"Ickle Me, Tickle Me, Poetry Too!"

This week I started my poetry unit. Lines, stanzas, repetition, alliteration, rhythm, meter, stressed and unstressed syllables; the whole she-bang. While gathering poems to use for my unit, I somehow forgot to include my favorite book ever: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. I could NOT believe that I had forgotten it! Even though I had already written my plans for the week, I decided to go back and edit. The word "poetry" should have a picture of this book next to it in the dictionary; seriously.

Today we learned about repetition. This is probably the easiest poetry device to teach. The poem I decided to use was "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too" by, you guessed it, Shel Silverstein. Thanks to the handy-dandy Youtube, I found a cool reading of the poem by the man himself. After listening to the poem twice, I gave my kids a copy of the poem in easy-to-read text and displayed a copy on my Smartboard(C). I asked the students to find a line that repeated throughout the poem and circle it each time it shows up. It turns out that the "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too" line is repeated SEVEN times! I then had my kids identify the first stanza, number the lines, and circle all of the end rhymes. For the next stanza, I called on students to come up to the board and identify the same things on the next stanza and the next. To give them another example of the use of repetition in poetry, I recited, in my most "poety" voice, another Shel Silverstein poem I had to memorize in 1st grade called "Lazy Jane".

My kids just did not understand why Jane would lay there for so long and broke out into giggle-fits. They wanted to hear the poem again and again. <3 Honestly, I was afraid to teach a poetry unit. Although I am a Language Arts lover, I was never confident with poetry. But after watching my kids have a good time with poetry and trying to recite "Ickle Me" during study hall, my confidence shot up. Learning is an ongoing process and today I learned something new: Even if you're not sure about something, try it anyway. If it fails, try again. If it succeeds, try even harder! Next week, my students will be learning about different types of poems and creating their own poetry book. I haven't told them yet, but I know that they will be VERY excited. Man, I love my job. God bless <3

MY WORDLE!

This is my first time using this site! You can use "a bunch of text" to create a collage! I love it! <3

I'm Baaack! And Some Other Things

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything. The reason is simple: I got sick. What began as a sore throat and cough right before fall break turned into mis-diagnosed pharyngitis which actually turned out to be pneumonia. I was taking the wrong antobiotic for 4 days but I was not getting better. My fever kept spiking to the 100's and I could not breathe. I ended up going to a different doctor who diagnosed me with pneumonia. So I thought that with this new antibiotic, everything would be back to normal in no time. Nope. Turns out, I was allergic to the antibiotic. I could not sleep, my joints swelled, I stopped breathing whenever I tried to sleep and I still have the shakes to this day. I honestly thought that I was going to die. After yet another trip to the ER, I got new antibiotics and an inhaler. Obviously, I did not die. But when I went back to work, I was still sick. On top of that, I had missed a lot of work. I missed my kids' testing week, I missed a week an a half of instruction, and I was lost. Since I couldn't leave the house during my illness, I turned in bare bones lesson plans so that kids could have some kind of review before their tests. After doing nothing for a few weeks, it was difficult for me to get back in the swing of working. I had things due, meetings to attend, and instruction to catch up on. I wanted to quit but I told myself "There is no way that this is the end. No way." With the support of the staff and God's grace, I'm....I won't say back to where I was but I am stronger than I have been in a long time. Teaching is NOT for the faint of heart. Although we may feel discouraged sometimes, we are slow to act on these feelings. What if I had quit? What would I be doing at this moment? What would my quitting accomplish? Leaving my kids without a teacher?

A few weeks ago, I attended a seminar with a friend. The speaker made a statement that I will never forget; "I am busy because I choose to be busy." I do what I do because I love it. There are nights when I stay up late researching for a unit. If I hated teaching, I would not be up so late. I would work the 830-4 schedule and turn off the teacher mode when I got home. On a typical day, I end up staying until 5 or 5:30. On some days, it becomes 6:30 or 7. But what some do not understand is that this is not just a job, this is my career. A career cannot be stuffed into a 9-5 bubble. It is impossible if you want to excel. I cannot give my kids 45% of my energy when they deserve 100% of it! Things are not going to be easy-peasy for the rest of my ride; I know that. But what I do know is that God has been, is, and will always keep me through it all. Without God, I am nothing and I would not be where I am today. I have a few things up my sleeve and with God's help, they will be fulfilled. <3