New York energy seeps in through my walls, doors and windows. I am in the Big Apple to begin my CTG fellowship on July 18th. I am looking forward to entering a creative writing environment with my fellow comedy writers, and terrified at the same time. These feelings must mirror those of my Twice-Exceptional (2e) middle school students on the first day they enter an unfamiliar classroom environment where rules, expectations and faces are still an unknown. Same questions must rumble around their brains: Will I like my teacher? Will my teacher like me? Will my mistakes embarrass me or will they be learning opportunities? How will my gifts and weaknesses compare to my fellow classmates? I have the luxury of experience and maturity to assuage my fears…my 2e adolescent learners have neither...yet. I am already thinking of ways to help them cope with the natural anxiety that comes before facing an unknown.
One of the ways in which to offer my students the time and space to rid themselves of nagging thoughts that build over time and enter classrooms with them is what I call, “The Morning Spew.” Each student is invited to do a two-minute stand up before we begin our class. I tried this exercise during my drama camp in June and it was a huge success. Initially, I was the one to begin the spew process, role-modeling how to take a negative experience and speak from a humorous perspective. I explicitly made myself the target of my humor. When we use humor directed at ourselves we learn to laugh at ourselves. This skill has kept me sane and made me more resilient. I want to give this gift of humor to my students. It is imperative that I find common grounds of, yes, pain and anxiety, with my students so they will trust me. They laugh heartily at my travails because I join in with the laughter. When I am done, the kids couldn’t wait to spew their own thoughts, using themselves as the targets of their humor when sharing their frustrations of not being able to sleep the night before or their morning drives and even concerns carried deep inside for years.
Indicative of Los Angeles, many students’ stand up spews began with the stress of getting to school in bad traffic. Imagine…even as passengers, the behavior of drivers sharing the road with their parents directly impacted their moods and added to their daily stress. Once we shared our communal angst of navigating LA traffic, we were ready for the real stuff: sibling rivalry, frustration with peers in general and middle school age agony over wanting more control over their lives and less interference from parents. As an educator with a BA in Psychology, I knew to guide them away from accusations of others and toward finding the humor by shifting their own perspectives and attitudes. The readiness to begin working toward our classroom objectives was visible after each student had their time to share what was on his or her mind. They were no longer stuck in the previous, but now focused on what was to come.
Next week, I will stop by a camp in Central Park, run by the psychologist from my school in L.A., to help her campers organize and develop a talent show. I look forward to being the teacher for one last time this summer, before I begin sketch comedy writing at P.I.T., People’s Improv Theater. I will write my blog from three perspectives- that of teacher, student and little ole personal me. I can’t wait to begin my learning adventure!
Good luck in your new adventure. I enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteread it all, in backwards order, of course. Loved it. When did you get so wise? I guess that you always were.
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