I don't even know..

I am about to finish a novel about a professional blogger, and I realize I have been blogging for almost a year and I have no idea how to do it.  The blog that this woman writes is so edgey, so intense, so provocative, that she gets all kinds of mail, hate mail, support mail, and people re-post and re-post and go on and on.  I am, frankly, Ms. Frankly, just trying to share what I do with some other people who might be out there interested in the real experience of a middle school music teacher.  I remember, for example, a terrifying Saturday Night Live parody of a music teacher from many years ago, with a music teacher trying to get a class's attention, playing the electric piano, and losing the audience/class by the second.

That is not my experience at all.  I take my work seriously, but we have fun.  For example, this week and last week, we are writing plays using the meaning of songs for our points of departure.  I have realized recently that popular music these days is very lyric-heavy.  When you look at a song for the first time, it doesn't always mean what you think it does at the beginning.. I have students who have chosen some very interesting songs, "Mean", "Rude" "Counting Stars" "Viva La Vida" "The Eye of the Tiger".

 I began this project by singing "Titanium" with the students and having a discussion about the song.  What is it about?  What does it mean?  Why does she talk about "ricocheting" bullets and "Titanium" and "you have further to fall"?  Is the song about shooting at someone?  If you look closely, it is all about bullying.  But, one of my students today said something very interesting:  "Sometimes you have to be bullied to learn how to stand up for yourself and others."  I found this thought very evolved, as we talk about bullies all the time, real ones, cyber bullies, all the different sorts.  If we learn how to deal with them, we can be strong in later life, this boy said.  I was impressed, and talked further about this.  We were bullied as kids, and never had a grown up step in to help us.  We just kept it all to ourselves, and carried on.  These are wounds that leave scars, but I know that the middle school was the hardest for me, which is why I teach it.  I have been trying to protect my students every since, or at least teach them to stand up to those "bullets" that "ricochet".

Anyway, if you can take a song's meaning, and then create characters, and create a play around all of it as well, then you are in a place to really work with a group, evaluate artistic projects, and you can explain how the arts helps people understand what is going on in our culture today.  If you chose a song from the 60's, you might have to base your play on some event from the Vietnam war, or the civil rights movement, or some sense of freedom of speech or rights for women.  If you choose a song from today, you are more likely to be dealing with break-ups, the paparazzi, the way rich people deal with less rich people,  body image, death, bullying, or identity.

 I leave you with the link to Titanium, by David Guetta, written by a man but sung by a woman.. I think the songs show the changes in our culture better than any other art form, and it is immediate and very revealing.  I hope my students will get that from this experience.  That is my hope for today.  Titanium David Guetta lyrics Youtube