My fourth graders are experimenting around with poetry. We started out by journaling how we were feeling. I joined them in the writing (and no, I didn’t get distracted this time). Here’s what I wrote: Then I demonstrated my thought process for how I might choose which words go on which line. (More on thatContinue reading “Story Challenge Day 7: Class Assignment”
Tag Archives: poetry
Story Challenge Day 3: Teaching Detour, Told in Real Time
From time to time, folks ask what it’s like teaching a classroom full of gifted-talented children. What does a day in your room look like? This post, I think, says it all. Where it starts, what my intentions are, and where it goes – all of it – puts what I do in a nutshell.
Slice of Life Tuesday: All of the Things
To a writer, poems, thoughts and images collect and roll around like marbles…
Slice of Life Tuesday: Another Sort of Slice
When a girl wants to write a blog post but can’t handle another minute in front of the computer screen…
Slice of Life Tuesday: Beach Thoughts
Some folks go to the beach to collect rocks or shells. I collect my thoughts…
Assigned Writing: A Poem
“And on that rough morning, those bites of sweetness were a simple reminder that the love we put into the world sometimes does, indeed, come back in our direction.”
Poetry Month Day 30: Winding Down
All of the tasks about me are stacking upI’ve made and abandoned my to-liststhere is email waiting, work to gradeand please don’t ask about laundryor the comments and the postsOh, to inhale poemAnd exhale reliefAll I need arethe right wordsbut first –sleep Y’all, it’s been a long month. It’s been trying. I’ve been tested inContinue reading “Poetry Month Day 30: Winding Down”
Poetry Month Day 29: Signs
This eveningI sawout the doors of my gyma sun showerand after showinga six year-old howwonderful the smell of rain is I dodged the dropsto my carall the time lookingat the contrasting steel gray sky Knowing this was the perfect time and placefor rainbows. I craned my neckas I walked,then drove,scouring,searching,wonderinghow there couldNOTbe one anywhere AndContinue reading “Poetry Month Day 29: Signs”
Poetry Month Day 24: Repairing the World
There was a lot that I enjoyed about writing today’s poem. For one, it came as a surprising counterbalance to yesterday’s post. I also gathered inspiration from my time today with an incredible group of educators through the Just Schools Cohort. The work my colleagues do inspires me to do better, to be better. That,Continue reading “Poetry Month Day 24: Repairing the World”
Poetry Month Day 23: Draft Form
The poem I wanted to writewas an apology to my studentsbecause today I was crabby and impatient and how at first I thought it was abouttechnology(because technology) and not about how there is so much about me that is broken and not about the outragethat day after day after daypeople are shot first and foughtContinue reading “Poetry Month Day 23: Draft Form”
Soapbox: The Way I see Things 