Later….
Tag Archives: music
Us: “Does anyone know what a cassette tape is?”
ONE kid: “Oh! Oh! Yes!!”
Us: “Thank god.”
Kid: “My great grandma has one!”
No Means No
I regret introducing these two.
Romance, Part 5
“This is going to be our wedding song.”
— Eric, to me, while listening to Pearl Jam’s “[Can’t Find A] Better Man”
Listening to Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass”…
Me: “That’s YOU! You have ‘all the right junk, in all the right places.'”
Eric: “Yeah.”
(Pause)
Eric: “I have you. Right here.”
Phish Girlfriend
Yes, I enjoyed my first two phish concerts. But let’s rein it in.
The Student Becomes the Teacher
After I posted Yes. That’s Exactly What the Beatles Were Going For., someone alerted me to the fact that the song “Blackbird” was, in fact, inspired by the civil rights movement. A quick google search during my lunch break confirmed this was true. So after lunch, I approached the kid.
Me: “So guess what? You know how this morning you said ‘Blackbird’ was about black people being free? And we said that was maybe a possibility, but that seemed a bit specific, and perhaps there was a larger theme of overcoming adversity and being brave? Well, it turns out you were exactly correct. Paul McCartney, who wrote the song, said that when he wrote the lyrics, he was inspired by the black women in the Civil Rights movement, who were fighting to be treated equally.”
Kid: “Yeah. I know.” (walks away)
Oh.
Ok.
Yes. That’s Exactly What The Beatles Were Going For.
Analyzing The Beatles’ song “Blackbird” with 4th graders…
Us (after listening to the whole song): “The lyrics repeat ‘blackbird fly’ over and over. What do you think this song might be about?”
Kid: “Freedom!”
Us (excited that for once, a kid is inching towards a non-literal interpretation…) “Ohhh, interesting! Explain!”
Kid: “BLACKbird. Like black people. Black people weren’t always free. So it’s saying black people should be free.”
Kids Are Literal
In a unit about text interpretation (our favorite unit, because it’s never not a shit show), we analyzed the song “Let it Be…”
Us: “Let’s look at this line– ‘And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me.’ What might that mean?”
Kid (raising hand excitedly): “The power is out!”
The Right Time
Eric is still holding a grudge from that time, back in the spring, when I rejected his invitation to a Mumford and Sons concert, especially now that I have a growing appreciation for live music (thanks to him).
#strategy
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