Saturday, March 7, 2009
Georgia, poems, and craft pride
Today was a good day. Thank you all for coming to the spring conference. It made me so proud to be there with all of you! It also made me happy that Georgia Heard spoke to us about reading poems with our students and treating poetry as it should be treated---as the stuff of everyday life and not of ivory towers and locked up meanings. One of my favorite poets, Mark Doty, says that "poetry is not a puzzle to be solved but a human song to be enjoyed." Today was a great beginning to spring break for me. I am so happy to be working with you all and to be shepherding you along on this very important journey. I hope you had a good day, too, and I hope you spent at least one or two moments collecting your favorite memories from today. I like that we took a group picture. Here's to another group picture--at the finish line--in December 2009. Have a great break--
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8 comments:
Agreed. Today was a great day. I didn't know what to expect because I had never been to a conference or workshop before. It was great sitting together, I felt we had a fire, an energy, I'm sure other teachers that were there have that drive too...I just feel like we are new, fresh faced, and ready to take on the world! When we walked to our workshops I had so much energy I wanted to run, in heels (I have mastered that art)!
I was generally just really refreshed and excited about everything Georgia talked about. It was nice to be reminded where our students come from, poems about ant eaters and the twilight zone...so awesome! Although that is not the grade level I want to teach, it's nice to learn about the journey our students have made to get where they are when we have them in our classrooms. SERIOUSLY good dessert too! (come on I couldn't ignore the éclairs and cream puffs).
What struck me the most was the creativity and insight such young students have, their writing amazed me. Where does this sense of wonder go? When do students start to put up walls around their writing? What does it take to undo this? Can it be undone...? These are questions I starting asking myself...
There is also this quote I would like to share, because I just think it encompasses a lot of the drive we all have...
"Have some fire. Be unstoppable, be a force of nature. Be better than anyone here, and don't give a damn what anyone thinks. There are no teams here, no buddies. You're on your own. Be on your own."
Although I don't necessarily agree with the "there are no teams, there are no buddies" part...we're kind of a team... Middle schools have teams, but that's besides the point.
It just makes me think. Be better than everything you have seen, challenge yourself, push yourself, for you and your students... We have fire...
Aimee Marsland, you rock my world. Have a righteous spring break and keep asking those difficult questions!
Hey everyone! I thought that the conference was pretty cool the other day. Georgia had some pretty nice ways to teach poetry, especially the "doors" method that i really enjoyed. The examples of student's and her son's poetry that she brought in was also really interesting. Seeing how good students can be at poetry once they are into it was encouraging. The workshop that I went to after the conference was a little bit different. Due to some technical difficulties, the workshop consisted of us listening to our speaker and then doing some Tai Chi Energy exercises (which i have in a packet if anyone is interested). The workshop was about encouraging students to use their writing to counter a world filled with hate and violence. I think the key words of the workshop were student voice and cultural differences. Sometimes it was hard to tell over the meditating.
Got to go back to the middle school next week, and now with one week under our belts, I am feeling more confident and ready to teach these kids more than ever. They know me, I know what they are learning, and now we are going to combine the two for a Kate and Kellen teaching experience like none other. More on when and what we will actually teach once we get back into the building. Until then, peace!
Hey fellow poetry lovers!!! I thought this conference was one of the better ones I have attended. I felt like a breathe of fresh air was given to the teaching of poetry and the overall outlook on poetry from a teachers' perspective. I love the idea of the 5 doors and what happens when they are opened. I also liked reading a poem a day having some be comical and some more serious. In my classroom I might do one per week so that the students hear it more than once.
The workshop that Ashley, Rich and I went to was not as inspirational as Georgia Heard, but it was nice to be around academic professionals with the same passions and drives.
To be honest though, if I had to pick out my favorite part of the day it would be the leisure time we spent at Donovan together in out little "dream team". The discussions, experiences and the photo was something I treasure and wish more of my college experience was as memorable and meaningful. Thanks to everyone for giving me that.
Becky,
I love what you wrote here, and I love that you were able to "leave yourself" for a moment to recognize what an important episode that down time in Donovan was for all of you and all of us.
I, too, was proud of that moment--seeing our little island of hopeful novice teachers in the midst of that large cavernous space at the end of the conference was a point of pride for me, as your teacher. The RIWP staff remarked to me later that my students "shut down the conference." They were amazed at how you all stayed beyond the required time, and I tried to explain it was because you all legitimately wanted to be there with each other. AMAZING! You impress people!
I hope we all get copies of our Dream Team photo (hint, hint camera owner!). Thank you for your kind words to the group, and I'm looking forward to gearing back up for middle school this week. See you at Ricci tomorrow morning!
I will make a copy of the pic for everyone, but I think we should take one with Kellen in it first! he wasnt there for the photo
Aimee,
Yes, definitely. It IS Kellen and the Kumquats, after all.
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