Et tu, Brute?

So the latest adventure for my classes has been ancient Rome, to a time when Caesar was king and Ms. Chen tried really really hard to invest her children in the idea of murder, backstabbing, and betrayal. That's right, we are riding the Julius Caesar Shakespeare train, and the kids are on the trip whether they like it or not. It's such a varied group of passengers too:

• Kids that hate the train but don't want to lose their lives by jumping off, i.e. they hate Caesar, think it's boring, but take it because otherwise they would fail my class and be put in ISS (in-school suspension).
• Kids that fall asleep once they get on the train (pretty self-explanatory).
• Kids that were first in line to buy tickets for the train, but then were kind of disappointed by the train ride ("Caesar's boring...they talk too much!")
• Kids that were reluctant train riders at first, but now absolutely love the train, want to know more about the train, and ask to drive the train (my favorite type of passengers!!). These are the kids that either A) become their characters; B) actually ask questions because they are actually curious; and C) shriek "Oh, my god, is Caesar going to die????" when they see the picture at the beginning of Act III.

Yes, that last group gives me the happiest feeling inside, and the many of my 3rd and 4th period fall into that category. We finally arrived at the climactic murder scene, so I decided to spice things up a little by having them act it out. I was excited for this lesson - I even colored masking tape to represent Caesar's blood and was planning to have them "stab" Caesar by sticking the tape on him.

And of course, my B day classes absolutely butcher the activity. Serves me right for trying something "fun."

In 5th period, "So-Icey Boy" (his self-created nickname) throws a hissy fit when the girl playing Cassius got on him for not following along. He then proceeded to cuss her out, and they instead had to sit down and read while I had a conference with him.

In 8th period, we were able to get through most of the scene; however, the boys (my entire class is full of boys) were more concerned with the inappropriate staging of some kneeling in front of Caesar. Ultimate chaos ensued, culminating with Tim parading around wearing someone's art project mask. Fail.

So B day ended with a hoarse voice, extreme tiredness, and a feeling that the day was just an enormous waste of time and energy. Then I ran into another teacher, who assured me that it may have been a chaotic day, but the question is: did they learn?

That thought drove me to attempt the activity (against my better judgment) with my A day kids again today. Armed with the idea that chaos does not necessarily equal bad, my 1st period sort of got it (while they all hate me, they are at least concerned with their grades).

3rd and 4th period? Chaos once more, but it was good, even AMAZING chaos. Yes, the hall monitor had to come in to see why it was so loud, yes, I almost got in trouble when kids almost started cussing each other out for not reading the right parts, but at least THEY GOT IT!

In 3rd period, they all got really into the idea of Mark Antony being two-faced and betrayal going on up the wazoo. "Hey, Brutus stabbed Caesar in the back. LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY!" They wanted to see more pictures of the Roman forum ("But Miss, what did it look like before? You should put a picture of it before it got all ruined!" "Remember, this is ancient Rome...there were no cameras..." "Oh yeah..."). After "stabbing" Caesar, one of my conspirators said witheringly (not part of the play, but just her getting really into the character), "I only did it because you were getting too much power. The power was gonna get to your head."

4th period got into it, and my Caesar died a slow and painful death, absolutely hamming it up, lying on the ground with red pieces of masking tape all over him. Marco, my Caesar, had never been so into a reading before. He used to never do anything. Now, he comes into my room and participates the most in my class, answering all the questions, volunteering the read. They also got into a heated discussion about Antony. "Miss, it's like, you know, if some crew I don't know gone show up and kill my homeboy, of course I'm gonna be all nice to them, you know what I'm sayin', and then I'm gonna get revenge for my homeboy, 'cuz that ain't right, you know what I'm sayin'? There's gonna be blood, you know what I'm sayin'?"

So while I end the day with almost no voice and tired feet, at least I have learned a lesson of my own: chaos is not always bad.

And also, don't use marker to color masking tape and assume that the red will not get on your hands. Caesar's blood is on my hands too!