Spring!

Sorry for not having updated in a while. Spring is definitely here in Boston, with alternating hot days and cold, rainy days. During the warmer nights, it has been nice to see people out on the street or in the courtyard just lounging around and enjoying the night. The level of violent crime seems to have leveled off a bit after Chiara Levin's murder and the rhetoric that ensued. Sadly, sometimes it takes something like that to create enough public outcry for changes to happen. Still, with hotter weather coming, I continue to pray for peace and cool heads in the city.

In 7th Grade, we recently finished a month-long exploration of poetry. It was pretty cool, especially at the end of the unit, when students kept on posting poetry all over the classroom, in every open or hidden spot they could find. At one point, I counted 88 poems scattered: haikus about our fish, poems about my withered plants, odes to Yoda, teenage-angst-filled confessions, limericks, and more. I don't think they'll say so, but I think most of them really enjoyed reading and composing poetry (admit it!). I liked getting to talk to some of my students about big life questions that came out of the poetry, like "What's the point of life?" and "Is there really such thing as good and bad, or is it just what you think?"

As part of a publishing lesson, we took some of our favorite poems, some pieces of sidewalk chalk, and went outside to the adjacent basketball court. There, we scribed our masterpieces (or whimsies) onto the pavement for all to see. The pictures that you see are from that day. Nice job, 7th graders. It was probably hard for many of you. Here's a haiku to memorialize your struggle

Writing poetry
Liu is breathing down my back,
"Publish or perish..."