WHEN SERENDIPITY REALLY WORKS

The ultimate achievement for any teacher would be to see students appreciate and respond
enthusiastically to classroom activities, most especially when students are in the high school
where it is most difficult to motivate. High school teachers would often complain that teenagers
are insensitive and indifferent and perhaps this is the best time to share one of my experiences
with one the high school classes that I have handled - to prove that they are not insensitive nor
indifferent. They already graduated so their schoolmates could no longer guess which class
were they.

If there is one word that would describe how I plan my lessons, it would be “serendipity”.
Most of the times teacher faild to grasp the most important teachable moments because they
are busy following what were already written in the lesson plan. I was having difficulty
simplifying grammar and writing lessons in one of my high school classes. Perhaps because I
really do not want to discuss the basics anymore because they were just review lessons that
could be traced back from their grade school. Critical thinking is another waterloo for majority of
the students. So when the time came when I was about to teach note-taking techniques
(paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, and outlining), I totally abandoned what I originally
written in the plantilla. I already knew I would be talking “Greek” again when I face my students.
When they present their group outputs, it would be as if I had spoken “Russian” when I gave
them the directions. As a practice, I would make total revisions in my plans the night before or
even an hour before my class. This is something that would confuse whoever would be
observing my class.

For the past fifteen years, I have been an avid fan of Kenny Loggins. Not just because he is my
favorite singer but I really appreciate his songs and the story behind each of his songs. Out of
this loyalty to Kenny, I used one of his songs – “The One that Got Away”, a song about the
relationship of a father to his son.

On the first day, I asked the students to classify themselves into six categories of imaginative
ability. Originally, I was supposed to ask them to just count from 1 to 6 but the six classifications
just popped out of my head right after I exchanged the morning greetins with the class. Some of
them were even confused wheer to put themselves but nevertheless after five minutes of
roaming around the classroom,all of them belong to either of the following classifications:
• Boring and platonic
• Serious and focused
• Goes by the flow
• Anything goes
• Hopeless romantic but realistic
• Daydreaming and fantasizing

For this particular lesson, I just thought about it the night before and ended up forgetting the CD
at home. I cannot do anything but tell the class to pretend that it is a poem. A student during the
activity, even grumbled “dapat napakinggan natin yung kanta para mas maintindihan natin” ( we
should listen to the song so that we could understand it). Using the lyrics of the song, I asked
them to do particular tasks that are somewhat parallel to the classification to which they put
themselves into. Tasks A and B are supposed to enable them to paraphrase, Tasks C and D
would be akin to summarizing and Tasks E and F would require them to synthesize. The goal
for the tasks is to enable them to do the three note-taking techniques without them realizing it. I
distributed the task cards ( a term I invented to add sophistication to the colored papers), started
the time, and wait patiently for the remaining 15-minute brainstoring to end. Because I spent so
much time setting up the computer and LCD projector just to find out at the last minute that I
brought the CD case but forgot the CD, I had to extend the lesson until the next day. Anyway,
the students consumed the entire period brainstorming.

The tasks were as follows:

A – Re-state each of the stanza in one short sentence using the first person’s point of view
B – Reverse the situation and state a first person’s point of view for each of the stanza that
can be expected for the son to say
C – Explain in 3-4 sentences the story that the song conveys
D – Condense the entire piece into a one-stanza free verse poem
E – Who is the speaker and what message does he want to convey? What response does
he expect from the recipient?
F – What is the over-all theme or subject of the piece and what are your feelings, thoughts
and realizations about it?

On the second day, finally, I was able to bring the CD but the LCD projector was reserved
for another class. That’s why we spent the first 10 minutes of the period listening to the song
while the class stared at the lyric sheets instead of viewing a brilliant powerpoint presentation. I
did not look at them while they were listening because if I caught anybody not looking at the lyric
sheet or speaking with a seatmate, I might become irritated. I don’t want to ruin the morning.

When the time for each group to present their work, I was overwhelmed at how Group A was
able to comeup with very touching statements. At first, I was not so surprsed at all because the
most diligent and most intelligent students belong to this group. Until the next group presented
and up to the last group. I can’t help but say very good even if the presentor has not spoken yet
because just by merely looking at what they have written in their transparencies, I have never
imagined that they have generated such thoughts during their brainstorming the previous day.

Two reporters were almost teary-eyed while explaining their work, another paused for a while to
take a deep breath as if getting ready for a competition. After the last reporter, I started to
conclude the lesson by eliciting thoughts and realizations about the message of the song. For
the first time during the particular class, I look at them and their facial expressions, both oys and
girls, with awe. Why? Because their faces show a thousand interpretations and questions about
how to know if they are loved. One of the girls requested me to play the song again while she
give her personal reflections. To stop myself from getting swayed by the melancholic mood and
totally forget the lesson, I wrapped up immidiately and proceeded to the definitions of the note-
taking techniques. However, how could I do that if almost half of the girls wereabout to cry
[ actually, one of them really cride]. I don’t know exactly how I was able to bring the lesson to a
proper closure point, but at that particular point, I was brought back to the bitter reality that I was
not there to mend broken intelligence but to prevent persons from becoming broken. I have
never thought that my favorite song would have such a profound impact to my students.

Sometimes, we tend to forget to put ourselves in their shoes. We were also teenagers but as
soon as we become full-pledged teachers, we immidiately abandon the idea that once upon a
time we were also confused and rebellious adolescents trying to find our identity and rightful
place in the world. Our students may have grown tired from their issues at home that they look
forward to finding a zone of comfort in school. They are not insensitive nor indifferent, they just
can’t express properly how they crave for understanding. It helps when, occassionally, we put
ourselves into their shoes because after all, it might be us adults who are insensitive and
indifferent. Indeed, serendipity works. Thank you Kenny !