Today was fun day, although I feel old. In my English classes we are getting ready to start Slaughter-House Five, so today was background on Vonnegut Jr., Dresden, and the book. I went into great detail about the dark parts of his life to help the students understand why he wrote what he did and the way he did. Even though I told my classes he was from Indianapolis, hearing where he went to high school, where he was buried, and his connections to our city really peaked their interest in him and hopefully the book. They were a little taken back by some of the tragedies in his life, but my goal of informing them about him and getting them interested in the book, I believe, was achieved.
In creative writing, we started really talking about poetry in all its forms and what makes up various kinds of poetry. We discussed and listed several different types of poetry and what sort of figurative language is used in poetry. To show them poetry they can relate to, I played some music for them, specifically Red by Taylor Swift, Freshman by The Verve Pipe, and Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah. I felt about 85 when no one had heard of The Verve Pipe or that song, but somehow I overcame it and class went on. I did stop class and tell them they needed to learn what good music was and as a concerned teacher, I'm available anytime to give them recommendations. Anyway, we listened to those songs, analyzed the poetic nature of them, discussed what literary devices were used, and discussed what made these songs poetic. For writing practice for the day, they had to write something in a metaphor, simile, limerick, or shape poem. I knew at least one of my cat obsessed students would draw a cat shaped poem, and I was not disappointed. I'm excited for this class again tomorrow, and I kind of wish I taught it all day long.
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