Day 110-111: The Praxis of Pedagogy

So on Tuesday I had the psychosocial test in all my classes. I started off with letting kids study for 10 minutes. I know that studying for 10 minutes isn't really going to help them but it made them feel better so whatever. After test I gave out a reading on pros and cons of the death penalty. After they read it, I had a seminar with them on it. First period was dead. 2nd period better and 3rd period was the most active. One thing that I did differently from 1st to 2nd was hand out the reading right after the test. In 1st period I didn't until they all finished. It's the little things like that to make the classes go faster. But right after tests they have just flushed their brains of knowledge. Some more than others but anyways. I think those are the perfect time for seminars. Gets them talking. But classes aren't open to each other yet. People still feel nervous speaking up. There so much in the details. Coordinating a classroom full of people. When done properly it's an orchestration. When done poorly... Lord of the Flies. I'm not fucking kidding. Kids are interesting. The kids I work with are physically bigger than me, but they are just kids. Thinking about Erikson, adolescents are now developing as a result of what they do and not what is done to them. What a challenge. The emotional development. Adolescents are just developing other relationships in a much more physical and emotional way. I've had my heart broken once by a girl and that rocked me. I mean I was out of control heartbroken. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't eat. Pathetic really. I never wanted to be hurt like that by a person ever again, but the quality of my life is better for having experienced it. I remember having felt like a jack-o-lantern. Like someone had cut the top off my heart and dug the insides out and put the top back on. Just empty inside. But you heal and refill the tank and look for alternative energy sources that won't deplete you and destroy the environment around you. How's that for a lot of metaphors. My relationship with my wife is the most healthy relationship I've ever had. It's ridiculously good on a physical, mental, and emotional level. But they aren't going through that. They are white belts. I'm just got my black, not even close to the 3rd degree.

It would be interesting to create some sort of ritual thing in my class. Some representation like a belt in martial arts. Some way to signify having achieved mentally. Students could go up in rank. However, I wouldn't want to create an environment where those that felt bad academically felt worse. Perhaps a rank through effort. I don't know I'll think of it. Thinking about Erikson and rites of passage is interesting. Joseph Campbell lamented about the lack of rites of passage in America. Getting trashed and puking when you turn 21 just doesn't seem quite so cool. I can get trashed!!!! Now I'm a man!!!! YEEEAAAAHHH!!!

So today was Meta and Journalism. In Meta, we read with them the philosophic statement from our school. The philosophy is in 3 paragraphs. The first paragraph states the problem of the haves vs. the have-nots. The second states the symptoms of this problems in innercity America. The 3rd paragraph states what the school is trying to do to address those problems. I read the whole thing with them and then had them fold a piece of paper into 3. Then they drew or wrote what each paragraph was about. However, the third one we also asked what their vision for the school was. After they did this we shared. Then in the remaining time we talked about community and decided on a community service project.

In Journalism, Jeremy and I laid out what students needed to do and then we told them that they would work in their departments and we would meet up at the beginning of the 2nd hour. It was a productive session but it has to move beyond the planning sessions. Only 2 writers out of 6 turned in anything. Our production crew have things going. It's the writers that don't have anything. In the beginning of the 2nd hour we decided that students would try to get businesses to contribute $10 or buy a business card ad space for $10. We also scaled down production run to 100. That may still be ambitious. We'll see how everything goes. I don't think students realize how fast the production date is going to come up on them. Whatever the case, this is turning out to be a fun class.