English 10 Honors (Period 1): 08.27-28

Our introductory class was spread across two days and was dedicated to introducing the course material and reviewing classroom policies and procedures. I also took some time to introduce myself to students and talk about my approach to English education.

We started class by having everyone watch the video below of Yngwie J. Malmsteen performing his piece "Icarus Dream Fanfare."

Everyone responded to the following question in response to this video:

1 - What do you think of this piece of music? (Explain your response as best as you can).

I then talked about how this video represents the way in which we'll be approaching English through this class this year. The symphony representing the traditional/classic elements of an English education and the electric guitar representing new/radical materials that will be used to compliment the traditional/classic elements.

We then reviewed the course syllabus and went over other, more general classroom policies.

We then had a discussion about why we are all here at school and what various reasons contribute to even having schools in the first place. I then presented school from my own perspective as being like Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory. In this way, school is kind of like the Chocolate Factory in which students are coming in to learn how to take things over. In school, students learn everything they need to know to take the world over from the older generation (and hopefully do a better job of managing things).

Next, we looked at the poem "There Are too Many of Me" by Lucy Diggs Slowe. I read through the poem twice and then everyone responded to the following questions.

1 - What is this poem about? How do you know?

2 - What do you think of this message?

After responding to these questions, people discussed their responses with a partner and then we came together as a class and discussed everyone's responses as a class.

This discussion lead into my presentation of who I am as a teacher as we talk about the multiple selves that everyone manages in our everyday lives. I presented myself as a son, brother, uncle, husband, runner, traveler, gamer, and teacher. I then spoke about how my "teacher" self is the self that I always present at school just as everyone's "student" self is the self they are presenting in class. While this is the version of ourselves that we portray in this environment, versions of our other selves can add to and strengthen this professional self. This lead to everyone writing a letter to me about their other selves (prompt below) and how that relates to their student self.