It was fine, other than the whole lockdown thing. And the vomiting thing.

The student teaching continues. We started class today by choosing a random poem from the Poetry180 website to read aloud (apparently even 9th graders get excited when you ask them to pick a number between 1 and 180; I've never seen hands fly up so fast). One kid was outraged when the poem didn't rhyme, as if it could not possibly be a poem. Can't wait to read his...



We went over the plan for the unit and the assignments they'll have to do, then we dove into the "Mystery Poem." Thank you to Jessie, again, for a great lesson that I blantantly stole. This is the first time I've seen the 9th graders really interact with a poem, and they did a great job. Luckily the activity we did today wasn't high stakes and encourages everybody's voice, so nobody left class hating poetry more than they already do (I hope). You can try the activity on your own if you want. First, read this poem:



Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.


I purposely left off the title and author, and had the kids do several steps to make inferences about the poem's meaning. Part of it involved giving the poem a title. What would you give it? I got some great titles today, including "Ants," "Maggots," many titles that included the words "quiet" and "night." When I did this activity originally, I called it "Rice."



The actual title?



"Mushrooms" and it's by Sylvia Plath.



Anyway, the kids had fun speculating about that and hopefully learned important lessons about forming and supporting interpretations and good word choice in poetry (again, hopefully).



The next activity I stole from Kelly Gallagher (because, as Jessie says, great teachers are great thieves) in which I asked them to look closer at the deeper meanings in "Humpty Dumpty." Yes, the nursery rhyme. Yes, I ruined some childhoods today. Seriously, look more closely at the rhyme and come up with a theory.



Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.



Here are three leading theories:

1. The rhyme refers to King Richard III, who fell from his horse in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard was surrounded by enemy troops in the battle and butchered on the spot.
2. The rhyme refers to Charles I of England, who was toppled by the Puritan majority in Parliament. The King’s army could not restore his power and he was subsequently executed.
3. “Humpty Dumpty” was the name of a powerful cannon during the English Civil War. It was mounted on top of St. Mary’s at the Wall Church in Colchester in 1648. The church tower was hit by enemy fire and was knocked off, sending the cannon tumbling to the ground. It could not be repaired (Gallagher 82).



Then I tried to get the kids to freewrite a little bit by looking at some possible poem titles (such as "The Bagel" and "The Death of Santa Claus") and brainstorm about them. Here's the thing: nothing short of a bullwhip will get kids to actually do something productive during that last 3 minutes of class. Nothing. I had kids groan, look at me like I was crazy at suggesting the idea, then proceed to wander around the room. Mr. Leisen sent them back to their seats to dismiss them. I'll have to remember that.



I was interrupted today by two major things. One, a girl left my class and proceeded to vomit in the hallway. I was the loser teacher that didn't even see her as she walked behind me and out the door (she didn't ask for a pass, obviously), so when someone heard her throwing up I was like "What? Who?" Not cool. Luckily Mr. Leisen was nearby and called the custodian for me. Two, unexpected lockdown drill between 2nd and 3rd hours. Again, lucky Mr. Leisen was hear because it sounded like someone was messing around with the P.A. system, not sounding the alarm. Mr. Leisen had to herd any kid who was around his door into the room, tell them to crouch down on the floor and shut up, and lecture them about real lockdown procedures. I stood awkwardly. Good times.