Curricular Heaven

I'm in the middle of finishing up my narrative reports and I needed a mental break. Today could not go without being appreciated (at least in print, for now).

Today, I was in “curricular heaven,” as Heidi Mills would say. My students were working hard on their cost analysis and revisions on their house project designs. I was nervous about this project because of how intense it is--not just the math, but because it will test the students' (as well as my self) level of patience and endurance. I know that they will become better mathematicians and learners because of it.
Despite the few kids who have had emotional breakdowns because of the miscues in their calculations, the need to revise, and going considerably over their budget of $150,000, they are bouncing back pretty well. It felt good to look around and see my students paired off, or in small groups, consulting with each other about their cost analyses and floor plans. They learn so much from each other. Sometimes I feel like I don’t appreciate moments like these enough.
Today, we also kicked off our poetry unit nicely by discussing "what is poetry?" There were a variety of responses: "it can be about anything; it tells stories; they rhyme (sometimes); they sometimes have a certain pattern; songs, etc. For homework, I asked the kids to bring in any piece of writing that they considered to be "poetry". We shared a piece of writing of our choice and talked about why we each think it is poetry. I was so glad to leave it as an open invitation. We shared everything from rap, songs from different genres, poetry written by my students, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein poems, Jack Prelutzsky poems, and other poems from authors not that well-known. I shared Tupac's poem, "The Rose That Grew From Concrete."
I will never forget the look on a few of my kids' faces when I told them that my poem was by Tupac. Only a handful of them know who he is, a couple of them had only heard of Tupac-one student thought he was still alive (I wish!) I shared with them that many people only know one side of Shakur's life--that he was a rapper and actor. Some people call him a gangta rapper. I was glad to share with them things that not everyone knows--that Tupac was a social activist (from a family of Black Panthers), poet, rapper, and actor. He attended a school for the arts in Maryland and studied jazz, poetry and other music forms.
I was surprised by how engaged my students were, especially the boys--historically, I have known boys to shy away from the word "poetry". They know that I appreciate their interests, unlike some of the teachers that taught me poetry. I shared with them my aversion to poetry at a younger age, simply because poetry was defined for me. Meanings to poems I read were prescribed. We never had opportunities to just "celebrate" written and spoken word as an art-form. Now I wish I did this regularly, like my friend Tim, who builds in language appreciation everyday.
Up next: "Who" decides what poetry is? They already understand that some writing is considered "traditional" poetry, and some isn't considered to be "real" poetry at all. So our next discussion will be, "whose voices are being heard, and whose voices are being silenced as a result of how "poetry" gets defined?" I am so blessed to have this group of students and to teach in a place where teaching what "matters" is expected and appreciated. Critical thinking and democracy in the classroom is so underrated—what would happen if our kids didn’t ask important questions like the latter (“whose voice is being silenced?”)? My prediction is that eventually "their" voices could be the ones subject to not being heard.