Teaching: day one.

I didn’t end up getting the information for my class at all yesterday. I didn’t know how many students, and wasn’t absolutely sure they would be in high school (as opposed to junior high). I had been given the details of my classroom—but they were wrong. (Not even the same building… It’s a good thing I was early for class.) I also didn’t have a contact phone number to get the information I needed—but Lisa, who’s staying at my place at the moment, and also teaching, did have a contact. So, it got sorted. I got to my classroom, I had 17 high school age students (there will be 19 in total I believe) and, though the topic is essay writing, we talked less about writing essays than the theme for the class. Now, I think I will have to adjust it a little: only two of my students are American—others are from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Turkey, Spain and Taiwan. So, instead of representations of American youth, I’m hoping I’ll be able to bring in more general youth.

So: I asked a lot of questions today. People were initially shy with responses, but they warmed up, and I think a third of the class was pretty active in their participation. We talked about people that are seen to represent “America” (their suggestions varied from Obama/McCain to Harrison Ford, Donald Trump and Hugh Hefner.) I then asked them to think about young Americans (teenagers, or under 25) and compare the types of media that different figures attract. I asked them to think about the types of stories they read that involve young people—the Lindsay Lohen burnouts, the warnings about how the internet poses a threat to young people, the assumptions that youth culture is all sex, drugs, alcohol, hiphop (in lieu of rock’n’roll).

I got them to do only a little bit of writing—a brainstorms, then a personal response to the questions the class had raised. Tomorrow I hope I’ll have access to some technology—I want to show an episode of My So-Called Life and get them to start working on an analysis. There’s a chance the technology won’t come through, and if that happens I’ll have to find some articles about youth and some ads—I’ll play it by ear, I think.

Still, it was rewarding. And hard work! I hope that I’ll be able to draw more people into the conversation, get them thinking through the implications of the media they consume, think about reading everything. (I’m hoping to show them my Facebook profile at some point and ask them to “read” that—the groups I’ve joined, the fact that I’ve added Scrabble and iRead, my Penguin of the Day photos, that I’ve added two travel maps.)

I think they may have been a little confused by just how much I wanted to get them talking about youth culture today—this is an essay writing class. Aren’t I just meant to give them a question an watch them write? Apparently that’s what the person who substituted yesterday (while they were hiring me) did—gave them an essay to read that took them an hour to get through, then told them to write. But recognising the questions and doing the analysis—and talking it out—is definitely part of it, and something I want them to see is part of the process. Fingers crossed.