I'm kind of glad that I don't hate Homecoming week. I remember as a high schooler that I didn't much care for Homecoming or football in general. I was part of the "counterculture," the kids who denied school spirit in all its forms. I knew some of the football players, and among them were a few kids that had done Edina's equivalent of bullying: making comments about my irrefutable homosexuality, then never attempting anything remotely close to physical confrontation.
MY friends (in early high school), on the other hand, persuaded me to "meh" the whole spirit thing off. It wasn't cool to like school, so I didn't let myself like it or the school culture. Of course, this was complicated by the fact that I was in band and therefore had to play at every football game, but nevermind that.
So I'm glad that my kids put more stock into homecoming week than I did as a kid. I plan on attending the game because A) it and all school events are free to staff and B) I want to support my kids. I'm even dressing up on the corresponding days. Except today, since I don't have any tie-dye, and I failed in my attempts to tie and dye last night. Some other time then.
On the academic front, my 9th graders continue to plow right along. They're doing biographical narratives, which means they'll be interviewing adults and writing said adults up in a paper. The first draft is due Monday. I think they're going to do well, as long as they can stick to the deadline (established long in advance).
My Am Lit course is meeting some difficulties. The unit is on poetry, and I'm really struggling to get these guys into it. Poetry seems not to have been a previous focus in the school-wide curriculum, and poetry this far removed from them historically (1875-1925) is the antithesis of easy-breezy. Classroom discussion feels just alien at this point, and I'm not sure how to proceed. I've tried abstract and concrete approaches, but I eventually asked the class about their feelings on poetry as a genre: less than half the class was willing to say that there was a POSSIBILITY that they would like A poem. I'm up against some tough constraints, and I don't want to give up on the unit, but I may have to wait till later in the semester to throw them some more modern poems and see how they roll with those. Sad panda.
-Matt
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Aw. Sad Matty. My only advice is to keep the enthusiasm up even if the kids are bringing it down. Keep pointing out turns of phrase in the poems that you think are awesome. I did a couple of pre-poetry activities last year to discuss how communicating through poetry is different from other kinds of writing, but I agree that poetry is a tough sell. Just be glad you're not asking them to write any.
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