Who am I?Peyton J. Carter is an educator, author, and creator from Utah who began his education at Catholic school and has been struggling ever since to step out of a uniform. He enjoys reading urban fantasy (to find all the right cracks in the sidewalk) and gothic novels (to learn terrible romance and proper agony). His favourite writing topics are witchcraft, gender, sexuality, and feminism as well as anything to do with making a more just and democratic world. His favourite author of all time is Diana Wynne Jones and favourite series as a kid was A Series of Unfortunate Events. He also takes inspiration from Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Neal Shusterman, and Neil Gaiman.
Turns out most people are annoying and frustrating, especially when they're annoyed and frustrated, so those are the characters I like to write about until they get a better idea of who they are and who they want to be. |
My Pedagogy
I am applying for Student Teaching of Fall 2020, interested in an internship opportunity, and looking forward to a career in high school English Education. Presently, I enjoy my block practicum with Mary Saylor at Canyon View Middle School and look forward to my second summer working with SUU Upward Bound. The creative and strategic challenge of meeting the diverse needs of young learners became my vocation while completing the teaching program at SUU as I examined my own education, my own privilege, and the potential to apply myself to helping others learn to learn. For me, education is about helping students develop the intellectual and emotional skills to weather trials and take charge of their potential as individuals and members in a community.
In high school, I took over the Gay Straight Alliance at my school; it was then that I realized helping my peers find their place was deeply rewarding. Reflecting on my many wonderful experiences with teachers, I had an impulse to head into education at SUU. I owe it to professors Arter, Meisner, Kramer, and McKenzie for opening my eyes to the enormous responsibility and commitment of education, as well as the transformative potential of pedagogy. Now, I am devoted to equipping all students with the critical consciousness and organizational skills to maintain our United States democracy and equitably expand its liberties.
Working with SUU Upward Bound, I found my most transformative experience yet. The population the program serves is primarily rural high schoolers preparing to be first generation, low-income college students. The resolve and genius I found among them was astonishing and affirmed to me the enormous potential that is disadvantaged by the present state of wealth disparity and public school funding. Among those students, I witnessed firsthand the learning which occurs in an accepting, supportive community: empathy, compassion, emotional honesty, love, and laughter. Plus, English composition skills of summary, research integration, outlining, and drafting. A strong foundation in thinking and writing grants students a profound ability to express themselves, as well as to persist in opposition to structures of oppression.
I find the greatest obstacle students face in reading and writing is the intimidation of a language they do not understand, even though they command it fluently in their everyday life. My pedagogical mission is to reinforce in students their intrinsic value as experts of their own perspective, affect, and dialect.
In high school, I took over the Gay Straight Alliance at my school; it was then that I realized helping my peers find their place was deeply rewarding. Reflecting on my many wonderful experiences with teachers, I had an impulse to head into education at SUU. I owe it to professors Arter, Meisner, Kramer, and McKenzie for opening my eyes to the enormous responsibility and commitment of education, as well as the transformative potential of pedagogy. Now, I am devoted to equipping all students with the critical consciousness and organizational skills to maintain our United States democracy and equitably expand its liberties.
Working with SUU Upward Bound, I found my most transformative experience yet. The population the program serves is primarily rural high schoolers preparing to be first generation, low-income college students. The resolve and genius I found among them was astonishing and affirmed to me the enormous potential that is disadvantaged by the present state of wealth disparity and public school funding. Among those students, I witnessed firsthand the learning which occurs in an accepting, supportive community: empathy, compassion, emotional honesty, love, and laughter. Plus, English composition skills of summary, research integration, outlining, and drafting. A strong foundation in thinking and writing grants students a profound ability to express themselves, as well as to persist in opposition to structures of oppression.
I find the greatest obstacle students face in reading and writing is the intimidation of a language they do not understand, even though they command it fluently in their everyday life. My pedagogical mission is to reinforce in students their intrinsic value as experts of their own perspective, affect, and dialect.
My Writing Craft
Something I try to do with my writing is blend of humor and social critique. I always thought I would be a melancholy, dramatic writer till I wrote a novel and was compelled by my own boredom to create scenarios that were funny and protagonists with a lot to say about the world. I love comedies that take an absurd scenario and take it seriously, as well as humor that draws attention to the absurdity of custom and manners, et cetera. I often write in juxtaposition or contrast that exposes the middle or common ground between ideas. By observing the world, there are so many characters already in existence, and their individual subtlety is always so hard to capture. But I find it to be a lot like sketching. A portrait can look nothing like your subject until the instant you pen stroke captures the angle of their jaw or a soft dimple you never even noticed they had. And another tiny stroke can transform that portrait into another person. Every detail counts, down to one stipple mark, so when writing, I find the same is true from each individual sentence to each word—even to each letter. The sound of your writing read out loud can be different from in your head, and the difference can be made by a comma or an em-dash. All of those little details make up what's called representation in art history. Are you representing an image classically, full of idealism? Or realistically, complete with the rough and unfinished thoughts and feelings? Or maybe expressively, as the 19th century painters used blurred colors, unfinished edges, and surrealist symbolism to capture reality emotionally. In all my writing, I experiment with many methods to affect my tone and mood—I always ask myself, what am I meaning right now? What am I representing: what I see, or what I feel when I see it?
My mission as a writer is to give representation to people like myself who feel more comfortable in diverse, discursive environments. Students who are socially minded because they have to be but also because they see the value in it.
My characters are meant to dig into the brittle reality of yucky emotions hopefully unveiling honest and unique, if not ideal, elements of personality and marginalia. I don’t really care to write cis/het experiences, and almost all my characters have some element of Hispanic-American heritage influencing their life. So, I want to strike a balance between representing experiences that are frustrating, frightening, or challenging the status quo and providing young readers legitimate hope for their futures. Showing the honesty and pain of growing is a huge part of that.
Critical pedagogy and problem based learning are increasingly central to my thinking on how to write about social dilemmas. I don’t want to overwhelm the potential of emotionality with theory but questioning of the world must be essential questioning. And if I truly want my books to impact lives, learning must be constructed mutually and experiences must be spelled together.
My mission as a writer is to give representation to people like myself who feel more comfortable in diverse, discursive environments. Students who are socially minded because they have to be but also because they see the value in it.
My characters are meant to dig into the brittle reality of yucky emotions hopefully unveiling honest and unique, if not ideal, elements of personality and marginalia. I don’t really care to write cis/het experiences, and almost all my characters have some element of Hispanic-American heritage influencing their life. So, I want to strike a balance between representing experiences that are frustrating, frightening, or challenging the status quo and providing young readers legitimate hope for their futures. Showing the honesty and pain of growing is a huge part of that.
Critical pedagogy and problem based learning are increasingly central to my thinking on how to write about social dilemmas. I don’t want to overwhelm the potential of emotionality with theory but questioning of the world must be essential questioning. And if I truly want my books to impact lives, learning must be constructed mutually and experiences must be spelled together.
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