Poem #10 -- Life Lesson

Be careful when

indulging in

extravagant

self

pity.

The Universe

is more than glad

to give a new

per-

spective.

A hole in your

hot water tank...

now there's a REAL

life

worry.

photo and poem by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

I played with rhythm today.

Seemed appropriate since the hot water tank played with the rhythm of my LIFE.

Poetry and the SMART Board

We are getting ready to have the SMART Board in the library moved to a different location so we haven't used it much. But this week, the 2nd and 3rd graders used it for Poetry Writing and revision. What a powerful tool for Writing Workshop. I can see the possibilities of a SMART Board in a workshop classroom.

Today, I taught a lesson similar to lessons I've taught before. I think I originally got the idea from Georgia Heard, author of FOR THE GOOD OF EARTH AND SUN. She suggests a collaborative poem and I have always found the lesson to be a powerful one--one that really moved kids in their poetry writing strategies. This is a whole group lesson in which everyone contributes a line or phrase about something that is common--the morning, a tree, an experience--something that everyone can write about. You can get the phrases in several ways. Everyone can write a bit about the topic and then choose a line they love. Or they can just brainstorm lines. There are several ways. Following the sharing of lines, everyone can use the common language to create a poem. It is always amazing how different each poem is when they all come from the same list of words.

Well, the SMART Board made this lesson far more powerful than it's ever been. Taught so much about poetry but also gave such great messages about revision and playing with language. One group wrote about our school's courtyard. We looked at it for a while and came up with phrases of things we noticed. Anyone who had a line to contribute to the SMART Board did so. I typed them as kids shared. One class came up with this list:

benches waiting for people
the trees are moving all around
a nest in a tree is in a battle for life or death
bushes barely moving
there is a birdhouse
colorful
shrubs weeping
tulips peeking
I saw a splash of pink and yellow
red, yellow, pink
the tree is waving hi

We then played with the lines, combining them in different ways to create different poems. Since each line automatically became a text box, I typed the lines on the left side of the board. They could be easily dragged over to the right side in any order, thus creating a poem. The end poem that this class came up with, using these words as an anchor was:

Plants

the trees are moving all around
bushes barely moving
splashes of green
shrubs weeping
and
tulips peeking

This whole lesson took less than 15 minutes.

My favorite part was the work that happened after the lesson. I left the page up with the lines available for students who wanted to play with the words a bit more. About 4-5 kids per class (many from our SMART Board Team) chose to continue the work with poetry on the SMART Board. They discovered more about spacing, white space, adding and deleting words, etc. One group decided to begin a whole new poem--using the colored markers to add new phrases. The SMART Board allowed for great revision play and word play--which is exactly how we want writing to feel. This lesson is an old one and the use of the SMART Board was nothing that exciting. But the tool did invite some amazing collaboration and because I have taught similar lessons many, many times over the year, I was amazed at how the use of the SMART Board really lifted the level of collaboration as well as the willingness to play with the language to create something new. And, in the process, they also learned so much about the workings of the Board itself--the problem solving was fun to watch as they discovered new things and gave things a try.

Poem #9 -- More About Those Xs

photo by sczoron

Second grader came up to me

on the playground yesterday,

"Teacher, Teacher! There are so many Xs in the sky!"

I looked up,

and there were two immense contrails

making a huge X in the sky.

And then I turned and saw another...and another...and another...

five Xs in the blue spring sky.

I asked him how he thought they got there

and he said something about airplanes,

but I said I thought a leprechaun put them there

(X marks the spot for treasure)

and he ran off yelling about Xs

and treasure

and I was the rich one.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

I wrote about this yesterday in haiku form. Today's poem is actually the text of an email to a friend telling the whole story. Because she loved it so much (especially the last line), I decided to make it into its own poem.

The Poetry Friday Roundup today is at Paper Tigers.

Here's a reprint of a bunch of the Kidlitosphere (and other assorted) NaPoMo projects that I'm following:

Gregory K. is once again hosting 30 Poets/30 Days with previously unpublished poems by favorite children's authors.

Tricia Stohr-Hunt is interviewing 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.

Jama Rattigan is posting original poems & favorite recipes by some of the Poetry Friday regulars.

At A Wrung Sponge, Andromeda is writing a "haiga" (photo and haiku) each day. Her photography is simply stunning. The haikus are amazing, too!

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 is 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. What a creative idea!

Laura at Author Amok is highlighting the poets laureate of all 50 states this month...well, all the ones that have a poet laureate... Fun Fun!

Laura Salas is posting 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.

Bud the Teacher gives a picture prompt every day during April and invites readers to post the poem it inspires in the comments of his blog.

ORIGINAL POEM-A-DAY CHALLENGE

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

Susan Taylor Brown

Jone MacCulloch

Elizabeth Moore

April Halprin Wayland

Liz Scanlon

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

If I missed your project, please let me know and I'll add it to my list!

Poem #8 -- When Recess Duty Becomes a Blessing in Disguise: A Haiku

photo by FrancoisRoche

Teacher, Teacher! Look!

There's lots of Xs in the sky!

How did they get there?!?

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 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."

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.

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

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.

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