Life: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Ugh. Tell him to go be a corporate drone teacher. He needs to be the hell away from our children.

lmao!!!

I really don't think this man has a place in a classroom. I vented with my prof today...she was laughing so hard...because I have gestures, salty adjectives and I do voices...

I agree with you completely. As much work as it is...I cannot WAIT for next week...my chance to be back in control of the classroom.

Harlem Renaissance... The Great Migration, Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Blues, Jazz, ...just have to come up with activities... I have a GREAT video I checked out from the library that connects slave spirituals and the oral tradition with the Blues and Jazz... some awesome performers are featured...Jelly Roll Morton, Louis...Ellington.

Then, I have the computer lab set aside for Fri...so they can work on their timelines... I feel pretty good about it...but need to research some activities...to keep them jazzed.

So, we're going to look at some collages of Romere Bearden..and then make some...we're going to read Dream Deferred...to learn about imagery and write a poem about using imagery to comment about how we would feel as a child living under Jim Crow...on the eve of our family's trip North...lots of info about specific Jim Crow laws...the Mississippi Black Code (wish Dys could come relate his associated experience...) the greeting in cities like Chicago...Jacob Lawrence's hot ass Migration Series....again dovetailing how political reality drives art... this week...asking them to depict their current political reality with an artifact...

the MOST fun is listening to old blues all during class...Blind Lemon Jefferson, Muddy Waters, Jelly Roll Morton, Robert Johnson, Son House.. I'm in heaven.

Lash, I wouldn't be surprised if these kids remember you many many years from now. You seem to have answered your calling.

I was thinking almost the same thing, but her post: got my imagination working on over-drive. LOL

That was the nicest thing you could say, FD...thank you!

I was just workiing on my lesson plan..and thought I'd drop it off:
(it's not finished...any ideas to help me finish the second week out would be appreciated...)

Mon Power Point intro to Harlem Renaissance (Daniela)" (10 minutes)

stop to write one page essay, diary entry, or prepare rap/performance about 1. Preparing to journey north to avoid Jim Crow laws or 2. How you think you’d respond to Jim Crow laws as a black American. (listen to blues music while prepare--youtube account is queued) (15 minutes)

performances (10 minutes) others hand theirs in

BUSINESS-- discuss computer lab days, timeline and report. Remind of timeline rubric, I will hand out list of names / events for timeline on Friday. Tell them how important it is to find a mechanism to keep up with these. Field questions about timeline. Discuss behavior criteria to attend computer lab. Also, discuss that TIME MANAGEMENT IS NOW AN ISSUE that will a part of the grading process.(5 minutes)

Divide into collage groups: 3 groups. (Each group must have equal number of non-Putnam students) To prepare for an art project, play A Fusion of Tribe Samples and Romare Bearden.…discuss look and method of collage...

cut out pieces from magazines, prepare to draw eyes, musical instruments, parts of people / items / whatever to glue together for collage,...

discuss possible topics of your collage in large group,

assign scribe for small groups, the scribe writes the topic for the collage, the names of the group members, and answers the question "What aspect of the Harlem Renaissance does our collage represent?" This is turned in later this week before the collage is presented to the class. It will be graded. (Listen to blues / jazz from the Harlem Renaissance Era and HR art displays on overhead as students work on their project). (20 minutes: Start by 2:30) Explain I am allotting an hour and a half over three days to complete this project. I advise 20 to 30 minutes discussing what they want to say with their art, 30-45 minutes of preparation (cutting out, drawing, deciding what it should look like on the page BEFORE gluing), 15-30 minutes of small group discussion / writing your verbal explanation of what you were saying with your art.

(needs: scissors (15), magazines, paper, crayons, 3 glues, 3 receptacles to keep cut outs, Youtube account queued to Blues and Romare Bearden collage / music: A Fusion of Tribe Samples and Romare Bearden. [A Tribe Called Quest.])

Tues-- Finish Power point of history / explanation of Harlem Renaissance...(class discussions on several page points, Migration of the Negro, Tombstones: teach imagery... what is Lawrence saying with his art?) Stop on Langston Hughes poem "I, Too" (10 minutes)

explicate the poem... talk about metaphor/ teach metaphor vs simile. (ex. what does he signify with "dinner table"?) (5 minutes)

Journal assignment: Write a poem about a black Americans' position/feelings in America (either the Migration or Jim Crow or the birth of the Renaissance) using one of the following metaphors to represent America: a song, a school, a bus (or any kind of transportation), a pie, a human body, a sea, or any other metaphor you can think of. (15 minutes)

Back to Power Point: “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks… read it, watch the video "We Real Cool"….. Inform them we will revisit this poem. This is just first taste.

Watch "Through the Ozone"...remind groups they should be prepared to discuss the event they are depicting in their collage and explain/describe their choices.

Return to collage group. INFORM: Must complete collage on Wed before going home. Time management and being an effective member of a group goes into grading. Fair warning! (2:15!!! to 2:45) (Non-Putnam students may continue to work til 3)

Wed -- Allot 30 minutes for students to complete collages and written descriptions (30 minutes)

3 presentations with questions from other groups @ 5 minutes each (15 minutes)

"We Real Cool" ...listen to the beat in this poem. (find co-assist to help write to a beat) learn line stop, enjambment, alliteration, other terms associated

vocab list--imagery, simile, representational art, metaphor, line stop, enjambment, alliteration....find in poems...teach terms by locating in poem...gauging significance as a literary device.

(need rest of day's lesson)

(NEEDS: blue tape for 3 collage hangings, scissors (15), magazines, paper, crayons, 3 glues, 3 receptacles to keep cut outs, Youtube account queued to new jazz / blues...)

Thurs vocab refresher

Fri Computer lab to research dates for timeline (due Sept 22) (MATERIALS: copy of timeline, rubric for timeline, names and events for timeline, report of week's behavior. Mr Powell remains with any students whose behavior did not meet requirements. He may oversee their research in the room.)

Mon (ideas for this week..Countee Cullen," Dream Deferred" more imagery...look for literary devices we are working on...small group explication....large group sharing)


Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri Computer lab day to research info on Presentations/ essays

C.I.---laughing... I was really animated!

I don't expect anybody to read that morass of a lesson plan. Sometimes I drop stuff here like it's a Time Capsule or something.

FreeDuck. What did you decide about teaching?

I've learned some really fabuloous tidbits about how to teach...learned some **** that changed the way I think (yah, again), and I'm draggin my ass up to the finish line. I should have my master's on May 7th.

I want to continue through my doctorate, but I better stop and teach, cause I haven't been to a doctor or a dentist in about 5 years. Time for some concentrated maintenance... My kids are awesome. My son graduates with his master's in history the same week I do...my daughter has had a bit of a rougher time due in large part to the emotionally stunting time her dad was dying. She took a needed break from academia. She's great, though, and is returning to school, interested in psych.

My beloved dog, Jack, passed away in my arms a year ago last March, and as odd as this may sound...almost everything else I've had to survive in the past 5 years paled in comparison.

I'm engaged, and scheduled to move to the Bay area soon after graduation. I hope I can scare up a job. Jeez, the economy out there...

Installment # billion three.

FD waddled away last year...we're looking for a quack return.
In any case I'm sure I speak for many when I say welcome back Lash....we missed you.

You've been on a roller coaster ride for so long, it's about time you get a good
break, Lash. I can relate to losing Jack - our Max passed on last June .

I am glad your daughter is getting back on track, she's such a beautiful girl,
just like her Mama. Congratulations again on your engagement - you'll see
California isn't bad. The weather up there in SF might be a bit cool at times,
but summers are great: no 90F + and no humidity either.

When is the wedding and are you having your reception at Alcatraz?

Thank you so much. I missed you and several others as well. I see FreeDuck over on facebook, so I'll bug her there in the interim... You're very kind!

You can just suppose I'm thrilled you are going to land in the bay area, n'mind the **** that may follow.

(which is to say, we love you, lashie.)

hahaha re: Alcatraz. I'm thinking a long engagement... (frankly, wishing we could just do a Justice of the Peace thing...but, this is his first wedding...and I think he'd like an event.) January 2011 would probably be the soonest, unless we elope.

I am so sorry for your loss, CJ. It's amazing how much you can love a dog... He'd been with me 15 years. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts about Mommy's girl. (she's my darlin)

The weather surprised me in SF. I was so cold last April... quite a contrast to Hell, GA...haha.

Yay, osso!!! It'll be nice to be in driving distance of you and the double D ranchero. I wonder if you still have that hot painting of the woman and the bike I saw when I was there...

Just wait until august. I think twain mentioned that.

Yes, I still have it. It's one of mine I still love (years are a test - I now despise some others of mine that I slavered over, and am finding some oldies of value. I'm working up to getting promotional, but that, despite my profligate posting on a2k, is not my way.