the school year is already two weeks old. while we currently have fewer kids than expected, i am averaging 31 kids per class. that is certainly too many to reach in a 50 minute period, but fortunately, this group of kids is really wonderful. by and large, they are kind, polite, and curious about the world. some colleagues have expressed grave conerns that their basic skills are well below grade level and that may be true. but we can do a lot more interesting, fun, authentic learning if i don't have to spend most of my time being a police person.
so- on the one hand i have the fun of a new batch of kids and all that working with them entails: hours of planning, grading, getting to know each kid as an individual, replanning as i discover my original ideas won't work for the majority of these kids (i've been at work until after 8:00pm both fridays so far) and on the other hand i have the continuing desire to write music, post videos, and continue my travels in the info/techno culture i've been visiting.
one very cool thing may happen as a result of my sojourn into youtube land. i submitted a music video to fridaynitebytes (a production company in chicago associated with wheezy waiter) as part of a contest they ran. the folks at fnb are interested and may use it in one of their shows. but that's not the cool part. the cool part is that they are interested in doing some kind of collaboration with my kids! i've directed them to mrs. morgan, the film teacher, and she is pretty excited about this, too. i don't know how much i'd be able to be involved, but if this works out, the kids could have such a blast and learn so much! and it would be such an awesome conclusion to my first summer at "youtube" camp.
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It's been almost 2 months since school began. How are things going? Has the film project taken flight?
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