POETRY FRIDAY

COWCOWCOWCOWCOWCOWCOWCOWCOWCOWCOW

I'd like to put a picture of a cow here, but I'm having all kinds of computer issues, so you just have to close your eyes and pretend there is one!)

It's that crazy time of year when the days of summer, which once seemed endless, are flying by (I go back to work officially on August 13th). I'm trying to get myself into that "back to school, back to homework, back to football, football and more football mode and at the same time, not be panicky about all that is not done, but instead move more slowly and savor those few remaining days… (I apologize that everything is in caps. I'm not typing in capital letters, and when I preview the entry it isn't in capitals, but then when I post it "magically" transforms. I've retyped it three times…

The End of Summer

by Rachel Hadas

Season, project, and vacation done.

One more year in everybody’s life.

Add a notch to the old hunting knife

Time keeps testing with a horny thumb.

we looked at one another in the dark,

then at the milky magical debris

arcing across, dwarfing our meek mortality.

There were two ways to live: get on with work,

redeem the time, ignore the imminence

of cataclysm; or else take it slow,

be as tranquil as the neighbors’ cow…

Read the rest of the poem here.

Poetry Friday is at LIVE! LOVE! EXPLORE!

NOT A TYPICAL FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL ENTRY

Summer, where I live anyway, is rapidly drawing to a close. I spent half of last week in a workshop and will spend four days this week taking or teaching workshops. Teachers in my district officially return to work a week from tomorrow. Tonight I found some terrific new first week of school ideas on English Companion ning. Brilliant educators are posting about community, engagement, rigor and passion. They are incorporating reading and writing and speaking and listening. They are using technology in thoughtful, real world ways. Reading these entries gets even more excited about heading back to school.

As someone who has always worked in urban settings, and as the mom of two kids with really unique histories, I want to take a different approach to the whole back to school thing. It's not that I don't love, love, love my job, because I do, or that I can't wait to get back into it (have I mentioned that I love teaching), but this morning, I want to think for a minute about things that get some kids off to a really rough start. I hope I won't offend people because that's not my intent. At the same time, I think there is some stuff that educators don't very often talk about. And maybe they should…

Here are some things that I am thinking about the first day of school.

1) I won't ask kids to research where their names came from. I adopted my boys when they were seven and nine. They were named by their biological mom, who is not a part of their life right now. We have no idea why she chose the names she did. My boys love me and they are, for the most part, pretty ok, but their biological family is still an area of huge hurt in their lives. They shouldn't have to start out their school year by explaining to someone they barely know why they can't do the first assignment.

2) I won't justify the "research your name" assignment by offering an alternate to kids who can't do the original assignment. Yes, my guys could do an alternate assignment, e.g. talk about why they have a hyphenated last name, but that is not what the rest of the class is doing. And like most other adolescents, they absolutely do not want to stand out or be identified as different in any way.

3) I will be careful about how I structure autobiography/timeline events. My son once spent an entire day creating a time line that basically skipped the seven years between the time he was born and time he moved in with me. I watched and tried to suggest possible events, but he wanted nothing to do with the things that occurred while he was in foster care. He got a D because he omitted basically about half of his life. I need to remember that some kids can't do a complete timeline or autobiography, either because they don't know their whole history or really don't want to remember that part of their lives. I won't penalize them for their history.

4) I will avoid "How I Spent My Summer" writing assignments. Many of my students have spent the entire summer locked in a hot apartment babysitting younger siblings, the highlight of their day was a trip to school for free breakfast or lunch. I also avoid favorite birthday or the best present they have ever received assignments, because some kids just don't have lots of happy memories.

5) I won't give points or rewards to kids who bring their supplies (or punish kids or make snide remarks if kids don't have school supplies). These are hard times. Some parents, no matter how much they care, simply don't have the money to send a ream of paper, or dry erase markers, or even a bottle of glue. Instead, I will seek out community programs, ask for donations from a church or service organization, or hit up some of my friends who don't have their own children.I also hit all of the "Back to School" sales.

6) I won't give points or rewards to kids whose parents don't come to back to school night (or punish kids or make snide remarks about parents who don't come). Yeah, there are some parents who simply don't come, but there are others who have to choose between working and putting food on the table or coming to "Back to School" night, and still more who don't have childcare or transportation. I will offer some alternative dates, (maybe the morning after the first "Back to School" night while everything is still set up), make a point of being outside when kids are dropped off or picked up. I will also make sure parents have phone numbers and emails and contact information for me.

8) I will make sure that the first day includes the most interesting and engaging content I can pull together. And the best read aloud.

9) I will tell the kids about me the first day of school. I want them to know that I have two teenage boys who play football. I will tell stories about my two crazy, naughty black lab teenager puppies. I will tell them about moving this summer and how many boxes of books I carried. I'm trying to decide how I will do this- through collage or imovie or ????

10) I will make sure the first day includes lots of activities for my visual and kinesthetic learners. We are going to read lots of great books, laugh, personalize the room, make collages, do a science experiment or an activity that involves reading to cook or make something. We are not going to spend the day talking about rules, or passing out books and talking about what happens to kids who lose their books.

10) I will make sure that the first day includes lots of laughter. What is learned with laughter is never forgotten.

OUT OF MY MIND- Sharon Draper

I'm wishing that I was teaching fifth grade this fall. I already have my first few read alouds picked out. I'd start with NO TALKING by Andrew Clements. Then I'd do one of my all time favorites, HOW TO STEAL A DOG by Barbara O'Connor. After that, I would read MOCKINGBIRD, one of my favorites from this summer, and then I'd move to my newest favorite, OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper. (I'm thinking that when TOUCH BLUE, Cynthia Lord's newest book comes out, it might go on this list also). All of these books, I think, are great tools for opening conversations about how we treat each other, and helping kids understand and respect the differences in other people.

OUT OF MY MIND is the story of Melody, an exceptionally gifted eleven-year-old, who lives with her mom and dad, her baby sister, Penny, and her golden retriever. Melody is absolutely brilliant, but the problem is, very few people know it, because Melody was born unable to speak or walk. No one except Melody's mom and dad and her neighbor, Ms. V. recognize her brilliance and she spends her days in the self-contained special education classroom at Spalding Street Elementary School, where she learns the alphabet and sings from kindergarten CD's year after year after year. When Melody is in fifth grade her world changes. She gets a speaking machine (which she promptly names Elvira) and can finally communicate everything that she is thinking. She is able to try out for the Whiz Kids team, a kind of brain bowl. She makes the team, but still isn't like the other kids and still isn't totally accepted by them…

I absolutely loved, loved, loved this book. Sharon Draper does an amazing job helping readers to get inside Melody's head and understand that despite the fact that Melody's body is different, she is just the same as any other human being. She wants to to be invited to pizza parties and trips to the mall, to have friends and be accepted, just like all of us do. And I can't even begin to imagine the conversations that kids would have around last fifty pages…

POETRY FRIDAY

Jumped on line this morning to see what other people had posted. Mary Lee (who I get to see next week when she is in Colorado!) posted a poem about summer memories.

The Summer I Was Sixteen

Geraldine Connolly

The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.

Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete…

Read the rest of the poem at Poetry 180 (another one of my favorite websites!).

Heidi (my juicy little universe) is hosting Poetry Friday today.

POETRY ROUNDUP- FINAL

Okay, I started the Poetry Roundup last night, fell asleep, then thought I would finish this morning. But then it took longer than I expected, and a friend stopped by for coffee, then my son asked if I wanted to go on a "movie date" and now it's ten o'clock on Saturday night and I'm just finishing up the Poetry Friday Roundup. Some great, great, great offerings and a lovely note from Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, the creator of Your Daily Poem…

Original Poetry
Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) takes us on a metaphoric poetry journey. A poem is a little path. A fisherman. A firefly. A busy bee. Can't wait to share these great metaphors with kids this fall.

Amy (The Poem Farm), who has set herself the enormous task of writing a poem every day this year, offers "Words on the Water," another poem about poetry.

Amy inspired Linda to try writing a poem a day for the month of July. Today's poems feature not only four original poems (including a metaphor poem about poetry), but also one of the world's cutest swimsuit models!

Theresa (Looking for the Write Words) gives us "Blue Sky Days," a list poem that will be a great mentor poem for my young poets when I head back to school next month.

Toby Speed gives us "Backyard Game." After you read her poem, scroll down and check out her pictures of baby robins and her daily pictures of the sky. Wow. Wow. wow.

Elaine Magliaro's daughter is getting married TODAY (congratulations Elaine and family!) and she still found time to write a really lovely poem, "Things to Do If You Are the Ocean" that left this landlocked gal longing for water. Elaine also shares Stephen Dunn's "The Kiss" at Blue Rose Girls.

While we're thinking about water, head over to Priya's blog to read "Lighthouse," an original poem inspired by Google wallpaper. Wow, wow, wow! This fourteen-year-old's use of line breaks is really powerful!

Karen Edmisten shares her Friday plans in a short poem that one of her commenters describes as the "epitome of class and elegance." It made me laugh!

Anyone who has ever done the "sports mom" thing, could identify with Jeni's "Defeat," a poem written to honor her baseball playing son.

Andromeda Jazmon (A wrung sponge) honors her bike washing son with a beautiful photogaph and a Fourth of July haiku.

Poetry
If you need a good laugh (especially if you are in that baby boomer age range) check out "Now We're the Old Folks" at Joe's Poetry Insider.

This must be the week for metaphors. Tabatha started us out with "The Kite" by songwriter Leonard Cohen. Listen to this great line, "A kite is a contract of glory that must be made with the sun."

After you have read "The Kite" hop over to Irene Latham's blog and check out Carl Sandburg's backyard (OK, I know a poem written in 1916 is a classic), but this ode to the moon is a perfect companion to "The Kite." I'll be thinking about "white thoughts and silver changes" when I look at the moon tonight.

Mary Lee brings us Theodore Roethke's "The Waking" and a gorgeous picture of sunflowers (which I am thinking this woman of many talents probably took herself!). I'll be carrying the line "I learn by going where I have to go" around in my head for a while.

Jama Rattigan has given me a new poem to add to my list of all-time favorites. Read Taylor Mali's "Silver Lined Heart", share a few of your favorite things, and then put some emergency champagne glasses in your trunk.

Classics
Dori (Dori Reads) shares lines from Twelfth Night and a lovely story about where she found her copy of the book.

And another Shakespeare lover, Laura (Teach Poetry K-12), gives us Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" soliliquy, as well as some of her thoughts on this work.

Ruth, who teaches middle school in Haiti, shares John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud"and also a beautiful paraphrase that she has used with her middle schoolers. If the situation in Haiti is seeming less real to you, spend a few minutes perusing Ruth's blog.

Can you imagine living only ten minutes from Robert Frost's home? And being able to walk in his woods? Diana Mayr does, and at The Write Sisters, she ponders Frost's "Come In."

Stenhouse is sharing Margaret Wise Brown's "The Silent Song." I can picture primary grade kidlets performing this poem.

At Kurious Kitty, Diana Mayr gives us a Thomas Hardy poem from an Alfred A. Knopf collection about horses. The poem made me sad, but I'd love to see this collection, also others in the series. Diana also shares a quote by Thomas Hardy at Kurious K's Kwotes.

And what's a "Classics" category without a little Emily Dickinson. Check out "The Daisy Follows Soft the Sun" at Bildungsroman.

Book Reviews
Mother Reader thinks Rebecca Kai Dotlich's BELLA AND BEAN qualifies for Poetry Friday. I totally agree. A lovely read about friendship and poetry.

At Paper Tigers, Sally reviews EENY MEENY MANITOBA. This sounds like a fun resource for teaching Canadian geography!

Mandy (Enjoy and Embrace Learning) shares ONCE I ATE A PIE, an anthology of dog poems, and a great story about her lab, who ate her daughter's first birthday cake. I am more than a little relieved to know that someone else's dogs are as badly behaved as my two. I have to get this book.

Kelly Fineman, one of the lucky ducks who got to attend ALA last week, brought back Debbie Levy's MAYBE I'LL SLEEP IN THE BATHTUB TONIGHT, a collection of bedtime poems that seems like it would be a great addition for any elementary poetry collection.

I don't know about you, but I'm always up for a good book about writing (which might explain why I seem to spend much more time reading about writing than actually writing). Janet shares IMMERSED IN VERSE: AN INFORMATIVE AND TOTALLY TREMENDOUS GUIDE TO LIVING THE POET'S LIFE, a book she describes as helpful for intermediate grade or middle school writers. I think I need to look for this one.

Is the term poemusic new to anyone besides me? Isn't it just the greatest word? It comes from Heidi Mordhorst, who uses the term to describe Natalie Marchant's "See You Later," a collection that includes a book and two CD's.

Ben reviews, TIME YOU LET ME IN, an anthology selected by Naomi Shihab Nye. All of the poems included in this anthology were written by poets 25 or under. Definitely worth checking out for upper elementary and older kids.

Poetry Contests
Anyone up for writing a little tomato poetry? Diana Mayr gave us the details about an upcoming contest!

POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP- PART ONE

A super busy day yesterday, fell asleep doing Poetry Roundup (and missed the Rockie's Seventh Inning grand slam comeback!) Got up and worked for a couple of hours this morning, but only got about halfway done. I will post these as part one, then come back and finish a little later today. Sorry to be slow!

Original Poetry
Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) takes us on a metaphoric poetry journey. A poem is a little path. A fisherman. A firefly. A busy bee. Can't wait to share these great metaphors with kids this fall.

Amy (The Poem Farm), who has set herself the enormous task of writing a poem every day this year, offers "Words on the Water," another poem about poetry.

Amy inspired Linda to try writing a poem a day for the month of July. Today's poems feature not only four original poems (including a metaphor poem about poetry), but also one of the world's cutest swimsuit models!

Toby Speed gives us "Backyard Game." After you read her poem, scroll down and check out her pictures of baby robins and her daily pictures of the sky. Wow. Wow. wow.

Poetry
This must be the week for great metaphors. Tabatha has by songwriter Leonard Cohen. Listen to this great line, "A kite is a contract of glory that must be made with the sun."

Jama Rattigan has given me a new poem to add to my list of all-time favorites. Read Taylor Mali's "Silver Lined Heart", share a few of your favorite things, and then put some emergency champagne glasses in your trunk.

Classics
Dori (Dori Reads) shares lines from Twelfth Night and a lovely story about where she found her copy of the book.

And another Shakespeare lover, Laura (Teach Poetry K-12), gives us Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" soliliquy, as well as some of her thoughts on this work.

Can you imagine living only ten minutes from Robert Frost's home? And being able to walk in his woods? Diana Mayr does, and at The Write Sisters, she ponders Frost's "Come In."

Stenhouse is sharing Margaret Wise Brown's "The Silent Song." I can picture primary grade kidlets performing this poem.

Book Reviews
Mother Reader thinks Rebecca Kai Dotlich's BELLA AND BEAN qualifies for Poetry Friday. I totally agree. A lovely read about friendship and poetry.

At Kurious Kitty, Diana Mayr gives us a Thomas Hardy poem from an Alfred A. Knopf collection about horses. The poem made me sad, but I'd love to see this collection, also others in the series. Diana also shares a quote by Thomas Hardy at Kurious K's Kwotes.

Poetry Contests
Anyone up for tomato poetry? Diana Mayr gave us the details about an upcoming contest!

POETRY FRIDAY

WELCOME!
Poetry Friday is here this week!
Here in Colorado!
Where we get to look
at the mountains
every single day.
(This one is Pikes Peak,
framed by Garden of the Gods)
Sometimes I forget
that everyone doesn't
get to open their eyes
to this every morning…
Come visit!

A couple of months ago,
I came across Jayne Jaudon Ferrer's "Your Daily Poem"
I've subscribed to lots of these kinds of websites
And to be really honest,
Usually I follow them for a month or two,
And then discontinue my subscription.
The poems are too long
or too obtuse
or too hard for me
to understand.
(I'm a simple gal, a single mom, with a job, and two teenage boys,
and two badly behaved labs and I don't have time for hard poetry).

But this site is different.
I love these poems
and the little note that comes with them.
I open the email pretty much every day.
I read them,
And savor them,
And give them to my friends.

This week, Jayne sent
"Prayer Chain" by Tim Nolan.
I loved it.
(It kind of reminds me of my all time
most favorite ever poems
Marge Piercy's "To Be of Use."
Lots of people know that poem.
So I won't share it today.
But in case you don't
You can read it here).

I love "Prayer Chain"
almost as much as "To Be of Use"
So I'm sharing part of it,
a couple of lines from the beginning,
and a couple from the middle,
and a couple from the end.
I especially love the end
(probably because my sons
play football
and are learning how to drive
and have girlfriends
and the older they get
the scarier the parenting
and the more I pray).
***************************************

Prayer Chain

My mother called to tell me
about an old classmate of mine who

was dying on the parish prayer chain--
or was very sick-- or destitute…

all the old mothers were praying intensely
for all the pain of their children…

I bet they have been praying for me at times--
so I'll find my way-- so I won't rob a bank

I'll take them-- the mystical prayers of old mothers--
it matters-- all this patient and purposeful love.

Tim Nolan
From The Sound of It (New Rivers Press, 2008).
This poem first appeared on The Writer's Almanac.

Enjoy this little bit then read the whole poem here.

Leave your link as a comment and I'll round them up throughout the day!