Students' work

It's really a shame that being a teacher keeps me so busy. If I had more time, I'd write down all the ridiculous things that my kids say and do. As it stands, I have a constant backlog of grading and planning and contacting parents and staff about various issues, so I'm not in a situation to reminisce everyday. However, every once in a while I get a test or assignment back that gives me a written record of the various abilities of my students, which allows me to have time to document anything intriguing. 

This week's poetry test was one such example. Here's one poem from a boy in my 8th grade class: 

men known as the dominant creatures 

women known as the weaklings 

men fight with insults 

women fight with facts 

"where's my sandwich woman? 

it's not gonna make itself" 

"honey can I have some money since you go work for it?" 

men are the stereotypes 

women are the fact givers 

It's intriguing to look at this poem through his eyes, wondering what he's really trying to say, and why he's trying to say it. I can see where he needs to clarify a point or two, but if you glance around that, I feel it's an interesting poem for a boy his age. 

I received a really great poem from a girl in that class as well. Here it is: 

The wind and the bird 

Swoosh, Swoosh, the wind was blowing 

It was an angry lion, 

Roaring and trying to catch its prey 

The Bird was as weak and light as a feather, 

With the wind whirling it around the world. 

This is one of those pieces that made me sit back in my chair and smile. I couldn't resist editing it just a tad, add 'with' to the last line to add to those 'w' sounds. I think it's a great little poem for a kid her age. The cool thing is that I can see each other poetic devices that I taught her, and I'd like to think that my teaching was the main reason behind this cool little piece. 

My 7th graders also turned in a project recently, that required them to take a Greek myth and turn it into a comic strip. One of my boys did an amazing job, and at times I wonder if he cheated or had outside help. I'm gonna see if I can somehow post his strip, as it's top quality work, and definitely leaps and bounds beyond anything else he's done this year. He'd previously not been a very highly motivated student, but just recently came alive during this myth unit that we've been doing. 

Which reminds me: the cool thing about teaching is that you can become more knowledgeable about topics you wouldn't normally know. It's like getting paid to learn, in a way. This year so far, I've increased my knowledge about movie making techniques, poetry, essay writing, economics, and the odd quirks of languages, to name a few. My kids are from a wide range of countries, and I've learned about countries whose names I had only heard of before (Sudan, Ghana, Syria, Lebanon), and also of Eritrea, a country I never knew existed. I just wish I had time to write it all down.