Almost there...

Two more days of school! I'm almost there! And this week has been a breeze - all I do is hand the students their final exams and then listen to their final speeches. My juniors are giving a speech on whether or not they think the American Dream is alive or dead and reference one of the texts from the semester. There have been some very interesting and meaningful speeches. Pretty cool.

I've been thinking about the "last days of school" tonight and remembering a few memorable ones of my own. I'll never forget the end of 6th grade. I got the chicken pox two weeks before school was out. It was the culmination of my elementary school experience and I missed the bowling party, the ice cream party, the swimming party, and the pizza party. I did (just barely) make it to the 6th grade dance, for which my mom had made a smashing cute dress, and where we basically all stood around and stared at each other to music.

My 9th grade end of the year was a good one. The last two days of school were completely worthless. Over half of the school didn't even show up. Being a good freshman, I came to school, but my friends and I just wandered from class to class, making sure our teachers knew we were there. We somehow ended up in our Honors Biology room and sat and chatted with Mr. Watson. Poor man - we had given him a first year of teaching to remember - and at the end of the year he still liked us! In the course of our conversation, somehow we convinced him to let us tap dance on top of the lab tables. They make great sounds! And the bio room had pretty good acoustics!

Who can forget senior year? The last days of school are such a mix of happy/sad that it overwhelms you every 3 minutes. I really just remember emotion more than specific memories, but it's the kind of strong emotion that comes back in tsunami-sized waves in those quiet moments when you think about it hard enough.

OK, enough reminiscing. I've got to get ready to send my students off this year, get my daughter finished with 7th grade, attend my son's 5th grade graduation, and then head out to my own "I Survived Student Teaching" PARTY!

Oh, the things you can think!

Oh the things you can think
In the course of a week
I was feeling quite crazy
It was looking quite bleak

But I got through my classes
Another week of school
My son had a party
Ninety 5th graders in a pool!

And after rehearsals
That went oh so late
My daughter's show Seussical
Was really great!

And now I've been rhyming
All night and all day
Thank goodness vacation
Is one week away!

Poetic Justice

This was just too good not to share. I read it in my daily peruse of the news. Enjoy!

From bad to verse: Vandals get classroom penance
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 2, 3:36 PM ET

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Call it poetic justice: More than two dozen young people who broke into Robert Frost's former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment.

Using "The Road Not Taken" and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways — and the redemptive power of poetry.

"I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," said prosecutor John Quinn.

The vandalism occurred at the Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, where Frost spent more than 20 summers before his death in 1963. Now owned by Middlebury College, the unheated farmhouse on a dead-end road is used occasionally by the college and is open in the warmer months.

Parini, 60, a Middlebury College professor who has stayed at the house before, was eager to oblige when Quinn asked him to teach the classes. He donated his time for the two sessions. On Wednesday, 11 turned out for the first, with Parini giving line-by-line interpretations of "The Road Not Taken" and "Out, Out-," seizing on parts with particular relevance to draw parallels to their case.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," he thundered, reciting the opening line of the first poem, which he called symbolic of the need to make choices in life. "This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, `Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?'" he said. "Everything in life is choices."

Even the setting had parallels, he said: "Believe me, if you're a teenager, you're always in the… woods. Literally, you're in the woods — probably too much you're in the woods. And metaphorically you're in the woods, in your life. Look at you here, in court diversion! If that isn't `in the woods,' what… is `in the woods'? You're in the woods!"

"It's a lesson learned, that's for sure," said one of [the students], 22-year-old Ryan Kenyon, whose grandmother worked as hairdresser in the 1960s and knew Frost. "It did bring some insight. People do many things that they don't realize the consequences of. It shined a light, at least to me."

The Books of May

May has been an absolutely crazy month for me. The good news is, in two weeks I will have finished my student teaching and my teaching credential! Phew!

In any case, reading is still my therapy, even in reduced doses. Here was my prescription for May:

Magic Study - Maria Snyder - This is the second book to Poison Study that I read last month. I wasn't sure if it could be as good as the first one, but it was! Still had a few adult moments it could have done without.

Love, Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli - A wonderful sequel to the original book Stargirl (which is fantastic). Very fun, very deep. Easy to read and makes you really think.

The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron - This book won the 2007 Newberry Award so I've been wanting to read it. I'm sorry to say it was a bit of a disappointment. It's a good story, but it really didn't wow me at all. It's similar to Because of Winn-Dixie (one of my all-time favorite books) only it wasn't as good.

The Grand Tour - Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer - This is the second book to Sorcery and Celia that I read last month. It was unfortunately not as good as the first (loved the first one). It was a good story and by about half way through the book I was into it, but it started rather slow.

Pictures of Hollis Woods - Patricia Reilly Giff - I loved this book! It was a Newberry Honor and I can see why. The narrator has a great voice and makes you love her. It's a quick read and I've heard they made it into a movie. Now I've got to watch it!

Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony - Eoin Colfer - I have been a huge Artemis Fan since the first book came out. This is the latest book (#5) and the next book is due out this summer. If you haven't read this yet, and you like Harry Potter, get reading! They are great.

That's it for May. Now I need to start gathering my vacation books. Thanks to all of you who have given me some good ideas. Keep sharing!

Be Present

I read something recently that I've been thinking a lot about. It talked about really being present in the moment instead of dwelling on the past or imagining the future. I'm horrible at this. I am regularly dwelling on the past, imagining the future, or not in this dimesion at all.

This article talked about stopping every once in a while to see what your senses are telling you about the moment you are in. Just stop and actually take in what your eyes are seeing. Then focus on anything you are smelling. What are the sounds around you? What tastes are in your mouth? What is your skin feeling?

By nature the human brain has to filter out everything our senses are sending us every minute of the day or we'd go stark raving mad. But every once in a while, see what they're telling you about the minute you're in.

I've done this a few times over the last little while and it's so interesting. I'll hear something I didn't know was there. Or I'll notice the sun warming my skin. It's a good way to tune into the present moment and just exist there.

Dance!

It's back! My other favorite tv show, So You Think You Can Dance, begins Thursday May 22 (yes, that's tomorrow!) I absolutely love watching the amazing choreography on this show. My kids and I have a tradition. When we watch the show, during commercials we turn on music and DANCE! Who says tv isn't an aerobic activity?

Check out more HERE.

Found Poetry

I did a lesson with my juniors this week that turned out quite fun. I introduced them to "found poetry" which is taking existing texts and refashioning them and presenting them as poems. It's the literary equivalent of a collage, and can be made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems.

To give my students examples, I made two found poems of my own. The first one is taken from page 111 of The Catcher in the Rye. All I did was pull out phrases, and voila!

The Catcher in the Rye – page 111

Oh, Romeo and Juliet
I liked it a lot
I didn’t like it
It was quite moving on the whole.

I never liked Romeo too much
It was Romeo’s fault
It drives me crazy if somebody gets killed
And it’s somebody’s fault.

Romeo and Juliet
At least it was their own fault.

I then tried to use a more random text and opened up to page 95 of my Hawaii tour book. Here's what I ended up with:

Frommer’s Hawaii 2008 – page 95

Hawaiian kahuna
North Shore
Windward side
White-sand beaches
Across the barren blue of the Pacific.

Beyond Waikiki
Polynesian heritage
Slack-key guitar
Big blue sky
Snorkel in a crystal clear lagoon.

Once you have that, the rest is easy.

Isn't that fun? (Yes, English nerd, I hear you say.) My students were really surprised with the cool poems they came up with. I thought they did a great job!

Try it yourself. Grab a book, magazine, newspaper and pull phrases out of it. You are a poet and don't know it!