Questions

Why I am so freaking frustrated?

Why is mediocrity such an epidemic in this school system?

Why is differentiation still a debated topic in staff meetings?

Why does having "high expectations" need to be defined?

Why do students come with neither pen nor paper (every day)?

What are we preparing them for?

Why do we want to be a school?

What's the point?

How do we care with purpose and urgency?

In a job that's so difficult, how come we insist on making it harder?

Why do we settle?

What does alternative mean?

Why do we do this?

Why is everyone so chill?

What can I do?

Experiments in Food and Learning

There are two basic ways of capturing the attention of the American teenager: sex and food.

- Frank McCourt, Teacher Man

The experiment has begun. Tomorrow will mark the end of the first week of my latest pedagogical brain child: Food and Literature. The verdict: so far, so good. Fried chicken, ham biscuits, cream cheese bread, and Indian curry have already been topics of conversation. Also on the agenda: exploring cookbooks as a literary genre, asking about the purpose of recipes and rituals, and of course, writing. Is it "rigorous" learning? I'm not sure yet. But it is keeping things interesting - for me and (I hope) the kids.

So what is Food and Literature?

C, a student in my 6th period class, apparently still wants to know. In response to the question, "What would you like to learn in this class? " he replied, "I would like to learn how food and literature connect with one another to make a class."

Ouch.

Oh well. Like I told him, I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Hopefully we'll have a better idea - the both of us - tomorrow.

Or Monday.