i, me, mine

with the school year winding down, i've noticed an increase in the amount of tattling, whining, and generally self-centered behavior exhibited by my students. it's troubling since we've spent so much time building our community (our "tribe") and trying to establish mutual respect and appreciation in our classroom. to add insult to injury, "caring" has been our character focus for the month of june, yet the tone and quantity of bickering between my students has only grown worse.

the other night it occurred to me: i needed to teach my students "i, me, mine" from let it be by the beatles.

so for community circle the next morning, i gave the lyrics to my students (as a "literary gift") and told them that the song reminded me of our tribe lately. we read the lyrics together, then i sang the song on my guitar. they loved it! we discussed the meaning of the lyrics, and right away my students converged on the theme-- "it's about being selfish." i asked them how that related to our character trait this month, and they proceeded to tell me that selfishness was the opposite of caring about others. i asked them how that related to our class, and they offered that the tribe had been selfish, petty, and insensitive to each other's feelings. then we discussed ways we could show caring to each other (being polite, appreciative, positive, etc).

i closed the lesson by playing my old let it be LP on an even older school record player--you know, the record-player-in-a-box with the built-in speakers--the students absolutely loved it! they asked me to play it again, so i did (it's only a 3 minute song), and when it was over they wanted to hear it again! i was amazed: an almost 40 year-old record still resonated with the youth! that's good art!

i actually wound up performing the song two more times this week in two different settings: once in my masters class (where it was interesting to note how a little music energized the room for the duration of class) and once at the staff meeting. (i asked mr. g., and he said i could share at the end, but when i told him how it related to tribes and how it would positively affect everyone right at the beginning of the meeting, he agreed.)

we ended up having a great staff meeting, jam-packed with fun tribes activities, writing, and exciting information about the opening of the new mark twain library (a "completely green building!") in august. it was even suggested that i sing a song at every staff meeting...

i'd do it, but i think that would be pushing it a bit... (especially considering the inherent irony of me wanting to perform "i, me, mine" three times in one week...)