I Believe in Persistence

We have a word study quiz every Monday in my English class. Students have the week before to make sure they have the words from our word wall to study. They know it's their responsibility, but I usually post a picture of the board on Friday afternoon on our online course. Unfortunately, yesterday was pretty hectic, and I left school not only without posting, but also without even taking a photo of the words.

One inventive student who forgot to get the words herself has used the weekend poetry challenge to problem-solve. Along with her poem yesterday she posted the following message:

MS. S! or other fellow classmates. once again i am lost [when i say lost i mean it since i don't have my ipad] i don't have the word study from the board. i only need that. the rest i have. if any of you have them, may you please reply with the word study from the board. if you do i would like that very much. :)

I immediately responded with my apologies and the promise that I would post it if someone had a picture. As of today there were still no takers when I logged in to look at the credo poems the students composed. Meant to be an expression of deeply-held beliefs, hers was a single line:

I believe that if i don't get the word study from the white board i'm going to fail this quiz!

Unambiguous

At the end of a week spent grappling with some big questions, I came home this evening to relax and enjoy this beautiful spring weather by cooking out for dinner. At 6 PM, a brief downpour drenched Heidi and Isabel who were out for a walk, but in the kitchen I was undeterred as I prepared asparagus, onion, cauliflower, and chicken for the grill: I knew it would pass, and so it did.

A barbecue snob, I had a fresh bag of lump charcoal waiting for me when it was time to start the fire, but here's where things took a momentary turn. I never know which way to pull the strings on those sewn bags.

There are times when I get it just right– a single, gentle tug will unravel the entire closure. Other times I pull and prod, unknot and turn the bag this way and that, looking for the magic thread that will allow me to access the precious fuel within. Fetching scissors seems like an unnecessary detour, especially when I know that a single pull can do the trick.

At last, tonight, after a few minutes of frustration, I came in to get the scissors and then decided to take a modern approach. I googled it. And now I know. There are two sides to the bag, flat and knotted. Yank from the left side of the knots and you will be rewarded. No question about it.

Q and A

As a follow up to yesterday's activity, today we took the raw material of those questions and answers and shaped it into more composed drafts of call and response poems. Students had seven minutes to write 14 lines, and they came up with some pretty cool stuff.

Here's mine, crafted from a few of the many questions and answers I heard:

Why does fire burn, Granny?

Because the stars are bright, Child.

Why are fish so slippery?
Because the world is round.

Why do rabbits run, then?
Because the owl hoots, Child.

Why is the earth so strong, Granny?
Because children can't fly.

Why is the ocean salty, Granny?
Because we all cry, Child.

Why does the sky change colors?
Because hearts break, Child.

Why are days so long?

They aren't, Child.

Like I told my students... it's not bad for seven minutes of writing!

Free Verse

We were doing a couple of fun poetry activities in class today. One of them involved writing a series of random "Why" questions and then pairing them up with some other random "because" answers to create a kind of call and response, Q and A, poem. All was going well, when one group of collaborators started to giggle hysterically.

"You like this activity?" I asked, smiling.

"Yes!" they replied. "It's fun!"

"Listen to this!" one of them called. He cleared his throat theatrically. "Why do people smoke?" he asked with an exaggerated shrug.

The rest of the group laughed. "Because Ms. S. told them to!" they chorused.

The rest of the class was momentarily shocked. Finally the silence was broken by a student who was clearly concerned with my job security. "Don't take that poem home!" 

Concrete Thinker

The counselor was in my classes today to do a lesson on social media. Part of the activity was making students aware that people often read meaning into what others post, whether it is intended or not. That message was timely, given that our third quarter assessment indicated a strong weakness in making inferences for the sixth grade as a group.

As an example of this principle, she showed the students a tweet from Chris Brown:

"What can you infer from this?" she asked. "Read between the lines."

"I can't," one of the students cried. "There's only one line!"

Favorite Colors

Today's poetry challenge was to write a poem about a color. Blue was definitely the most popular, and there was only one about brown, not so shocking.

A little more surprising? There was none about pink, or any other color beyond the Crayola classic eight. There was only a single poem about purple, and I think mine was the only ode to green. There were a couple of poems about black, though, including this awesome one:

Black
By Kimberly

Black is the dark of night,
and smells like burning wood.
It tastes like black licorice
(only liked by the lucky),
And it sounds like eerie music
or crunchy gravel.
Black feels like leather
or snake scales.
Black will be what ever temperature
you want it to be.
It is dark and scary like on Halloween.
It's also free and wild– 
in the dark you don't have people watching and judging.
Black can make you think of a Haunted House,
or a midnight walk on the beach.
Black is anything...
use it to your advantage

Cherry Zen

When engulfed in a huge mass of humanity, at, say, a festival, maybe one celebrating the annual blossoming of certain cherry trees around a particular basin of tidal water, it can be helpful to remind yourself that each person is a human being just like yourself with dreams and hopes and desires.

Yes.

For example, we all want that perfect photo of ourselves with the blossoms, without any of you other people in it!