grades. gack.


Danville. a town with a history. Colorful stories and the people who love to tell them.
at length. when it's time for doing grades.

'Remix', the hs after school ensemble had it's first gig this evening. We played in the mall, as intermission to a poetry reading. 'wake me when sept. ends' by green day, 'disarm'- the pumpkins, and then a little jam with another teacher and some non-string students on one of their own compositions w/ drums, guitars, cello. good crowd, kids had fun. students taking initiative, figuring out guitar solos on violin, string players writing out chord symbols... it's great to see.

...

i'm talking to my middle school kids these days, encouraging them to practice at home. maybe just a couple times a week.
"Hey" i bark. About ninety percent of statements to my large groups begin with that desperate three letter call for attention. "hey, what's the opposite of 'boring'?"
"Fun!" they chorus. Duh Mr F.
"No. Wrong." My best distressed and dissapointed face. Duh 6th graders. "The opposite of 'boring' is 'interesting'. And practicing something may not always be fun, but it can always be made interesting. and it will always lead to things that are fun, like playing well." The middle schoolers nod sagely, and then their minds drift like leaves of corn in a downstate wind- tidal eddies of the middle west. Fascinated, captivated, by all the opposites in their eleven year old world.