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Showing posts from May, 2012

Deep Kids

I love it when my students inspire me.  I always start classes with gimmicks, I clown around, put on a little shtick to win them over and then I go in for the kill with the deep stuff. Today I was in a grade six class, talking in a southern accent about country and how the electric guitar changed music forever.  Then I asked them to think of comparisons in life, and many of them mentioned musicians like Michael Jackson and Skrillex, then a boy, who had been having a bad day so far, said cigarettes.  I wondered about how that may have played a roll in his bad mood and I loved his answer.  He got it. A kid sitting in front of him slammed his idea because it had nothing to do with music, and I saw the great divide in minds and spirits right there.  It's so amazing to me when I walk into a class and see depth in someone beyond the years that present themselves, sitting behind their book-covered desk.  Those kids stand out, you can almost tell right away, it's in their eyes.

Skip to My Loonie Bin

I'm gonna have lentils and peas popping up in all kinds of corners today. Sounds like a good start to song. Well, it's 8:45 am, and I just finished cleaning up an awesome mess of my lunch on my desk.  Rice, lentils and veggies sprawled all over the place.  People will be questioning the green goo squashed on the floor and the pieces of food turning up around my desk.  Did I mention my office is in the staffroom? All joking aside, this is a turning point. This morning I woke up about an hour earlier than I usually do, and I suppressed the urge to snooze and actually got out of bed.  This is rare in Katie-World, especially of late.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the straightening job I did on my hair last night remained in place, and I was feeling good.  I made myself a smoothie, put rice and lentils on in my cooker and even threw some vegetables on the stove to steam.  Wow, making myself a REAL lunch, the day I'm going to eat it.  I think it's a first. I p

Tap Your Foot

I'll get right into it. Yesterday after school, a couple students came into my office, as they regularly do every Friday, to hang out while waiting for their friend in detention.  But this time they brought guitars, and decided to jam right there, as if I didn't have anything important to work on.  I didn't.  In fact, I welcomed this impromptu jam and enjoyed as they showed me what they'd been working on.  One of them played me some Clapton and a bit of Aerosmith. A few minutes later a teacher walked by and poked his head in to watch as they played.  Turns out he's been playing guitar for 35 years and is in the band Roma Carnivale , a Montreal band I've been dying to see live.  10 members playing, as he described it, Gypsy punk.  He came in and offered a few pointers and I just sat their, in awe.  Musicians in the making. They spoke in a language I didn't understand, "the riff is in A but the song is in C."  C-7, A-7 formation... I was lost.