Life sure has been a long and crazy ride, I must say, but I wouldn't trade any minute of it.
~ words from Mac that keep us thinking and wondering ~
Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
Notice what you notice. Wonder what you wonder. There is no quiz, no right way. Read until something stays.
this film has no words. notice what you notice. notice what you wonder. wonder out loud. and don't forget to notice what you feel, too.
Core Values
Life sure has been a long and crazy ride, I must say, but I wouldn’t trade any minute of it. I sure would love to tell you all about it. How about you pull up a chair and join me! Can I get you some collard greens and cornbread? They’re my specialty. I just finished cooking up a big batch and it looks like we’ve still got a few hours here until I play my first gig.
I’ve worn many hats, from blues musician to truck driver, farmer to restaurant owner...and I sure have loved ‘em all. What I’ve done all of my life is try to stay positive and try to respect every aspect of it. You need to have a level of respect in order to get respect back, I feel.
Do you agree with me?
Why or why not?
In your culture, what are some ways you show respect for others?
I learned this lesson from my father when I was young. He ran a tight ship.[1] He didn’t like negativity in the house. We grew up in the small town of Ware Place, South Carolina, USA and we had a house full of kids...thirteen of ‘em! Plus we had a cotton farm to take care of, so there was no room for negativity. He made sure us kids all helped around the house and out on the farm. Growing up in such a big family sure was fun, but it wasn’t easy.
How many siblings are in your family?
What challenges do you imagine a large family might face?
What are some of the challenges your family faces?
Make a list of both, then compare and contrast each list.
How could we overcome these challenges?
We didn’t have very much money to kick around, so we had to be resourceful as kids. My brother Leroy, he tried to make life simple, he tried to create a lot of stuff with no money. He was always the guy who came up with different ideas for playing music, and he was a real big inspiration for me growing up. When I was 10, he took a gas can and built a guitar out of it with some wood, nails, screen wire, and a broomstick.
If your broomstick is 3 feet long, and you need the screen wire to cover 2/3 of the broomstick, what length of screen wire should you cut in inches? How about for a 4 foot long broomstick?
He took it to school for show and tell and won first place. And that, right there, was my inspiration to learn how to play guitar! We passed that guitar around the family for years. Everybody played on it. It was the only guitar we had between thirteen of us, so we traded back and forth, taking turns with it over the years.
My brother played a huge role in my life and inspired me to play music.
What are some ways that your family members inspire you?
Do you think you inspire them?
How so?
The type of music we played was called the blues, which is a style of music rooted in the southern part of the United States that is based on storytelling. Blues songs tell stories about the hardships of life, work, and love that we all face, day in and day out. The blues sure does have deep roots in history here in the south: Its origins date all the way back to the days of slavery!
Now my father, he was a sharecropper (learn more about sharecropping), which meant that while he had to grow the cotton himself, he couldn’t keep the whole lot of his crop. He had to give part of it away to pay for the land. This was a thing of the times; they don’t have sharecroppers these days in the U.S. It sure was backbreaking work, and all of us kids had to be there to help out on the farm, day in and day out.
If my father needed to give away ⅔ of his crop, how much could he keep? What about ⅓? It wasn’t always that straightforward though. Sometimes he had to give away ¼ of the crop from the north field and ⅔ of the crop from the south field. How much total did he give away?
Could you draw out what you imagine the farm to look like and use this to calculate how much was left for my dad to sell for our family?
Does this practice of sharecropping seem fair to you?
What makes it unjust?
Are there any land ownership practices where you’re from that feel unjust?
What sort of farm chores do you imagine I had?
How might I have felt about those chores?
Do you enjoy your chores?
What are ways in which your family members help one another?
When I wasn’t helping out on the farm, I was doing one thing. Can you guess it? Yep, playing music. There was a big happenin’[2] blues scene out in Chicago, and I wanted to be a part of it. So, in 1965, when I was about 24 years old, I packed up all my belongings, hopped on a bus and headed for Chicago. I started playing music with professional people there, but a lot of the music was written in the studio, which was different than playing at home. So I went back to school to learn how to read music. It was a challenge for me, but I sure am glad I did it.
The distance from my hometown in South Carolina to Chicago, Illinois is 710 miles. How many kilometers is that? Meters? If the bus I took went 65 miles per hour the entire way, how long did it take me to get to Chicago? What do you imagine long-distance travel by bus to be like?
It was a big leap for me to leave behind my family and move to a new city all by myself.
But it was the best thing I ever could have done for myself.
Is there anything you want to do that may seem crazy to your family or friends?
Why is that so?
What might help you build up the courage to take chances and live out your dreams?
Let’s see how my age relates to the year!
If a math rule begins with the “input” number, and creates an “output” number, what is the rule that describes the input and output below?
What can that rule tell you about the year I was born?
“What are some of your core values?” You could approach this as a two-minute silent reflection, in which students journal about their responses.
Or, it could be a brainstorm in which students share aloud a value and physically show agreement with a value someone else shares, for example by snapping their fingers. Encourage students to think deeply about the role culture plays in shaping values education by asking, “Do you think people from other backgrounds share some of your values? Why or why not?”
“Let’s watch a short video about a human named Mac, paying close attention to what we think some of his values might be.” Together, watch the video I am Mac (above).
After the video, ask students to share some ideas of values that Mac might hold. You could write them on the board, compare them to your class’ values, or simply discuss them.
Explore how things like adding and subtracting fractions and unit conversions show up in Mac’s life! This story incorporates many math topics that provide an opportunity to relate things like multi-digit conversion and unit conversion.
In the story (mid-section of the story), students can practice unit measurement word problems by calculating measurements for making a gas can guitar similar to Mac’s. Tie it into the discussion of values by including this prompt and activity idea from Mac:
Wrap up with a short journaling activity encouraging students to reflect on what they’ve learned about values in general and about themselves.
What surprised them? What did they find similar to Mac’s? Consider creating a “Class Commitment Thread” in which each student writes on a strip of paper one value that they find important and commit to acting upon at school. Link each strip of paper together and hang the thread somewhere visible in the classroom!
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →I Can Do Anything
I started playing the blues when I was a kid, so it’s been a long haul. I played professionally for a good twenty years, first in Chicago and then all around the United States. When I finally moved back home to South Carolina I retired my bass guitar, got back into farming and started driving for a trucking company. It was time for me to focus on my family and farming, and I was alright with that. Well, one day, I was in the local mechanic shop waiting for my car to be ready. A song from the band I used to play with came on the radio, and I started singing along. The mechanic heard me singing and he said “Hey, you heard of this guy?” and I said, “Yeah! I used to play bass for him!” and whaddya[1] know, he didn’t believe me! Well, about 10 years went on and every week or so this mechanic, who I now know as Max, would call me up and get after me to play. I kept telling him I was done with music, but eventually he talked me into coming out and playing with him. I guess it was bound to happen, but I didn’t think it was gonna go down this way. My father always told me me that whatever happens is meant to be. It’s a spiritual thing that I can’t really explain, all I can do is play.
Wow, what a friend, huh? He was sure persistent about getting me to play! If he called me every week for 10 years, how many times did he call me?! How might we figure this out (and how can you use division to check your work)?
My father believed that what happens in your life is meant to be.
Do you believe this too?
What does the word destiny or fate mean?
Do you think my chance encounter with the mechanic was meant to be?
If that one conversation in the gas station hadn’t happened, would I have gotten back into playing music?
I guess it’s just natural because I’m a people person, so I thought getting back out there in the spotlight performing wasn’t a bad idea. But I must say, a lotta[2] the people in my community sure were surprised! They didn’t realize the farmer living down the road was an old blues musician. I think some of them were shocked when they found this out! Nowadays, I just call myself the farmin’ blues man!
A lot of people were surprised, but I bet I’m not the only person in the world with a “hidden” talent.
Why might people sometimes not let other people know about their talents or passions?
Often times society tells us we can only do one thing in our life, one career.
Well, I’ve shown them wrong!
What might be challenging about pursuing multiple “careers”?
What would be rewarding?
What are some of your dreams?
After playing music again for some time, I realized something super important: that kids these days have the chance to know and love music just as much as I did, and still do! It’s important for children to have a connection to music, and being given the opportunity to play is key. Children and younger musicians need to know how this is done. How to write, to arrange, to compose and then to play this music. It’s very important for me to be able to create new music and write it all myself, because blues music has always been created in this vein and I wanna stick to the tradition. In that way, I can be a role model for kids, showing them that music can still be done the way it used to be here in the Southern United States. I want to keep the essence of blues in my new music with every song I write.
When I first started playing music, I didn’t know how to read it...
we just played it as kids on the farm!
But when I went off to Chicago to try and break into the music scene, well, I realized I needed to learn how to read and write music.
And it sure wasn’t easy.
But it fed my dream, so I practiced and studied hours on end until I got there!
Have you ever really wanted something, then realized there was more to do or learn before you got there?
How did you face this challenge?
How might you support a friend or family member in this position?
Let’s say I practiced 10 hours a day for 10 days at a time, how many hours is that? What it we added a second set of 10 days, then how many hours have I practiced? 3 sets of 10 days? How can powers of ten help us here?
A few years ago, Max and I wrote a song about the importance of music in schools called, “I Can Do Anything”. We got together with one of the local schools down here in South Carolina and asked if they wanted to play the song with us on stage. With the help of their music teachers, the Greer Elementary, Middle and High School students learned the song and performed it on stage with us at our local music festival! And they smashed it![3] After the performance, we came up with the idea to create a foundation where we could help local schools in producing their own musical events, having their students perform, and ultimately generating money to support their music and arts programs. We call it the “I Can Do Anything Foundation!” These days, when I’m not playing music, helping out on the farm or at the restaurant, you can find me in the local schools helping to educate kids on the importance of music. Blues music as a genre is all about community and roots, and in each chapter of my life I feel like I keep going deeper and deeper back into my roots. It’s been a pretty good haul.
What type of role does music play in your culture, or your community or family?
Do you feel it is important in the same way as I do?
Why or why not?
If you were to go deeper and deeper back into your roots, what type of music might you find?
Maybe you can investigate this!
Or, if you were to make your own type of music genre, what would it be all about?
Listen to the song featured in this story while you set up for this lesson, without saying anything to the students.
“Do you imagine yourself having one career when you grow up, or multiple?” Approach this question enthusiastically, encouraging students’ dreams whether they want to pursue one thing or ten.
The goal in this lesson is to inspire students to follow their dreams, to encourage a growth mindset, and to recognize that they are not limited to pursuing just one talent or interest if they don’t want to be. And if they do want to pursue just one, that is also great!
Without saying anything else, play the video I am Mac. “What do you notice about Mac in this video?” Let students shout out things they notice - he has a big smile, he cooks, he plays guitar, he farms.
If they don’t do it themselves, highlight that he seems to engage a diversity of skills and talents in his day-to-day. “Let’s read about him to learn how he makes all this happen!” Read the story Mac Returns to Music aloud to the class or have students read it “popcorn style,” switching who reads each paragraph or section. You can point out to your class the times where Mac uses words in ways that are different from standard English and can then follow this up with a discussion about accents and word pronunciation by asking, “Do you think the way people pronounce words sometimes affects how we see them? Why might this be something to keep in mind, if what we hear may influence our perceptions of people?” To check for reading comprehension, ask students, “In what ways does Mac demonstrate this idea that ‘I can do anything?’” Steer the conversation in the direction of mindsets by asking, “What do you think Mac was saying to himself to accomplish everything he’s done? How does what we say to ourselves impact the way we feel?” Consider facilitating an activity that allows the students to focus on themselves and their dreams; they could illustrate, write or create something that represents some of the things they want to learn and do in their lives. You could do it in the form of a vision board or another creative idea.
Good friends and dedicated practice are two things that helped Mac push through challenges and realize his dreams. Let’s use math to get a better idea of just how much effort it took from his friend and his own practice to get where he is today!
At the beginning of the story Mac talks about a friend who persistently called on a weekly basis trying to get Mac to start playing music again. Students can use multiplying and dividing whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 to figure out just how many times that friend called him. Use division to check your work! On page 3, Mac describes how he had to learn how to read and write music after he already knew how to play - this took a lot of practice! Students can practice working with powers of 10 to calculate how many hours Mac may have practiced. Although these hours are fictional, he did put in a lot of hard work - you could use his example to discuss what type of things they work hard at, or want to work at it.
Lead a discussion in which you discuss mindsets in terms of how students talk to themselves about their dreams and goals. “You know that little voice in your head?
You can control what it says! So let’s come up with some positive ways to talk about challenges we face! Because we will definitely face challenges along the way to our dreams.” As a class, brainstorm some things you hear each other say often and develop a different response to replace it. Consider writing these on a poster board and hanging them around the classroom. Some examples: “This is too hard” becomes “This will take some time and effort!” “I give up” becomes “I wonder what else I could try!” “I’ll never be as smart as her” becomes “I’m going to figure out what she does so I can try it too!”
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Food Moods
Being a blues musician isn’t an easy lifestyle. Life on the road performing sure was tough, and being away from my family for so long made it even more challenging. So in about 1980 I decided to move back home, nearly twenty years after I’d left the Southern U.S. for Chicago to pursue my dream of playing music. My mother was in gettin’ up there in age and in bad health, yet she was running our family’s farm. So, I decided to pick up everything and move back to South Carolina to support my family.
What's the longest time you've spent away from your family?
How did that feel?
What was it like to see them again?
What do you imagine I felt after spending 20 years living so far away from my family members?
What might be challenging about returning?
I stopped playing music at this point and, honestly, I thought I was gonna[1] retire! But helpin’ out my mom wasn’t keeping me busy enough, and it was one of those things I figured out: If somebody is bored, they need to find something to do. So, I started working part time for a trucking company, Belk. Turns out Belk liked the way I worked and they kept me. I worked there for 10 years before I retired! I’ve learned that life doesn’t have to be linear. It doesn’t have to be scripted. More often than not, it turns out way different (and sometimes even better) than expected.
Is there something in your life that unfolded differently than you expected, with a positive outcome?
Did you change or grow with this new experience?
If not, why might that be?
Would you do anything differently next time?
When I first moved back home, I decided I was gonna grow vegetables on the farm. When I was little, our only crop was cotton. You know, I sure do love working on the farm. Just like when we were kids, everybody in the family is always helping out. We’d all be pickling cucumbers and green beans, planting and eating tomatoes, and growing a whole lotta corn.
Pickling vegetables is a great way to save your crop for the wintertime.
But it requires quite a bit of prep!
If I have 5 cucumbers, each of which has an area of 2 and a length of 4, what is the volume of the jar I would need for them to fit?
You could imagine the jar as a rectangle and the cucumbers as cubes, if that helps.
Have you ever tried pickling a vegetable?
They sure are tasty!
One key ingredient you need to prevent the vegetable from getting moldy is distilled or filtered water.
If we’re working with quart sized jars, does it make more sense to measure our water with milliliters or liters?
Your teacher has a recipe in their lesson plan that you can try out!
These days, all I wanna do is farm! I wanna just make people happy and give vegetables to the people that can’t afford to buy vegetables anymore. As you know, vegetables are out the window[2] when it comes to price nowadays, so it’s my pleasure to help out in any way I can. But after some time, I realized that the chemicals we were spraying on those vegetables were bad for both me and for the farm. My body reacts to the chemicals - if I eat corn and it’s been sprayed with chemical fertilizer, I break out[3] in hives! I’m like a walking laboratory. So, I decided to switch to organic.
What do you think I mean by “walking laboratory?
” What might this feel like?
Do you have any allergies that change your lifestyle?
The amount of organic fertilizer needed varies depending on the type of crop being grown.
The following line plot shows the amount (in lbs.
) of organic fertilizer I used in four different acres.
(Hint: each dot represents an individual acre.
) If the total amount of fertilizer in each acre was redistributed so that each acre contained an equal amount of fertilizer, how much fertilizer would be in each acre?
Organic farming sure ain’t easy, but I learn to deal with the challenges as they come. A lot of times what messes me up is the weather; it sure can change quickly and mess things up. You really gotta[5] know about the earth conditions, and then most of the time, you’re all good. Now let me tell you, I sure do swear by the Farmer’s Almanac. It gets me through every season, time and time again.
What's your favorite book?
Why?
Did it help you?
If so, how?
If not, why?
Do you know what the Farmer's Almanac is?
How do you think a book can help prepare for seasonal impacts?
Where you come from, how do people pass on information about things like farming to younger generations?
According to the Farmers Almanac, it's best to plant collard greens (my favorite) in August. Then I don’t think about 'em anymore until April! If they're in the ground for 7 months, and they need 4,000 liters of water per day, how much water would I need for my collard greens to grow good and strong?
Most of the vegetables that I grow go toward my restaurant, which I decided to open for a lot of reasons, including that I just really love to cook! I wanted a place where I could cook all the vegetables I grow and share it with my community. I cook, we eat, we tell stories, and we play music. Every day, we serve green beans, collard greens, sweet potatoes, and pinto beans. It sure feels great that we can serve fresh veggies to our customers, and even better, that they’re organic! I’m super proud to say that we can provide that healthy food for the people of our community.
What does organic mean?
It is a popular topic in the United States right now.
Why might that be?
What about where you live, is it a common practice or topic to discuss?
Why or why not?
I must say, running a restaurant comes with its daily challenges, that’s for sure. You gotta have patience and a bit of money laying around to get it going, and even then, it’s a struggle to keep it afloat. Boy, do you need those people who designate your restaurant as the place to go. Without foot traffic, half of your goal is gone. Now, we’ve done alright so far, but pretty soon here the rent is gonna be raised quite a bit and I’m not sure how we’re gonna manage. The neighborhood has changed a lot in the past decade or so, with tons of new young people moving in, and the rent has skyrocketed all over. So now it’s real tough for us folks who have been living here for years but can’t afford the new prices.
The increase in rent has been tough on our community.
Has something similar happened where you live?
What does the term gentrification mean?
Is gentrification good or bad?
Who could it impact positively?
Negatively?
While you’re preparing for the lesson, turn on Mac’s music in the background to set the mood.
“What role does food play in people's’ lives?” This discussion could go in many directions; let your students take it where they want to.
The goal is simply to get them thinking about the role food plays in their daily lives, and how it may play different roles for different people. “How might you feel about food if you were growing your own? If you ate the same thing every day? If you had no idea where your food came from? If you always ate alone? Always ate with family?” Ask questions appropriate for your class and their community, challenging them to think from the perspective of people from different backgrounds.
“Let’s explore the role that food plays in the life of a farmer!” Begin by watching the video, I am Mac. Ask students to pay attention to the role that food seems to play in his life.
You could begin drawing a mind map somewhere visible for all students. Perhaps students come up to the chalk board to add to it, or perhaps you add their thoughts to it yourself. Students may notice in the video a relationship between community and food, as well as notice Mac’s happiness when he is farming. Next, read the story Mac Returns to his Roots. In the story Mac talks about his negative reaction to produce that has been fertilized, choosing to farm organic, and his commitment to providing his community with fresh, healthy vegetables. With your students, continue to add to your mind map about food’s role in our lives and use it as a guide to dig deeper into the topics that most interest them. Some suggestions: Research and discuss with your students what organic farming is all about Research and discuss with students the way nutrition can impact our mood and cognitive function Research and discuss the role food plays in various cultures to bring people together Research and discuss the negative health effects that some commercial farming products may have Research types of organic fertilizer
Farming entails a lot of math! Let’s explore some of the challenges Mac faces. Intro to volume: On page 2, Mac talks about preserving vegetables from the farm to save through the winter time.
Help him determine the size of jars he needs based on the number of cucumbers he wants to pickle! Unit Conversion & Multiplying Fractions: Consider doing a class experiment pickling vegetables. By working with the recipe, you can practice recognizing appropriate units of measurement and multiplying fractions by asking them to cut the recipe by 1/2. Materials needed include glass jars with lids, distilled/filtered water, vegetables, spices, sauce pan, stovetop, and a refrigerator. Here is a recipe to try: Prepare your vegetables by chopping them into pieces that will fit in your clean jar. Place vegetables in the jar so they fit tightly. Add additional seasoning like ginger, pepper, garlic, dill - anything that sounds tasty to you! In a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups vinegar, 1 1/2 cups water, 1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of sea salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Bring to a boil and stir until the salt is dissolved. Let boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. This is called a “brine!” Fill jars with the brine until vegetables are completely covered. Screw on lid tightly, let cool, then place in the refrigerator! Line Plots: On page 3, you’ll work with a line plot to determine the best distribution of fertilizer. Multi-Digit Multiplication: At the bottom of page 3, students will help calculate how much water is needed for the entire season of collard greens, Mac’s favorite vegetable!
To wrap up the lesson, do a short journaling activity in which students reflect on what aspect of your discussion on food was most interesting to them.
It could be anything: What surprised them the most? What made them reflect on their own family or community traditions around food? Where does their food come from? What do they want to learn more about?
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
If a moment stayed, follow it. If a question rose up, hold it. The quiet teaching is still teaching.
Three or four real stories woven into one lesson, your topic, your time. Mac is one. The weaver finds the others, threads the math, the literacy, the values, the reflection.
Open the weaver →