The DN

1  Well this was lofty!

2   A baseball game with ducks, umpires that needed to duck, and ducks on the pond.

3   The Giants' game last night went five hours and twenty-nine minutes.

4  Wacky win, but it worked.

5   It wound up a happy Cinco de Mayo over here.

6   Hope you had all sorts of fun and shenanigans.

7   Moving On, Part One: Long game=short DN.

8   If you don't like it I'll be in my trailer. 

9   <looking around>

10  Anybody lookin'?

11  <crickets>

12   Didn't think so.

13   On that note, I'll duck out.

14

15   Nahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

16   JUST kidding.

17   I AM trying to break the world speed record here.

18  That was one lonnnnnnnng game, and yes, if you missed it we had a mini-delay because of ducks. 

19  That's why we watch this game.

20   Suh-WING batta. Atta babe.

21   Moving On, Part Two: The last few weeks of school become bizarre and distorted, nearly every year. Fortunately we haven't had some of the heat waves of yesteryear. 

22   I'm sure that most everyone in education begins to lose it at one point or another.

23   Each year I tell myself this: Nothing is real.

24   And nothing to get hung about.

25   I really forgot to arm myself this year and began taking things WAY too seriously. I usually pride myself in popping the end of the year on the snout and dancing on tabletops. Envision Fred Astaire, if you will.

26

27   I usually have TONS of fun, but this year it got interrupted by some stuff that evidently was more important, at least it is to people far removed from the daily goofiness of the classroom. 

28   I rebounded pretty fast from lots of absurdities. 

29   There are many. 

30   I remind myself of this every year.

31   It might have been the late Easter and the sudden realization that most of my best lessons have hideously distorted by all sorts of outside sources. 

32  My answer at this point?

33  Meh.

34  I armed myself with two guitars and an amp, just in case. Break glass and play music at day's end. Turn the amp up loud and begin to play. It's late in the evening. 

35   So we didn't get the Shakespeare skits out this year, major disappointment.

36  I WAS able to bring in a mini unit on the songs of Simon and Garfunkel. 

37  My favorite moment of last week was listening to students from my fifth period class arguing about the song Cloudy from S and G's epic album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. 

38  "I think it's a sweet, beautiful song!" declared one girl.

39  "But the guy is clearly depressed. He left his shadow waiting down the road. How pathetic is that?"

40  "It's such a sweet melody, and I love when he asks the sunshine to come out and bend his mind 'cuz he hasn't seen his friend in a long time."

41  "You idiot. It isn't his friend he wants to see. It's the sunshine."

42  "Why do you think the guy's depressed?"

43   "That line about the clouds. 'They don't know where they're goin' and my friend neither do I...I'm cloudy...' "

44   "Well I think it's a cute song."

45   And so on. Wanna smile? Listen to students argue about things. You KNOW learning goes on best when students argue and debate over trifles. Always entertaining. Why? They're THINKING. It's that simple. I loved it. Cloudy of all things. I brought Shakespeare, Poe, Angelou, Dr. King, Socrates: and they argue to death about Cloudy. Teacher smile. They're the best. No bubble test can match it. A song that  is two minutes and eleven seconds, depending upon which version you listen to.

46   Ah, lots of fun. We've been on a mini-poetry beat this past week, and those songs have swirled through the room and sometimes down the hallway. 

47   I sang the classic America for several classes, did okay. Told them it was called Murica, but only to get their attention.  Yesterday I had a greatest hits going while they worked on some classwork. I told them about Emily Dickinson earlier, and about her poem called Success is Counted Sweetest. 

48  Later in the periodThe Dangling Conversation played, and I stepped up to the mic and sang it really well. On America I was a bit off with my guitar work, although I never play that loud enough for anyone to really notice. 

49  On Conversation I remembered all the lyrics and hit every note perfectly. It felt great to sing without the fear of screwing up on guitar, so I think the voice relaxed. When the line, "And you read your Emily Dickinson, and I my Robert Frost, and we note our place with book markers that measure what we've lost..." students looked up and smiled. 

50  It was a semi-coincidence. I just like that song because it brings in a lot of poetic features: Rhythm, rhyme, syncopated time; you get the drift.

51   Such a beautiful song, and my heart soared as I sang. 

52   I looked out on the hills and smiled. Learning happened. Somehow, somewhere. 

53   That's all.

54   See you tomorrow.

55   Gottago.

56    Peace. 

~H~

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Here's Cloudy. It's 2:25. This is the long version. = )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tth-lt1TvI