August 20, 2012
-
The Daily News1 I'd love to tell everyone about the thousand coincidences that danced through my life this past week, but I'll spare you. I will share one or two, and I'll also share how teachers get inspired. So we won't start with a thousand coincidences. We'll start with one or two. So let us begin. Coincidences:
2 Let's just say that things have been pretty active all week.
3 My summer read, for example, was a rather short piece of non-fiction, Steinbeck's Travels With Charley. I chose that book because I knew a lot of my summer was going to be spent with my dog, Phoebe, aka Charley.
4 Travels With Charley, if you don't know, is the story of a road trip Steinbeck took across America in 1960. He wanted to do this alone at first, and at the last moment decided to take along his dog, Charley.
5 He bought a pickup truck and turned it into a traveling home that he and Charley could live in while out on the road. He affectionately named it Rocinante, which was the name of Don Quixote's horse. He said of his trip, "I'm going to learn about my own country. I've lost the flavor and taste and sound of it." The entire concept somehow located me this summer, so I traveled with both Phoebe and with Travels With Charley.
6 The book is a lark. I took my sweet time about reading it, even though it is pretty short. I would read it only during those moments of reflection that we all have at times. Every time the world would slow down, I'd pick up Charley.
7 And then I would throw Phoebe into the back of the T000000NDRA and we would be off on an adventure. We would drive to parks and pretty areas and walk around, and we'd drive all over the place and enjoy things.
8 It might sound a bit corny, but after a while I'd say things like, "How you doin' Charley?" "Hey Charley, wanna eat?" "Wanna go for a ride, Charley?" Just a lark, sort of like reading a quick book is a lark.
9 Last week when school began, I was tossing around which books to teach this year, when Of Mice and Men jumped out at me. I thought about doing a small Steinbeck unit this year, maybe even to open up the school year. At our first English meeting last week, I saw that one of the books we could teach was Of Mice and Men. Isn't that just the way things work?
10 I don't like to repeat lessons too much. It's always fun to drive in a new direction. I taught a tepid unit of The Grapes of Wrath a few years ago, but never really hopped into an entire Steinbeck unit.
11 This is going to sound a tad random, but early yesterday morning I was picking my brain to think of a good author with which to start off English 2A. I had toyed with the idea of teaching a Steinbeck unit, but it was simply too early to think, so I decided to grab a cup of Starbuck's and click on Turner Classic Movies. Sometimes I have to let the world tell me what to teach. So I decided to take a break by watching an old movie. It's one of those little things I do. Old movies are comfort food, at least to this Old Brown Shoe.
12 TCM had this old James Garner film on called 36 Hours. On a second glance, I saw that it was based on a short story by Roald Dahl, the author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Revolting Rhymes, and many others. I'm not only a fan of Steinbeck, I'm also a huge fan of Dahl. I thought, "Hmmm. Starting the year with Roald Dahl and John Steinbeck might completely rock." I had never heard of 36 Hours before. The story on which the film was based was called Beware of the Dog, which I managed to find online. I instantly made a copy and then grabbed our English 2A lit book to see if Dahl's incredible short story Lamb to the Slaughter was in it. I already know that students love that story, and it would be a perfect partner to Beware of the Dog. I grabbed the textbook and looked at the table of contents in search of Lamb to the Slaughter, a story about a wife who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb.
14 Some of you trivia buffs might recognize Lamb to the Slaughter as an episode aired in the very first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1958. It starred Allan "Rocky" Lane, a former Hollywood star who drifted into "B" Westerns, and who had the dubious distinction of being the voice of Mr. Ed, an old teevee show about a talking horse. Here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0485226/
14 Unfortunately, Lamb to the Slaughter was not in the textbook, but I remembered that I had made copies of it last year, and that they were locked safely in a cabinet at the school. I then decided that as long as I had that textbook out, I'd take a look and see if there was any Steinbeck in it. I was excited to see that it had an excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath in it. I quickly ruffled through the pages when a near miracle happened.
15 Have you ever gone through a book when it would sort of open for you on a certain page? That's what happened yesterday morning. I was looking for the excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath when the book opened to a two-page spread. Here is where it stopped:
16 I remember a grand teacher named Jim Edwards, who taught a unit he called "God as joker." Viola. Wah lah.
17 And that's just one coincidence. I must have had twenty in the past week.
18 There is an entire Steinbeck unit in the English 2A book.
19 Naturally, Of Mice and Men is an English 1A book.
20 So it goes, so it goes. Left hand. Right hand. This is what happens when things come down from the top.
21 I'm pretty sure I could work through all of this. I just listen to a different top.
22 It's called close your classroom door and teach.
23 I have tons of great literature to share with English 1A. I am constantly in search of great units for English 2A.
24 At YB, I LOVED teaching English 2A. It had awesome stories in the lit book, including Lamb to the Slaughter. The district changed books a few years back, and the new one is okay, but doesn't have the wonderful stories that the English 1A books does. And it certainly doesn't have murder-by-frozen-leg-of-lamb stories. They just don't make them like that anymore.
25 Too much shop talk? I will say this: the English 2A book has not only a unit on Steinbeck, but another entire unit on King Arthur, the legend.
26 Here is another interesting coincidence. It is from the author study of Steinbeck in our lit book: "He was a shy young man who enjoyed spending time alone by the seashore in Monterey, where his parents had a cottage. For adventure, he turned to literature. In particular, he felt 'dazzled and swept up' by the legends of King Arthur in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D' Arthur."
27 My earliest years as a teacher found me creating a huge King Arthur unit, complete with the entire legend, Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and with an end-of-the year Ceremony of the Shields, featuring a billion candles and Wagner, all taking place in the good old YB Theatre.
28 I had students create manners, separating the boys from the girls. Each gender had to create a Code of Chivalry for the other. I then sent all of them into the world to do ten acts of chivalry, according to the Codes.
29 I also had them make their own shields with symbols of who they were, and then present them at the Ceremony of the Shields, where I would read to the class the acts of chivalry they performed in the community. I would then knight each student with a real sword, lightly touching the tops of their heads, and each of their shoulders. We tried bringing manners and brilliance back to the world. It was evermore a noble effort.
30 Today's DN is a bit of a tribute to how teachers think and work, especially when they aren't satisfied with doing the same stuff over and over. It's about how teachers can inspire and create much better if they are excited and interested in what they are teaching.
31 And sometimes, when struggling to think of new directions, they have things fly into their lives and do the creating for them.
32 No district policy can make that happen. Sometimes the world itself talks to intelligent, learned people, and tells them where to go.
33 In the right hands, they can go in incredible directions. I'm not trying to be critical here, but too often school districts, in knee-jerk responses to test scores and public demands, will have small groups of good-hearted people make horrific decisions regarding curriculum. They meet in small groups in rooms with coffee and bagels, wear name tags, and make critical decisions with committees.
34 Well, I always loved the expression that a camel is a horse created by a committee.
35 I have had an entire week of coincidences, and I am going to pay attention, because my mind is excited and buzzing, and I can't wait to go into my classroom and teach stuff that I absolutely love. I will use it to teach all the standards, but they will be injected into my enthusiasm.
36 Steinbeck, Dahl, and King Arthur? Can't miss.
37 Coincidences and ghosts and all? That's usually in October. But if it all comes in a tad early, and believe me, it HAS, then let's go with it.
38 You can't be afraid of new things, and you certainly can't be afraid of old things.
39 That's the law.
40 So am I ready? Not really. I'm supposed to give bubble tests this week, take two days off to get training for some new thing or other, let my students be taught Wednesday and Thursday with a sub, and then I take my freshmen to an orientation in the theater on Friday.
41 I'd rather they traveled with Charley, or with Roald Dahl, or with Tennyson.
42 I think that's about it for today's session.
43 I leave this one to float out there. Perhaps you may envision the Lady of the Lake, or a miraculous sword emerging from a stone. Godspeed.
44 As always, I take no credit for writing any of this.
45 Someone else is making this happen.
46 More to come.
47 Have a wonderful day.
48 Hope you enjoyed this.
49 Peace.
~H~
Recent Comments