The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

"Mr. Harville, how does green make you feel?" Those words were spoken in 1992 by a little fourth grade boy named Justin who happened to be in the classroom where I was student teaching. Mr. Harville, the principal of the school, had walked into the classroom to give my cooperating teacher a message and had been greeted by Justin, who excitedly ran up to him. The class had been working on writing color poems that particular day. I had given each of them glasses made from a template of a 3D pair I had kept from a movie theater. I stapled green cellophane onto the frames so when they looked through them, everything they saw would be green. Well, as green as the world could be through cellophane, but they were 9-year-olds, so it worked.  I used the poetry book Hailstones and Halibut Bones to teach the lesson and after reading a couple of my favorite poems, I took them on a walk around the building with their glasses on so they could see, hear, smell, and touch all things green. After returning to the classroom, the students began writing their own GREEN poem. Justin had gotten to the part where he had to write how green made him feel.  Enter Mr. Harville.  Remember, I was student teaching so when Justin got out of his seat and ran up to the principal, I was mortified, but Mr. Harville played along and gave him an answer that escapes me 27 years later. The students produced amazing poems that day and it became a lesson I would use every year I taught (and apparently a year I was a principal as well).

Fast forward to 2018.  I decided it was time to dust off more than the book Hailstones and Halibut Bones.  Yes. I decided to dust off my teaching skills and get back into the classroom and teach that lesson again 2018 style. There were no homemade cellophane glasses to use and no trip around the building and instead of writing the final product in their neatest handwriting, they used their chrome books to type them, complete with colored text. It hit me during the lesson that while some things have changed, some have definitely stayed the same.

1. Students rise to our expectations.  I walked into every classroom with high expectations, just as I did when I was teaching.  The students were expected to think critically, stay on task and produce a poem to be proud of and they did not disappoint. During the mini-lesson, we talked about visualization, descriptive words, and elaborating on our thoughts. They listened to sample poems, talked to their partners about what they heard in the book and got to work on their own masterpiece. As we conferenced about their poems, they would revise and edit, all the while making them better and better.  I loved seeing their faces when they read their final poem and realized how impressive they really were. Educators MUST have high expectations.

2. Boys loved it as much as the girls. We are told as educators that boys hate to write.  I have never agreed with this statement.  I know there is research that says that as well, but again, that was never my experience as a teacher and it wasn't my experience as I headed back into the classroom recently either.  In fact, I found the boys to often be more excited than the girls in some of the classes. It was a boy who jumped up with curiosity and excitement all those years ago when writing his poem about GREEN. It was also a little boy a few weeks ago who shouted out "Cheetos", "Traffic Cones" and "Denver Broncos" when he was trying to think of everything that was orange. Don't tell me boys don't like to write.  I can show you some poems that would prove you wrong. Don't assume boys don't get excited about writing.

3. Enthusiasm for the subject matter is a must.  I was a young, scared, naive, enthusiastic student teacher when I taught that first lesson on poetry so many years ago.  While I'm no longer young, scared or naive, I am still enthusiastic about education. I hope the kids felt it when I walked into their classrooms recently.  I tried to throw out as many, "Excellent" "Love that" and High Fives as I could. If we are enthusiastic about our work, our kids will be enthusiastic about theirs.

So being back in the classroom to teach poetry got me so excited about teaching that I headed back into the classrooms the next week to have the students add their contributions to our school wide Hallway Stories. As I entered the little boy's classroom who wrote the ORANGE poem, he came rushing up to me, much like Justin ran up to Mr. Harville so many years ago. Hopefully his teacher wasn't as mortified as I was that day. I heard him excitedly say, "Mrs. Burr, Mrs. Burr, I finished my orange poem. Can I share it with you?" So much for that research about boys and writing.

Nothing compares to teaching. If you are an administrator and you aren't getting back into the classrooms to teach ask yourself why.  Teach a lesson. Show the kids the passion and enthusiasm that you expect from them and their teachers.  Connect with kids in a different way.  My student teaching experience sparked a love for teaching reading and writing and I found out it's still there.  I hope the little boy who recently wrote about Tigger, Garfield and fall leaves will always remember how excited he got when writing a poem in third grade, because I'll never forget it.                                                                     

Orange is the color of pumpkins.

The color of Halloween, fire, the Denver Broncos, and Tigger.

Orange tastes like pumpkin pie and gingerbread.

Orange looks like a shining light.

Orange feels like a fire inside.

Orange sounds like “Trick or Treat”.

Orange smells like ginger candles.

Orange is the color of a sunset.

The color of Garfield, fall leaves, and traffic cones.

By: Kaide