My love affair with Zoom began the evening of Sept. 14, 2020, after teaching my first class online: “Great Writers in Small Doses: The Short Story,” offered by Johns Hopkins Odyssey. It was such a satisfying experience that later that night, my dreams were all positive and I woke up feeling refreshed. No nightmares about the current reality: fires, floods, division, disease and dishonesty.
At that time, there was no vaccine for COVID, and so communicating on Zoom became the standard. Although today most students are back inside a classroom and we are free to attend concerts, plays and sports events in person, Zoom is still playing a major role in many of our lives.
Medical appointments can easily be scheduled on Zoom, especially when the patient either cannot travel or does not need a physical examination. For example, mental health practitioners — psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers meet with patients regularly via Zoom.
Families from all over the country — indeed, from other parts of the world — can stay in touch and see each other. My friend Peggy has participated in a Sunday evening Zoom get-together with siblings, grandchildren, nieces and nephews for several years. She tunes in at five in Baltimore, while her sister and niece tune in at two in California.
Every couple of months, a former college classmate from Connecticut hosts an hour and a half Zoom get-together, often providing a topic in advance. Last week’s was on making a will. After all, we are advanced seniors. For me, it is most interesting to see women I have not seen in years and from other parts of the country — and, yes, I admit it — I think I look pretty good.
But back to my Hopkins classes on Zoom. I do four six-week courses each year. The one in-person class, in June, is on Wednesday mornings at Gertrude’s, the Baltimore Museum of Art’s restaurant.
As for teaching literature on Zoom, I am definitely a convert. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s sonnet, “let me count the ways”:
Convenience — No more travel. For me and for some of my local participants, driving at night is a deterrent, especially with the blinding lights on SUVs. Since no one is seen below the waist on the computer monitor, one can wear sweat pants, pajama bottoms or bedroom slippers while seated in a favorite chair. Best of all, people can tune in from anywhere. I now have regular participants from Chicago, Colorado, San Francisco and North Carolina.
Attendance — Yes, people with phones, iPads and laptops can tune in while on vacation. Doris, a regular participant from Colorado, visiting her son and daughter-in-law in Melbourne, Australia, this fall, never missed a Monday night class, whereas Jim, on a photography expedition, tuned in from Utah.
Names — I no longer have to write a seating chart, something I am sure all instructors have done in a regular classroom, hoping students will keep the same seat in each session (they usually don’t). On Zoom, the participant’s name appears at the bottom of the frame, extremely helpful for both teacher and students.
Interaction — Shy people, who may be reluctant to speak up in a traditional classroom, feel more comfortable speaking on Zoom, as one participant admitted. Perhaps because they are in a more comfortable environment at home.
Creativity — With Zoom, it is definitely a time to “think out of the box,” as the expression goes. Since my courses take place during cocktail hour, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., two of my regular participants, JoAnn and Michael, researched favorite cocktails for each of the 19 writers whose stories we were reading in that course. Although you may have guessed that William Faulkner’s favorite was a mint julep and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s a martini, how many know Flannery O’Connor liked Coca-Cola with coffee (to keep awake)? And Alice Walker, no alcohol, just sweet tea?
The first time I taught Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog,” I invited participants to bring their dogs to class. It turned out that half of my Zoom class participants own dogs, who have since made appearances during Romantic Poetry, Shakespeare, Irish plays and novels — to name a few of my courses.
Dogs and booze? Not something I would have done in my Johns Hopkins classrooms!
— Lynne Agress, Towson
The letter writer teaches in the Odyssey Program of the Johns Hopkins University and was president of BWB-Business Writing Inc., a writing and editing consulting company. She is the author of “The Feminine Irony” and “Working With Words.”
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