Talent in the Classroom

we're doing a unit on poetry cleverly disguised as a survey of song lyrics. (hey, whatever i can do to trick them into learning and liking it...) one of my students (a super-senior who has learned from past mistakes by trying to guide my freshman away from what he did a few years ago) writes his own rap lyrics and records his own hip hop songs. i let him hook up his ipod to my speaker dock and we listened to some of his songs. the kid has talent. i don't even like hip hop that much, but he's got a great sense of musicality and a good ear for what works. more importantly (at least in my opinion), is the fact that he writes clever and meaningful lyrics. i love that the other students have seen (and heard) what he's done and feel like they can do it too. they're inspired to try a little harder on their lyrics, and are even inspired to try to record some of their stuff (with some help from the aforementioned student).

i love seeing the light bulb go off when they realize something's within their reach - especially if they used to think otherwise.