As I was watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics tonight, I got really excited when I saw Shane Koyczan come on TV. He is a slam poet who also has several books. His book Stick Boy is about bullying and is actually being used by many teachers in their classes right now. I was lucky enough to watch Shane perform earlier this year at my practicum school and he really blew me away. He really connected with the students and drew some emotional responses.
Since you aren't supposed to show Olympic things without their permission I found another video of Shane performing his poem "We Are More" (the same from the Opening Ceremonies).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsq68qRexFc&feature=player_embedded
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2 comments:
Wow thanks for posting this link! I watched the Opening Ceremonies last night and was also amazed at this man's performance! I have never heard of him before but really, really enjoyed his presentation. I am teaching a poetry unit to my grade 11 English class during the three-week practicum with an "identity" theme. As soon as I watched the Opening Ceremonies I knew that I wanted to do a section on Canadian identity and use his video clip as a hook! My boyfriend watched the Ceremonies with me and although he is not a big fan of poetry (to say the least!) he said that Shane Koyczan's performance was one of the highlights for him. I thought this was really cool and think that it might have an equally inspiring affect for my students.... I hope!!
I haven't yet watched the opening ceremonies...they are patiently awaiting a day when I have some free time to spend with my PVR. I absolutely loved the YouTube video, and like Lisa hadn't heard of him before.
I love listening to slam poetry!
There are a lot of boys in my English 8 class and half of those boys are Hockey players. I have been thinking lately about how to introduce the unit in a "fun" and "engaging" way...and I think that it would be awesome to show them this.
I'm doing a poetry unit for my three week as well with English 6 and 8. I was thinking about theming it around Identity as well! My culminating task for the Grade 8's is their own Zine...so it should so awesome.
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