the first breather

5 weeks in. I’m fairly tuckered. But when I look back at what we’ve been up to, it’s hardly surprising.

The eng2ps are coming along nicely. I’m still finding my way with some of them. Sometimes, it’s so hard to remember that when they act out, it’s so often because of insecurity, not toughness. And the class that usually just flows without a hitch were all kinds of agitated on Friday, and I remembered only 3/4 of the way through that some students don’t look forward to long weekends, cause home isn’t so very pleasant. So I took a few comments in stride.

Had a cool moment with one of them when we were talking about the Mag 7.  We were discussing Chico’s ambitions to be celebrated in song by the village for years to come, and one fella burst out, “yea, but that only happens in the movies.”  “what does?”  “people writing songs about you.”

Time for a ballad unit I think. I’m practising the pogues’ version of Jesse James on accordion.

And with writers’ craft, it’s been a lot o sound. There was a beautiful moment last week when half of them were sounding and the other half were listening, and they were just so wonderfully loud! It was absolutely thrilling.

A thoughtful young woman asked the question, “Is the joy of gibberish the denial of formality?” So we ended up having a great conversation about the pleasures of transgression and subversion. The politics of noise in the classroom. The politics of girls being loud. Potent stuff.

Even though they’ve loosened up in noise making, they’re still tight-lipped when it comes to expressing opinions and engaging with ideas. I think giving them some conceptual vocabulary might help. I dunno.

but it’s all very good. all of it.