Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Poem #7 Read Aloud Revelation--A Metaphor Poem


Metaphors are wiley creatures,
Usually only found by teachers.
Today one let us glimpse its glory:
"All I'm saying is your life's a story."

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010


Background:
My fourth graders are reading along as I read aloud 43 Old Cemetery Road, Book One: Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise and illustrated by M. Sarah Klise. (I reviewed it here.) If you know the "Regarding the..." series by the Klise sisters, you have an idea what this book is like -- told entirely through letters, newspaper pages, documents, etc.

Back bulletin board in our classroom:
Currently devoted to similes, metaphors, and idioms written on sentence strips along with a hodge-podge collection of common and uncommon homophones and homographs written on index cards.

Blurted out yesterday during read aloud:
"I think I hear a metaphor!"

The passage containing the metaphor:
"All I'm saying is that your life is a story, and that you are the main character of that story. Is your story a comedy or a tragedy? Is it dull? Or is is a compelling, spine-tingling drama? My point, Iggy, is simply that each of us is the author of his or her own life. So if you're telling me that you've changed, I'm pleased at your authorship."

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Poem #6 -- REVERSO!

Back in March, I wrote this Samantha Bennett (That Workshop Book) quote in my writer's notebook:
"When we are thoughtful about the way the day begins and ends, so much more is possible in the middle."
I can't remember where I saw it -- Creative Literacy? Authentic Learner? The blog of someone who was/is reading it in a group or for a class. I wrote it down because I've struggled all my livelong career with the routines at both ends of the school day -- especially the end. So many days end in a whirlwind rush that leaves me exhausted and crabby. I'm constantly working to calm the end of the day down. I've got read aloud tucked in at the very end of the day now, and I like ending our day with our knees pulled together in a tight circle as we share our thoughts around the book we're reading together.

At any rate, operating on the principle that sometimes all it takes to be a poem is short lines, I wrote the quote this way:

When we are thoughtful
about the way the day
begins
and
ends,
so much more is possible
in the middle.

I'm not sure what made me read it from the bottom up. Maybe it's because I've been so fascinated recently with Marilyn Singer's poems in Mirror, Mirror. It made a little bit of sense read bottom to top, so I played around with it and got these two poems. They're a bit clunky, but it was a thrill to even come close on such a complicated form!



In the middle
so much more is possible.
Ending
and
beginning
a day is
when we are thoughtful.

When we are thoughtful,
a day is
beginning
and
ending
so much. More is possible
in the middle.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Poem #5 -- Visitor


If not for Girl Scout cookie sales,
She wouldn't come back to see me,
Wouldn't come telling her theater tales,
Wouldn't help bring back the memory

Of times when life was easier:
A whole world contained in one room
With one set of memories linked to one teacher.
From across my desk, I watch her bloom.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Sunday, April 04, 2010

KITCHENAID



Kohl's was having a sale and
I wanted a new mixer.
The one I received as a wedding present twenty plus years ago
Could no longer keep up with my baking.
Happy Birthday to me! (from my parents:-)
Everyone had suggestions on what to bake first with the
New red mixer. We decided on cupcakes from
A favorite baking blog
I follow.
Delicious!

Poem #4 -- The Last Day of Spring Break



Reality hits.
Back to work: grading, planning.
The end is in sight.



This haiku goes out to all the teachers who today will drag out the bag of school work they brought home and do at least a little bit of it. It even goes out to those amazing souls who didn't start their vacation until they had everything in place for the first week back. They, too, will have to set their alarm tonight for the first time in a week.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Poem #3 -- Abecedarian Cupcake Lessons


ABECEDARIAN CUPCAKE LESSONS

After
Baking dozens of
Cupcakes this week, I've learned a few Life Lessons:

Delight in the process as much as the product.

















Each ingredient is as important as the next.

















Forget about the clock,
Go with the flow,
Have fun.














Improvise
Joyously (and cover your mistakes with frosting).














Keep working until the
Last bowl is clean and dry and back on the shelf.

















Measure ingredients with precision, but do
Not forget that there are times when
Observation is more
Powerful than
Quantifiable amounts or
Results.

Stop
Tasting the frosting when buttercream becomes
Unremarkable.














Value your
Work enough to make the
eXtra effort worth the time
You put into the project. Be
Zealous, but never a zealot.















cupcakes, photos and poem by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Friday, April 02, 2010

Poem #2 -- Learning



LEARNING CURVE: SPINNING CLASS

Week One:
Fell off the bike.
(You can't coast.
She told us that.
I tried anyway.)

Week Two:
Couldn't keep up.
(My legs burned.
Sweat poured.)

Week Three:
Stayed on the bike.
Stayed with the class.
Went shopping for cycling shorts.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010



The rest of the story: didn't buy cycling shorts, but after Week Four can tell a difference in my kick when I swim my mile. The best of the story: did a two-hour ride yesterday on a moving bicycle in the sun under the bright blue April sky along the river. The thrill of classroom learning pales in comparison to the application of learning in the real world.

The Poetry Friday roundup this week is at Book Aunt.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Poem #1 -- Teaching



YOU ARE A TEACHER

You are a teacher
a believer in potential
a guide
a mentor to children of many backgrounds
and diverse cultures.

You lead them
and love them
and you seek to send them
on the most beautiful path they can walk.

Who is guiding you?

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010


(found poem -- in an ad for Alma Flor Ada's Smiles and Butterflies newsletter)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

March Mosaic





























March's mosaic features lots of small surprises: a tail and a nose peeking from under birthday wrap, a ladybug walking across the snow, a hawk in the tree across the street, the first spring blooms, geese on a rooftop, tree trunks that look like elephant legs, goldfish in a TV set.

Every month, I've got lots of snapshots and only a few really well-composed, crisply focused photographs. I'm pretty sure that's what it will be like when I roll out April's 30 poems -- there are bound to be some lame clunkers, but I'm hoping for a few I can really be proud of.

Here's the schedule of Poetry Month Events around the Kidlitosphere:

  • Gregory K. will once again host 30 Poets/30 Days with previously unpublished poems by favorite children's authors.
  • Tricia Stohr-Hunt will interview 30 children's poets, beginning with Mary Ann Hoberman, the US Children's Poet Laureate. The Poetry Makers list is stellar!
  • Jone MacCulloch shares Thirty Days, Thirty Students, Thirty Poems: original poems by students. Jone will also again offer the Poetry Postcard Project where original student poems are sent out on decorated postcards. Request yours now.
  • Jama Rattigan is posting original poems & favorite recipes by some of the Poetry Friday regulars.
  • At A Wrung Sponge, Andromeda will share a "haiga" (photo and haiku) each day.
  • Kelly Fineman at Writing and Ruminating will continue the Building a Poetry Collection series she began last year -- selecting a poem a day in a kind of personal Poetry Tag (see Sylvia Vardell's version below) and providing analysis. I call this The University of Kelly Fineman because I learn so much in each post!
  • Sylvia Vardell will be inviting poets to play Poetry Tag. She will invite poets to "play" along by offering a poem for readers to enjoy, then she will "tag" a poet who shares her/his own poem THAT IS CONNECTED to the previous poem in SOME way—by a theme, word, idea, tone-- and offers a sentence or two explaining that connection. The poets have responded enthusiastically: J. Patrick Lewis, X. J. Kennedy, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Avis Harley, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Joyce Sidman, and more!
  • Laura at Author Amok is highlighting the poets laureate of all 50 states this month! Fun Fun!
  • Laura Salas will post a children's poem per day from a poetry book she loves.
  • Lee Wind is publishing many new Teen voices during April for National Poetry Month. GLBTQ Teen Poetry.

  • ORIGINAL POEM-A-DAY CHALLENGE

    Checks these blogs daily for new original poems by the following people:

  • Susan Taylor Brown
  • Andromeda Jazmon
  • Jone MacCulloch
  • Elizabeth Moore
  • April Halprin Wayland
  • Liz Scanlon
  • Saturday, March 27, 2010

    Blog Vacation

    For the first time in four years, we're taking a vacation from the blog during our spring break from school. We're setting aside our day jobs and our joint hobby so that we can:

    plan our presentations for WLU and Choice Literacy
    do taxes
    make 90 90th birthday cupcakes
    shop for a new kitchen floor
    read
    read some more
    spend time with friends

    work on final paper for library course
    breakfast and lunch with friends
    plan some summer workshops
    read
    exercise
    put lotion on my face twice a day
    shop
    get a few rooms clean
    try to figure out Evernote

    Mary Lee will be back with her Poetry Month Original Poem-a-Day About Teaching Or Learning on April 1, and we'll be both be back to work and to the blog on Monday, April 5.