Converting the Masses, Sharing the Love

[HeartlandGirl]

Today was the last day of classes at the University of Oklahoma before final exams. I teach Latin at OU and had left today open on the schedule in case of a snow day. Since we had no real Latin to do today, I showed U2 videos in my classes while we ate snacks and celebrated the end of the semester.

I thought it seemed a little unprofessional of me to be showing U2 videos in class, but the students LOVED it! In the first class we watched SBS from R&H and Streets from Elevation. Then someone requested Bullet the Blue Sky and we watched it too. I told them about the Enniskillen bombing and the Reagan era things going on with BTBS, and they were all really impressed. After SBS, lots of people said, "Wow" or "Amazing" or "There should be more music like that now."

In the second class, we watched SBS again and then Pride, followed by New York from Letterman and then WOWY from Boston Elevation. They loved the girl lying on stage with Bono and how Bono's emotions were so genuine. More wow's and amazing's. After class dismissed, some of the students stayed around and watched Walk On and Streets. One student even gave me a hug and said that U2 and myself had really inspired him and said thank you. Another girl gave me a hug and said she'd never heard U2 (these are college freshmen) but that she really liked them.

Overall, I had a great time showing the videos and everyone had this warm fuzzy feeling. I want to make a difference teaching and inspire my students to do good things and live joyous lives. I think celebrating with U2 accomplished that. Not to mention all the converts!!!

Hope you don't mind me sharing this feeling with you guys!

 

[sulawesigirl4]

wow, that's awesome. First, I wish I'd had a teacher like you when I was in college. lol. And second, there's no better way to make people aware of the greatness of U2 than to educate them.

The evidence is hard to deny when you sit down and watch a vid or listen to the music.

Very very cool.

-sula

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~I want to play the guitar very badly, and I do play the guitar very badly - Bono~

Take a virtual tour of U2's Dublin... Crzy4Bono's U2 page with some of Sula's Dublin pic's

Sula's Europe Pics

 

[Krasno The Great]

Pullae agricolae silvae.*

*And they weren't doing the tango.

2 years of high school latin and that's all I can remember.

 

[OnTheEdge]

WOW That never works for me. Good job.

 

[Giant Lemon]

That's awesome! I wish I had a prof/TA like you at my university. It sounds like your students really enjoyed U2- hopefully a lot of them have been converted!

 

[mrsmullen]

thats great! someday, i hope to bring the joy of u2 into my classes. sidenote: i walked in the express(the clothing store) today and they were playing a remix of Salome...how cool is that?!

alison

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It doesn't matter what songs we sing. I'm a drummer. Chicks dig me. - Larry

 

[U2Bama]

Sorry about the Oklahoma State game.

 

[Sperber]

Very cool

And a good way to convert the masses btw...

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beLIEve

 

[Jayhawk]

Yeah...and sorry about stealing your assistant football coach too. We really think he will turn our program around at KU.

[This message has been edited by Jayhawk (edited 12-08-2001).]

 

[Discoteque]

Wow. You rock, HG. I wish I'd had more teachers like you. Or ANY teacher like you! How cool that you may have made quite a few U2 converts, yay!

But this disturbed me! A freshman??

Originally posted by HeartlandGirl:
Another girl gave me a hug and said she'd never heard U2 (these are college freshmen) but that she really liked them.

Almost as bad as meting my cousin's future wife a few years back...and she'd never heard of the Beatles!! Freakin A!!!

 

[Jody]

Originally posted by Discoteque:


Almost as bad as meting my cousin's future wife a few years back...and she'd never heard of the Beatles!! Freakin A!!!

Wow

 

[follower]

I wanna say congrats HeartlandGirl, I bet you really converted some of your students. It?s like sula said, it?s hard to deny the evidence that U2 is a unique band once you show them the proof.

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"To me a rock and roll concert is 3-D, it?s a physical thing - it?s rhythm for the body. It?s a mental thing in that it should be intellectually challenging. But it?s also a spiritual thing, because it?s a community, it?s people agreeing on something, even if it?s only for an hour and a half." (Bono, as quoted in the book U2 The Road to Pop)

 

[U2Bama]

Originally posted by Jayhawk:
Yeah...and sorry about stealing your assistant football coach too. We really think he will turn our program around at KU.

[This message has been edited by Jayhawk (edited 12-08-2001).]

We're just happy you didn't steal Franchione from us!

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Thanks to almost everyone for their supportive comments. It is so true that people can't understand U2's greatness until they see a live performance. If they weren't converted, at least they can understand where I'm coming from.


And of course, leave it to U2Bama to come into a thread I intended to be a celebration of U2's power and start shit about football...

Well, if you have anything to be sorry for, it should be that Alabama went 6-5 this year. I'll take 10-2 plus a decent bowl game any year. Despite what you may think about us getting beaten by OSU, the fans here in Norman are still very proud of our football team and have high hopes for next year as well. We'll be happy to start next season off right by whipping your pathetic asses.

And Jayhawk, you guys can have Mangino if it means you'll finally become a respectable member of the Big XII. A 3-8 record, and then going 1-7 in the conference? Compared to you guys, Sooner fans have nothing to be sorry for!

 

[SkeeK]

Originally posted by Krasno The Great:
Pullae agricolae silvae.

Don't most sentences have verbs?

 

[~LadyLemon~]

That's great!!!

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Here I go and I don't know why
I spin so ceaselessly

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Originally posted by SkeeK:

Originally posted by Krasno The Great:
Pullae agricolae silvae.

Don't most sentences have verbs?

I was wondering the same thing! That sentence says "Girls farmers forests!"

 

[U2Bama]

Originally posted by HeartlandGirl:
leave it to U2Bama...Alabama went 6-5 this year

And I was being SERIOUS about my sympathy for your loss! I wanted to see OU play CU in Dallas for the Big 12 Champ game.

Yes, we went 6-5 this year, but it's a big improvement over 3-8 last year. And Nashville can be fun on Dec. 28.

~U2Alabama

 

[Bonochick]

That is a great story!

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"I don't know you,
But you don't know the half of it..."

 

[DebbieSG]

what a scene!! U2 is really all that, aren't they? God bless them, they can inspire students, who are usually so anti.

If it worked for you, maybe I'll try to sneak a video in when I substitute next year

.

 

[HeartlandGirl]

UPDATE: The girl who had never heard of U2 but liked them has now asked me to make her a "mix" CD of good U2 songs, saying that she trusted my judgment in picking the songs.

Yeehaw! Add another one to the ranks of the greatest fans in the world!

 

[hippy]

How cool! That's the way to do it and this has inspired me to show all of my friends in the hopes of converting them too! Woohoo!

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One love, one life...
Give peace a chance!
Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Bono: I don't walk, I swagger! I sashayed once, but just once. It wasn't for me.

 

[Jayhawk]

Originally posted by U2Bama:
We're just happy you didn't steal Franchione from us!

I think there is some bad blood there from what happened back in late 96 when we hired Terry Allen out of Northern Iowa...we didn't even give Franchione an interview---our BIG mistake. It's hard for us to shake our basketball image really. Very few schools can consistently have good football and basketball programs anyway. They may do it for a few years, but never for very long. Our hoops team this year is stacked. Our freshman class is just unreal and I am thinking Final Four either this year or the next. Wayne Simien---watch out for this guy. He is the real thing.

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I hit an iceberg in my life
You know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat

"New York" U2

[This message has been edited by Jayhawk (edited 12-09-2001).]

 

[Crzy4Bono]

Originally posted by U2Bama:
And Nashville can be fun on Dec. 28.

~U2Alabama

Nashville is fun every day!

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She's gonna dream up a world she wants to live in / She's gonna dream out loud.
Visit my web page at www.u2page.com

 

[sulawesigirl4]

kind of related to this story...as you know, I'm putting together some U2 Christmas gifts and this weekend I was busy working on compilation videos. The people I live with rent out their basement and the guys down there are good friends of mine, so I'm using their tv/vcr setup to do the recording. Anyways, I'm trying to be nice and unobtrusive as they have studying to do, but they were both asking questions and couldn't seem to be able to help watching a good bit of the video stuff. This of course led to questions about the band, etc....and I think I did a pretty good sell job.

More interested parties...now I just let them borrow some of my CDs. heheheh.

-sula

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~I want to play the guitar very badly, and I do play the guitar very badly - Bono~

Take a virtual tour of U2's Dublin... Crzy4Bono's U2 page with some of Sula's Dublin pic's

Sula's Europe Pics

 

[U2Bama]

Originally posted by Crzy4Bono:
Nashville is fun every day!

ROOLFTM!

It won't be as fun 12/28, because Bama won't be there after all! We'll be in Shreveport.

 

[truecoloursfly]

HG:
I've always said I thought teachers were God's chosen.

Well done. "Warm fuzzy feeling" -- Elevation all over, innit?
WOOHOO!

Deb D

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He set my feet upon a rock
made my footsteps firm

the greatest frontman in the world -- by truecoloursfly: http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1575

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Originally posted by truecoloursfly:
HG:
I've always said I thought teachers were God's chosen.

Well done. "Warm fuzzy feeling" -- Elevation all over, innit?
WOOHOO!

Deb D

I was definitely feeling elevated the whole day! I've always wondered what greater plan there could be in my teaching of Latin. Now I know!

And way to go Sula with your own converts! Sounds like they are pretty interested! Meanwhile, I've got to get busy making the mix CD for that student. She asked me if I had it ready yet this morning at the final exam. She sounds pretty eager!

 

[sulawesigirl4]

Originally posted by HeartlandGirl:

And way to go Sula with your own converts! Sounds like they are pretty interested!

Yeah, actually last night, one of them said that he was starting to be "interested in U2" and maybe he would like to borrow some CDs from me. hehehehe. Like I told him...you've come to the right place.