Touchstone

View Original

Talking to Classes at Universal Daroff Charter School

Wow that was fun. I talked to 5th grade, 2 4th grade classes, and 2 eight grade classes

It was honestly exhilarating, as the 8th grades were talkative and fussy but the younger ones really engaged.

The use of all of the kids viewpoints were great.

I always enjoy listening to kids, all the classes were a little different. I could have been more memorized but generally I had good material and a handle on it, particularly the legs and the cigs was a big hit for the older classes, as that got their attention right away.

They asked lots of questions about the writing process, the sustainability of poetry as an art form. I think I always wanted to emphasis doing things, getting better at them, and working on the things you like most. Whether or not it makes money. I had to be clear about my career, what I had to do to get my life right. But that I honed and worked extra hard on things outside of it.

School always look kind of similar

I love interacting with kids.

It’s just a great time to volunteer and work with children.

I hope I inspired some art, because the kids themselves were very creative and all had things they liked to do and work on, particularly the younger ones. I felt a lot of that difference in age between the young excitable kids [4th and 5th] and the older ones who are more personalities and hyped [8th]. They rough housed. They were “cool”. They class was distinctly split into a girls side and a boys side.

But even then I had great individual interactions and talks that made the whole experience worthwhile. You can also feel the fear of standing in front of the classes, a great fear that I revel in.

Really glad to have made it to philly. Really glad.

The night was the perfect amount of fun too, just dancing with my friends, hanging out.

It was funny the generational difference that made it so Bourdain and Logic didn’t quite make the same impact as cultural piece, instead I had to stick to poetry.

Honestly the kids gave great feedback, some of them really enjoyed the words and I thought that was really rewarding. Generally talking about my creative process isn’t very solid. I just write a lot. I write a lot. I have pages and the tablet is constantly with me, and you’ll see all the time I am working on the things.

I love volunteering my time

I had a two hour delay, which was a great blessing. You got to love late starts. I woke to Casey’s knock, and then I got to go immediately back to sleep for another hour. We got donuts, probably the best donut I’ve every had. Chewy, Crispy, Soft, Airy, the chocolate icing was deliciously luxurious and the fruity pebbles on top made it.

It was interesting how the difference classes had difference personalities, in due to something about the teaching styles, the age of the students and the make up of the class itself.

The fourth grade classes were very about sharing their poetry with me so I had lots of interactions with kids reading summertime poems.

Summer and bummer. School and Cool.

They were really excitable and very friendly and nice.

There was a 5th grade class from a teacher who was incredible. You can immediately tell because the clap/call and response to get their attentions were excellent. They had lots of engaging questions, and wide variety of students asked questions and were thoughtful.

We ended up taking a picture and the kids were all around outstanding.

The teacher had great fashion and I really enjoyed getting to know her.

Wow. Fun. Really liked that.

The eighth grade classes were massively more less engaging and ruddier. You can tell because the kids just chatter among themselves and had more excitement. I definitely tried to tailor the readings a little more, using sex and smoking poems to capture their attention and thoughtfulness.

While that definitely gave me reaction, it didn’t quite them down much which was a shame.

I had a very rewarding experience. I love doing new and different things. And the breath of volunteer activities have done wonders for the populations and people I’ve gotten to meet and know. That’s superb and something I will continue to do for a long time.

If Joe goes to make toilets in Asia, I will 100% be in, and I will keep a record of where I am that might benefit from that.

Thanks to Casey for inviting, just a wonderful place and I’m always just striving to help students be more creative and more inquisitive.