My poster came in the mail today. Thanks, Penguin.
This year I asked my friends and colleagues
to consider this question:
I know what Ponyboy Curtis would choose.
So far, I have posted the following answers in our hallway:
"The Bagel" from Grace
"And Your Soul Shall Dance" from Susan
"The Girl Who Loved the Sky" from Susan
"The Swing" from Julie & "No Man is an Island" from Michele
Beth and I both like "Forever Young." It was on the first final exam I ever gave.
"You've Got A Friend" from Trish; "I Can See Clearly Now" from Jeff.
"Child of the Wild Blue Yonder" from Jennifer' "You Can Do Magic" from Heather.
"Phenomenal Woman" from Kate; "Alone" from Anne.
Everyone wants to to enjoy 24 hours of "Happy."
"Daffodils" from Susan; "To Live is to Fly" from Rob.
"It Don't Come Easy" from Donna; "Just A Girl" from Lori.
"One of These Things First" from Chris; "Eyes of the World" from Beth.
"The Road Not Taken" from Ruth, Alice & Laura.
"You Can't Hurry Love" from Joyce.
"Wasted on the Way" from Nat
We still have room for you!
If you would like to replicate this display, all you need are manilla folders, a glue stick, a stapler, scrapbook paper, multicolor printer paper, scissors, a photocopier, a printer and a few pals.
It's snowing as I type this, but spring did arrive last week. In a rare turn of events, it was also sunny that day. If you are reading this from pretty much anywhere in the South, you know how wacky our weather has been. On February 25th, I was getting a hankering to see something besides all of this gray...it's in my hair, it's the color of my cat, it's in the sky, it's the carpet and walls of our classroom. Enough already. Having not yet figured out my get rich quick scheme, my thoughts quickly turned to paint chips, yellow and orange ones. As my 2A class was enjoying their independent reading time, I got an idea. What if we write out the lyrics to "Here Comes the Sun" on paint chips and hang them somewhere in time for spring's arrival? I researched the lyrics to make sure that George Harrison was the only songwriter to credit. Guess what? February 25th was Mr. H's birthday. Well, that settled it. No turning back now. When the kids were done with their 20 minutes of reading, I said, "I have this idea, and I think we should go through with it." "Okay," said one male voice. The others listened enthusiastically...I think. I explained the whole alignment of the universe with the March 25 coinkydink, and they were on board. I split the song into lines. They wrote the lyrics on the paint chips. Our dear Mrs. Lassiter, also a George fan, laminated them for us. We punched holes and waited for the day.
Someone who looks a lot like me misremembered the solstice kick-off, but the display was up on the school's wheelchair ramp for the first full day of spring as the students arrived for another day of state testing. Ten bucks at Dollar Tree also got me a fistful of pinwheels, Elton John sunglasses for our tiny potted tree and three smiley face balloons. I know for a fact that at least two kids appreciated the effort, so it was all worth it. We have packed up our paint chips and are ready to mail them to any location in the continental United States. You will need ribbon or yarn and a place to display them. We'd love to send them to you.
Something tells me that many of you are about to have a lot of empty plastic eggs at your disposal. How about some Guerrilla Poetry Bombs? (Relax...no explosives needed.)
This is an activity I tried out with the Eastern Virginia Writing Project Fellows of 2009. It's simple. Pick some favorite poems. Print them out. Fold them up. Tuck them inside a plastic egg.
Now for the fun part. Where are you going to leave these little bits of magic? It's up to you. You could have a friend ride shotgun with you after sundown and launch these babies in random lawns. I guess it could be called littering, but wouldn't Smokey and Junior enjoy a bit of surprise Shel Silverstein? Who wouldn't?
Don't limit yourself to the canon of lit-tra-ture. Consider songs too. Willie Nelson's "Always on my Mind" strikes me as the kind of lyric that would hit someone just right. Van Morrison. Lennon & McCartney. Otis Redding. Leiber & Stoller. Brian Wilson. Dolly Parton. Robbie Robertson. Bob Dylan. Bruuuuuuuuce. Just be sure to include the names of the poets/ lyricists.
Even a song we've experienced a billion time's before like U2's "Beautiful Day" shows a different kind of beauty in the quiet of reading the words without hearing the tune.
Here's an old classic that would be a lot of fun on paper.
Let's illuminate our little corners of the world with uplifting and lighthearted words. Here's a free, printable bookmark from your old pal, Shel Silverstein, to inspire you.
This one's on my bucket list for later, but maybe you want to get to it sooner. Every summer the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum invites teachers to Cleveland for a week to learn how to use popular music to enhance their lessons.
You are responsible for paying for the class as well as food, lodging and transportation. You can also earn graduate credit through Ashland University...for a fee. If you're a local, maybe you just want to hang out at their library and enjoy the archives. Explore the previous years' institutes to see what a typical week involves before you fork over your funds.
Too busy (broke) to travel this summer? Dress in pleather, play your own music collection and peruse some pre-made lesson plans.
Maybe you want to donate your stage costume from your world tour...you can do that too. You've really made the grade.
Oh to have Bob Dylan's complete lyrics for a textbook! His extensive song catalog could keep students well-fed indefinitely. This is a quick, fun exercise that pairs Dylan's often elusive writing with the mystery of chance.
You will need some of Mr. D's lyrics on hand. I recommend http://www.bobdylan.com/songs. If you open a word processing document, you may alt+tab between the lyrics and the document to cut and paste intriguing lines. Print the lyrics out with enough white space to cut them apart. Place them inside a container that allows students to reach in and pull out a slip of Bobness without peeking.
These Boblines now become the opening lines of your students' creative writing. Here are three examples:
"Girls like birds flying away"
"I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it."
"Well, I’ve spent my time with the fortune-telling kind."
Okay, four. I've always wanted this curious line to open a story, "Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule."
Imagine the beautiful stories waiting to bloom right inside your classroom walls.
And there's always that kid who asks the same question when you are requesting fiction, but he just wants to be certain, "Can we make this up?"
"Yes. Yes, you should."
Here's Dylan's song "Forever Young" that he wrote for his son Jakob... if you are itching to hear some Dylan right about now.
