Monday 5/13

My first day back felt very comfortable and productive. I spent the day speaking with Josh Merchant about his job teaching english classes at a middle school in East Oakland, as well as teaching workshops at youth speaks. I also learned more about the work that youth speaks has done with UCSF in the Bigger Picture project, in which many poets have created videos that address the issues of Diabetes and Obesity. I have been able to put in a lot of time into what I want to do during my lesson at SF Day School, and today I found many examples of poems that are appropriate for a 7th grade audience. I am have decided to focus on ways to incorporate comedy in poetry, while still conveying a meaningful message. I have been given many resources, and have discovered awesome examples of poets who use comedy to enhance or capture their audience's attention while conveying a deeper meaning. I have also found that many stand up comedians also have participated in poetry slams, and are not much different than their stand up routines besides rhymes. I feel like I worked effectively today on organizing my lesson plan and determining what are the specific techniques to add comedy to a meaningful piece of work. I am one step closer to teaching at SF Day, but I look forward to another great week working with Youth Speaks.