The last class was today. It was bittersweet. On one hand, I am glad it's over. My Monday's this semester began at 7am when I woke up to prep for class and ended at 2am when I closed the library. These 20 hour days were really killing me. On the other hand, I did enjoy teaching. It was great to do something not college related, and I love the energy and enthusiasm of the kids. It really does hearken back to a more innocent time where things generally excited you in a way that cannot be recreated. Today, we were waiting for photocopies, and the kids got into a heated conversation about who would get eaten first if they got stuck on a desert island, and they were screaming and running around and it was great to see. I can't help but feel a conversation like that now would turn factitious and mean spirited so quickly. Of course, this also means that as a bitter old adult, I will look back on my college experiences as a time of innocence and wonder, where the possibilities were endless, and that is a scary thought.
Anyway, the last classes were fun. They were low key. We had them all write two page stories, expanding on what they did for last week if they wanted. We brought in Berger cookies and got them all sugar crazed before we did a final workshop. They were super excited, probably sugar high, and although they were fairly unruly it was still a fun discussion. They definitely got better at critiquing stories. I felt that by the end of the class they were simultaneously more critical and more understanding. And a few of them seemed generally interested in writing. They really put a lot of time and effort into it, and seem to have the interest to continue it. I never really did that and I wish that I had. I hope that this class lays the groundwork for some of them to pursue the arts in some form.
On a funny side note, I do not understand teen literature. It really seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator and it also does not seem to bother the readers one bit. I moved past teen literature very quickly, so I never realized it, but all of these kids brought in books each week and flipping through them gives a quick glimpse at how god awful they all are. Twilight is the ultimate example. Every kid in the class has read it, but I picked up a copy today that one of the kids brought and started laughing out loud at how awful it was. It was like erotica fiction for tweens. It was full of "His piercing eyes" and "His windblown hair" and "He pulled me in for a kiss before I could get away." If all else fails I am going to write teen fiction. All you have to do is write the dirtiest thing you possibly can in the most innocent language you can muster. And as far as I can tell, these kids are the only people who buy books in this day and age.
In the end, we gave all the kids our e-mail address. I told them that they could e-mail me about whatever, whenever. I said I would read stories, answer questions, give advice or college tours or just generally keep in touch. They all wrote down our e-mails so we will see if we actually get responses, but even if we don't, I can definitely say that it was an enjoyable experience all around.
Showing posts with label Aidan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aidan. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Week 2
Yes, I am the slacker. It should surprise no one. It should also surprise no one that it does not at all reflect the environment or structure of the class. Really, I swear it doesn't. And to prove it here is a summary of all the work Tom and I have done.
So Tom and I were given two classes to teach once a week. Both classes are 8th graders who are do it in lieu of their language arts class on Mondays (as a side not, what is with all the frivolous names given to English classes in this day and age). The first class is 11 students that are enrolled in the Ingenuity track of Roland Park Middle School. Apparently there are 3 distinct tracks that Roland Park kids get placed on in middle school. The Ingenuity track is a track that the kids have to test into in order to take advanced math and science classes. They are the cream of the crop and they all end up going to Baltimore Polytech or whatever the good magnet school is called and they go on to good colleges and obtain employment as doctors and lawyers and all the other society building good Samaritan vocations that Tom and I will never hold. The second class is full of the more remedial kids. There are only 8 of them so there are less to handle but they have not been exposed to a lot of the stuff Tom and I have been trying to teach.
The structure Tom and I have been imposing on the class is as follows. We are spending the first 5 weeks on poetry where Tom is taking the reigns, and then the last 5 weeks are for fiction where I will be taking over. Each class we start with workshopping what their assignment was the week before. Then we lecture for a little. Then we discuss the reading they were assigned in terms of the lecture information we have given them and then at the end we try to do some more writing and give them their reading and assignments for the next week. Our goal is to have them do a small amount of reading and a small amount of writing each week while also trying to provide them with concrete information in class time that they can use for their own work.
The first class we explained Haikus, read some examples and then had them write their own. We assigned them two Robert Frost poems to read (After Apple Picking and Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Eve). The second class we workshopped their own haikus and then did a small lecture on meter and rhyme. It was good because none of the kids had read Frost and they seemed to enjoy it (albeit to varying degrees). We assigned them two Shakesperean sonnets and asked that they write 4 iambic pentameter lines and that they scan their own lines for correctness (i.e. illustrate the stresses and divide the feet). We will see if they actually partake in this or if they finally develop the courage to blow us off.
The advanced class that we teach is great. They are like little college kids. They sit around quietly when we lecture and generally humor us in all our ridiculousness. They raise their hands when they want to talk and they are getting over the shyness of reading their own work. Also, there is this really quiet girl who sits in the back who is a poetry all star. The Haiku's she wrote were amazing and she seems to know everything we teach her. She is really reluctant to participate however, as it seems that she gets made fun of in class. We learned this in the first class when she said her favorite books were on necromania and once I stupidly explained what this was to the class (I told them it was books about zombies) they flipped and we had to lecture about class respect. Tom and I have been trying to get her engaged, and hopefully she will come out of her shell once we get to the serious writing. Tomorrow we are going to talk about sonnet structure and have them write their own, and assign them some free verse and prose poetry to read in order get a few more styles in.
The second class is a little more difficult for us. They have a much shorter attention span for our lectures so we try to fill more of the time with workshopping and writing in class. The problem is that only 2 or 3 regularly do their work so we don't have anything to workshop. We have been flirting with introducing some positive reinforcement to get them to do work (like candy, the great equalizer) but we are going to decide after we see how many did the writing for tomorrow. They don't do the reading as much as the first class, but they aren't nearly as shy. They fight to read out loud and to read their own writing out loud. The enthusiasm is there, just not the discipline. We are also going to try to bring in more poetry to read in class because that really really gets them excited. The struggle is keeping them engaged and we are flirting with the idea of changing the subject matter with them, but neither of us like the idea of teaching down to them because they definitely understand what we are saying, they just don't really care about it.
All in all it has been a blast so far. No disciplinary problems and we are getting better at keeping their attention each week. Everyone seems to enjoy it and they have a great creative spirit where they feel free to write about anything and everything, no matter how crazy. My only hope is that they don't get it beaten out of them by the time they finish high school like I did. I remember my first foray into creative writing was in 9th grade where I wrote an opus about a kid who gets stranded in Antarctica and when I turned it in, the teacher said, "Aidan, the number one rule of writing is to write what you know." I vowed to these kids on the first day I would never say anything like that to them because in my opinion that makes for insanely boring writing, as evidenced by the number of teenage love stories that I read for workshop, and it has been great so far. One kid wrote a Haiku set about a sinking ship, one kid wrote about playing football, one girl wrote about dating Obama. It's great to see that creative energy that hasn't gotten coopted by talk of 'realism' and 'veracity.' It's been very encouraging and hopefully the rest of the semester goes as well as it has so far.
So Tom and I were given two classes to teach once a week. Both classes are 8th graders who are do it in lieu of their language arts class on Mondays (as a side not, what is with all the frivolous names given to English classes in this day and age). The first class is 11 students that are enrolled in the Ingenuity track of Roland Park Middle School. Apparently there are 3 distinct tracks that Roland Park kids get placed on in middle school. The Ingenuity track is a track that the kids have to test into in order to take advanced math and science classes. They are the cream of the crop and they all end up going to Baltimore Polytech or whatever the good magnet school is called and they go on to good colleges and obtain employment as doctors and lawyers and all the other society building good Samaritan vocations that Tom and I will never hold. The second class is full of the more remedial kids. There are only 8 of them so there are less to handle but they have not been exposed to a lot of the stuff Tom and I have been trying to teach.
The structure Tom and I have been imposing on the class is as follows. We are spending the first 5 weeks on poetry where Tom is taking the reigns, and then the last 5 weeks are for fiction where I will be taking over. Each class we start with workshopping what their assignment was the week before. Then we lecture for a little. Then we discuss the reading they were assigned in terms of the lecture information we have given them and then at the end we try to do some more writing and give them their reading and assignments for the next week. Our goal is to have them do a small amount of reading and a small amount of writing each week while also trying to provide them with concrete information in class time that they can use for their own work.
The first class we explained Haikus, read some examples and then had them write their own. We assigned them two Robert Frost poems to read (After Apple Picking and Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Eve). The second class we workshopped their own haikus and then did a small lecture on meter and rhyme. It was good because none of the kids had read Frost and they seemed to enjoy it (albeit to varying degrees). We assigned them two Shakesperean sonnets and asked that they write 4 iambic pentameter lines and that they scan their own lines for correctness (i.e. illustrate the stresses and divide the feet). We will see if they actually partake in this or if they finally develop the courage to blow us off.
The advanced class that we teach is great. They are like little college kids. They sit around quietly when we lecture and generally humor us in all our ridiculousness. They raise their hands when they want to talk and they are getting over the shyness of reading their own work. Also, there is this really quiet girl who sits in the back who is a poetry all star. The Haiku's she wrote were amazing and she seems to know everything we teach her. She is really reluctant to participate however, as it seems that she gets made fun of in class. We learned this in the first class when she said her favorite books were on necromania and once I stupidly explained what this was to the class (I told them it was books about zombies) they flipped and we had to lecture about class respect. Tom and I have been trying to get her engaged, and hopefully she will come out of her shell once we get to the serious writing. Tomorrow we are going to talk about sonnet structure and have them write their own, and assign them some free verse and prose poetry to read in order get a few more styles in.
The second class is a little more difficult for us. They have a much shorter attention span for our lectures so we try to fill more of the time with workshopping and writing in class. The problem is that only 2 or 3 regularly do their work so we don't have anything to workshop. We have been flirting with introducing some positive reinforcement to get them to do work (like candy, the great equalizer) but we are going to decide after we see how many did the writing for tomorrow. They don't do the reading as much as the first class, but they aren't nearly as shy. They fight to read out loud and to read their own writing out loud. The enthusiasm is there, just not the discipline. We are also going to try to bring in more poetry to read in class because that really really gets them excited. The struggle is keeping them engaged and we are flirting with the idea of changing the subject matter with them, but neither of us like the idea of teaching down to them because they definitely understand what we are saying, they just don't really care about it.
All in all it has been a blast so far. No disciplinary problems and we are getting better at keeping their attention each week. Everyone seems to enjoy it and they have a great creative spirit where they feel free to write about anything and everything, no matter how crazy. My only hope is that they don't get it beaten out of them by the time they finish high school like I did. I remember my first foray into creative writing was in 9th grade where I wrote an opus about a kid who gets stranded in Antarctica and when I turned it in, the teacher said, "Aidan, the number one rule of writing is to write what you know." I vowed to these kids on the first day I would never say anything like that to them because in my opinion that makes for insanely boring writing, as evidenced by the number of teenage love stories that I read for workshop, and it has been great so far. One kid wrote a Haiku set about a sinking ship, one kid wrote about playing football, one girl wrote about dating Obama. It's great to see that creative energy that hasn't gotten coopted by talk of 'realism' and 'veracity.' It's been very encouraging and hopefully the rest of the semester goes as well as it has so far.
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