As his students filed through the classroom door, one college writing instructor thought of everything he did not do. "Too much judge, not enough coach; too much talking, not enough listening." He felt that he had played it safe that first semester--neither hurting his students nor profoundly moving them. For a new instructor, it is hard to give up authority in the classroom, despite the best intentions and a conscientious study of pedagogy. However, what this instructor could not do for himself the first semester of teaching, an earthquake did for him the second semester. While he was away from Los Angeles, California, the earthquake struck. As the new topic around which writing assignments were organized the second semester, the earthquake made his students the authorities; they had to bring the instructor into the discourse, not the other way around. Students built on this shared experience and developed a lively process of consensus and collaboration which they then applied to a range of topics throughout the semester. (TB)