Skip to main content

At the Hop

Well, I've run into a bit of an experiment of late. I teach an elective in the afternoon called "Computer Applications." Its object is, as one might suspect, to help students become more familiar with pertinent (and sometimes non-pertinent) programs. We were, however, just beginning to play with Garageband when we were forced to stop temporarily as the school uses the computer lab for a series of computer-based tests.

I mention this because this created a small problem. How would a computer class function without computers? In the past, we've survived because there were close to enough laptops in my room to allow us to work there. This year's class is larger than in the past, however, and the laptops we do have available are not only shared with other classes, but they are close to death. At least, it seems that way. Even the sound they make when you wake them from sleep mode seems almost like the wheeze of a sick person, as though they were protesting being woken prematurely by an uninvited guest. Following the analogy, I wonder if they would ever wake at all.

We needed an alternative. I don't know many skills, and precious fewer that junior high kids would want to learn. There was one possibility, but it didn't seem feasible. That was swing dancing. I thought that I could teach them some basic east coast swing moves. Although I didn't take it seriously at first, it became a more real possibility as the prospect of its alternative drew nearer: a nameless P.E. class that would probably look more like free play.

I tried it last week for the first time. The first day, I spent the class teaching them only the lead's steps. I didn't remember that the follow's steps are different, so I had to spend part of the second day correcting that. It was on this day, though, that we learned how to dance together with basic steps and perform the inside and outside turn. It was actually working, and the kids-- at least some of them-- seemed to enjoy it! This week, I hope to teach them three or four new moves, and to begin to put the moves together. This really is a key week, because the newness of the idea will have worn off. I'm going to see what I can do to help them see how fun a dance like this can be.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...

Persuasion

At different points in history, governments have devoted men, women, and resources to try to persuade others to their side. One significant example of this occurred in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Hitler knew how important it was to make sure the German people were on his side as leader of the country. One way he did this was by controlling what people heard. Specifically, near the beginning of World War II, Hitler made it a crime for anyone in Germany to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. These were called the “extraordinary radio measures.” He did this to ensure that Germans weren’t being persuaded by enemy countries to question their loyalty to Hitler. He knew that a German listening to a radio broadcast from Britain might persuade that German to believe that Great Britain was the good guy and Hitler the bad guy. This was so important, in fact, that two people in Germany were actually executed because they had either listened to or planned to listen to a foreign radio broadcast (one...

Experiment

My social studies students and I are studying Islam right now. The other day, we were reading about one of the Five Pillars, zakat (charity in Islam that means "that which purifies"). Muslims believe that giving away money helps to purify it and also "safeguards [them] against miserliness" (1). I asked the class if this was true, that giving money away makes us less greedy. They generally agreed that it does. I wanted to test whether or not they really believed this, so I handed a volunteer a $10 bill. I told the class that I would ask for the bill back the next day. I said that they should pass the bill around among their classmates, and that as a result, there would be no way for me to know who had the bill. For that reason, whoever wanted to keep the money could keep it. Even if I did learn who kept it, I told them, I would not punish that person. I wanted them to be motivated by their own honesty. The next day, I asked for the bill, and a student handed it to me...