Alien Pedagogy

The Honors class watched the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet this week. We consistently challenged the film’s plot and conflict. I invited students to make fun of the movie while watching it.

So after pushing play and establishing the gang colors, I told the class that we were “going to meet the Prince of Verona soon. Remember that authority is represented here by gigantic hats.” Everyone picked up who the Prince of Verona was and made the connection that he was about to lay down the law on future brawling.

Instead of a few students giggling during balcony scene, we as a class joked about the exaggeration of it. When Romeo cries out “fire-eyed frenzy be my conduct now!” we — who had all read the summary — shouted at the screen to tell Romeo to go home.

By the end of the film, I found students were doing a better job of recording key quotes and their response through interpretation and analysis also improved. By inviting them to challenge the film, their verbal participation and note-taking improved.

Finally, although we had a lot of fun at the film’s expense, there were still tears aplenty after the final scene.

Often when I post resources onto Moodle, I just say “I’ve posted a model essay from one of your classmates on Moodle.” Some students snooze through these announcements and I decided that shouldn’t be the case with the exam study guide, so I made an agreement with one of my students.

Making the rounds at the end of class, I suddenly stopped –

“What’s this?” I asked, delicately picking up the paper.

“What?”

“Where did you get a copy of the exam?” I demanded. “Did you go into my desk?”

“What?”

“GO INTO THE HALL!” I bellowed.

“What?”

Leaving the door open, and began to give one of the greatest upbraidings ever (the student tried hard not to chuckle, but fortunately he was out of sight).

We returned to the classroom and I said quietly, “Actually, this wasn’t a copy of the exam. It’s just an exam study guide that I posted on Moodle. I’m sorry for the mistake, but it’s just that the study guide is so good that it’s like having the actual exam in front of you.”

DEAR was put on hiatus during one of our lessons this week to make more time for our presentations. So Friday’s DEAR time was a double block. I knew some students might be restless if I didn’t sell it correctly.

First, I asked everyone in the class to pick up either a textbook, pencil, or notebook.

“Now drop it,” I said quietly.

THUMP!

“Read.”

It was probably the best DEAR time so far this year.

My last cooperating teacher used to say that the classroom should be suffused with humor. To that end…

• I introduced poetry terms including: rhyme scheme, rhythm, catalogue imagery, tone, and apostrophe this week by writing World of Warcraft poetry. If students didn’t know about World of Warcraft, they received a crash course.
• Friday was November 007th according to my objectives board.
• “Yao!” was how we ended our class this week after we’d gone over objectives and assignments for the poetry unit.

Some of these things are just odd, but on Friday, I had a teacher tell me that her students all know how to do the Mong Kok Cockroach Disco Dance. A student came in asking when his class would get to write World of Warcraft poetry.

While there’s nothing wrong with energy and humor, my classes are dominated by males that rapidly become overstimulated unless they are given a very specific tunnel for that stimulation. Much of my personality is becoming a disruption in the classroom.

To solve this, I’ve begun starting my classes in a very calm and soothing tone. I only release my enthusiasm for teaching at very specific moments. Ex/ I often end the class with a lot of humor and because that’s when students seem to run through their learning cycle, that humor seems to stick, just as the sincerity that I use to open the class seems to stick.

These moments are not the only ones that build my reputation amongst the student body, but they do have an impact.