Observation was fun today. The first class was extremely squirrely, and they were having trouble focusing. Ms. H ended up assigning them extra homework because of their lack of cooperation in class. I thought that was a good idea, considering they wasted so much time in class, though I'll be interested to find out whether or not they actually complete the extra work. At lunch I had the interesting experience of sitting in on the first meeting of the Poetry club. Ms. H and one of her colleagues that teach the poetry unit this year have developed a poetry club that meets at lunch time on Wednesdays. There was a very positive response by the students, and there were more than 20 present at the first meeting. The idea of the club is to read and share poetry, but also to speak with poets and write poetry. Ms. H contacted students at the two local universities to see whether there would be anyone interested in coming in and sharing their own poetry with the students. There was an overwhelming response and so there will be several guest speakers coming in to work with the students. I'm very pleased that this will be happening every week from now on, because it gives me another way in which to see how the students interact with each other.

I was worried after the first class that the students would be rowdy in the poetry club meeting too, but I found it incredible how much more respectful and focused the students were in a group that they were not required to attend. They were engaged in discussion and were actively listening to their peers. I was very impressed with their behavior, and I'll be interested to see what happens next week as well. I think this would make for a very cool culture project: The culture of students in extra-curricular academic activities.