Lately, I’ve been feeling my age as a teacher. Look, I don’t think I’m old, exactly, but I’m definitely much nearer the end of my teaching career than the beginning. I’m literally the same age as the mother of one of my colleagues. I try not to think about it, but it’s still out there. I’ve given up on some things – I no longer even bother pretending to keep up with celebrities and slang. I pick up a bit here & there, toss it into the occasional class discussion and pray I’m only a bit out of date. Is skibidi still a thing? Six-seven? Ariana Grande? Who knows? Who cares? Not me, honestly.
As a Department Head, I pride myself on encouraging teachers in the department to try new things, take risks, see if we can meet students where they are and all of that, but too often I still think of new things as, you know, books. Meanwhile, my colleagues are tiptoeing into the world of teaching video games and YouTube essays. They use reels and bring up streamers (who are people, not party decorations). It’s impressive, and I kind of hope I retire before I need to use these things regularly. I mean, I keep a blog – which I write without AI.
Which brings me to one of my grade 9 classes this year. They are energetic and hilarious, which translates into “always talking” and “often sneaking out their phones.” They don’t read and they don’t do homework. (Obviously some of them do, but classes have personalities and this one is, ahem, riotous.)
It’s a year-long class that meets every other day, so February marked the beginning of our second semester together, and last week marked the end of my patience. People were late. People were talking. We’d given up independent reading time several weeks ago. On this day, notebooks were not out; no one had a pencil; only two students had completed the article of the week. Their midterm marks were atrocious, but they didn’t seem to care about improving. I gave up. I asked the students to sit in a circle and I spoke to them honestly. I didn’t know what we were going to do, but it couldn’t be this. We would not make it to the end of the school year. “So,” I said, “too hard, too easy or too boring?”
The answer, of course, was yes, though it took a while for them to trust me enough to talk about it. Once we had established that, we moved to the next question. “What do you want or need to make this class better?”
“More fun,” they said. (Well, after they said no reading and no writing, no vocabulary and no sitting and all group work and let them use their phones – and I laughed and laughed.)
“What does fun look like?”
No one really knew at first, but slowly they came to agreement: they wanted to read something together, maybe out loud and definitely not on their own; they wanted to move around more; they wanted to work with other people, even though they know they’re not really good at actually working in groups. They wanted more support for their writing.
“Ok,” I rubbed my hands together. “I can do that! Let’s choose a book!”
And, because I am old and I am a Department Head, I know who teaches what and when, so I went to the book room (don’t worry; another teacher stayed in the room with them), and I grabbed a few copies of every book that had a full class set. I found seriously old books (Lord of the Flies) and slightly old books (Speak) and modern books (Frying Plantain) and brought back enough copies for people to page through. Still, nothing was really hitting them.
Finally, R looked up and said, “You know, I thought in high school we would read Shakespeare.” Several others agreed with her. “Could we read Romeo and Juliet?” Across the room, some of the boys perked up, too. They were down with Shakespeare.
Y’all. Shakespeare? I hadn’t even considered Shakespeare. These kids are from all over the world. Their English is everything from native to fluent to okay to, well, we’re trying. Some of them are excellent readers; some are decidedly not. They generally disdain English class. Shakespeare? Perfect!
Experience has its privileges: I know that the language will be hard enough that it will equalize the class – all the readers will struggle with the words. I know that this is as much a gang story as it is a love story. I know that we will be on our feet all the time and that they will have to work together and do close reading to figure out what in the world is going on. I know that I have myriad options to support kids at different levels and I know that this will work. I know it right away.
“Yes!” I said. “Let’s do it! This is going to be fun!”
I put all the other books away and gathered the students in for a second time that class period to talk about feuds and families and sneaking out of your house. I may be old, but when it comes to teaching, I like to think that experience means I know what I’m doing.
Persistence and Pedagogy 
So many humorous lines in this writing. This is your signature forte.
“They use reels and bring up streamers (who are people, not party decorations).” 😂
and
“It’s a year-long class that meets every other day, so February marked the beginning of our second semester together, and last week marked the end of my patience.” 😂
I like the collaborative nature of this curriculum planning and I share the students desires: “they wanted to move around more; they wanted to work with other people…They wanted more support for their writing.” They wanted “fun.”
Me too, all of the above.
They chose Shakespeare?! What?! I didn’t see that coming.
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Right? I was stunned. We’ve already done the prologue & they were pretty into it. Of course, they still talked *the entire time* – but they also read Shakespeare, so…
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This story certainly illuminates that you know what you’re doing. You never gave up on this crew, instead you empowered them to be part of the solution. I hope to hear more about this riotous group!
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Oh, I am certain they will feature again this month. They are hilarious.
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I’ve done what you did with this classes a few times, sitting them in a circle and figuring out, together, how to make the class better for both them and me. It never fails to build that community and student buy-in. I’m so excited that they chose Shakespeare! I never would have expected that. I hope that you document a bit of the beginning of their journey with it as you slice!
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There is a 100% chance this crew will be back again this month. They are over the top and make me laugh my head off when I’m not pulling my hair!
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Experience means you can do this without taking it personally! And that you know exactly how to start a whole unit without sitting down to plan first. Experience has its perks. :).
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I’m looking forward to hearing how this goes. Romeo and Juliet could give them all kinds of ideas! The other commenters captured some of the lines, and I agreed. I also loved the description of getting them to talk– the answer was yes had me reading closely and then smiling!
Looking forward to more about this class.
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When the students suggested Romeo and Juliet for a collective book reading, I felt my eyebrows move up. Could not have predicted this in a million years.
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Me neither! I was stunned!
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I love everything about this slice — how you wrote it, to how you admitted with your students you needed to reset and figure it out — and they delivered! Looking forward to updates on the Shakespeare progress.
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Indeed, kids say and choose the darndest things! Did not have money on Shakespeare. At. All. LoL. Your experience is paying dividends. Good luck to you & your riotous crew!
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Not only do you know what you are doing, you know how to listen to your students! Bravo, teacher!
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Reading your story was an example of teaching at its finest. I love that the class decided on Romeo and Juliet…never saw that one coming! 🙂
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Your story resonates with me on so many levels. Feeling a little out of touch with our kiddos, reaching the final straw of our patience, and then, out of nowhere, they surprise you with a choice you’d never thought but in the end makes perfect sense. Your storytelling is captivating. Your humor, delightful. I love that you didn’t give up on them. Talk about redemption. I can’t wait to hear how this crew keeps you on your toes. I wonder what they’d think of this post? I see a mentor text in the making!
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Hello after a long hiatus (mine, not yours). Thanks for inviting us back into your classroom. It’s a great place for them to be. My favorite line was “Yes.”
It’s hilarious that you found all those titles you thought they might like, and they picked an author and title that you loved but thought they wouldn’t. I’d love to be a fly on the wall or an extra in this production. Please bring us more posts as the play unfolds.
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Amanda, woohoo! Exciting and fun, indeed. I love that you all will be poring over Shakespeare. I love that you sat them down and got them to commit to making the class better. Glad they have an experienced teacher.
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Amanda,
I had to pop over after seeing you and I have inspired Peter’s post for Wednesday. I’m thrilled your students want to read Shakespeare and that you’re going to have them on their feet performing. As much grumbling as students do, I believe they want to be challenged and have teachers who believe they (the students) can do hard things. Have fun!
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Experience most definitely means that you know what you are doing! You and the 9th graders are clearly going to have a fantastic time with Romeo & Juliet! I used to work with a teacher who taught the kids some basic fencing with yardsticks when her 12th graders studied Hamlet. I stole that for Romeo & Juliet, and the kids loved it. I leaned hard into the insults and the gang fighting and the sneaking out and disobeying of parents. I taught the kids to swear in Elizabethan English and used theater exercises I learned to yell and whisper and chorus together and popcorn the lines of Shakespeare so kids would get the feel and taste of the language along with the meaning. I’ve been moved to middle school now, and for a long time, I thought I could not stand to look at R&J again after all the years of teaching it, but your post today brought back all the good memories. Enjoy your Shakespearean sojourn!
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