This week I went to see ZZ Top at Riverbend in Chattanooga. What a show! This was my first time to see them live. Well, I could almost see them. I could at least see the giant screen that cast their images out over the crowd. I arrived 3 hours early and found an empty spot for my fold-up chair in the middle of those that arrived 7 hours early. I still couldn’t see. But, boy, could I hear!
You know, I could listen to ZZ Top all day. Interestingly, nearly all their songs sound alike. They’ve got the formula down. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, guitar riff, chorus, guitar riff, end. Yet, it never seems to get old, tiresome, or boring.This is a lesson I picked up for my classroom. There are only so many ways you can write a lesson plan. Yet, if it is presented well, kids will listen, perk up, and get involved. No, I don’t mean you have to perform or entertain them. But you do have to connect.
ZZ Top connected from the beginning. After a couple of songs, they stopped and talked about being in Chattanooga. They knew the other acts that performed at Riverbend before them. They had a plan for improving the Incline ride for Lookout Mountain. And they had already skipped out on the bar bill at one of the local brewery/restaurants (so they claimed). They showed us they know Chattanooga and we were hooked.
The lesson in the nutshell? Don’t think you have re-invent something everytime you walk into a classroom. Use the formula of the lesson plan, but make it fresh everyday by connecting with students personally…not just curricularly. (If that wasn’t a word, it is now!)