Jacked up on the day

I can't even sit down to eat my lunch properly. I stand up to walk around the room, then realise, no, I have no capacity to do anything productive right now, no task that I could successfully accomplish. I'm in a jittery, energised state that comes from having a day full of dynamic classes. Like today oh my goodness.

In the first period eleventh graders wrote diverse responses to this quote:

Upward mobility is still alive out there, and hard work will get you there. You don't necessarily need to have an Ivy League education or to have millions of dollars startup money. It can be done with an idea, hard work and determination.

Bill Rancic

Some thought it was accurate, some thought it was too rosy. We've been discussing dreams of upward mobility and what language we use to describe dreams of moving up, and what influences whether it's ok to dream of having more than you have at present.

I love the Lang and Lit curriculum because current issues can easily be woven into the course content. After this writing, we went to Al Jazeera's home page to examine the headlines on the Syrian refugee crisis and how Europe is responding.

Then, they looked at political cartoons about the refugee crisis, (examples below)

 and compared them with the extract of poetry engraved on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

(Emma Lazarus)

The best feeling comes from walking around the room while students are engaged in a task that they find challenging. Analysing these cartoons was just that task for the students. What I found fascinating was that each group that had the first cartoon above identified the guys in the boat as "British immigrants" arriving on American soil and confronting the Native Americans. Even when pushed to consider other possible scenarios, no one mentioned colonisation of Africa. When I suggested Africa to Hanna, he said, "No one went to Africa." Hmm. We brought it up later in full class discussion and established that indeed Europe did turn its helms toward Africa. What's neat is that by the end of this year Hanna will have read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and he'll have a grasp of the European influence in at least one native community.

The punchline of the study on political cartoons was that they are examples of Satire. Oh my goodness also, in both classes we discussed the tone of the poem by Lazarus. I called on Nadine, and she did beautifully, describing a tone that's "not aggressive, because it's positive, but it's strong". We came up with the word "entreating" which, I was delighted to see, several groups used in the written pair work they did later on.

The second 11th grade section is usually the feistier one, but today they were totally on task and excellent. I sent Basel to time out for talking, and was glad to have an opportunity to be seen sticking to my consequences. I really like Basel, and he participates well, so I didn't want to enforce the rule, but I am determined to be consistent this week. At the end of the period we had a bit of a debate between one bold boy, Michel, who argued that refugees are a serious problem for Europe, and two girls who argued that Europe has no right to shut the doors on refugees. It's hard for me to know how to direct or temper these debates. I think they're good, but they do not include the whole class, and seem exclusive to those who feel comfortable sparring in that setting. Next week we'll have a formal debate and let more voices in on the action.

The 12th grade examined Walter Lee's character in Act II scene i of A Raisin in the Sun and the source of his anger, humiliation and shame. We looked at a scene where, Hamdi recognised, his bravado ("I'm a volcano! I'm a giant surrounded by ants who don't even understand what the giant is talking about!") veils what is perhaps his deep humiliation at his own inability to succeed. It was fifth period and the dust and heat were high in the classroom, which is why I'm was so impressed with the level of participation, especially from Ibrahim and Sama at the end.

Now how long will it take me to be able to sit down for more than three seconds???????????