Month: December 2016

I didn’t use to like the idea of Poetry Out Loud. It’s a showcase for students to memorize a poem and recite it–some students even act it out in a Spoken Word kind of way. I didn’t like that you had to choose a poem from the Poetryoutloud.org web site and that you had to be an actor to get consideration for winning some accolades, even if the actual poets would not have wanted their poems read that way. And, I have the ability to hear some of the poets reading these same poems–online sources have them doing it–so any listener, really, can hear how the poet wanted it read.
However, I got over my stubborn attitude because it is still finding a poem, memorizing it, and then speaking it in front of a class. All of those are pretty good standards, goals, and learning targets for an English teacher. I had students do Poetry Out Loud last year and didn’t offer much guidance, figuring the web site, and prior experience, would get it done. It didn’t. They picked poems that were at the top of the alphabet–didn’t matter as long as it was short and they didn’t have to look through many poems to find one.
This year I gave students more time, had them pick poems that I told them should be in a voice that they are capable of speaking (some of them choose old British poems and they just don’t have the oral language to pull it off). That said, some nailed it, some struggled here and there, and some had to be prompted over an over for their lines. They did way better than last year, but all my classes are not done yet, as kids didn’t go today and I don’t know if they’ll go tomorrow.
Of the ones who went today, no one tried to act it out in Poetry Out Loud fashion. No one. Many asked how many points the assignment was worth. Some went, did poorly, and asked if they could do it again (we’re doing it today and tomorrow). The bottom line is that not many seemed to care about it, in general, except as a school assignment/exercise. If I had asked them what their poem was about, I’m not sure what answer I would have received. This was just another hoop they had to jump through in school.
I don’t usually sell my students short here, but this should be fun? Yeah, fun! Own that crap and have a good old time. Read it like a pirate. Raise and lower that voice. Stand out. Have some style. Act it out a little.
Every now and then, the attitude of the class is on the students. As I told them earlier, “This is the one assignment that you can control without any influence from me. You are the ones doing everything here, from start to finish.”
In one of my classes, only seven students spoke today. That leaves 25 for tomorrow. Before the bell even rang to start class, students asked if they HAD to do this. Others just flat out told me they were not going to. Really? Some of the poems are seven or eight lines, less than 50 words long, and can be memorized in a few minutes.
That attitude makes it tough, and it’s tough on the kids who are afraid of speaking when they know they are being judged by others who refuse to do the assignment. I get that others have given kids a pass because we don’t want them to feel “UNCOMFORTABLE,” but each day adds more training wheels and scaffolding instead of stripping them away.

Today, I told my students that my teaching days were finite, which doesn’t really mean anything, since everything is finite. But they knew what I meant–when the opportunity arises that benefits me not being in a classroom, I will be gone. Who knows when that will be?
But, I kidded that, once I’m gone it won’t be a big deal. I will be forgotten quickly and replaced by an automated kiosk like McDonald’s is implementing to offset $15/hr workers. This kiosk will be user-friendly (unlike me sometimes–HA!), with colorful touchpad buttons, and it will kick out articles that students can annotate. It will offer a myriad of essential question topics that fit the articles. Students will pick a question, use their notes and annotations, and produce papers of merit that are approved by some form of authority. It’s collaboration at its finest, with students getting exposed to articles carefully selected by a larger form of authority. State standards and learning targets will be omnipresent.
Sadly, students kind of nodded and agreed. One even went so far to add that they would rather place an order for food on a touchpad because that device does not judge. The touchpad doesn’t look down and avoid eye contact when you order that 40-nugget box AND two double cheeseburgers. It just takes the order, someone makes the “food,” and some form of authority hands it to you. The touchpad users would probably prefer it traveling down some chute into a waiting area where they would pick it up, kind of like luggage in an airport.
Don’t think it can happen? Oh, we will always have to have teachers, you say. Dunno about that. You want curriculum and common core and standards and learning targets? Anyone can generate those to the masses. It’s just that person of authority in the room and whoever gets to grade it. I’ll move away from this for now, but Stoverbot3000 (which will be way more effective than ED209 from Robocop) is not an impossibility.
But who is going to teach people to think? Who is going to expose them to something that actually matters in their lives? Or do we care if they have lives?
Last year, one of the higher-ups, when I brought up the “real world” and the fact that kids might someday enter it, scoffed and said, “The real world? This is public education.”
Yep. It is.
But, today I was playing Cloud Nothings on my stereo, and students didn’t complain. And, on certain days, students will come closer to my speakers and the Shazam app will tell them what song I’m playing. And there are movies they should see, for the more they know of everything, the more they are exposed to any circle of thought and knowledge, the fewer chances we will have of Stoverbot3000 coming to a classroom near you.
The real world? This is public education. I kid you not.

I’ve seen it all in teaching. Luckily, today in class, my kids did NOT see it all.
Fifth period had its general noise going on, then students started laughing and smiling. But it wasn’t from some amazing witticism that came from me. It was a quiet laughing and smiling, and their amusement was directed my way. You know how the class has a certain din, and then that din is diminished to the point where a teacher knows something is amiss–the sounds are not the same. This was that time.
Kids were turning red with amusement and I was turning red because this had to be something associated with me. I’m old, I don’t care, but when you run through all the things they could be noticing, it gets a little embarrassing, to the point where I noticed my cheeks getting red. Enough of that.
“What?” I asked.
They said nothing, but were still acting silly.
“What?” I asked. “What is it? What’s the deal?”
One kid spoke up. “You have a hole in your pants,” he said, smiling ear to ear.
Suck it, Thursday, for giving me a hole right in my crotch. My jeans were old, getting close to retirement, and they just gave up under pressure today. Gah.
I crossed my legs, laughed with them, the redness left my cheeks, and we moved forward.
This would have been a more embarrassing moment in some other circumstance, but we’re talking about teaching here, and other teachers have to understand. We’re up there all the time in class with the metaphorical holes in our jeans. Sometimes they’re not in the crotch, but big deal–we’ve seen worse and there’s a certain vulnerability you allow yourself when trying to do the greater good.
As I told my students today–you will have been filled with and exposed to all these great works and ideas and lessons throughout the year, but I will probably end up being remembered for having a hole in my jeans.
That’s the way it works sometimes. Time to throw them away and move on. As Huxley would tell us, Ending is better than mending.