The profession of teaching is a mixed bag: it is a thankless job that students, parents, and others outside the profession constantly criticize, but there are times when it brings smiles, chuckles, inspiration, and satisfaction.
Many times, I beat back sleep and enter the boisterous, testosterone filled classroom unready for the next 90 minutes. It is a 90 minutes full of uncertainty with a certain goal in mind: give a student something "to take away." No, not homework or a reading. Maybe a question. A new opinion. A way of thinking about the world he lives in. A chance to see that English class isn't that boring. That's the job. An opportunity to make a student just a little better than he was when he came to class.
About three weeks ago, I introduced the class to spoken word poetry - a more modern way of looking at poetry by taking it off the page and unleashing it into the atmosphere through sound. It doesn't change the way people write poetry; it makes people think about the small things. The sounds. The reception by an audience. The feel of the words. The silence. And the roar. It focuses on the writer's voice - literally. Some people think it's about yelling or repetition, but that's just the surface. I've listened to tons of poets, but none as dynamic and thoughtful as these warriors. Saul Williams, Nikki Giovanni, J. Ivey, Taylor Mali, Common. I could go on and on.
This provides me inspiration to write, to teach, to be. The fight lives on.
But in the interim, I ask all of you: What moves you? Feel free to write in paragraph or poem or stream of consciousness.
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