He retired from teaching in 2021 and now spends his time writing, playing music, and doing woodworking. In 2016 he completed his MA degree in English, Creative Nonfiction and has produced his sixth manuscript Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration. His seventh book length work of creative nonfiction will be completed sometime in 2024. In his free time, he and his wife spend as much time as possible hiking, skiing, ocean kayaking, bicycling, and backpacking.
