Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Ds for everybody

Projects are due today. They're poetry projects. I gave the kids two weeks, most of it in class, including two trips to the library, to research an era of poetry - Renaissance, Classical, 19th Century, etc. - and present the major poets, a history of the period and an analysis of the poetry of the time. The idea is to explore how the poets are a product of their age.

That was the idea.

Instead I got a mumbly reading of something about Chaucer some boys downloaded and glued to a wrinkly green poster.

When I had to do a presentation on The Song of Roland, I made a puppet show out of socks. My project on Rosa Greenhow and the Civil War? A filmstrip with a soundtrack. For anatomy the only good grade I got was my hand-sewn spleen with clay tubes coming out of it. Geometry? A magic show, complete with a doll I sewed to look like our teacher as my assistant who got fake stabbed. I went through a sewing period in high school, which is funny since I have no idea how to sew now. I also really hate geometry.

I never in my life would have photocopied a print-out from Wikepedia and read it in a monotone and then asked if I got an A. Then again, I have always been fiercely competitive. If my project didn't wow everybody in the room and become the the pinacle of project awesomeness I got really irritated. My partners knew that if they worked with me they'd get an A for sure, but in the process they'd have to work their asses off because I would delegate.

I guess that's why I'm a teacher. Every day is one long presentation. God, I'm a nerd.

7 comments:

  1. You ought to take double points off for using Wikepedia, too - as it's not an actual reference sounce. It's compiled by monkeys with typewriters - and the "facts" you find there are often just plain wrong.

    You know, the strange thing about poetry is that it's *rap*.

    - Bill (sock puppets?)

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  2. A University study showed that Wikipedia has an average of 5 errors per entry while Encyclopedia Britannica has 4. Not too shabby for monkeys on typewriters.

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  3. It got better today. A nicely researched power point. Not very creative, but thorough.

    I really wish I had a video of the Roland puppet show. Just imagine sock Roland getting cracked on the skull by sock Saracen in front of a badly painted carboard box backdrop.

    My partner on that one really hated me. Everybody else did a five-minute play but no, Emily had to go overboard. I think he was still harboring some resentment at the reunion.

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  4. Anonymous8:41 AM

    Speaking of projects, my favorite way way back in junior high was in French class, dubbing scenes from TV shows we taped with our own dialogue. Fortunately my partner was exceeding creative. I'll date myself by saying our shows wwere the Smurfs and Miami Vice, though for the life of me I can't remember how we reimagined those works of art.

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  5. Oh my god, I totally did that assignment too! My group dubbed over an episode of Ren and Stimpy. Dear god, that was fun.

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  6. Anonymous5:17 PM

    I did a pupet show for my presentation about thomas hardy last year .. this was coz none of the girls in my group could act n we had to re-enact some scenes .. whoever knew that gabriel oak and bathsheba everdene could be portrayed by the simpsons lol!
    Charly 16 xx

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