The Good Word

Today was great. Maybe it was the two-hour delay. Maybe it was the fact that I knew I would be buying my first gun after school (I’ll talk about this in comments if anyone has questions). Maybe it was eating a healthy breakfast of pumpkin bread courtesy of Karen.

All I know is that I was an awesome teacher today.

Some days I feel like the kids are so unwilling to learn that my prep work is for nothing. There are times, too, when I feel like the kids showed up and I didn’t quite deliver. For once though I think I was *on* enough for all of us.

Today we finished reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In my class we read Shakespeare during class time rather than assigning it as homework, but still it’s impressive that these eighth-graders are reading such a complex play at all.

MSND is full of such diverse and heavy subject-matter (love gone awry, the impetuosity of youth, dark comedy, etc.) that it’s difficult for even Shakespearean scholars to determine how it fits in with the rest of his works. Today though, as we read the last few lines and began our discussion of themes and recurring symbols, they got it. They really got it.

I opened class by reading the last lines of the play, recited by the character Puck to the audience:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I'm an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call:
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

We talked about the inconstancy of the characters, the dream-like feeling throughout the play, the over-whelming influence attributed to the moon, and the parallels between the larger drama and the play-within-a-play.

Then, at the end of class, I read the same lines again and showed them how within a few lines Shakespeare not only has Puck break character and address the audience, but as the curtains close he actually changes our entire understanding of the play’s title.

At that point I could see the shiver go up my students' spines, the look of understanding come into their faces, and when the carpool numbers came on over the PA in my last hour class no one made a move to get up or gather their things, and for about five minutes they were all completely silent.

That is why I was an English major. That is why sometimes I think I might be fit to be a teacher.

I know most of you probably haven’t read MSND, but if you’ve never had that spine-tingling, goosebump inducing, life-changing moment in learning, then you need to enroll yourself in a course on Shakespeare and prepare to be human in a way you never knew you weren’t.

"'We're on a boat.'
'Yes, I know'
'Do you think death could possibly be a boat?'
'Oh no... No. Death is not.... Death isn't. Take my meaning? Death is the ultimate negative. Not being. You can't not be on a boat.'
'I've frequently not been on boats.'
'No. What you've been is not on boats.'"
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

T-minus two days until break. How ready to be done am I? So ready that I suggested to the younger teachers that we should do a midweek happy hour. How ready to be done are they? They took me up on the offer. $2 pints and half-price appetizers are a great way to end the day. Beer and nachos are a great way to avoid grocery shopping.

Since I discovered the library a couple days ago I've been trying to catch up on movies I've meant to see. So far this includes The Squid and The Whale, Charlie Wilson's War, I Am Legend, and Rozencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead. I've enjoyed all of them so far, except I Am Legend. I just didn't understand why that movie didn't go anywhere. Will Smith only kills like three zombie/vampire/ghouls, he never figures out that they are still sentient (one z/v/g not only comes into the sunlight to save his mate, but he traps Will Smith in a copycat snare and then pursues him to his house), and the dog, who upstages the fresh prince as only a domesticated animal can, dies. Double-U the F.

Today I checked out Walking Tall, because if there's one thing I love more than stock-plot action movies, it's stock-plot action movies starring professional wrestlers.

And now, your moment of Zen:

M79 (em-sev-in-tee-ny-nuh): 1. A song by the band Vampire Weekend, the title of which refers to a highway... somewhere... 2. A grenade launcher used in the Vietnam War, also known as the "Wombat Gun."
Tonight is the finale of the first story arc of Heroes season 3, not that anyone really cares at this point. Despite the fact that Heroes has become, as io9.com aptly described it, "the show with no consequences," I still think it has the greatest potential of anything on T.V. to become meaningful, quality entertainment, though perhaps it never will be again.

Obviously, I'm not a fan of Hiro Nakamura as the "human reset button," and time travel is never a good idea, but the real crime is the fact that none of the Petrelli's are dead yet (no, I don't believe in the ending last week's episode).

Even though I've spent the last eight months transitioning into post-college life, being thrown headlong into a potential career, and adjusting to life in a new state and timezone, I feel like I'm heading back to Michigan this Saturday with very little to show for it. I've lost some hair. Had my car and my bike destroyed. Experienced six months of 8th graders being my primary social contact. Gained some weight. But not much else.

The following is a poem by the lovely Hannah Agauas, reprinted here without here permission, though with a strong recommendation to check out her blog: agauas.blogspot.com

My third can of Diet Rite,
My millionth time to waste the night,
Shame to me is sixty cents
Clanging down the plastic vents and
Squeezing into tighter pants.

On the bright side somebody told me that The Killers, who for reasons unknown are on top of my list, are playing a midnight show, so I decided to leave the bourbon on the shelf and I sweet talked a friend of mine (though she did it under the gun) to buy me a ticket for that glamorous rock and roll show. (There are 10 titles of Killers songs in that last sentence)

Seriously though. Killers concert. 17th of Jan. Be there or C-squared.

LYLAS

Are we there yet?

Five more days of school. That's 24 classes, assuming we don't have any two-hour delays. I won't go so far as to hope for a snow day.

So far my Christmas break (I'll be in MI from Dec. 20 to Jan 3rd) includes:

1. House-sitting in Clare while Vivian enjoys an Alabama Christmas
2. Guild New Years
3. Young Life Christmas in Hillsdale
4. Some time in GR with Natalie, The Richardses and possibly Ashley
5. The Motor City Bowl with Brad on the 26th
6. All day shopping trip in Lansing before Christmas (I'm surely not going to pay $15, $40, $100, for additional checked bags)

If you've got something to add to the itinerary just let me know.

Yesterday I had my first Saturday in a coffee house with my new laptop, and in addition to the Kanye disappointment I downloaded: The Weepies, The Fleet Foxes, the complete Killers discography, Viva La Hova - the Coldplay/Jay-Z mash-up, Vampire Weekend, T.V. on the Radio, the new Feist CD, and a String Quartet Tribute to Norah Jones.

Overall, I've gleaned some good songs from each (excepting Kanye), and really enjoyed Feist and The Killers. I'll do my best to broadcast what I've found over the next couple days.

I also realized that my new laptop has a DVD player and so I headed to the library where I picked over the well-gleaned racks for something that wasn't a documentary and ended up with Charlie Wilson's War and The Squid and The Whale. I watched both yesterday before going to a poker party, which involved much drinking, tons of food, and very little poker.

Charlie Wilson's War was entertaining, despite Julia Robert's face. Tom Hanks is always fun to watch, especially when he's a womanizing, alcoholic congressman from Texas. As for The Squid and The Whale, I'm not sure yet what I thought of it. I love Jeff Daniels, and I was relieved that this wasn't another Royal Tennenbaums/Rushmore movie, but it was still mighty strange.

Which reminds me. It's almost time for my annual reading of Moby Dick.