Skip to main content

These Kids are Magical

Last week in my Creative Writing class, I introduced the idea of writing parodies of songs.  My students immediately got excited. I showed them "Word Crimes" by Weird Al and another one about algebra set to Toto's "Africa".  That's all they needed.  Within seconds, they were humming, singing, and writing. I could have gone to the gym, and they wouldn't have known I was gone!  My students know me well enough to know that I want them to take risks.  If something doesn't "turn out" they way they had hoped, big deal.  There are many other opportunities to create a masterpiece. 

 Students managed to write their songs within a block period and a half.  This included practice time, as well as typing and printing their lyrics.  Then, each group shared a link to the Karaoke version with me on a Google doc. That way it was ready to play when it was their turn to perform.


 After the performances (I had tears in my eyes), I had students complete a Google form to vote on the following:

 funniest
most creative
favorite
best singing
most enthusiasm

 I knew who I felt the winners should be but let the kids decide. They did not disappoint. There were two clear winners: a parody of "Havana" called "Ikea" and a parody of Adele's song "Turning Tables"  called "Flappy Bird". 

 "Ikea"
Ikea, oh-na-na
Half of my house is from Ikea, oh-na-na
I left my children in Ikea, na na na
Oh, But I’m going back tomorrow
They’re hiding in a corner
Ikea, oh-na-na
I wake up surrounded by wooden pieces
Too many instructions
Closets and beds and dressers and lamps
I can’t figure this out
Takin’ forever I can’t do it
Please someone help me now
The label says this night stand is perfect
Finally somethin’ good
Oh-ohh-oh, I knew it when I saw it
It was the perfect night stand
Got me feelin’ like
Oh-ohh-oh, but then I had to build it
So I said  “Oh no” Oh-no-no-no-no-no
Ikea, oh-na-na
Half of my house is from Ikea, oh-na-na
I left my children in Ikea, na na na
Oh, But I’m going back tomorrow
They’re hiding in a corner
Ikea, oh-na-na
The screws and the nails, they always stab me
The blood is on my hands
I drowning in all the cardboard boxes
At least shipping is free
My kids are on a quest to find Narnia
I guess this is goodbye
At least I still have my perfect nightstand
Finally somethin’ good
Oh-ohh-oh, I knew it when I saw it

Ikea, oh-na-na
Half of my house is from Ikea, oh-na-na
I left my children in Ikea, na na na
Oh, But I’m going back tomorrow
They’re hiding in a corner
Ikea, oh-na-na

I wake up surrounded by wooden pieces
Too many instructions
Closets and beds and dressers and lamps
I can’t figure this out
Takin’ forever I can’t do it
Please someone help me now
The label says this night stand is perfect
Finally somethin’ good

Oh-ohh-oh, I knew it when I saw it
It was the perfect night stand
Got me feelin’ like
Oh-ohh-oh, but then I had to build it
So I said  “Oh no” Oh-no-no-no-no-no

Ikea, oh-na-na
Half of my house is from Ikea, oh-na-na
I left my children in Ikea, na na na
Oh, But I’m going back tomorrow
They’re hiding in a corner
Ikea, oh-na-na

The screws and the nails, they always stab me
The blood is on my hands
I drowning in all the cardboard boxes
At least shipping is free
My kids are on a quest to find Narnia
I guess this is goodbye
At least I still have my perfect nightstand
Finally somethin’ good

Oh-ohh-oh, I knew it when I saw it

"Flappy Bird"

Close to beating the high score
I can see my name, on the leaderboard.
Why is flappy bird so hard
Everytime I play, I get more bored.

I can’t keep up with your changing high scores
All this pressure I can’t tap

I won’t let you close enough to beat me
No my score will be all supreme and ruling
I won’t let you flap through more pipes than me
It’s time to say goodbye to this insanity.

With sore thumbs I still play you
With flappy bird my heart beats sound
I braved a hundred rounds to get here
As hard as you try no you could never knock me down.

I can’t keep up with your changing highscores
All this pressure I can’t tap

I won’t let you close enough to beat me
No my score will be all supreme and ruling
I won’t let you flap through more pipes than me
It’s time to say goodbye to this insanity

Next time I’ll be more cautious when I tap the screen
Now I admit defeat
Next time I won’t tap so frantically when I want to win
Losing is a sin

I won’t let you close enough to beat me
No my score will be all supreme and ruling
I won’t let you flap through more pipes than me
It’s time to say goodbye to this insanity

This special group of students is leaving me at the semester to take drama. I am going to miss them!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TQE: Get students Engaged and Digging Deep

I've mentioned before how Twitter has helped me grow as an educator.  Edutwitter is a valuable resource for book recommendations, new teaching methods, lessons, and articles.  One of my favorite educators to follow is Marissa Thompson, a high school teacher at Carlsbad High. This summer I read about her TQE(thoughts, questions, epiphanies) method for discussing literature.  I'd always longed for having discussions like the ones I had in my college literature courses, but when I try fishbowl or Socratic seminar with my students, the discussions felt forced, flat, and awkward. That changed today when I tried TQE for the first time.  Sharing homework in small groups Students writing their TQEs on the board When I listened to Marissa's podcast on Cult of Pedagogy ( check it out here ), I was intimidated. After all, her students are in high school and have a rock star teacher.  I think I read the transcript twenty times before finally trying it.  Here's h
5 comments
Read more

Writing an Essay...with a Partner

I love technology for collaboration! Teaching writing to middle school students is not easy.  All students come with different skills and knowledge.  With 35 students in a class, it's impossible to sit down one on one and assist students with the writing process.  Teaching students to write a literary analysis is particularly challenging because most seventh-graders have little, to no experience.  Students need to learn to  develop a thesis statement, find evidence from the text to support it, provide the context of the selected quotations , and write insightful commentary on the evidence they selected. Remember, these kiddos are twelve! Graphic organizers are particularly helpful to these young writers. The biggest challenge is providing feedback to students as they are writing, rather than after they turn their work in for a grade.  Students need to be able to use the feedback they receive and see the difference it makes in the final product.  I was adamant that I was not go
2 comments
Read more

Hexagonal Thinking

The last few weeks can be challenging. Keeping students engaged and learning is my mission! When I stumbled upon a post about hexagonal thinking, I knew I had to try it with my students. I am SO glad I did. Although this activity can be done digitally or on paper, I insisted that my students in class do it old school. My goal was for my students to have thoughtful discussions about what we read this year. Here's how it works! First, I came up with a list of key characters and ideas from The Giver, Animal Farm, and The Children's Story. I found this awesome generator on line where I could just type in my words, and it put them in the hexagons for me. Then I printed out the pages (there were three) for each group. I did a copious amount of research before embarking on this activity, and I was shocked by the number of teachers who cut the hexagons out for their students. That would have taken me HOURS. I simply gave each group scissors, and they were done in five minute
1 comment
Read more