The Surprising Reaction To Greek Mythology

On March 19, 2014, with encouragement from my daughter, I posted my first blog commentary.  It's now three hundred and sixty five days later and to date I've posted ninety two items and have had just short of four thousand pages views.  My blog has been viewed in thirteen different countries with people from Ukraine being my most frequent viewers from a foreign country.  I've had a number of people post comments on my blog or have contacted me directly via email.  The most comments that I've received came from as far west as Utah and that alone brings a smile to my face.  To all of you I say a heartfelt thank you for reading my blog.

Before I discuss Greek mythology I have to let you know about a couple things.  First, The Collector, to include his sister who is a year younger that he is are homeless.  I'm not sure what brought this on but it was a tough day for me when I heard this announcement as he has worked with me more one and one that any other student except EM.  Please keep him and his family in your prayers as he goes through this difficult time.  Next, EM, who if recall is in the third grade and can't read, has gotten some help.  For about a week now he has been going to meetings with one of our Title One teachers to learn how to read.  He seems pretty excited about this and when told it's time to go he quickly gets up and goes.  Our Title One teacher who is working with him very quickly contacted us to mention that he has a pretty serious dyslexia problem and said she will immediately begin working with him to compensate for this shortcoming.  It took me fussing about this for the better part of two school years to get him some help and finally help has arrived.  Gnu and I are both pretty excited about this development.

On Monday mornings, before the scholars arrive, Gnu informs me about our weekly lesson plans.  Usually this doesn't get much of a reaction from me until this past week.  "Schultz, I'm going to start Greek mythology this week."  "Are you serious?"  "Yes, it's going to be fun."  She started with Zeus and then introduced Prometheus and Pandora.  She did the reading using her laptop and projecting pictures of the various gods on an overhead pull down screen.  It took them a little while to get focused on the readings but when they did it was impressive.  After finishing the Prometheus and Pandora story she had a hands on project for them.  She had six three by five card size pictures of the events that took place and asked the scholars to look at the pictures and put them in the correct order.  I was working with EM at my table with the view from the back of the room as he put together the pictures.  He looked at the pictures and then put them in the correct order in maybe a minute.  He then raised his hand and said, "I'm done Mama D."  Gnu walked back to my table and asked EM to explain his arrangement.  He started with the picture of Prometheus and them hesitated and switched the pictures in position two and three as he knew they were in the wrong order.  He then retold the story to Gnu by looking at the pictures.  Keep in mind, EM can't read but he has real good listening skills.  Keep in mind EM will fail ISTEP language arts and IRead3 because he can't read.  If they would allow me to read to him he would have a pretty good chance of passing both tests.  Sadly that is not allowed and the person grading his tests may draw the conclusion that this scholar is really dumb.  That is not the case.  This scholar has a serious dyslexia problem not an intelligence problem.

I know I've mentioned this before but do you know that I am working with a really good first year teacher?  In fact, never mind the first year part, I'm working with a really good teacher and here is why.  As part of the Prometheus and Pandora story she told them they were going to put on a puppet show.  In order to do this Gnu had cartoon like pictures of the main characters to color and then cut out.  She then had them glue the pictures onto tongue depressors to make the puppets.  She then broke them into two groups, assigned each scholar a role and told them to rehearse their roles so when it came time to do the puppet show they'd be prepared.  Keep in mind that these scholars don't work well in groups especially NoFouls who has to be in charge of everything and in his mind should play all the roles.  Surprisingly both groups worked independent of each other and worked as a team to be sure they story was told in the correct order.  There were literally no incidents.

Did I mention that I'm working with a really good teacher.  After the Prometheus and Pandora project she decided to introduce them to the Greek alphabet.  She had a copy of the Greek alphabet and then wrote each of their first names using the Greek alphabet.  When she showed them their individual names they were at a loss for words.  Why?  They had no idea that other alphabets existed.  It just wasn't registering with them.  She then gave them a black piece of construction paper and told them to recreate their own name using the Greek alphabet and then they could paint any design on it they wanted.  Again, it was amazing to watch them so carefully forming the letters of their name and then paint their name plate.  The room was dead quiet during this project which is extremely rare given the type of students Gnu and I work with.

One more story as this is my favorite one and then I'm out.  Gnu read to them the story of Athena and Arachne.  In case you didn't know, this is a story about weaving and a contest to see who was the better weaver.  At the end of the story Athena turns Arachne into a spider.  After reading the story Gnu assigned each scholar a task.  The task was to draw a picture of a certain scene from the story.  With the exception of Wide, drawing is not one of the strengths of our scholars.  In fact, their drawing ability is so poor they rely on me to help them draw.  Believe me that is not a good thing.  I gave it my best effort and then told the scholars just to trace my lines and then add some color.  When everyone was finished Gnu took the drawings and three holed punched them.  She then took some yarn and linked them together so it resembled a weaving.  The were six panels weaved together and they looked really nice.  So nice in fact, that we hung the weaving up in the corridor for all to see.  Just one comment on Wide's panel.  He had to draw Athena changing Arachne into a spider.  His first part was to draw Athena,  then he showed Arachne starting to turn into a spider.  He then completed his panel by drawing Arachne as a spider and then added extra background details.  It was a quite impressive drawing and it came from a scholar that hates to go to art class.

I am presently on spring break.  Two weeks without any scholars and for that matter any kids at all.  That's a good thing.  I'm out.