Entrance Slip: How to Swing ... the Strict Grid of Schooling

I like the metaphor with swing music, and how the strict and rigid tempo/beat acts like a backbone/skeleton, but the swing music isn't restricted to that beat --- it takes its own artistic liberties and "leans into and out from the beat, and plays with the beat" (p. 182-183). 

I like the idea of how this concept of swing music can be applied to teaching the school curriculum, as the article stated (p. 183).  The curriculum is very structured and rigid in the concepts and skills that need to be taught and learned for each course; however, as teachers, we can make our teaching more fluid, creative and free with the curriculum contents as the backbone of our lessons. We don't have to always adhere to traditional, rigid teaching styles of lecturing and going through textbooks in an enclosed classroom, and instead, we can be more experimental and creative with lessons, sometimes making it more hands-on or doing lessons outdoors like with learning gardens. I'm also not saying to get rid of the traditional type of teaching completely, but moreso to weave a mixture of both --- some days might have a more traditional lecture with worksheets while on others students tackle fun puzzles and another day they'll be crafting something --- just like how swing music leans in and out of the beat. In this way, I hope students will come into class not knowing what to expect, but with anticipation for what will be in store that day. 

Similar to how "another rhythm is possible within this rhythm" (p. 184) with swing music, other ways of teaching are possible within our age-old system of teaching.