(Is it Really) the End?

           When I first thought up the idea for this class, I had a specific group of kids in mind, kids who were curious, who enjoyed learning on their own terms, who flew through some books and had to be dragged through others.  Some of these kids missed more school than I would have preferred, many varied wildly in their class participation, but all had passions and interests that they virtually threw themselves into the moment the bell rung to end the day.  To be honest, though I’m generally one for students who play by at least some of the rules, I was intrigued by creating a class where school “misfits” might thrive, and I hope that’s what I did.  These nineteen kids who agreed to a pilot version of Topics in Literature gave me quite a run for my money.  Sure, they sometimes frustrated me with their varying attention spans and tendency towards late work, but they also enthralled me with their topic choices, impressed me with their skills on blogger, and taught me a great deal about both many different types of books and how to run an alternative English class.  It was, simply put, one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had teaching, and I will miss these kids, and this class, a great deal.

           

            They finished up the year on a high note, completing projects like the ones that they did at midterms, and I wish that I could show them all here.  The quality of their writing had clearly improved dramatically, and the reflections they wrote about their experiences were extremely thorough.  They did such cool things, many of which I hope to follow up on! For example, Colten and some NY cousins went to see a Broadway version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime as a part of a project on autism.  Here’s just some of what he had to say about it:

            Out of all the different aspects of the play, what I found most impressive was how they were able to convey so much with so little.  If they wanted to represent a small room they would display a floor plan type of image on the floor and walk from room to room.  They would pretend there were walls and doors to the point where you forgot what you were looking at.  Watching the play, I felt like I could see a clear picture of Chris’s life and understand exactly what was going on.  The acting was spot on, and I wasn’t able to pick up on any mistakes.  In addition to knowing his lines, the main character had to know many different numbers and equations that would jump into Chris’s head.  He also had to know multiple different acrobatic stunts and memorize all the different places on the stage where there were hidden spaces.  I think he used the grid to locate these spaces.

            While watching the play, not only was I able to imagine the world he lived in, but I felt like I could start to understand how he would think about things.  Even though the book was written very well, I still could never fully grasp how he was feeling and how complicated parts of his life really were.  The overwhelming sensations he often felt were impossible to imagine.  I did my best while reading to envision what was going on, but I knew it was something I wouldn’t be able to understand.  When he was feeling like this, the book would list off everything he was thinking about, but I could read the words one by one, so while I understood it must be overwhelming for him, it wasn’t for me.  Watching the play helped me imagine everything I couldn’t get with just reading the book.  When he felt overwhelmed, they would flood the screen with everything he was thinking about.  Unlike the book, this forced me to look at everything he was thinking at the same time, which allowed me to share his feeling of being overwhelmed.  I felt like I was being attacked and was stressed.  In a few scenes, I had to close my eyes when this happened, which I realized was similar to his solution.  Closing his eyes wouldn’t help because the images were in his head, but he would listen to white noise to clear his brain.  Eventually, he learned that if he doubled numbers over and over again in his head, he could clear away all these thoughts.  In addition, the play helped me understand that when he did something that would be considered socially inappropriate, he had no idea he was doing it.  His counselor helped him get through this and also acted as the narrator for some parts of the play.

            Overall, I really liked the play and would definitely say it was the best play I have ever seen.  Considering I haven’t seen many plays at all, my opinion probably isn’t valuable, but I know my cousins agreed with me, and they have seen a bunch of plays.  The play won best new play and was nominated for a number of other awards.  Even though I don’t watch many plays, I do watch a lot of movies, and I liked this play more than any move I have seen recently.  The attention to detail in the play was amazing, and the acting was spectacular.  The stage was creative and efficient and helped clearly show every scene in the play.  Normally I would say the book is better than the movie, but last weekend, I learned the play is better than the book.  This may not always be true, but in this case, it definitely was.  I would recommend this play to anyone who can get to New York or any other place where it is playing.

            I love Colten’s cultural experience here and also how he reflects on his understanding of the book altering because of seeing a performance like this.  I think it was great that he was able to have a shared experience with his cousins, too, and do something out of his comfort zone while relating it to school.

            Similarly, Riley and Michaela both went out and toured some local monuments dedicated to victims of various wars.  Here’s Riley’s reflecting on one of his experiences:

            The next and final place I visited I had a little more of a personal connection with.  I visited a memorial dedicated to the veterans who had served during World War II and were from Malden, Massachusetts.  This memorial is set in a park named Bell Rock Memorial Park.  I specifically went here because I’m originally from Malden, and I was directed to go here by my aunt because she had mentioned that my grandfather had his put on the memorial.  So I set out to this place in order to find his name on the memorial, and sure enough, I did just that.  My grandfather’s name was John Francis Sullivan, and I wasn’t shocked to find that there were a few John F. Sullivans on the memorial.  My grandfather had served in the Pacific during the war, specifically Guadalcanal.  He had actually received a purple heart, as he was shot in the leg during his tour.  I was always interested in my grandfather’s war history, and I hadn’t ever known that there was a memorial located in the city with my grandfather’s name on it until recently.  I was more than happy to go and see it.  I think that’s about as far as my personal connection with war goes, but this memorial personally intrigued me.  I think it’s somewhat like the personal connection that Johnny from Lord of The Nutcracker, that being in the sense that there is just a personal connection there.

            Upon reflection of my project, I was happy to get to visit all these places.  They’re all very interesting in their own way.  There’s so much history tied to all of these places, like famous events, battles, and people.  I feel I learned a great deal from these places, and I enjoyed my experiences with them.

And here’s Michaela talking about the Holocaust memorial in Boston that she previously hadn’t been aware existed:

            It was really rewarding to be able to see this memorial after having read about people who were so greatly affected by the war.  There are so many numbers etched on these walls that it seems surreal.  I know from history that these events are true, but when you look at a wall that is marked with thousands of names, it really kind of shatters you.  These are people who at any given age in their lives lost all of their rights and were dragged to death camps, where they watched as members of their family lost their lives.  It kind of hit me when I was standing at this memorial beside my mother, how lucky we truly are.  We have never had to worry about being snatched from our homes or losing everything.  However, reflecting back on people who were separated from their families and had no idea whether they were alive or not, it really rattled my brain.

            Taking a different approach, Chris did some research on his grandfather who served in WWII, and Luke interviewed his great-grandfather who’d done the same.  These “projects” were close to my heart at this time, as today, in fact, my grandmother’s youngest brother’s remains are being retuned home for the first time since he was missing in action in the Korean War sixty five years ago.  On Wednesday, my family will participate in a large military funeral in his hometown of Exeter, NH, and since my grandmother got the call at Christmas that his remains had been identified, we’ve all been talking a lot about the war, what it was like for my grandmother to have all six of her brothers gone at one point or another, and we’ve reread all of Elmer’s letters home from the war.  So these projects were emotional for me to see, and I was happy to think that the boys were delving into family history and even having these kinds of sometimes difficult conversations.

            All in all, it was just a really rewarding experience working on a new class with this group.  They were energetic and fun, they had such varying interests, and they read (and wrote) an incredible amount.  I’ve taught many of them for the past two years, and simply seeing each other for nearly every day for that long creates a unique kind of bond.  I’m sure I’m understating things when I say that I will genuinely miss them and that I hope they will keep me updated on what grabs their attention in the future.  I’m not sure I’ll ever teach a class quite like this one again.

                                                                                                                                 CJF :)