Tone

Sometimes when I teach I try to create a tone for the class. As lame, cheesy, and stupid as that sounds. Today we are learning about the Massacre of Wounded Knee. I could easily have just lectured the information and told them exactly what happened, but that doesn’t do it justice. So instead, I try to create a tone for the room. On Friday I did my first run of this lesson and I’m doing it four more times today. I shut off the lights, closed the curtains, projected a picture of a snowy hill and valley and took a seat at the front of the class. I never normally sit down when I teach, and most times it freaks me out if I do. But for this lesson, I simply want to tell my students a story. I slowly get their attention and begin the story. It’s a depressing and kind of heavy story about the massacre of the Lakota tribe at the site of Wounded Knee Creek. In total, close to 300 Lakota men, women, and children died. I told them the story of the events of the day, about the three day blizzard that followed soon after and the mass grave that was dug after that.

The class was silent, we finished with fifteen minutes still left in the period, but I knew it wouldn’t be wise to keep going. I decided to stop and just answer questions knowing how heavy the class had been. The kids (juniors and seniors) looked a little stunned, they were silent and seemingly afraid to be the first person to make a noise. Eventually one girl asked a question which started a good discussion in class.

The bell rang and instead of them jumping up and sprinting out of the room, the casually took their time. As depressing a class it was, I know my students won’t forget it. They may forget the names of the people and the facts of what happened, but they’ll always remember the tone & mood of the room and the weight of the story of the Massacre of Wounded Knee.