A Peek at Poetry in my Classroom

"Ms. Johnson, does this make sense?"

"What?"

"Can windchimes frolic?"

I look up from the paper I am reading, wondering if I heard her correctly.  I start to tell her no, but then remember.  My other classes may be working on research papers and arguments, but Creative Writing is working on poetry.  I smile.

"The windchimes frolicked," I say, testing the sound, "Well, technically it doesn't make sense for windchimes to frolic, but the nice thing about poetry is you can play with language and meaning.  What are you trying to say?"

"Well, I wanted to have them dancing, but I liked how frolicked sounded."

"Then use frolic.  I like how it sounds too."

She beams at me and returns to her poem.  I pull my notebook over and jot down the phrase.  I want to save it for later.

Paper Wishes (SOLSC 8/31)

 

We had a few minutes before the bell and I noticed a student had several paper butterflies on her desk.

"Oh, those are nice."

"Thanks.  I was writing my "how to" blog post on origami and made them as practice.  You can keep them if you want."

Blogging has long been a practice in my classroom for a few years now.  I assign them different "types" of blogs to try throughout the year just to see which kinds of blogs they might like.  Many students for their "how to" blog of course used recipes, so I was excited about something different.  I accepted her offering and even tucked one of the paper butterflies near a 'Welcome' sign hanging next to the main door where she sits.

Now, I'm not sure if I just missed some or what, but ever since that first day I have slowly been finding more and more paper butterflies in my room.  Each of them around the same spot.  Each time I gather them and start affixing them to the welcome sign. I'm starting to think she's making them and leaving them behind for me to find.  But I never see her make them and I can't tell if it's just one I happened to miss the day before.

Either way it makes me happy.  I love the little reminders of their time with me.  It can be paper butterflies, sticky note doodles, notes on my white board, or even stickers I gave them placed in unexpected spaces. It's evidence that they were here -- if even for a brief moment.

What little treasures are being left in your classrooms?

(Update: I started writing this blog yesterday, so today I intentionally kept an eye on that side of the classroom.  Sure enough, I witnessed her gathering up a small selection of paper butterflies and even a crane! I knew it!)

                        Today's slice was brought to you by another Teach Write Daily Writing prompt.

Secret Connoisseur of Stickers

I love when I can have a piece of writing serve more than one purpose.  

This past month I have been spending much of my writing energy -- at least the writing energy that isn't dedicated to noveling -- on poetry.  After all, it IS national poetry month.  Most of my poetry writing has been inspired by the daily prompts over at Ethical ELA.  Today's prompt (using the idea of "secret connoisseurs") not only captures a slice of one of my favorite classroom habits, but also just one of my favorite things in general: stickers.

#NPM | Playing with Poetry This Month part 2

I didn't make it to last week's poetry Friday, but I assure you that I have been working on a number of poems the past few days.  Some of them never made it out of my notebook or past a bit of brainstorming (Do they really count as poems then?). The others wound up posted on any given day's ethicalELA challenge.  I've made an effort to start collecting them all in one Google Doc that I may share at the end of the month.  However, for now, I will post one of my favorites that I wrote this past Sunday.

The prompt, share with us courtesy of Scott McCloskey, was "Day Poem."  He invited us to consider the various holidays/celebrations throughout the year -- things like "National Pet Day" or "National Eight Track Tape Day" -- and then to compose a poem celebrating it, perhaps even composing an ode. 

I absolutely love observing obscure holidays and even making up my own.  I was more than happy and ready to play this game.  Almost immediately I knew what I wanted to write about: the days I have spent so far taking my notebook outside.  Thus "Take Your Notebook Outside Day" was born...though I haven't picked an official date to throw on the calendar yet.

#NPM | Playing with Poetry This Month

As we leave one month of challenges we enter another. I stated in my last post, the SOLSC challenge has ended and we have now entered April which is National Poetry Month and also considered by many to be National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). 

Last year during this time, I was still on my old blog with Word Press. I didn't post a poem every day, but I did make an effort to write one every day. I enjoy the lower stakes of that, as some poems just need to take seed in my notebook before I return to them.