Teaching Writing

This book contains four essays written over 28 years ago while I was teaching writing and literature in the secondary school classroom. I do not wish to make apologies for the unpolished prose style of the essays or for arguments I once would have avidly defended, but today no longer stir a whole lot of zeal in me. Hopefully, a new generation of English teachers will find a few of the ideas contained in the essays of some value today.

You are sure to laugh when a Nevada housewife, struggling through her own midlife crisis, shares her experiences while teaching in China. Through a plentitude of cultural nuances and interesting characters, Salyer details her touching and provocative journey leading to a greater appreciation for everything American. Whether you desire to teach abroad, make a life change or merely satisfy your own curiosity, this story is filled with the truths of one woman's journey and teaching experience abroad.

This book chronicles the second, third and fourth years of these adventures, including the day-to-day life of a teacher at The American School of Kinshasa from 2007-2009 who deals with a marginal infrastructure while facing the everyday challenges of living in a war-torn third-world country, and has some great adventures in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Zanzibar.

In September of 2005, the Peace Corps sent Michael Levy to teach English in the heart of China's heartland. His hosts in the city of Guiyang found additional uses for him: resident expert on Judaism, romantic adviser, and provincial basketball star, to name a few. His account of overcoming vast cultural differences to befriend his students and fellow teachers is by turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny.