Teach What You Love?

Of course, I created a Poetry Recitation Unit within the Speech and Drama curriculum. Why wouldn't a poet include what she loves most of all? I spent months researching poems for my children to recite. Clips of "famous" poets reading because one thing I want my students to learn is that there is more than one way to read poems. Not just "Ms. Beck's Way". Many different styles, breath, perspectives to watch, model and learn. And certainly more accomplished, better published and better writers than just their old teacher.

So, imagine my consternation to learn that my students had never even heard of Maya Angelou. What in the what what? It just never occurred to me. Maya Angelou has been a staple of my classroom instruction since the dawn of time. Her picture hangs over my desk and within the collage of images I created on my walls. Never heard of Maya Angelou? How can that be?

Now, I do have one student whose mother is absolutely thrilled her daughter is reading "Phenomenal Woman". That was quite heartening. But, the other young women just looked at me with a blank stare. Of course, I assigned them the task of researching this poet with their parent for today. I don't have computers in my classroom or I would have directed them immediately to research. But, that's a topic for another essay.

The point is... sometimes it's hard to teach what you absolutely love because when the work is not respected as you hoped, it can be rather demoralizing. However, how grateful I am to introduce my students to Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikky Finney, Juan Felipe Herrera, Richard Blanco, Matthew Zapruder, John Ashbery, Sandra Cisneros, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Frank X Walker and Bianca Spriggs. Local poets mixed in with nationally renowned poets. Everything in between.

The sixth graders are doing their own exploration of Shel Silverstein. I decided that because I always teach kids to NOT rhyme in poetry because they'll sound like Dr. Seusss, they should hear what good rhyming poetry can sound like. And, because the content is perfect for these young, young kids. I always forget how young they are. Have learned a lot from this first quarter class.

I just pray that planting these seeds will take root as they grow. Exposing them to the world's most beautiful poetry cannot be a bad thing. It's just taking a bit of a toll on this poet's soul. But, once they recite their poems... I just know it will be all worth it.

New Quarter

As I spend my Saturday planning the last unit of the Speech and Drama nine week elective course, I must admit my feelings of sadness. Here's the thing. I love my pickles. It takes a few weeks to bond (let alone to learn all of their names: ha!) and now... in two short weeks, I must bid farewell and greet a whole new batch of pickles. Sigh.

I guess "da flip side" of this situation would be if I had a group of pickles who I did not like... every nine weeks, I get rid of them and get a "do-over". But, alas. I haven't met a class I haven't adored. What in the what what is wrong with me anyway? I just get so attached to my kids. The more I learn about them, the more I love them. We've bonded. They've "gotten" all of my procedures and quirks and rhythms in the classroom. Oh, if only this course was even a semester long... how much more deeply into the curriculum we could delve.

Because I am "creating" this curriculum, it is quite a dynamic process. I find these awesome opportunities (educable moments) as I go along and it's not uncommon for me to be pulling up research and lessons even an hour before class filters into my room. So, I guess from that perspective, the cyclical nature of the rotating nine weeks is good because this quarter will be even better and more polished than last quarter and next quarter, I hope to achieve mastery. Perhaps there's a nostalgia for this "first" group because they were my "test" group. I "tested out" some lesson plans. Some I will toss away completely. Others, I will repeat. I have such an affection for this first group for being so responsive to whatever it is I created and "tried out".

But, it's not as if I won't see these first quarter pickles in school or that I won't have opportunity to teach them again in seventh grade (if they're sixth graders now) and eighth grade (if they're seventh graders now)... but still.

I'm going to miss this first quarter group so much. With that, I take a deep breath and look forward to greeting a whole new class of shining happy faces.

 

Alecia Whitaker Author Visit

One of the things I love about my career of teaching is how I can merge it with my career as a writer. Of course, it's a natural blend... I'm an English teacher. This year, I have the honor of teaching Speech and Drama, a concentrated aspect of the Language Arts Curriculum. This nine week elective explores the world of Shakespeare, provides opportunities to perform speeches, dramatic duets, monologues, read full-length plays and what I'm most excited about... our last unit... poetry performance.

So, when The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning reached out to me to bless my classes with an opportunity for an author's visit, I jumped at the chance. Of course I did! How often to middle school students get to meet a real, live published writer? (aside from their old Drama teacher: ha). But, I'm not famous. Alecia Whitaker is, though. And, even though she currently resides in NYC, she is a born and raised Kentucky girl.

To prepare, my students and I brainstormed questions to ask Alecia. Oh, they did such a good job. I was so proud of their behavior as they filed in to the library to watch Alecia's presentation. She was amazing! Engaging, funny, down-to-earth with interactive demonstrations that got my kids on their feet, actively engaged.

But, the best part? The Carnegie funded enough books for each and every one of my students to receive their very own signed copy. You should have seen their faces when they opened the first page  and saw their own names inscribed with Alecia's signature. In fact, the next day... kids raced in to school asking, "Do you have my book? I can't wait to read this book." One student said, "I've never actually read an entire book, but I'm reading this book!" That was the shining moment of the entire experience.

So, as I drag them through the laborious process of writing our thank you notes... "Why we gotta write notes? My mama said it's enough to just say thank you" to which I responded, "Whatever your mama does is perfectly fine, but in my class we take the time to write out notes. Imagine how excited Ms. Whitaker will be when she receives a big envelope I'm mailing all the way to New York City and all of these beautifully decorated, carefully created thank you cards spill out".

And... I shot an image of the famous red doors of the Carnegie Center on the screens for the students to see the building and promoted all of the wonderful opportunities they have available for them. Right here... in good old Lexington, Kentucky.

With that, they put their heads down with construction paper, markers, scissors and glue sticks and got to work. Then, they walked out of the classroom, clutching their very own copies of Wildflower to their chests.

All around, an awesome experience.

http://www.fcps.net/news/features/2015-16/wildflower

Call a Parent

I'm a parent-calling teacher. I try to call every one of my students' parents to launch the year just to establish a relationship... but I also have this thing... if you act up in my class, I call your parent. In front of the entire class. Right then; right there. I call.

Because to "send a child out" of my room is stupid. I don't understand the philosophy. We teachers are in charge of teaching... if a kid "acts up", sending him "out" tells the rest of the class you don't have control. And I have control... not of much, but at least of my instruction.

Okay, okay... I understand that sometimes teachers have to "send a child out" from time to time in order to teach the rest of the class. And don't think for a minute that I don't consider the rest of my class when I'm dealing with the one or two or three kids who are there to make trouble. I do! In fact, I look directly at those who are there to learn to reorient myself and remind myself of my mission...

to teach.

And yes... I did lose my temper today with a particularly rambunctious class today. I said, "My instruction is a privilege; not a right. If you choose not to participate in my elaborately planned lessons... that is your decision. But, I can provide you with the same material in the form of 'seat work' versus my fabulous lessons".

Perhaps that is stupid... of course it is! I know! I have a teenaged son myself. I get it. But, that's mostly what I "get". These are kids. Kids who come to class with their own agendas that don't always align with mine. Their job? To test me out. My job? To win them over.

So when they talk back and tap tap tap their pens or "act up", I am stern... I also call their parents because it's more effective to deal with discipline parent-to-parent. I say "parent-to-parent" vs. "teacher-to-parent" because of two reasons... I am also a parent and I'm a school mom. If my kid (and when my kid) acts up... I want to know. Right then. Right there.

So, that's what I do. I call.

Home Training

No home training? That's okay... I provide it at school. Home training. The knowledge to not blow your nose into a crumpled piece of notebook paper and leave it behind for your teacher to pick up. (yuck and yes... it's true) To walk into a classroom in an orderly fashion, to raise your hand to speak, to say ma'am and sir, to not talk back.

I remind my pickles... "I am a mother. I am somebody's mother. Now, I ask you... would you want your mother to be treated the way you treat me?" and that gets them every time. Oh, I'm not beyond guilting my kids into acting right. Not one bit. And it works. The class goes quiet. A few mumble, "No". All get into line.

Home training. Perhaps all of my students have parents who hammer manners hard. Of course they do! But, middle school kids like to flex their muscles. I call my seventh graders "the middle school sophomores" because that is exactly who they are. They are not intimidated like the sixth graders and they don't have their heads on right like the eighth graders. They're mouthy, rude and disrespectful. So, I mama them to death.

Because, really... that's what we teachers are... school parents. We see our kids as many hours (if not more) than their own parents. So, it's up to us to teach basic skills and manners. It's not just academics we teach to this age group... especially not to middle school kids. It's good old fashioned home training.

At school.

Not a Hero

For inspiration, I remind myself that in order to be a teacher hero, one must teach in the face of adversity. No one makes a movie about a teacher at a privileged school (except for maybe "Dead Poet Society, but even that was about a subversive teacher trying to institute change from within). So, as I gear up for this week, I know that the struggles I will face will help to strengthen me as a teacher and will most importantly, make a change in my students' lives.

Teaching this age group is a process of planting seeds. Little seeds that will take root further in their educational paths. When they delve more deeply into Shakespeare's work, they will have some working knowledge of the Elizabethan Era. They will have heard at least two Langston Hughes poems. Know who Maya Angelou is. Seen a clip of a Greek Chorus from "Oedipus Rex". Read play versions of classic American short stories such as "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Gift of the Magi". Gotten up in front of their peers to perform speeches, monologues and dramatic dialogues. Know how to shake hands, meet eye contact and say, "Nice to meet you".

Skills that will develop over the course of time. Wisdom that will be understood later in their maturation journeys. Perhaps teaching like this is going "above their heads", but standards and expectations must be really high in order to engage these students' attention.

So, if in the process, I have to battle against barriers in the classroom and against home lives that are less than desirable... the rewards will be all the more sweet when my students grow up and achieve. I know this to be true since I've been teaching for so long. I've seen my previous students soar in their lives and come back to me with the ultimate "teacher paycheck". Their life successes. And if in the process, I achieve the ultimate label of "teacher hero", that will be awesome.

However, I don't need a teacher hero movie made about my life or a book deal offered in order to be successful. Every day, my little ordinary instructional lessons are the meaning and point of the work I do. I've just never taken the easiest paths. I seem to always choose the road less traveled. And according to Frost, that makes all the difference.

hablas español

That's it! I'm so embarrassed, but I must confess. I absolutely MUST learn to speak Spanish. It's the one gap in my otherwise impeccable "highly qualified teacher" status. I am mortified to admit that when I even begin to enter "translate" into google it immediately comes up with Spanish-English, I spend so much time learning a few words, a poem, a monologue my Spanish speaking students can read, it's ridiculous. I'm trying so hard, but I cannot/will not be able to meet my students needs if I can't speak to them! And! This is MY fault. My stupidity. This, from a first-generation Sesame Street kid. I should know better. One year of high school Spanish has gotten me nowhere! Enough already!

Okay.. so, I've learned the phrase, "Buenos Dias, mi estudiante favorito" that I absolutely butcher, but my kids giggle with delight when I greet them with that. Today, one of the poets I so adore and had the privilege of meeting posted, "Abrazos!!!" and I had to "translate" to learn it meant "hugs".

What an idiot I am. Seriously.

Those who know me... know I mean business. When I say I'm going to do something... I do it. I don't ever just lament my lot in life. I change it. I will sign up for a class at our local literacy center to learn Spanish already. And I will immerse myself until I get it. And sigh... at my age... it's gonna take a lot. Unfortunately, our old addled brains don't acquire a new language easily... not like kids. But, I'm determined.

And oh... how I admire people who read poems in two languages. It's just so beautiful. It is certainly not too much to ask of myself to take the time to learn another language. It's not.

Mostly because there is nothing I won't do for my kids.