The week was only three days long, but it felt like 30. I still haven't gotten over my cold, which occasionally sits back on its haunches but often lashes out at my throat. I'll wake up, and feel fine, and then feel terrible by the late morning. It has kept me from sleeping at times, but has also kept me feeling exhausted. I've lost my voice and regained it. The congestion is never-ending. It's just crummy. And when I'm sick - even when I have a little cold like this - I become whiny. And it hasn't been severe enough to take a day off, although maybe I should have. It's just enough to make me feel miserable.
My reflection at the end of this week - which saw me finish the Odyssey unit, set to begin the Fences unit on Monday - is that I'm not being an effective teacher with my 9th graders. I'm too focused right now on covering stuff, and not on teaching skills. I'm being a great assigner, but not a great teacher. I read a line in my grad school text that sent chills down my spine, something about how classes that focus on content over skills do not effectively educate young people. I recognized myself in it, and, honestly, I have no idea what I'm going to do on Monday to correct it. I need this break and this reflection time.
I know I need to run off 135 copies of Fences sometime before that, and our copier keeps jamming and I'm actually considering bringing it to Kinko's and spending a few hundred dollars and having the kids bring me a couple bucks each for it. We'll see.
Sleeping eight hours tonight. Tomorrow, it's the Lions and tilapia (no tofurky this year), possibly at a friend's house, possibly just chilling here if I don't feel well enough. Either way, I'm excited about the down time.
For Love Of Language
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Ta-Nehisi reflects on his recent experience abroad as a novice
French-language student in his mid-thirties: I stayed with a host family
and took my dinners...
1 hour ago
9 comments:
You might run into trouble trying to copy the whole play due to copyright issues. Although, it might be covered under educational/fair use policies. You might give a call before you head out.
Aside from copyright issues, you are pouring an incredible amount of time into teaching in a bankrupt system that is not really educating the children of Baltimore City. I wouldn't waste my own money on this system. If they can't provide you with the material and means to teach, then that is their problem. Send a note home saying such and tell the parents that the system is bankrupt. Of course, they already know that nor do they care.
But you are right about the text in your grad class (another class that is probably a great waste of time). It is time that we realize how to think is just as important as what is being taught. However, 2 things:
as long as standardized tests rule the the day, it really doesn't matter. As long as we can get the precious little monkeys to spit out the answers we've taught them to memorize, we're "educating".
Also, government education long ago did away courses involving critical thinking, philosophy, or logic. So it's no big shocker that kids can't think -- not to mention that we practice a perverse type of thought control in the form of modern day political correctness.
Is it any wonder that 8 out of 10 public school teachers send their own children to private schools. Hey, they aren't fools!
Wow, aren't we cynical?
I teach a curriculum that I designed myself, so any issues with content vs. skills are mine alone. I structure my units around large philosophical questions and critical thinking, and we use the literature to understand how we - and societies throughout the world, and throughout history - answer those questions. The kids are learning a lot. Any issues with the balance moving from skills to content is mine alone.
Good teaching and learning still occurs for the children of Baltimore City. Standardized tests are there, but they hardly rule the day. There is a place for cynicism when looking at the schools, but not unfounded and fabrication-based cynicism like yours.
And your 8 out of 10 number is completely wrong. The number is more like 1 in 4. http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15818
http://family.articlesarchive.net/public-school-teachers-know-best-they-send-their-kids-to-private-schools1.html
I almost wish I could be in your classroom when you start Fences. It's one of my favorite plays. If you end up doing another Wilson play before the end of the year, I humbly suggest Radio Golf. The critics say it's not Wilson's best work, but the gentrification issue is one that's pretty relevant to life in Baltimore right now.
I was able to see Fences this fall at Vagabond in Fells Point, and it was the most profoundly moving piece of theater I've ever seen. I'd taught the play for seven years, but seeing it onstage - in a near-perfect production - made me, literally, weep. I'm so excited to teach it this year.
I agree that Radio Golf is a great play. Did you know Joe Turner's Come and Gone is at Center Stage this fall, and Gem of the Ocean is at Everyman in the spring?
I may be able to help with the copies, but I won't detail it here. Drop me a line.
I felt the same way about Jitney when I saw it at Center Stage several years ago, Angels in America before that. I caught Radio Golf on Broadway earlier this year. Got reduced price tickets based on my free Playbill.com membership.
I'm really looking forward to Gem. I've heard Everyman does really good work --still haven't seen a play there-- and it's pretty inexpensive. $16 as the price floor, not bad. Center Stage is also doing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I saw that when I was in high school and was bored to tears, so they'll probably get me for Joe Turner, but not that.
If you decide to show some parts of movies as companion pieces, "Bingo Long's Travelling All Stars and Motor Kings" and Soul of the Game, are invaluable, especially the latter.
I was lucky enough to see "Gem" on Broadway starring Phylicia Rashad a couple of years ago!
I actually have Soul of the Game right now from Netflix, hoping to show it in school. I'll have to check out that other one.
- EiB
I teach in a private school, and send my kids to a public school-- I'm also teaching "Fences" this year to my ninth graders, though not till the end of the year after "Macbeth"!
I've really been enjoying your blog, by the way, and finally decided to delurk!
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