Celebrate!!!
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Each week on Saturday
bloggers celebrate at Ruth Ayres Writes.
Won't you join us?
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I celebrate TWITTER! The connections that I've made on twitter have changed me and helped me become a much better teacher. I can't say it enough. This week, I reached a big number on twitter. I have 1,000 followers!!! I consider that an achievement and I'm proud.
I celebrate my student POETS! We continue to write and revise and rehearse our poetry. Everyday I am inspired by my student poets. This week we began our state tests...in Virginia they are called the SOLs. Read this poem by Bryan about testing...
Preparing today for the standards of learning test
our teacher said you will be pressured.
We'd have to read and think during this SOL
and learn to spell stupendous, Mississippi,
money, and POWFUNKSHAZAM
We need to remember figurative language
antonyms, synonyms, and imagery.
Recite all the types of genres
and learn to write a poem from scratch.
We'd have to speak fluently in English for poetry.
Learn how to make a great performance.
Remember all of the oldest folk tales,
and crack all the codes in the dictionary.
Then just when we thought that our heads might explode
from learning all the reading and comprehension
she told us the very best thing she could say:
that she was just kidding; this was the real English SOL.
Inspired by Kenn Nesbitt’s poem The World’s Hardest Test
I celebrate READING! Finding books that inspire me and bring out tears and laughter...I love that! This week that book was The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner. It's one of those books that I drag out reading it because I don't want it to end...and it ruins me for other books. I'm having a hard time finding my next read...sigh.
Glad to say I'm a follower :) Glad your students can smile even through state testing! I love those books that you don't want to end, and I think you put it perfectly - I know exactly how that feels, that no matter what book you read next it's not going to measure up!!! Hope you find another book soon :)
ReplyDeleteYay for 1,000 followers!! Love the poem, and I, too, loved Summer of Letting Go!
ReplyDelete1000 is a BIG number. Tests vs Poets, poets win. I hope you'll find a good book to follow the last book you read. Happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to say that state testing has become an SOL - a slice of life - yes, pun intended! I can't say that this book will inspire, bring tears or laughter but it was a good read - The Riverman!
ReplyDeleteI both hate and love that feeling of reading one of those perfect-for-you books that you don't even want to finish and that then make you reluctant to start anything new because it's not going to be THAT book. Summer of Letting Go is definitely on my list for summer reading. Congrats on 1K followers! A Twitter-skeptic colleague asked me a couple of weeks ago what in the world I found valuable about Twitter and I couldn't even find words to explain why I love it. My love is beyond words!
ReplyDeleteYay you and your 1,000 twitter followers! What a wonderful community it is. Thanks to it I know you. Today I bought a new notebook and thought of you my friend. Then I wrote. So proud of me. Thanks to you I am inspired. AND clearly you inspire your students as well. I love it when students get the bug.
ReplyDeleteSo many reasons to celebrate!
ReplyDeleteWOW a 1000 Twitter followers is pretty amazing! I am grateful that I have more people following me NOW than when I started 2 years ago! I too share that amazing community even though I am not as active as you are!
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