The Value of Consistency
Well - Day 1. The students are back. The staff are looking their best. Everyone's excited. The atmosphere is expectant and refreshed. Grade 12 students are looking mature and ready to tackle their challenges. Grade 9 students are looking falsely confident and slightly intimidated at the same time. Who can blame them? Not a one of them want to be the first one to crumble under the pressure of joining the SENIOR SCHOOL. They all know they're not in Kansas anymore, but who knows how many of them realize what Oz is really like.
It was a Wednesday today - Sept 6. As it turns out, Wednesday's are my busiest day. I teach 5 of 6 blocks in the day and see each of my classes without exception.
The Grade 11's.... Period 1.
We start off status quo this year with my first period class being bumped out of our theatre for a Middle School assembly. Last year, they (the powers that be) decided to put an assembly for the Middle School on Friday morning in my theatre. The only problem was that I happened to have a class at that time. Halfway through the year somebody must have gotten tired of my complaining sarcasm, because they shifted the assemblies to Wednesday mornings - when I didn't have a class.
Well, our Middle School principal was very apologetic, assuring me it won't happen again. We'll see!
Anyhow, it was great to start off with the Grade 11's. We jumped right into a character development improvisation exercise. Everyone was into what we were doing and that was really encouraging for me. My Grade 10 class last year consisted of 14 students - 4 girls and 10 REALLY energetic boys. Somehow the tables have turned this year. I have 10 in the class - 9 girls and 1 boy, who seems immediately cautious about the amount of estragen he will be encountering three times a week. My sense is that this group will be great. We're going to start right in with ensemble-building activities and projects which will have them working together like pros.
Some things of course, never change. I met my new Grade 10's. Basically the same class as last year's Grade 9's, only we've added a few more rambunctiuos boys, and a couple more girls to the mix. Now I've got 9 girls and 14 boys, and it doesn't seem to me that the boys have changed a bit - except maybe they're a little taller. They're still distractable, talkative, occasionally ill-mannered, and oh, so energetic. Don't get me wrong. I really like this group of students. It's just that they didn't seem to have any of the "new year calm" that everyone else has.
Everyone else was great too. I met both of my Grade 9 classes - the Drama and the Writing, and they seem enthusiastic, open-minded and all manner of positive things.
Now, it may have just been that it was the end of the day and we were all running on fumes, but my last period of the day, Writing 9, was SO subdued. As I think about it, they were probably all reeling from a full day of Starting Senior School. As I talked to (at) them about the course we would be emabarking on together, they all sat there, silent and still. It was kind of creepy. I stopped at one point and looked at them and I just said, "My gosh - I'm so sorry. I just started going on and on about my stuff - how are you all doing?" Well, my goodness, they perked up and looked at each other. It was as though I was the only one who had asked them that all day. Slowly, they started to respond. It kind of build itself up slowly until they were all telling me something about their day - all at once. It was a great moment. One of them said, "Senior School is so much better than Middle School." I looked at him and asked "Why do you say that?" "There's just so much more freedom," he responded. I felt like saying, "well, you may think differently in a month or two." Instead, I just agreed with him and told him (and everyone) that they were really going to enjoy their year.
On that note - I'll just say that I agree with myself. We're all going to enjoy this year.
It was a Wednesday today - Sept 6. As it turns out, Wednesday's are my busiest day. I teach 5 of 6 blocks in the day and see each of my classes without exception.
The Grade 11's.... Period 1.
We start off status quo this year with my first period class being bumped out of our theatre for a Middle School assembly. Last year, they (the powers that be) decided to put an assembly for the Middle School on Friday morning in my theatre. The only problem was that I happened to have a class at that time. Halfway through the year somebody must have gotten tired of my complaining sarcasm, because they shifted the assemblies to Wednesday mornings - when I didn't have a class.
Well, our Middle School principal was very apologetic, assuring me it won't happen again. We'll see!
Anyhow, it was great to start off with the Grade 11's. We jumped right into a character development improvisation exercise. Everyone was into what we were doing and that was really encouraging for me. My Grade 10 class last year consisted of 14 students - 4 girls and 10 REALLY energetic boys. Somehow the tables have turned this year. I have 10 in the class - 9 girls and 1 boy, who seems immediately cautious about the amount of estragen he will be encountering three times a week. My sense is that this group will be great. We're going to start right in with ensemble-building activities and projects which will have them working together like pros.
Some things of course, never change. I met my new Grade 10's. Basically the same class as last year's Grade 9's, only we've added a few more rambunctiuos boys, and a couple more girls to the mix. Now I've got 9 girls and 14 boys, and it doesn't seem to me that the boys have changed a bit - except maybe they're a little taller. They're still distractable, talkative, occasionally ill-mannered, and oh, so energetic. Don't get me wrong. I really like this group of students. It's just that they didn't seem to have any of the "new year calm" that everyone else has.
Everyone else was great too. I met both of my Grade 9 classes - the Drama and the Writing, and they seem enthusiastic, open-minded and all manner of positive things.
Now, it may have just been that it was the end of the day and we were all running on fumes, but my last period of the day, Writing 9, was SO subdued. As I think about it, they were probably all reeling from a full day of Starting Senior School. As I talked to (at) them about the course we would be emabarking on together, they all sat there, silent and still. It was kind of creepy. I stopped at one point and looked at them and I just said, "My gosh - I'm so sorry. I just started going on and on about my stuff - how are you all doing?" Well, my goodness, they perked up and looked at each other. It was as though I was the only one who had asked them that all day. Slowly, they started to respond. It kind of build itself up slowly until they were all telling me something about their day - all at once. It was a great moment. One of them said, "Senior School is so much better than Middle School." I looked at him and asked "Why do you say that?" "There's just so much more freedom," he responded. I felt like saying, "well, you may think differently in a month or two." Instead, I just agreed with him and told him (and everyone) that they were really going to enjoy their year.
On that note - I'll just say that I agree with myself. We're all going to enjoy this year.
posted by Hedivan at 10:14 PM
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