April 22, 2011
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The Daily News1 Ah, Sharks!
2 You finally decided to let an inferior team know they are inferior.
3 No torture.
4 You just went in and kicked it into gear (AFTER the five-on-three debacle).
5 A word of advice: continue to do so.
6 I actually got a little sleep last night for once.
7 Thanks boyz.
8 Seesly.
9 I'd love to pick on LA right now, but they're stuck with the Dodgers.
10 Meanwhile, let us root, root root for the home teams.
11 And Sharks, do you think you could do it for once?
12 A whole bunch of us sure hope so.
13 Moving on, Part One: Wow. I blinked and it's Spring Break already.
14 Some student told another, "After this, we have just three weeks left!"
15 I immediately saw that as two weeks and finals.
16 Survivor.
17 The irony is that I LOVE the last few weeks of school, because I have my favorite lessons all saved up.
18 A part of me actually wants to go into June, because it's always been that way.
19 June is Taming of the Shrew, and traditional graduation.
20 And traditionally at EV, I play Shrew in the school's enormously wonderful theatre, on a big screen, all of which is reserved exclusively for my students.
21 But this year the LCD projector is getting repaired, so playing it through the system isn't happening. A LOT of things weren't happening this year because of budget cuts and all.
22 I must admit, THAT was a lark. Our theatre is so nice, and has had an LCD projector hooked into a professional sound system. Ever since I got there I was able to get my class a personal showing of Zeffirelli's Taming of the Shrew in the school's theatre.
23 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Classic. I have shown that film the last days of school since I began teaching, and it still is an exclamation point to every teaching year.
24 To me it symbolizes the triumph of learning over idiocy.
25 But the LCD projector is down.
26 I could easily show it in my classroom like I used to, but as I grow wiser in this profession, I want only the best for my students EVERY day rather than once every couple of weeks.
27 Yesterday, for example, was a day I would have let go. I had them writing poetry in a sort of structured way. Nothing big, but yesterday I added Miles Davis music, which changed the entire atmosphere to retro '50's coffee house cool.
28 I wrote on the board: Musical Artist: Miles Davis.
29 While they wrote, they listened to So What with Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
30 At the end of the period, I erased Miles' name and wrote "Taylor Swift"!
31 Without blinking, I put on a mini-mix of Swiftian songs. I mixed the segue seamlessly, like a good DJ at a wedding.
32 They looked up, all ears and braces, and saw that I had recognized their own generation as having "artists".
33 Great fun at the end of the period.
34 This time of the year drives teachers insane, because the kids are pretty much checked out. This happens every year at every school.
35 We have tested them and standardized them so much that there is a bit of rebellion in them. Some teachers take it personally, and go insane, often dishing out more work, almost like they are fighting a war.
36 I slightly fell into that yesterday, but after two periods of what felt like disrespect and zaniness, I realized that 'twas ever thus.
37 I changed my attitude, switched up my approach, and had pure success the last three periods.
38 This time of the year is about fun projects and frivolity. The students are usually all over the place right about now, and I have known this for years.
39 Thankfully the weather has kept them grounded, because if it were summer weather, we'd have NO chance but to bring cast iron frying pans to work.
40 So three weeks.
41 Honestly.
42 Not enough time. My mind, my body, and my spirit are used to more time when we hit April. It has forgotten that we started school in August, and wants things normal again.
43 Okay it's late, or early, so I'd better get on my horse.
44 We're on a minimum, and then...
45 I'm outta here for Spring Break!
46 See ya later.
47 Peace.
~H~
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