I am currently teaching a core extension class entitled "Musical Misery." The focus of the class is to examine music as artistic works of poetry and engage in a thematic analysis. While it has been great to punctuate my day with discussions of loneliness and heartbreak with some great works of art, I am confident that the greater value of the class has resided in reclaiming my love of The Beatles.
I have always possessed a healthy respect for them. As far as I can remember a love of music, The Beatles had been a part of it. When I was an adolescent (chronologically, not behaviorally, which I am still in, sadly), I was a Paul man and really enjoyed the hard rock aspect of the group. While I might have found my college years one of drifting from the sounds of the Fab 4, I kept them at a healthy distance when I entered into teaching. In discussing ideas such as differentiation, standards based educational reform, federal and state mandates, and authentic assessment, as well as keeping up with ideas such as grading, lesson plans, and syllabi three weeks in advance, I never found a real opportunity to integrate The Beatles into my framework of teaching and learning. I think that my Core Extension on Musical Misery has done just that.
In recognizing how much of the music of The Beatles represents poetic works of art, I have been able to identify a suitable metaphor to describe what has been an amazing year on 7-1. We began the year with so much optimism, so much pure hope, and so much unbridled energy. There were trace fossils, concept attainment lectures that involved teachers yelling, "I'm as mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore" out of a window. There were explorations into who we are as thinkers, and deep seeded analyses of the American Revolutions, roses to battle plans and all. There were intense discussions about Constitutionality and a five day final exam. There were forays into teaching and then rapid paced, thoroughbred-like coverage of the growth of a nation. What started as something of excitement turned into maturation and growth, similar to the music of The Beatles, and even the 1960's, as a decade.
And, now we are facing the last and closing tracks of the "Abbey Road" album.
We are going to be closing out the year this week with a study of chapter 14 and 15, and students will be able to choose in which direction they would like to take their last steps of 7-1 Social Studies, and their first steps into 8th grade.
The Beatles' music is a metaphor is not only an effective tool to close out this year, but also to close out a wonderful run of teaching on 7-1. As I make my way in ending one facet of my teaching journey and beginning another one, I take with me the ideas of hope that seemed to line and weave nearly every Beatles song. While I might not be "the teacher I used to be," I know that the one I will always be is one who will know how to "carry that weight." The title of this blog entry, the last one I will write as a 7-1 teacher, speaks eloquently to how I have felt about my teaching, student's learning, and this entire process we call "education."
Grades will be updated as of Monday, and this should be a fairly accurate guide as to how students will have fared in the third trimester. To all of the supportive 7-1 students (former and current) and parents (current and former), please accept my deepest thanks for all of your kind words in allowing me the chance to successfully teach on 7-1. To see these student evolve into the pantheon of scholarship has been a singular honor.
Happy hunting as our journeys will continue,
Mr. Kannan
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