Listening Skills

Every year, I teach a unit on memoir, and this time I've incorporated some Storycorps materials into the short pieces my sixth graders analyze. For years I've listened to the edited versions of these recorded conversations every Friday morning on NPR. Many, many times I am moved to tears, but it wasn't until I drove past the mobile recording trailer every day for a month that I thought of using them in my classroom.

The Storycorps folks, in addition to archiving all of the interviews at the Library of Congress, have some great education materials on their website, as well as some animated versions of a several of their more popular interviews.

In my class we go from transcript to audio recording to animation. One of the students' favorite pieces is a son's remembrance of his father who worked up to sixteen hours a day as a school custodian to support their family of 13. The anecdote he relates, while very accessible to the students, also contains some old-fashioned versions of things they have contemporary inklings of, specifically store credit and bottle deposits.

We have had some interesting conversations about those issues, but none have been as lively as when, in order to help them relate to how hard that guy was working, I mentioned the possibility of a longer school day or year. The shock of such a suggestion must have damaged their ears because a couple of class periods later? Someone was circulating a petition to stop it.

An Updated Classic

Yes, the chicken is poached in advance with shallots and fresh herbs, and yes, the biscuits are whole wheat. Yes, I'm serving fresh green beans, and yes, the mashed potatoes are vegan, and they have a little sweet potato as well. There is also a vegan version of the main, simmering on the stove, but YES!

We are having chicken with white gravy, mashed potatoes, and biscuits.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

OLW 2013

Over at Two Writing Teachers Ruth and Stacey have been choosing One Little Word for the last several years. The idea is to find a single word that expresses something you will work toward in the coming year.

I think it's a neat concept, and this is the sixth year that I've asked my students to do this, too. The assignment is for them to choose a word and then write a paragraph explaining why they want more of this in their lives.

Here are the choices so far for this year:

achieve
accomplish
appreciate
artistic
awesomeness
baking
balanced
baseball
basketball
believe
beyond
change
cheerful
confident
creative
dedicate
equestrian
exercise
faith
focus (x5!)
green
gymnastics
healthy
kind
life
listen
love
music
organize
paintball
purple
random
respect
rich
snowboard
soccer
socialize
softball
sports
starcraft
strong
study
succeed
think
try
write

Such a list kind of reconfirms your faith in the future, doesn't it?

I Have this Friend...

Last night there was a knock on our door at about 8 PM. It was our neighbor and her daughter, who also happens to be a student at our school. They had a question about auditions for the school musical, Annie, and while I couldn't answer it right away, I promised I would find out first thing in the morning and let the student know.

On my way in the building today, I saw a group of girls who I had heard talking about the play, so I stopped to get a little info from them.

"Good morning," I said cheerfully. "Can you guys tell me what you have to do to try out for Annie?"

They seemed a little surprised by the question and were quiet for a moment until one of them said,"You're not seriously thinking of trying out with your ukulele, are you?"

OLW Preview

As in years past, I've asked my students to find a single word that expresses something they will work toward in this coming year. The lesson today introduced the concept and gave them the chance to consider their options; tomorrow they will post their "One Little Word" on our class's electronic discussion board.

As a way of illustrating this idea to the kids, I told them I got a ukulele for Christmas, and so I was considering the words music, play, and even ukulele to focus on this year. There were mixed reactions to this news, not all of them productive to the assignment. Some students begged me to bring it in tomorrow, others were not so warm.

"Ukulele!" someone said. "Really?"

"Sure," I answered. "Why not? Music adds joy to our lives."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. I smiled.

"In fact, as soon as I can, I plan to start singing all of the directions for every assignment," I teased her.

She looked stricken. "Why? We've been good."

Top Five Phrases of the Day

5. No new documentation necessary

4. Teacher-friendly work in progress

3. One little word

2. Committed to providing a common experience

and the number one phrase of the day...

Spontaneous tendon rupture!

Resolved

I'm not one to make resolutions, but if I were, mine would be to worry less, particularly about things I can't or can't seem to control. Which is why I read with interest the article today in the Health section of the NY Times. Just in time for the new year an exhaustive study has been released that suggests that the link between weight gain and poor health has been overstated.

One less thing to fret about.