I'm a worn out Kleenex, lying in bed with a cold that on a scale of 1 - 10 is a 10...itchy excema ...sore eyes ..sore knee.. For the past years my health has been on the back burner, I was fine and never even thought about it..but well life has caught up with me. So feeling old and grumpy, turned on the radio and there it was...The theme from Star Wars..I perked right up, what a great memory.
That movie was the catalyst for my claas of "special ed students" I guess the year would have been around 1978 I was teaching in an inner -city school, the kids were emotionally disturbed and at times considered to be violent. Their recess time had to be after the so called norm classes, they swore like troopers, reading and writing was for the birds, and for sure certainly not for them.
What was it that first sparked us - i.e. our class I can't remember, but the six kids and myself were entranced with that movie.
I was able to get excerpts from the library and by using that as a carrot, almost all day, the work got done, math, a bit of Star Wars, Reading, a bit of Star wars...(we added up how many times Luke Starwalker said the famous line) We read star wars lines, we wore the costumes..acted out the parts..and best of all, actually went to the movie.
.We, that is, Mac and I somehow circumvented the rule school children cannot go on a field trips in private vehicles...
Never will we forget that famous music, the stirring scenes and most of all the fun and the learning, STAR WARS made our class become readers, writers and most of all socially acceptable.
I wouldn't say this euphoria lasted all year but it was such that I even wore the Darth Vader Costume and pulled an April Fool joke on the kids ... when our aide was there, I sneaked out put the costume on and knocked on our class door. I'll never forget the faces on those students when I walked in flourishing my lit up sword my face covered with a Darth Vader Mask.saying May the Force be with you...but my high heel shoes gave me away.. How we laughed.
Thanks to Mac, who went along with this, helped me arrange the costume the night before, planned our trip to the movies, and was there for the class in so many ways. The kids came to know him through taking them to our house both in Chateauguay and up North for field trips..but the best way of getting the lessons learned was for sure through the wonderful...Star Wars, what a great memory, so May the force be With YOU....bye now.
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