Day Eighty: Revenge

I'm waiting on another class to finish up with a set of computers so my students can start using them, so today I showed them how Audacity works. Why Audacity? It's free. If they can get access to a computer, anywhere, they can download and use the program. Some classes I recorded what they were saying as they came in the door and then showed them what we could do with it. In another class, I edited something I said to make it sound like I said, "Sleeping in class is allowed." In 6th, we had the most fun. After the students saw a little of how it worked, I hit record and they made a bunch of noises and laughed and commented on what they did. Then we went back and listened to it. They picked out parts they liked, and together we told a story using sound. A loud clap sounded like a slap. We layered a girl screaming on top of it, for which we slowed down and raised the pitch. Someone had shouted, "Hey" later which we put in response to the slap and scream. We started to create a story using their sound clips. I'm trying to upload the final product, but technology is winning this battle.

I walked in to the cafeteria at the end of lunch and started talking to one of my 4th period students. She said, in essence, "Miss G was talking to us and said you are the one person here who is always happy. I told her, 'Yeah, even when we talk back to her she's still happy.'" I couldn't help smiling.

It became an interesting segue into a conversation I had with another one of my students at the end of 4th period. Somehow the topic of getting revenge came up. He shared with me his earliest experiences with teachers. In kindergarten, he said a teacher hit him and he hit back--with a glass bottle. A few years later, he got his payback by pushing the teacher. (Am I worried about my students hurting me? No. I told one student today who asked if I was worried when he walked behind me, "No, I figure if you guys were going to hurt me, you would have done something by now.") I was sad to hear he felt like he had made too many mistakes. We talked about the best type of revenge- being happy and successful. I shared with him an experience I had in high school. One of my teachers failed me because she thought I was ditching her class. I came back the next year with a different teacher, got an A, and then scored a 5 on the AP test. That, I told him, was the sweetest and best payback. The look on that teachers face when she found out was worth it. We all go through tough times. We all have disappointments. We all miss out on things because of the choices of others. The best revenge I can get now when students are disrespectful to me, I told him, it to be happy anyway. The best revenge he can get now is to show everyone who has treated him poorly what he is truly capable of. It is those who have overcome the most, people just like him, that can do the most good.