Tag: drama

The Truth about the Hike in Montgomery Bell

Way back in Cycle 3, our class had our immersion to Nashville. We stayed in villas in Montgomery Bell State Park. Dr. mentioned in his post, “Limestone Trails at Montgomery Bell State Park”, that we went on a hike. It said that we followed a stream and then followed a ridge trail back to the villas, but it never said what happened in-between that. I’m gonna tell what really happened on that hiking day at Montgomery Bell State Park.

Our class did follow a stream; we did get soaked with nasty water; we were trying to learn something about the boring rocks that I don’t remember; and were trying to see who would fall in the stream the most.

Fellow classmates climbing over big, boring, rocks!

After a long time of following the creek (mainly walking in it), we got near a children’s play-area. Dr. told us that we needed to get back, but that we weren’t tracing our steps back. We had to climb over more huge, boring rocks to get to the ridge trail. Dr. then told us to just follow the path. Seven of us went up ahead while the rest of the class stayed way behind.

Meanwhile, one student was assigned to be the last one of the group. He got ahead of Dr., by a couple of paces, but kept looking back to make sure Dr. was following us. One time he looked back, he realized that our teacher was gone! He told two other students what had happened, and they, freaking out, ran up trying to catch up to the rest of the group. They found us and filled us in.

We all thought we were going to die out there: we were gonna be eaten alive by mountain lions; we were gonna starve; we were gonna die of thirst because we were all too stupid to go back to the stream for water! We were all going to die no matter what, unless we found Dr. We didn’t know what to do.

Some of the so-called, “adventurous”, students ran back to find Dr., while one student continued to follow the trail. The rest of us just stayed put.

The group who ran back found Dr., dilly-dallying, while the group who stayed put tried to find the one student who’d ran up ahead of the main group. Soon enough, we were happy to see Dr. again (well some of us were), because we were tired of looking for where we had to go. The first thing I heard from him was, “You guys shouldn’t have wandered off.”

It wasn’t our fault that we didn’t know where Dr. was. He was busy taking pictures so the rest of us went up ahead. Because of this, we could have died. We didn’t know where to go. He should be in front, so we know where to go and so we don’t die. It was all of his fault not ours.

He didn’t believe that.

Dinner and a Show

At the end of each year, the Middle School puts on Dinner and a Show. As has become traditional, the students performed a play for the Show, and, for dinner, this year they did a Mediterranean themed meal: lasagna, baklava and some sort of cherry drink. The overwhelming feedback from the not necessarily impartial audience, of family members and faculty, seems to be that food and performance were quite a success. And, I have to say, the same applies from my point of view as well. The students did a great job putting everything together and pulling off the performance.

We usually work on Dinner and a Show for the entire second cycle. The first five weeks revolve around choosing the play, learning lines, and planning the meal. Our director, for the second year running, Ms. Jessica Parker, did a wonderful job with the adaptation, staging and working with the kids.

I was extremely lucky this year that I had two students who were really interested in the project. One, an eight grader, had been planning on taking charge since last year. The other, a seventh grader, really wanted to do the food. What was really nice was that, most of the time, they were the ones pushing me to get stuff done.

I’d ask questions like, “Have you started on the playbill yet?”

“Yes,” they’d reply, with exaggerated patience, “We’re still waiting for you to help with the images.”

The sixth week of the cycle, our immersion week, was dedicated entirely to the event; lots of practicing and food preparation. That’s when the students really shone. We had some help making the baklava (thanks Dr. Jen), but the next day, which was spent assembling two (and eventually three) types of lasagna, I only had a couple queries about what to use to boil water for the pasta (an electrical skillet works fairly well).

Everyone had a part in the play, but were also involved in setting things up. Apart from the cooks, there were separate crews for lighting and the backdrops. Once the crews got going, I spent most of my time staying out of the way. While I’d so like to jump in and help with everything, this is the way I think the middle school should work. I count this week as a really good one.

Shades of grey

We’re focusing on the biological sciences in the natural world this year. I’m a great admirer of the sketches and illustrations in the notebooks of the great naturalists so that’s how I plan to integrate art. Our art teacher is a great help, and she started us up with sketching in pencil and our first exercise was to get a feel for the different soft pencils. The little panel we shaded in with B, 2B, 4B and 6B pencils is a nice metaphor for what we’re working on in middle school.

There was a bit of giggling though. Last year one of the poems presented was:

Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I’ll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?
– Spike Milligan

This was just before we saw Hamlet in St. Louis. Though I don’t know if the poem make the famous line more comprehensible.

Hamlet in the park in St. Louis.

Poetry in the morning (update)

Some clichty folks
don’t know the facts,
posin’ and preenin’
and puttin’ on acts,
stretchin’ their backs.

– from Weekend Glory by Maya Angelou

We’ve started poem presentations in the mornings. They are supposed to be a part of our daily community meeting, at the beginning as part of their sharing, but the meeting is such an established ritual that we frequently forget the poems until the end. What’s been nice is that the students have been reminding me about it rather than the other way around. This seems to indicate some interest.

Monument of Vahid Poet? (from Wikimedia Commons).

Despite my having presented a couple poems, their having seen a video of Anis Mojgani’s excellent poetry performance, and their having read how to read a poem out loud, I had to do a lot of coaching for the first couple students; slow it down (it’s something I always have to work on myself); put some emotion into the performance; match the tone and expression to the meaning of the words.

Poets' Tomb, Tabriz, Iran (image from Wikimedia Commons)

I’m not the most experienced drama coach. Fortunately I did pick up one or two things from the excellent director we found for our play last winter (the importance of projection for example). It also helped that one of the first students to present has had quite a bit of experience in the theater, so, once I conveyed the idea that it was a performance, she knew what to do. Finally, because I’d called for volunteers to be the first presenters, the first few students who presented were not types to be easily embarrassed at being coached and commented on by myself and the rest of the class.

Monument to János Arany (from Wikimedia Commons)

So far it’s worked very well. We’re doing one poem, from memory, a day, with no real theme for the week, rotating through the class. I’ll poll my students to figure out how they want to continue after we get through most of the class. Specific poets, poems on specific subjects, specific types of poems, there are a number of themes I’d like to try/negotiate. If I can get this started as an ongoing tradition there’ll be time to try it all.

The future of SketchUp

World Builder from BranitVFX on Vimeo.

Google’s SketchUp software is a great way to work on, and test, higher level geometry skills. This video is a well made, poignant introduction to what software like SketchUp could one day become. It has excellent story development, and has produced a great response from my students.