Although my first blog was a limerick, I am NOT a poet. The limerick was a cold-challenge to myself to make an introduction to this group of creative, open-minded thinkers.
In the event my novice poetry isn't as successful as I thought it was when I posted it, I will explain it.
This line is not just a statement that Captain Obvious might make, it's also there to let you know that I am not a poet; that I don't even rank as a novice poet.
With these lines, I wanted to let you know that, no matter how much I struggle with trying to make it otherwise, my space is perpetually cluttered and messy with an ever-evolving inventory of my own and other peoples trash.
My yogurt cups are a staple receptacle used for paint, crayons, pencil sharpener shavings, dead marker body parts, and approximately, 1,083 other items.
Eighty percent of my art supplies were trash in their recently departed previous life. And it sometimes gets mistaken for what it was in its previous life by other staff, substitute custodians, and new students!
My mess issue is caused by a perpetual battle between my intellect and conscience. Although my intellect loudly disagrees my conscience feels that it must help solve the worlds waste problem by reusing or reinventing the trash of every single human and business that I come in contact with.
It's your art room, not your house.
At school your donor base is exponentially multiplied because they include your colleagues and students and all of their parents, friend's grandparents, friends, and friends of friends of each who are within driving distance.
This is trash, not trinkets and you refuse to let it go into the landfill without taking heroic measures to divert it from that "ending".
Although, I am only in my second year of teaching K-8, I have never felt so at home as I do with these students and the team that I work with.
I don't know if it is fate, luck, destiny, chance, good timing or consequence. It may be all of those, but only "fate" rhymes with "eight", so fate does it make.
I was a first generation college student who went to college right out of high school for only one semester and dropped out. I never learned how to study and that made my core classes impossible to pass. I could have made it, but I never learned to ask for help.
In the 10 years between when I dropped out as a freshman and went back to college, I learned to do a lot of really cool things. I switched jobs a lot because once I felt like there was nothing more there for me to learn, my co-workers were hard to work with, or there was no advancement possible, I would seek out something new to learn.
I am nearly twice the age of some of my colleagues and they have the same amount of career time logged, and I also have a wiser approach to many life skills that help me to be an enriching teacher.
My childhood of poverty caused me to become inventive and creative. Although, I do not claim to be near his realm of being genius, I can relate to his insatiable desire to learn, figure out, invent, and create.
My eco conscience and awareness of the impact of the ripple that I make drives me to practice and maintain the awareness of environmental, social, and emotional health. This practice becomes a part of my classroom environment and my lessons.
I have a child-like love of and excitement for learning and it shows in my teaching and wears off on my students.
I wear a white Lab coat because my art room feels like an art LAB. We are constantly having spontaneous opportunities experiment with trash. And even when are outcome isn't one that we really wanted we still end with a positive outcome, because my students have embraced the consequences that come with taking a challenge.
This unusual bio is me following a self-challenge to write a limerick as a bio. A limerick is fun, can be rhythmic, and quirky; they can deliver a heavy message, while creating a light. They can use the humor and fun to deliver and make a heavy message more bearable. And that is what I try to do in my classroom. I try to make learning happen while being enjoyable. Which causes kids to be drawn into the fun before they even realize that they are accomplishing things they didn't think they could do.
Now that it is explained a critique is necessary.
Do you have a favorite critique format that you like to use? If so, try using it on the poem and share the results in the comments.