“You See, I Am”
Posted March 18th, 2009 by Taylor, student.
My name is Taylor, and I am one of several students involved in the Oregon Children’s Theatre “What Do You See?” project sponsored by Kaiser Permanente.
This semester-long class began at Roosevelt High School five six weeks ago. Since then, we have discussed body image, how today’s American culture views beauty, and how the media is involved in the pressure placed on teenagers to be beautiful.
Each day of class begins with a warm-up that centers our focus (usually a quick game of Popcorn or Zip Zap Zop). After our warm-up, we then do an activity based on body image. Finally, the end of each class is spent with about ten minutes of writing time in our journals reflecting on the day’s activity.
To give a little peek at the kinds of activities we do, I will explain our most recent (and, in my opinion, most fun) activity we have done in class.
Last week, we participated in an activity called, “You See, I Am”. We listed things that people see us as in a category titled, “You See” and then wrote about who we really were in a category titled, “I Am.” For example, I put, “You see a skinny girl” under “You See”, and then “I am really not that skinny and am actually trying to gain a few pounds,” under the “I Am” category.
On the next day of class, to much of my surprise, we learned about rap and how to write a rap. After writing a few “practice lines” in our journals, our goal was to turn our “ You See, I Am” list into our own rap.
The following day, we all came to class to find that we would be beat-boxing. We were split up into groups of three or four, each group making different beats such as clapping our hands, stomping our feet, and “chip-chewy”-ing. While we did all this, John read a few lines of each of our raps. We, as a class, had created our very own rap together.
Personally, I do not like rap. When I had first learned that we would be writing our own raps, I was reluctant to do so. But when I did, I found it to be quite enjoyable and ended up writing more than the required two lines. Then, when John created the big rap out of all of our smaller pieces, it made it even more enjoyable.
So far, this class has been one I look forward to every day. Each day holds something new and exciting to do. The staff involved is open and friendly and the entire class seems to enjoy it as well. I am very happy to be involved in this class and I look forward to the upcoming activities that await us all.