Today's goal was the discuss the Happiness Project with as many people as I could and get new and amazing ideas for doing this again next time.
I spoke about the project to one friend who worried that the project needed narrowing - I should dictate the 15 days (or perhaps shorten it to 7 days - after all the world was created in less time) and monitor specifics a bit better - daily check-ins instead of the twice a week or weekly I've been doing.
Another friend told me I should expand the project for an all year thing and allow my students to take on one of Gretchen Rubin's tasks a month, following more closely in her footsteps.
A few were really positive and thought that the project had a great amount of merit; one or two thought I was way in over my head and should abandon the assignment right now before any more damage is done.
I wonder what my students would think?
The most positive thing that came out of this was the idea to include a culminating project - something to bookend the declaration day - a way to culiminate the project and present it. She wants to hear some of them, so I offered to send her 10 or so students who would present their projects to her. Other ideas I had for culminating project were a scrapbook, a gallery showing in my hallway, presentation of a final video, a collage of pictures, an art diary, etc. - obviously since it's a VPAM class, I want to keep it artistic.
Well here are my thoughts on the project...and you can take them or leave them honestly.
ReplyDeleteI really am not seeing how this has very much to do with our Language Arts core content. Sure, we'll be writing a personal piece at the end of all this, but what we've done so far with the project....doesn't ring "English" to me so much as it does Philosophy and Psychology. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of the project. I love things like this that make me think (even if I failed to come up with something deep LOL), but I prefer them to be in their place. Because I also, very much so, enjoy learning Language Arts. And this is something I haven't gotten a whole lot of from this project. And this project seems to far to be the bigger focus of the class.
So in my mind, I don't think the project should be done again. (You asked for honesty! haha.) Mainly because we spend one day a week on grammar and occasionally discuss writing and reading while a good chunk of the class is, as far as I can gauge by which worksheets we are receiving, behind where we should be for an accelerated LA class. And while this project might have been great had the class been far ahead and there wasn't much more Language Arts to teach, since we're behind (or just on track) it doesn't seem right for us to have an assignment simply to try to become happier in whatever way suits us when we could be learning and studying the English Language.
Maybe I'm just crazy. Maybe I don't belong in VPAM. Maybe I'm too narrow-minded to accept that the focus of Language Arts is now more on the impact of the art rather than the art itself. I don't know. I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there.
Because honestly, I'm craving to learn LA. I want to learn to write (w/o fluff :D lol). And I want to learn to read with aim. And, as well, I want to learn the philosophy and psychology aspects of happiness. But in it's rightful place.
My .02. Your'e the teacher though :D
Let me see if I have this straight -
ReplyDeleteYou want to write - so I require you to write a blog a day of reflecting on a goal, leaving it wide open for you to choose. How much writing have you been doing lately?
A true writer writes, on everything - philosphy, psychology, the world at large - everything. At its inception, however, the writer must always write what he knows first. At this stage in life, you and your classmates are struggling to understand where you are and who you are. In order to write well, you must know these things first.
As a writer, I really thought you would've taken this project on as an exercise in writing and not scoffed at it. As a writer, you should know that you learn and write from every experience, not just the ones you understand and want to.
:(
The saddest part of this is that you will probably not read this comment. You will probably not internalize this comment. You will not see it for what it really is - a compliment to you on your guts for speaking out and a challenge to you to become the great writer you can be. I know you have the potential.
There is much you could learn from me, but you seem to have already written that experience off.
I can only hope that you will see this class for what it is and not for what you expected it to be.
If I simply wanted to write for writing's sake then yes, you'd be correct. But I don't. I want to learn to write. I want to be taught. I want instruction. I have fiction down but non fiction is another story. And so what good does it do me to write my thoughts on a page like I"ve always done if it's wrong? And what are we to do if our Language Arts class, with the purpose I assumed was to teach us to write and understand writing, instead decides to focus on the message of our writing and other writing instead of how to convey said message.
ReplyDeleteI do admit. I haven't been keeping up with my blogs. So I have no room to say that in class we haven't been writing. Because we have been. I've just not been keeping up. I didn't mean to say we never wrote. Sorry for the confusion lol.
But, thanks to this project, I have been writing on my novel and short story way more than usual. Probably read that it's been months. So I do owe you a thank you there LOL
So if I"m understanding you, you're telling me that you feel it is your job as our Language Arts teacher to help us discover ourselves?
There are plenty things that we know that we could write about. Most of us, at this point, seem to be in the final stages of "Self-discovery". I know who I am and that's stood...crazy tests. and I know from talking to many of this class one-on-one that they are nearing the end of being rooted in who they are. So close. But even if we weren't, there are other things that we know and can write about. In fact, the struggle for identity makes an excellent topic.
Either way, I don't think it's a required class's teacher's job to assign a project to help us find who we are. Maybe i"m stubborn. Maybe I"m being too bold....I don't know. It would seem to me, though I"m just the pupil, that the best plan would be to instruct us how to write so that when we reach the point that our greatest works can be done, we'll know what to do.
I would argue that one can write well even if they're struggling. In fact, some of the best works I've read have been written while the author's suffering, some even with the problem of identity. Poetry especially. But it is almost certain that we can't write well if we don't know how to write. We'll have great ideas, maybe, but no idea how to write them. LA class isn't supposed to be a "Come and get writing ideas" class, it's supposed to be "Come and learn to write" class. We all have enough ideas to write something. And once that something is written we could diagnose this and then be instructed on writing.
As I writer, I expected this class to be a class that instructed writing. I did not expect a class that simply discussed the wonders of different ideologies and taught us how to decide what we think is true. I didn't expect Language Arts to be a self-help class.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do learn to write from every experience. But apparently, my non-fiction writing is faulty. And how do I learn to write it better when I'm not taught? What good then does it do me to know who I am, if I can't convey who I am through my writing?
haha no I subscribed to the comments :-) I wanted to hear what you had to say LOL
And really....I'm not angry and I'm not trying to be rude (I get into debate mode when I write stuff like this LOL so it comes across angry). I want so much to learn something from this class. The way you talked about this class at the beginning of the year was so inspiring. That you would make our writing strong enough to succeed, that you would teach us the things we needed to know to write above the rest.
I don't want to write that hope off (no pun intended lol). I REALLY want that. I really want to learn how to use the English language in an effective way.
But so far...I'm not seeing that. Maybe it's like Karate Kid. He's doing a bunch of chores and doesn't know that all along he's learning martial arts. Maybe it's like that here. I'd like to hope so.
So what is this class? What is this class as you see it? Because my expectations were high for an Acc. LA Class. But I don't feel yet that they were unjustified.
EDIT: I'm just tossing thoughts I find as I read over this down here. So in your mind, what is the point of this project? Because I"m still seeing the focus of this project as simply "Set a goal to become happier and try to achieve that goal. Then, write about it.".
Thanks for listening,
Nathan
Nathan,
ReplyDeleteYou are so close to figuring it all out that . . . no I won't.
The Karate Kid was a great movie though, wasn't it? That Mr. Miyagi was really smart - took a kid who was angry at the world, seemingly broke him down, made him do mindless chores . . . how did that turn out in the end, I forget?
I will leave you with this thought - how can I teach you to write, when you won't write what I ask you to write?