I stayed with my literary babies all day today. The school had a celebration, called "Book-IT" which is a celebration of students reading and increasing their literary skills. Students received book and literary awards, trophies, and most importantly, were able to be apart of the program. Parents of the students, grandmothers, and other relatives were on hand to see the program as it unfolded this afternoon at 1pm. Before then, I taught my first graders this morning. They wrote voice poems.
Samples from class:
My voice is cool.
My cat's voice.
My dog's voice.
My mom's voice.
My cousin's voice.
My puppy.
My uncle's voice.
~~ D'Andre M.
I like my mom's voice.
I like my dad's voice.
I like my voice.
I like my auntie's voice.
~ Pilshae B.
I love to talk.
I love to speak.
To Jarod and my other cousins,
sisters and brothers.
~ Jalen P.
My spirits voice is about to catch on fire.
And I can not do anything about it.
My voice might be a bad thing in me
because my spirit's voice is on fire too.
~ Malik L.
The amazing thing about today's class was the sixteen line poems by two students. They consistently write long poems which tells me that they read and write a lot at home. I got a chance to meet some of the parents of the students. I showed some of them the work I have been able to do with students. Malik's father was very surprised about the deepness of his son's thoughts. I invited parent's to drop in my class. I would love for them to see what I do with the kids. It's amazing though, I normally run out of time in the class. I realize, students are really connecting with me. I got a lot of hugs from the kids. Especially the girls. I think it's important that I be who I am, a strong black woman, unafraid of being who she is. I love working with the kids, to hear their thoughts, and see such progression in my short time with them. I have four to six weeks left on my contract and will be finished at this particular school by June 11th. I will be sad to leave.
Because of the love, the committment of the student work, even with some of my hard headed seventh graders, it's a fresh breath of air to hear voices - young voices that are begging to be heard, even in the midst of behavioral issues. These kids shine~and they inspire me.
Mocha Sistah
2 comments:
Hi there Mocha,
I can see that your day went well with the babies. First grade must be really nice and I think that it makes up for those who make it difficult for you. I am so glad that the parents were happy to see you work well with their poetic babies and to know that they can learn poetry at a very young age. I know those hugs felt good from those other girls..because they know and respect you because you represent to them what a black woman is all about. They don't see much of that, for all they see is negativity at home and on tv screen. You showed them another way of life and that is a good thing. The "Book-It" program I am familiar with, it is here in town at some of the schools I do believe. I am glad you stayed and had a good time. I know also that it is going to be sad to leave in June but then again you don't know what may happen in June...you may be asked to stay a little longer. They may "develop" a program just so that you can stay. I was trying to say something in my blog to that effect but I will try again. We don't know what's in store sometimes, now do we?
I think what I was left with today is that with a community you can build our generations. It was beautiful to see how many parents and relatives came out to help their children celebrate literacy. Many of the programs these days celebrate althetic or celebrate the fun things like singing, band, etcetera. What I like about this school, it's my old elementary school that I graduated from and they really appreciate me coming back. I chose the school and asked the Poetry Center to allow me to bring poetry programming there. You are right, you never know. I just feel so grateful to help our children express themselves, thorugh artistic expression. It's not the easiest job. But it's very rewarding. I have grown a lot from the experiences. And you are right, we don't know is in store. But God does...
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