Felipe Tristan: Observations from the Classroom

“When I allow a lot of room for improvisation and funny stuff, I always feel planned.” --Michael Bay

Being a teacher is extremely rewarding; on the other hand, being a student is infinitely rewarding. The latter idea involves a continuous drive that leads towards a continuous discovery and growth. This is very evident to me ,especially after observing my mentor Katie in the workshops she was assigned to do. Overall, what I observed in the classroom has made me reflect about the role of flexibility and improvisation while facilitating a workshop and teaching, qualities that I believe are closely related to creativity and imagination.

My mentor was assigned to work with high school students. Initially, I felt it was going to be somewhat challenging to engage the kids due to the nature of their adolescence, and perhaps with this a restrainment or lack of eagerness to participate would come along. Fortunately, and to my surprise, they were much more engaged than I imagined, especially after the first five or so minutes of the workshop. I think that the interaction that the facilitator instigated and openness to express their thoughts and opinions helped tremendously in making them interested.

During the first session, the main challenge was to cover as much as possible with a shortened period of time due to an announcement the classroom teacher had to make, and moreover the students had just been given their grades, which created a bit of agitation among them, previous to the beginning of the first session. That did not reduce the quality level of the workshop in any way; in fact, I was astonished to find that my mentor accomplished so much under the pressure of time and still got the most out of the students, who eventually got very excited. Hence, my reflection upon the improvisatory element present in the classroom, as well as the importance of flexibility.

The work of art that the students will be viewing is Guy Davis’ Traveling Blues. Additionally, the sub-genre studied is the “Mississippi Delta” Blues. Personally, I find fascinating to dive into and study, at least in my case as an observer, a genre that is iconic in American culture and history yet not as known as other popular genres nowadays.

I was very fortunate in a way to observe the exact same session four times in a row on the same day, because by the third round I felt very comfortable with the dynamic and structure of the session and I was taking a lot of input for my own. The fourth period, that same day, was very interesting; it was the special education session, with a small group of students with various conditions. Going back to the subject of flexibility, I think this idea was very evident, as the facilitator adapted the concepts and dynamic for the occasion; granted, the classroom teacher in this fourth period was very helpful. The students showed a tremendous amount of engagement and excitement by the end of the session.

One of the very first things that caught my attention was the ability of the facilitator to take the answers of the students and develop from there; it almost felt as if it was an improvised dynamic, but I knew that there was a planned route to which we were all being guided. Responses from the students included things like complaints they have had from things like meals being undercooked, weather, too much homework, etc. From all of these, the facilitator was able to oppose different points of view, compare similarities and later on relate them to the study of Blues.

For a moment, it seemed difficult to get the attention of the class, but I suppose what helped was getting the students interested by asking them to give specific examples of a complaint they have had in the past few days or so. This, in my view, caught them “off guard” and at the same time interested. In a few seconds, hands were being raised to give an example, or for some they would just say it out loud. Curiously, this eagerness to express a message of protest or of reflection was later extrapolated in the 12-bar form of the Blues.

It seemed to me that Katie was extremely receptive of any hint of information that the students would state; she gave plenty of freedom in terms of what the students may contribute with their opinions, but at the same time the information was always directed towards a specific subject. Later, she would take this information and use it to have them create their own verses of what would later become a lyric of a Blues song. In groups of two, the students would read aloud to each other their complaints and later pretend to be their partner and act and read his or her complaint.

I am excited to be now in the planning process for my very own workshop to facilitate, along with my Kenan Fellow colleagues at LCI. In conclusion, I am very satisfied and happy that I am being exposed to these workshops, and moreover, to the incredible results and ignition of creativity that come them. It is definitely an infinitely rewarding process.