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An Apple a Day

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Whew! It has been a busy time at school and at home so I am behind in my posts! Sorry!  For each of the three Fridays we had in school in April I planned a school-wide poetry activity as part of the Poetry Box Project.  The first Friday was the unveiling of the box and I had the kids try their hand at writing a “Never Poem” using alliteration.  Like:  “I would never wear big, borrowed, blue and burgandy bloomers!” They were great fun and the students wrote some hilarious poems!image

On the second Friday, I based the activity around Kenn Nesbitt’s poem “I Bought a Pet Banana”.  While searching for activity ideas, I happened across Kenn’s website; www.poetry4kids.com . (be sure and check it out)  He suggested to have kids write their own poems about having a pet apple.  I loved the idea AND Kenn has a poem beginning in the Poetry Box,  so it seemed perfect to do a Pet Apple Activity.  The students were each given an apple and crafting supplies and the magic began!  We soon had a cafeteria full of unique “pet apples”.  The children then were challenged to write their own Pet Apple Poems and write they did!  It is amazing what they can come up with!  I decided to try my hand at it as well, and this is what resulted:

I Bought A Pet Apple

I bought a small pet apple

He was round and red,

I tried to sit him on my lap

But he rolled off instead.

He wobbled and he rolled

Across the wooden floor,

And then my small pet apple

Went right out the back door.

I tried to lasso him

To make him come to a stop,

But he fell into the pool

With a flip, a flap, a flop.

I’m taking my small pet apple

Back to the pet store

The water made him mushy

All the way to his apple core.

~Cindy Wilkins

It’s funny how we lose ourselves in “adult life”.  I had journals full of poems I wrote in my teens and twenties and then between family, work, and other committments that part of me disappeared, until now that is!  Who would have thought that an apple could inspire my poet’s soul to reappear?  All too often I think, we believe that we don’t deserve or have time to pursue the things we love.  Maybe we yearn to paint, take photographs, carve wood, run a marathon, or write poetry but we tell ourselves that everyone and everything else needs to come first.  Before we know it, our passions have been pushed so far aside that they seem out of reach.  This experience of being a Poetry Box Ambassador has prompted me to look at things differently and what I now see is that we are all created with our own unique set of passions.  Passions that are designed to define and fulfill us. While we may travel through life completing all the required tasks set before us, we are missing out on the best part of the trip.   Think back to when you were younger.  What did you love to do and think about?  What inspired you?  I think it is vital that we rediscover that part of us to truly live a long, happy, healthy life.  You know what they say….”An apple a day keeps the doctor away” or in my case….an apple poem. I plan to continue to get reaquainted with the poet in me.  I hope you too, will take the time for yourself to rediscover the you that YOU are truly meant to be.

 

What Poetry Can Do: Life Lessons Part 2

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It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon here! My spirit is full from a lovely church service, my tummy is full from an enjoyable lunch with friends, and now I hope to fill you with a few more life lessons I have learned from the Poetry Box Project.  In preparing for the arrival of the Poetry Box, I had our local librarian collect as many books written by our poetry authors as she could find for me.  One of the books drew my attention right away.  It was “Knock at a Star” by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy Kennedy (X.J has the beginning of a poem in the Poetry Box).  They listed six things that poetry can do for children.  Those six are included in my life lessons post last time and in this one today, along with two more I added so that we had a balloon message for each classroom. Here we go…..image

Message 5 : “Poetry Sends Messages”

In this month long excursion into poetry, I think the students and I have enjoyed the poems that have sent  funny messages the most!  You know what I mean.  The ones that talk about underpants, bratty sisters, boogers, or teachers being eaten by aliens.  There is something about being in a room of children and having in your hands the power to make them laugh!  And how fun it is as a teacher to laugh right along with them!  (even if they are laughing whille picturing me being eaten by aliens…) Sometimes it would start with a snicker or a giggle, then came the snort, and finally the all out belly shaking, knee slapping, fall out of your chair laugh!  It is a joyous sound and one that is heard far too little in today’s classrooms…..don’t get me started.  I tell my students the first day of school that they need to know that their Second Grade Teacher is Crazy!  (And she is!) I am letting them see that I will make mistakes, have bad hair days, wear mismatched socks, and countless other things.  This creates a safe place for them to be themselves too.  I believe learning should be fun, whether it is learning in the classroom or learning to navigate life. When is the last time you have had a side-splitting, tears down the cheek laugh?  We need to laugh more!  We need to learn to laugh at those little bumps in the road we encounter every day.  We need to learn to laugh at ourselves and allow others to laugh right along with us. We need to make life a safe place to be ourselves. It is pretty hard to be mad at each other or make fun of one another if we are laughing in unison at the comedy act that is life!

Message 6:  “Poetry Starts You Wondering”

We have read many poems about animals and nature.  They have prompted us to wonder about the world around us. One of the scary parts of being a teacher is having to be prepared for hard questions.  Children wonder about a lot of things and they are not afraid to ask.  It happens often during Science time.  The world is an amazing place and there is so much to learn!  I love to turn the hard questions back to the children and ask them why they think things are so.  Their answers are sometimes so full of eight year old wisdom that I have to pause and take it all in.  Having curiousity like a child is a trait I hope to always possess.  Every year we study the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly and every year when the children have gone home and the room is empty, I stare at the caterpillars hoping to witness the exact moment they become a chrisilys and every year it happens in the blink of an eye.  It is a true miracle that keeps me wondering and wondering is a good thing!  So, whether we are wondering about nature, other cultures, religion, problems we see, or our future, we need to do it with the enthusiasm and curiousity of an eight year old.  If we do, we will open ourselves to the limitless possibilities the world has in store for us.

Message 7:  “Poetry Makes Music Out of Words”

I have a confession to make.  I am a music-a-holic.  It’s true.  I can’t get enough.  I like all kinds.  Some people would say that my iPod is filled to excess.  I say, I was born with a musical soul. I pretty much hear a song in my head all day long. (Crazy remember?)  I even wake up at night sometimes with lyrics going through my mind.  I think that is why I love poetry so much.  The words in a poem create a melody and a beat that makes me want to sing along.  There are songs and poems for bad times and sad times in life.  There are songs and poems for joyous and glad times.  They speak to me.  They comfort me. They inspire me.  I want my life to do that for my students, family, and friends too.  I want to be there for them in their good and not so good times.  I want to have the right words to say.  I want to comfort and uplift them.  Most of all I want to inspire them with a tune that helps them want to become the best they can be. And if they awake in the dark of night, I hope that a message of hope, a song of joy, or a poem of love from me, crosses their mind and brings them into the light of day.

And finally, Message 8:  “Poetry Makes You Smile”

Poetry is about life.  It is a gift from one person to the world.  It touches us, challenges us. and can change us. I told the children in our school on the day we unveiled the Poetry Box that “there was poetry in all of them”.  I do believe there is poetry in all of us. We are gifts to the world, we can touch others, challenge others, and bring about change.  Most of all, we all have the power to help someone find their smile.  I hope these lessons have helped you find yours.

What Poetry Can Do: Life Lessons

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I promised in my last post that I would talk to you about the messages on the balloons that were part of the Poetry Box unveiling.  It is interesting that in the last few days I have had conversations with different people about the legacy we leave behind and how we’ll be remembered at our funerals.  What do funerals have to do with Poetry?  Funny you ask……

Who would have known (not I), how this interaction with poetry would end up teaching me so many life lessons.  The messages on each balloon are a good example.   I wrote the messages to provoke thought around poetry in the kids’ minds and then hoped it would spark  conversations.  Little did I know that each of the messages not only represents something poetry can do, but also have provided me with a better vision of a blessed life!  So here we go!image

Message 1:  “Creates Images”

Just as the poet’s words can conjure images up in our minds, so can we leave images with others we come in contact with.  There are those pictures we can bring forth from our memories of images that have touched us.  A stranger’s smile just when we needed it most, your grandma’s open arms as you arrive for a visit, or a child’s eyes lighting up when she finally understands.  We choose everyday what images we leave with those around us.  I am becoming more aware how important it is to leave as good an image as I can, as often as I can, so that those who are watching are left with beautiful pictures when they need them.

Message 2:  “Helps You Understand People”

Poetry is a safe place where you can express yourself freely.  Reading poetry exposes us to different values, beliefs, customs, thoughts, and ideas.  It helps us see the world in a new way.  We need to be open to read people and allow ourselves to be read in the same fashion, letting our differences create beautiful verses together, one building on another.

Message 3:  “Shares Feelings”

There is a reason why certain poems have lasted through the centuries; they elicit strong feelings in the reader!  Poetry is often the language of love.  The Psalmists used it as heartfelt praise.  There are poems that express every feeling a human has ever felt.  That’s why we love poetry.  We discover we are not alone in our feelings.  There is nothing more reassuring as when someone says, “I know how you feel.  I’ve been through it too”.  Sharing our feelings with each other is risky.  It is uncomfortable.  It is sometimes embarrassing.  But sharing your feelings with someone else is also the greatest gift you can give them (and here’s a little secret it is a gift for yourself too!)

Message 4:  “Poetry Tells Stories”

I am a story teller at heart.  I love to use my words and phrases to draw a listener into my tale.  To make them feel as if they are one of the characters and part of the action.  Poets do the same thing with their rhythm and rhyme.  They lure us into their story with their web of verse and suspend us there until we reach the end, leaving us wanting more.  This is life!  We all have a story to tell!  Some funny, some sad, some scary, some boring, you get the picture, but a story to tell  just the same.  We all like to tell them (some over and over again) to any audience we can find.  Sometimes, we are all trying to tell them at once and we get louder and louder and louder until no one can hear anything….  I think the lesson here is that yes, we do have a story but we don’t always have to be the teller.  It is important to also be a willing listener.  For what magic do we miss out on when we hear only our own story?  What heights might we soar by hearing what others have to say?  Instead of seeing ourselves as story tellers, why not be story collectors?

These first four balloon messages while intended to describe poetry, have helped me see a little more clearly the person I hope to be remembered as.  I hope that each day, I leave an uplifting image with someone I meet.  I aspire to be understanding and accepting of the differences between myself and others and to build on those differences to create strong relationships.  I want to be more willing to bare my soul and share my feelings with those who need reassurance all the while realizing that I need it too.  And I hope that one day when I am being remembered people will laugh at some of stories I’ve told, but in their hearts they will recall that I collected theirs too.

 

Arrived and Excited

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imageThe Poetry Box has arrived!  It came to school on Wednesday and I when I opened it, I was greeted by these smiling authors’ faces.  As you can see I posted them as one more clue for the students leading up to the unveiling.  I have been watching from afar and have noticed a few children discussing that the pictures match some of the books on the table, exactly as I had hoped!  The curiosity is growing and so is my excitement!

Arriving at a destination usually does bring excitment!  A family gathering, the beach, a cabin getaway….the closer I get to each of these the more my anticipation grows!  I find myself in a funny place now, however, in my life’s journey……the end of my teaching career.  While there are moments of excitement there is also a mix of jumbled emotions I am not quite sure what to do with.  Sadness, fear, and insecurity mixed with joy, relief, and satisfaction.  Now that I think about it, I guess I have been here before :  moving from Michigan to West Virginia to teach, getting married, and having a family to name a few, and now the new path of retirement.  We are all on the road going different directions.  Some trips more pleasant than others. While we may feel that we have made a wrong turn, found ourselves at a dead-end, or are in the middle of unchartered waters we are not alone.  It continuously amazes me how God brings me just what I need when I need it!  This weekend I have been questioning myself about making the right decision to retire or not; and today this was my scripture reading:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

do not depend on your own understanding.

  Seek His will and he will direct your paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

My destination may be unknown to me, but my GPS (God’s Positioning System) will guide my steps.  I HAVE arrived but my new path awaits…… Now THAT is exciting!

Chosen

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Back in January I was doing a little “computer work”, as my sister likes to call it, basically passing time, when I came upon a posting on one of the storytelling websites I follow.  It was from Kevin Cordi seeking teachers who were interested in participating in a project he had developed called the “Poetry Box Project”. Twenty-five children’s authors have written the beginnings of poems that the students in the project will finish, add to the box, and send on as it travels across the country and maybe even world.  He specifically asked for West Virginia teachers who might be willing to take part.  Without really thinking about it, I wrote to Kevin right away to express my interest in receiving the Poetry Box for my school and the state of West Virginia.  Now, I have to be honest with you, I NEVER expected to be chosen.  After all, I teach in a very small, rural school and I am not an award winning, paper publishing, extraordinary teacher.  Why would he choose me?  Well, you can imagine my surprise when I received an email from Kevin to let me know that I HAD been chosen as an Ambassador for the Poetry Box!  It is on its way from Illinois as I type and our school will have it for the month of April.  Needless to say, I am still a little shocked but very excited!  Blogging about this experience is part of the project and the motivation behind my starting “My Sea of Thought.”

To help begin building curiosity and anticipation for the Poetry Box I have left a message on the wall of our cafeteria for the students to find on Monday morning.  It says, “NFES: We have been chosen!”  This picture shows the sign hanging above a table I set up that has books on it written by the authors of the poem beginnings. I have a few more messages planned for the kids before the unveiling of the box.image

I have been thinking about “being chosen” a lot lately.  I don’t know about you, but there have been many times in my life when I haven’t felt good enough or qualified enough to do something.  It is human nature I think, to stay in that safe spot where we know what we are doing and feel successful doing it.  It is when we are asked to step outside that comfort zone (a place I do NOT like to leave) that we begin to convince ourselves we don’t have what it takes, there’s someone better for the job, and even I’m too old to learn something new. (Can you guess who has said that recently……) What I am learning though, is that when we sell ourselves short out of fear and insecurity, we miss out on opportunities and experiences that will enhance our lives. God designed each of us with special gifts and talents and He has chosen you and me to do great things!  Is it always easy?  NO!  Is it sometimes scary?  YES!  But in the end,  whether it be for the Poetry Box, a new job, helping someone, or you add your own, being chosen is a gift we’ve been given that will bring joys untold to our lives and those around us if we just have faith and leap (or tiptoe) onto the new paths put in front of us.

Book Orders and Weight Watchers

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Having just finished counting the money and placing our latest classroom book order, I am dismayed to see how ordering junk has overtaken ordering books.  I wish I knew the magic spell that would open  my students’ and their parents’ eyes to see that books provide hours upon hours of fun, excitement, and adventures that can take them anywhere they want to go over and over again unlike those tiny trinkets that will quickly be tossed away, they so willingly spend their money on.

Ahhh, human nature.  We want what we want, the shinier… bigger… brighter… tastier… the better!  Money isn’t the only thing I have counted today.  I am also counting my Weight Watcher points.  I am just like the children with their book orders!  I don’t want the good foods that will provide me health, low cholesterol, and long life!  No!  I want those tiny (or not so tiny)  yummy…gooey….fat-filled  morsels I believe I can’t live without.  When will I open my eyes to see that eating healthy is not depriving myself of anything, but rather the way I was always designed to eat?

So it goes in life.  We all need a magic spell to open our eyes to the choices we make each day.  Will it be choosing to open our minds and imaginations to new people and places?  Will it be choosing to open our mouths to foods that will improve our health? Or will it be choosing to open our hearts and recognize all the possibilities there are to help make a difference to those around us?  I hope it is the last because  when it is all said and done, counting on each other, is what makes this adventure called life worth reading over and over again!

Birthday Blessings

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It’s my birthday today and……. I am sick. Now in the scheme of things I know that being sick on my birthday is not that big a deal, but feeling rotten, in a sea of tissues, watching Hallmark movies is not the way I had my day pictured.

Isn’t is funny how in our lives, we often set high expectations for an event, idea, or a relationship. I have found that they are rarely met in the ways we had imagined or even come close and the result is often sadness or even anger. I must admit that “woe is me” slid easily off my tongue this afternoon when I should have been enjoying a slice of birthday cake with friends Instead of sitting home alone.  But here’s the thing, alone or in the company of those I care about, I still turned 55, the sun was shining, and I am on Spring Break so I didn’t have to make lesson plans for a substitute. Life is good when our expectations are open to the little detours along the way, a lesson this 55 year old is still learning. It is time for me to stop singing the birthday blues and get lost in the melody of my birthday blessings.  After all, anything else is just icing on the cake!

 

 

Preparing for Travel

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It is with unsure footsteps that I begin this journey of becoming a blogger.  I have an open ended ticket with the destination unknown, but excitement for this trip is urging me on.

I have been a teacher for 32 years. Twenty-six of those years I spent as a Special Educator.  I then moved on to Fourth Grade and that lead to my placement now as a Second Grade Teacher.  I have discovered that Second Grade is where I’ve always belonged!  The children accept me as I am (wacky), still love learning, and laugh at my jokes.  I receive precious love letters, gifts of feathers, rocks, and shells, and one-of-a-kind pieces of art regularly.  It doesn’t get much better than that!  It has been a privilege and blessing (most days) to spend time with my students. I have come to a place though, where I am ready for a change.  With much prayer and thought, I have decided that this will be my final year as a classroom teacher and I will retire in June.  The thought of retirement stirs feelings of fear, excitement, sadness, and relief.  There is a churning in my soul, however,  that prompts me to move on to this next leg of my journey.  It is my hope that I can share with you stories from my classroom and the lessons I learn on my jaunt through life.  Pack your bags and hold on!  Adventure awaits!