Sep 6, 2006

day one: one and done

It's strange to start the day with debate. Back a couple years, the class tore up sixth period, at each other's throats as the buses rolled into line. This morning, though, class was quiet. Too, too quiet. That'll change after Day One.

Next up, the freshfolks were well-behaved, consequences of first-day jitters, a seating chart and a difficult task--digging into Roethke's "The Waking," and cracking the Villanelle Code.

Juniors began the year with Hughes' "Theme for English B." Their homework: write a theme for English--Let it come out of you, and then it will be true.

(Toward the end of class, I had them read the "assignment" in the poem, and then told them that was their task for the night. "I knew it," one declared in triumph.)

The bad: I didn't take enough time to start learning names. The A/C didn't turn on until 2:50, long after the room was inbued with the sticky smell of people. Network access in our pod went down when I was trying to finish the next day's planning. I didn't wear a tie.

There's always tomorrow.

2 comments:

TeacherRefPoet said...

I wore an orange shirt and orange tie on day one. My wife says it's "salmon," but I say it's orange. Way, way out of character for me. But I got more compliments on my sartorialocity than I ever have.

Today: Black shirt, grey tie.

Tomorrow: Probably light purple shirt, dark purple tie.

I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Jim Anderson said...

In a similar vein, I'm going to photograph all my tacky ties every Tuesday and Thursday, and put 'em on this-here-blog.