Change It Up

What are the teachers I work with thinking?
Yesterday the students were to choose a song to analyze for the Poetry unit. But, Teacher said, "It has to be school appropriate".

Of course half of the students don't listen to school appropriate music--the songs they chose were full of sex and drugs and violence and racial terms...
"But that's what I listen to!" they said.

So, there was a classroom full of unhappy students who felt shut down. I felt put on the spot, enforcing a half-baked rule.
This teacher seems to lesson plan day-by-day, on the fly... and I am not included. I'd say, let them analyze whatever they are listening to--OR, the teacher could pre-choose acceptable songs from contemporary music--Beyonce does some.
Nothing I can do about that.
Jeepers!

[UPDATE: I found and texted to the teacher a site full of Beyoncé lyrics that are empowering for women. Still not exactly squeaky “clean”, but I think they’re fine.]

In my morning classes, I can change things up, and I took steps to do that yesterday.
I talked to the lead teacher about how I'd like to be more useful.  Sometimes I'm a fifth wheel. Literally, occasionally there'll be five grown-ups and five kids in a classroom.
It's great to be well staffed, but this is ridiculous.

(Also, I'm aware that regular folks pay for my work out of their own pockets. There's not even enough: the school budget is getting cut for next year.)

And, when lead teacher isn't there (the first half of the day), often we're watching a movie... THREE times this week. Full-length movies, like Kung-Fu Panda or a National Geographic nature documentary. So we're all sitting around in the dark. I bring something to do--sewing (I sit by a window for light), or this week, my linoleum block from the student's art class.

First Holy Bear Card in progress---BED BEAR. (I reversed the image--of course I am carving the letters backwards, to print.)

So now, when this happens, I'm to work one-on-one with a student-- go to the library ("media center") and work on special projects, etc.
Yay!

The lead teachers is half-time, and she said, "I hope the class isn't usually watching movies three times a week."

She trusts her staff, but yeah, they're defaulting to showing movies.
I didn't say so. I said, "Well, this week it's been raining."
True--we'd normally watch two movies this week---still two too many, I think.
Kids watch a lot of media at home, it's clear. We could be playing games, doing work, making birdhouses... I don't know! A million things.

Speaking of art class... I ran into an old pal yesterday and I got talking about the found-pencil project. The other day for the first time, a student picked up a pencil and handed it to me! Time is different with the students, and I count that a big success.

This old pal showed me some sculptures he'd seen and photographed in the Oregon airport that incorporate pencil ends as decoration, art by Hilary Pfeifer, of Eugene Oregon: