i never warn my followers that I'm getting #weirded on Wednesdays. They must just be really good at tuning me out during the chat. (is this supposed to be in rhyming couplet? gosh I hope not. Not a fan of forced rhyming couplet)
#WeirdEd Thomas is my name, pissed off is my state, why does licensing site crashes and throw off my game?
I click Back Button
Aghast at $90 Fee
Why such a glutton?
Make it simply free?
Crashes
Hope Dashes
Fuck it.
#WeirdEd I'm turning the show over to @slwindisch now, so watch her for the key changes and try to keep up.
We're continuing the not doing Qs experiment tonight too.
#WeirdEd My poetry hang up? For the longest time I wanted poems to rhyme and it really bothered me when they don't. Now I'm more ok with that, but I still want them to rhyme.
This Is Just To Say
I am late
to the chat
that we do
on Twitter
and which
you were probably
looking
forward to
Forgive me
I bring cake
in the form
of a gif
#weirded
Crappy free verse disguised as "deep thinking" with varied lines of whatever length, breaks just because, new stanzas mid-sentence, without the hint of meter or flow? #WeirdEd#PoetryHangups
I always loved Shel Silverstein as a kid, but the poetry "greats" we were forced to read in school left me less than enthused. Got into slam poetry after seeing some youtube clips. Wrote a few myself in high school, but worried it made me look pretentious. #WeirdEd
she said rhyming not required. the rubric says...!!!! @slwindisch#weirded
I prefer to focus on the rhythm. My fav poem had lines about my love of mail.
letter letter letter letter
envelope envelope....
Not A1: Never understood why I didn’t like poetry. Took college class. Was stumped trying to interpret poems. Realized I never struggled on an academic task in that way. Gave me empathy for Ss who deal with that lost feeling daily. Doesn’t make my brain happy like prose. #WeirdEd
Not A1: Never understood why I didn’t like poetry. Took college class. Was stumped trying to interpret poems. Realized I never struggled on an academic task in that way. Gave me empathy for Ss who deal with that lost feeling daily. Doesn’t make my brain happy like prose. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd I don't think I have poetry hang ups? I always feel like poetry is an expression of emotion, but emotion varies between people, so if a poem doesn't trigger emotion for a person, they may just need to read a different one? Unless the structure is clunky,half hearted
Every poem I share with my class I have to absolutely LOVE. I mean, I have to discover it, dig it up, look under the hood, and mix my metaphors about it until it's mine. I can kinda teach stories I don't love, but I canNOT teach a poem I don't love. #weirded
See, that was something my English teacher did that freaked me out. That whole lyrics as poetry thing. I really wanted to analyze Eminem's lyrics, but I went to an all girl Catholic school, so... #WeirdEd
Not A1: I've never been into poetry that much. I had to do it in high school, and sometimes in college. It was never my thing. I did well with them though. #WeirdEd#GEN2108
I like most poetry. I don’t care much for cliches, but that applies to all writing—not just poetry. I guess I don’t like it when a writer smushes a word in just for the rhyme. #WeirdEd
I enjoy poetry the way I enjoy swimming. I know what it means to be good at it, and I realize I am not, but guess what no one is kicking me out of the pool!*
*until the lifeguard blows the whistle for adult swim bc I can't face my own agingiand impending mortality #weirded
#WeirdEd Yes! Sometimes lack of flow really ruins immersion and just sounds forced. Sometimes, it's better to write it out in normal prose than poetry if that's the case.
That's why I like button poetry's channel. I can watch from home without having to hang out in a dive and coming home smelling like clove cigarettes. #WeirdEd
Also, I can't stand when people are like, "but just letting kids play around writing whatever and not doing poetry ANALYSIS is not going to serve them in the future" like anyone has given poetry its academic due in like five generations #WeirdEd
I was an extremely prolific "poet" as a middle/high schooler. I still have like all of my poems from about 5th-12th grade in a binder somewhere. #WeirdEd
I don't like all poetry, but luckily for poems, they don't need me to like them. I'm just one person. They'll find their audience. Keep being words strung together with meaning, little poems! You'll find the right ears to hear you & eyes to see you! #weirded
Gahhhh!! I hate when it's just a sentence with odd line breaks ... but I guess it's worse when it doesn't even read like a sentence ... just random clauses
#WeirdEd
I think poetry is hard to teach because it's often presented thru an elitist lens... why don't we teach poetry Ss can access? Why does it have to be Leaves of Grass? #WeirdEd
With hangups in mind, may I present a quote (not in graphic form):
“Poetry surprises and deepens our sense of the ordinary. Poetry tells us that the world is full of wonder, revelation, consolation, and meaning. ”
—Tracy K. Smith, U.S. Poet Laureate (2017– )
#WeirdEd
#WeirdEd Also, I don't read a lot of poetry, though Poetry is what got me to join that literally life-changing Drama/Theater in 9th grade, so it's kinda hard for me to have hang ups because of its impact. Presented a poetry to my 8th Grade LA T and Drama Director, got me to join
Need to get it just right
erase, write, erase, write
Not ready for Crtl+enter
Can't I write something better
I'll participate in #WeirdEd
If revision doesn't kill me
Which is NOT to say that poetry analysis isn't really interesting and possibly useful in life but PLEASE. It's basically just playing around anyway. #WeirdEd
Need to get it just right
erase, write, erase, write
Not ready for Crtl+enter
Can't I write something better
I'll participate in #WeirdEd
If revision doesn't kill me
With hangups in mind, may I present a quote (not in graphic form):
“Poetry surprises and deepens our sense of the ordinary. Poetry tells us that the world is full of wonder, revelation, consolation, and meaning. ”
—Tracy K. Smith, U.S. Poet Laureate (2017– )
#WeirdEd
#WeirdEd Poems are more fun to deconstruct than short stories sometimes. There's more there there. It forced the kids to be like "this poem is about a tiger, but it's not about a tiger."
I’ve noticed many struggling writers write their prose like poetry. If you help them arrange it in lines, it blows their minds. “You are a poet!” is something they’re not used to hearing. #WeirdEd
That said, I get so personally excited about poetry analysis it's almost stupid, and that hooks them. "You guys, this poem is SO COOL. It's gonna seem really boring, then it's gonna blow your MIND. I promise." #weirded
Asking "What pops?" and "Why?" Having that discussion is real analysis, and being able to have that kind of discussion is a Real Life Skill(tm) #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd Although, according to @TheWeirdTeacher intro prompt for the chat, once I get going, I I get something. Or, maybe just the rhyming front, sometimes it's quite the stunt.
That's actually why I have such a hard time teaching poetry, even though I really enjoy it. It's hard to communicate things about poems, even with the most precise words. #weirded
step one. say words. step two, decide if those are the words you love and change the ones you don't step three, does it still say what you want? step four, say it out loud step 5 (see step two only judge by sound.)
#weirded (my poetry writing plan)
In reply to
@mrburkemath, @slwindisch, @annemdelgado
Also, poetry should always be performed. We walk out meter and chime in on rhyme and rewrite poems for two voices and do "golden shovel" poems which are always awesome. It's good to be literally floored by your students' writing. #weirded
Makes me think of: "Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some." - Robert Fulghum #weirded
This is my first semester teaching, and in third grade the depth of my poetry analysis with the kids has been “That Shel Silverstein poem, in my analysis, was funny.” And then my kids all yell “Here! Here!” As if we were in parliament. #WeirdEd
Maybe I'm a stick-in-the-mud, but I would love to see more formal poetry taught in schools. In 6th grade, my teacher did a huge unit on poetic forms, and I became obsessed. Writing poetry became a huge part of my identity as a teen. #WeirdEd
Judging by "game shows", if you're going back far enough, I'd think Nipsey Russell, who had quick amusing little ditties whenever he was on Match Game #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd read a song translated from another language. The music doesn’t fit. It’s definitely more than poetry. Poetry has relatively simple rhythm. A song is much more complex, like 5 poems working together as one.
To paraphrase @teacherofftopic said, it's great to have a sectioned off space to play. And using a structure or formula does *not automatically nullify a kid's creativity*. #weirded
Today reading "waiting for normal" @LeslieConnor29
Kids were trying every way possible not to make love note from one male to another not be #lgbtsla
Interesting gymnastics
#weirded#teacheproblems
In reply to
@TheWeirdTeacher, @janamaiuri, @LeslieConnor29
So earlier, I saw that someone (@janamaiuri ?) said that poetry must be read aloud, and I agree. So are there three ways to interact with poetry: reading, writing, and responding? #WeirdEd
Ugh. This is why we hated Shakespeare. Our teacher insisted on us reading it in "correct" iambic pentameter, which JUST meant OUR voiCES pitched UP and DOWN like THIS. #WeirdEd
In reply to
@TheWeirdTeacher, @MarciaDressel, @rebelmusicteach
#WeirdEd Someone else (@davidtedu?) made that point a few days ago with plays. Handing someone a Shakespeare script is like handing someone sheet music "Here, appreciate this"
Mind's drawing a blank (much like when writing descriptive poetry). Don't know anyone else, offhand.... then again, haven't watched a lot of Family Feud in a long time. #WeirdEd
Interpreting, maybe? I was reading something today about how one must *read* what a certain public figure says, because when you *hear* it your brain automatically inserts the words left out, making the meaning dependent on the specific listener. Are poems similar? #weirded
I wrote a poem while undergoing chemo. I wonder how many people have done that? Hell, if I have what I think I have, perhaps I will write more poems about cancer. #weirded
There’s reading Dickinson’s poem on death and then laying awake for a week straight staring at the half-drunk cup of water on the nightstand with the lights on. But I guess that’s kind of responding? #weirded
So earlier, I saw that someone (@janamaiuri ?) said that poetry must be read aloud, and I agree. So are there three ways to interact with poetry: reading, writing, and responding? #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd YO, I'm reading this with small group right now! HOLY JEEZ, So much stuff packed into the first few chapters, so much my 4th graders missed before I got my own copy!
In reply to
@TheWeirdTeacher, @janamaiuri, @TeacherWithTuba, @OneCrazyRita
Once kids have an outline, something to work with, then that tends to spark creativity. The issue with teaching kids poetry is some have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE where to begin. Sometimes they need a jumping off point. #weirded
Also, Shakespeare's "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" is hilarious because it's about how she's ugly and normal but he loves her to death anyhow. Super sweet. #WeirdEd
Ooh! Opposite experience here...English T read “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” in iambic pentameter to show how it emphasized the onslaught of time. #weirded
In reply to
@Sneffleupagus, @TheWeirdTeacher, @MarciaDressel, @rebelmusicteach
Okay. Thank you for the peer feedback. How’s this? 😄
#Revision
Nothing
that as anything to do
with grody Jodie
rhymes with Nebraska.
#weirded cc @janamaiuri 😬
One of my greatest accomplishments was a sonnet I wrote for a college creative writing class. A friend said it reminded her of Dorothy Parker. #weirded
Originally I thought all sonnets followed Shakespeare's rules, 14 lines ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
But there are other types, too.
With different meters
#WeirdEd
In reply to
@YennePaul, @MarciaDressel, @rebelmusicteach
Please ask me any questions you like about teaching Shakespeare. If you can get your kids to a performance, or show them one of the more accessible films, they will love it to death with a little finessing. I do full plays every year with 6th grade and it's awesome. #weirded
In reply to
@TheWeirdTeacher, @haliengelman, @slwindisch, @davidtedu
Many of us find poetry daunting to learn and teach. I think there was a certain rigidity in howbit was taught when the desks were all in rows that lingers today. That insistence on correctness and pure form. #WeirdEd
You can sing that poem to the tune of the theme song to Gilligan's Island if that makes you feel better.
Because I could not stop for death, it kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality
(and Immortality)
#weirded
My favorite book of poetry is by a cowboy poet who used to perform at the local theme park when I was in middle school.
I liked it because there wasn't much to analyze, but it wasn't jokey like Shel Silverstein
#WeirdEd
Sounds interesting. The cancer center waiting room used to have a book showing patients and others doing various types of art in regards to their cancer diagnosis. Very touching and some really amazing artwork. #weirded
Questions aren't labeled as such.
More of leading the discussion, I think.
(I hope -- I only saw one and then I just started tacking comments on everyone else's comments!)
#WeirdEd
#WeirdEd This is why I like terrace songs at soccer matches. Take a song, change the lyrics, make it about a player you support. Then I take those, change the lyrics and make them lullabies to calm the baby. :)
#WeirdEd This is peripherally related but it's that kind of chat- movies can be poems if done right. The best description of CLOUD ATLAS is a "tone poem".
Also CLOUD ATLAS is a work is beauty and everyone should see it
I never got to play with poetry until I was an adult. I regurgitated the accepted interpretations and wrote rigid forms. Stunted my growth as a poetry teacher. I echoed what had been done unto me. #WeirdEd
When I get to songwriting with my kids in Rock Band, my experience is that kids have no experience with poetry. It should absolutely be presented in a variety of forms, from Christina Rossetti to Kendrick Lamar. But. #weirded
#WeirdEd This is peripherally related but it's that kind of chat- movies can be poems if done right. The best description of CLOUD ATLAS is a "tone poem".
Also CLOUD ATLAS is a work is beauty and everyone should see it
#WeirdEd Yes! What’s the story they want to tell, and what are the “rules” for this kind of storytelling? Just like when I taught my Ss to cut wrestling promos!
Once kids have an outline, something to work with, then that tends to spark creativity. The issue with teaching kids poetry is some have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE where to begin. Sometimes they need a jumping off point. #weirded
#WeirdEd I have Homework Oh Homework memorized. I wanted to memorize The Raven for a party trick, got about halfway through, and then stopped for some reason
#WeirdEd I actually feel illiterate right now, y'all name checking titles and authors and I'm just here
Also, I'm looking through some licensure fees and I can't afford them, so there's that....
Are you saying I might need to care if
This admin imposes this tariff?
This protectionist thought
Sways what's sold and what's bought
On the price of the president's paraph?
I’ve noticed many struggling writers write their prose like poetry. If you help them arrange it in lines, it blows their minds. “You are a poet!” is something they’re not used to hearing. #WeirdEd
what about shape poems Sara huh huh huh #WeirdEd
(I'm feeling obstreperous because as
poetry is my jam and enjambment is
also my thing i really
wanted to play tonight but
keep getting called away)
#WeirdEd I actually feel illiterate right now, y'all name checking titles and authors and I'm just here
Also, I'm looking through some licensure fees and I can't afford them, so there's that....
Middle schoolers love tough topics, humor, and video. I have a lot of videos from Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam show-
Raised by Women, I Wanna Hear a Poem, I Can't Read, etc. And of course there's always "Where I'm From," the best poem lesson ever. #weirded
I know.
But do you think it's called a tone poem because of mood, or do you think it is more specifically the musical form? I honestly default to music, because that definition fits. Tell me more.
#WeirdEd
Not poetry, but I took a page from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance and told a reluctant writer to use a whole page to describe 1 side of a penny. Got a page of delightful snark. Needed that toehold to stand on. #weirded
Once kids have an outline, something to work with, then that tends to spark creativity. The issue with teaching kids poetry is some have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE where to begin. Sometimes they need a jumping off point. #weirded
Yeah, I openly decided to become a better poetry teacher. I focus on the power and joy. Students have responded well, and I feel much better about the work. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd Legit though, love listening to some slam poetry, especially pertaining to Asian-American identity/racism. https://t.co/iBsL3SdjH2 I think someone talked about Button Poetry?
#WeirdEd The editing in Cloud Atlas is driven as much by the moods between times as anything else, and how they're linked together.
BUT there is a "Cloud Atlas Sextet" at the center of it that might be a tone poem? It's a beautiful piece of music
Also, I can't stand when people are like, "but just letting kids play around writing whatever and not doing poetry ANALYSIS is not going to serve them in the future" like anyone has given poetry its academic due in like five generations #WeirdEd
lotta my students respond when shape poetry is shown/shared. Concrete poems. something that gives more structure to the wishywashy words they can't quite command #weirded
Tidbit: When I was a TA at Northern IL U, I gave my students a poem by Carl Sandburg to read. Student: Is the the joker the auditorium was named after? #weirded
But it's a lot like music: art & creativity involve skills. If kids can't write rhyming couplets, they need models to work from. They need guidance. From there, composition & creativity can be fostered. #weirded
YAAAAS. I pulled this on a kid this year who was writing endless variations on " is cool, it is fun, is fun and funny". Loved to be able to assign competence. #WeirdEd
But it's a lot like music: art & creativity involve skills. If kids can't write rhyming couplets, they need models to work from. They need guidance. From there, composition & creativity can be fostered. #weirded
In “Poetry Out Loud” it is placed next to “Ye Tradeful Merchants that with Weary Toil” and when the two are read together it really works with “Mistresses Eyes” #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd Legit though, love listening to some slam poetry, especially pertaining to Asian-American identity/racism. https://t.co/iBsL3SdjH2 I think someone talked about Button Poetry?
A balance, always. We talk about structure and choices, but not in the intense we are writing this form from the worksheet way. We talk about the moves, and why they work. #WeirdEd
When I was a student at University of Iowa, I had a professor who claimed that ee cummings was not a poet. That was his hang up. I think he's great. #weirded
Hey, #WeirdEd. You all are so smart and clever and wonderful. I wanted to have a discussion about poetry and you blew my mind. KEEP GOING! WE STILL HAVE 10 MINUTES!
While I am finding myself snarkier than usual tonight, I really am enjoying reading the conversations. I always love listening to people who are passionate about things I’m not. Once I get a year or two under my belt, I want towork on finding poetry that gets me fired up #WeirdEd
Hey, #WeirdEd. You all are so smart and clever and wonderful. I wanted to have a discussion about poetry and you blew my mind. KEEP GOING! WE STILL HAVE 10 MINUTES!
But teaching poetry reveals many things, too. Last year, I had my Rock Band kids write lyrics. The first like eight drafts they wrote were about violence in their neighborhoods. #weirded
#weirded sorry I missed this chat! Trying to get my daughter to sleep, she asked me to read her a bed time story. I told her to pick out a book. She did. When she handed it to me, I smiled. A Dr. Seuss book, "I Can Read with My Eyes Shut." Surprisingly, had never read it before.
#WeirdEd Poetry is a great way to get the kids thinking around corners and being mind-bendy. It's SO hard for them to do it. My fifth graders are still super literal.
While I am finding myself snarkier than usual tonight, I really am enjoying reading the conversations. I always love listening to people who are passionate about things I’m not. Once I get a year or two under my belt, I want towork on finding poetry that gets me fired up #WeirdEd
Yes! The first time I show Ss a poem that isn't in uniform stanzas with a rigid rhyme scheme they reference what they learned a poem was in MIddle School. (Though the word stanza is always new to them.) minds blown! #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd OH! OH OH OH!
I read my kids "Inside Out and Back Again" for a novel read aloud and it's all in poetry and it's beautiful and sad and fantastic. It's about a South Korean refugee during the Korean War. Highly recc
This year, when we did the same thing, it was more difficult for one of my classes because of a high number of ELL students. Those kids really really needed the structure to work from. #Weirded
My Grade 10a read Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, discussed it, and used it as inspiration for poems about school. Very cool. (Full blog next Friday!) #WeirdEd
This semester has been a lesson in realistic goals, and learning what I actually knew vs. what I thought I knew. Humbling, scary, but ultimately exciting. #WeirdEd
Your mileage may vary, of course.
I don't hate poetry, not at all, just don't get me started on the stuff I don't like.
It's nice talking about the stuff we do
#WeirdEd
I hate "Like Totally Whatever You Know" but many others are good. There is a very profane rebuttal to that poem from a slam somewhere that made me laugh out loud. #weirded
