Thursday, April 23, 2009

Moments with Joey – Music

Pin It SCENE 1, INTERIOR. MORNING, FIFTH GRADE CLASSROOM. School has just begun a few minutes before. Several of the kids have already presented literature responses. One girl, ‘Becky,’ has just completed her response by playing a song. The teacher starts to address the class as the last few strains of the song fade.

TEACHER:
Music is powerful. It has a way of opening up a conduit—or pathway—of time, allowing a person to remember memories from when they first heard it.

BOY 1:
Like when a song is used in a movie?

TEACHER:
Exactly. The next time you hear that song, what do you think of?

CLASS:
(in unison) The movie.

TEACHER:
That’s right, because music can speak to us in a way that not many other things can. When a character in a book loves a particular song, we will often associate that song with the character.

BOY 2:
Like in the book, The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963?

TEACHER:
Exactly! In the story, what is Kenny’s favorite song?

BOY 2:
“Yakkity-Yak.”

TEACHER:
And what do you think of when you hear that song?

BOY 2:
Kenny.

TEACHER:
Music can do that for us. In fact one day you’ll be sitting in your car, your own kids will be screaming in the backseat, as you fumble with the radio you’ll come across a station playing “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac. Even as you sit there, you’ll be transported back through the years. You’ll find yourself sitting in this classroom for just a brief second; you’ll see all of us gathered together singing to the guitar. It’s at that point that you’ll start to wonder, ‘Did Lance become a lawyer after all?’ ‘Did Bree and Andrew get married?’ You’ll even wonder, ‘Hey…is Mr. Z even still alive anymore?’

JOEY:
And is he still as good-looking as when he was my teacher?

[The class bursts into laughter. The teacher, not having lost composure, brings the class back to order and then turns to face Joey].


TEACHER:
We can only hope…

[Fade to black].

8 comments:

Danielle said...

Awesome!! LOL

MindyElias said...

Oh My Goodness....I love your kids and their sense of humor :) :) :)

Unknown said...

This makes me just want to be a fly on the wall in your classroom. You bring the funniest out in them!

Bradpetehoops said...

I love taeching English language to the Korean people. I do expressed my gratitude to your wonderful comment on mine (blog).

Trevor Holms Petersen said...

I love your class!

Anonymous said...

My students pulled a lot of similar stuff on me when I was in the classroom several years ago...made for some fun classes. The only problem was that they were high school kids trying to make me blush, so I had to be pretty quick on my feet without injuring any egos. I just wish I had been blogging back then. I love reading your classroom stories. You should print and book them--like Marley. :)

Lori

jayne wells said...

So awesome.

Teachinfourth said...

D - He really is a hoot.

ME - Some of them say the craziest things.

K - Sometimes I do.

B - Thanks for stopping by.

T - I do, too.

L - I might do that one day...not sure.

J - He is a kick in the pants.

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