Wednesday, February 4, 2009

february 4th

i'm preparing to teach any time now. currently, the students in Mr. Cohen's class are reading a book called "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdee. The book addresses the common question of "what is the point of stories that aren't true" that I even struggle with as an artist and a writer. The book is really imaginative and plays with language.

In that book, there is something called "process to difficult to explain" or a P2D2E. Next week, or the week after break, when a few things clear up in class, we will be building some of those out of paper mache.

First class (Cohen): I find that I really observe everything differently and perhaps a little more closely when I know that I'm going to have to be up there speaking soon. Today the class was really rowdy, as I'm sure they often are around this time of year when everyone is restless for a break. They had a double period. I just don't know how much can be done for a group of students like this--what can you really get out of it? Short of playing tag, is there anything you can do to channel that energy into something useful? Not even productive, but just useful?

Second class (Ohle): There was a substitute teacher in class today. Students really do a lot to try and get the substitute teacher to give them more of a break, but less so in middle school than in high school. Today there was grammar followed by the start to a new class book called "Cheater" by Michael Laser.

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