#WeirdEd Week 3- Rockstar

#WeirdEd this week tackles a topic close to my heart and a topic that is discussed immediately in He's the Weird Teacher- the idea of Teacher As Rock Star. I'm also interested in deconstructing the idea a little, especially since it's mine.

When you think of a rock star, or when I do, I immediately think of someone above everyone else, quite literally. Even the lowest rent of punk venues had a raised stage. Stage might have only been raised an inch, but it was still raised. Rare is the venue where the stage is just the floor. So a rock star is above his or her audience. A rock star is the loudest, with the microphone and the amps and epic amounts of db pulsing behind him (or her). A rock star is in front, with the audience pointed at the band.

What does that sound like to you?

Sound like everyone's favorite anti-teaching method- The Sage on the Stage, re purposed to make it sound more badass.

So why would I call myself a rock star? Because I don't define it quite like that.

From He's the Weird Teacher chapter 1: Rockstar-

As a bombastic rock star frontman of a never-ending education funk machine I embody intensity in ten cities. I have to bring it every day because my audience expects nothing less than my best. I should be on my game even when I feel off because rock stars don’t miss a gig. The class isn’t just the audience, though. Not in my room, not with how I view learning. The class is my band and I am their band leader. I set the tone, I tell them when to bring it up and I tell them when to break it down. I wave the stick and they bang the drum. Together we make music.

As you can see, I don't think the kids are the audience. We're in this together. I might be the guy with the mic (some of the time) but I can't make music without them.

**Things to Think About**

Who are your musical heroes and how can/do you apply that to your teaching? Would you go on tour for years at a time, playing the same songs over and over? What's the best concert you've ever been to? Why? At a concert what's more important- hearing the album or hearing something fresh?

Please also read THIS. Michelle Baldwin (@michellek107) confronts exactly what we're talking about.

***HERE is the link to the Qs***

I'm going to make reference and link to this Blue Man Group video. I think you should take the hour forty and watch the whole thing, because they are like nothing you've ever heard. But if you don't at least watch the Rock Star Movements section starting at 7:26.