Christopher Kotcher

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is the big event which (almost) always brings me home. Before Freshmen Year I now knew I would be going to high school at St. Mary’s. My family would take me to all kinds of events for the coming Class of 2013. First came a … Read more Summer Starts at Home

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is an awesome college English class. It is a post written in honor of the late Professor L. Four Core Courses My English major at University of Michigan-Dearborn centered around four major literature classes. The best of these for me was English 313 American Literature: … Read more Song of American Literature Class

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is one great cartoon. How I Enjoy Cartoons Unlike many people, I never grew out of cartoons. Great stuff has been made using animation. Why deny that just to look cool and mature in all the wrong ways? True, bad cartoons exist. So do bad … Read more My Favorite Modern Cartoon

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is my system for writing dialogue. Getting Characters Talking Dialogue came late to me as a writer. Much of my earliest work only ever made passing reference to what my characters said. At most, I would include maybe one or two funny or cool quotes. … Read more How I Craft Dialogue

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is one of my wildest weeks of substitute teaching. Another Week on the Job I am lucky. My teaching career started with a year as a resident adviser and substitute teacher at my old high school St. Mary’s. No place can give me stories quite … Read more My Week as a Geometry Teacher

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is a neat little book that taught me a neat little lesson. A New Way to Find Books One of my more pleasant surprises after college has been the University of Michigan’s alumni magazine. This quarterly publication is a pretty good read. It features many … Read more People Are People

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is the story of my other major literary project. Comic Beginnings My eighth grade English class featured writing units in between grammar units. These writing units were based around yearlong groups. Each unit gave each group receiving one of several color-coded binders. Binders had all … Read more From Hilarity to Heroism

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is the class that expanded my bookshelf. One Late Reader I was a writer before I became a reader. My first project written for myself was written in grade school. My first book read for myself, not for school or parental bribes, was read in … Read more How I Got Into Young Adult Literature

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is another good moment from my student teaching. Teaching Mythology My elective mythology class was a highlight of my student teaching. Students here truly wanted to learn. This was a class they chose. Not a subject they were made to take. These students wanted to … Read more Our Classroom Meme

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is an inspiring lesson from my student teaching. College’s Final Challenge Student teaching was a rough experience. The workload of creating daily lesson plans and materials was expected but still immense. Grading took forever, especially with essays. Many students were unprepared for a high school … Read more A Lesson on Gatsby’s Parties