The Poetry Slam was a smash yesterday. It was actually really exciting how well it went. It's always a toss-up with events like that, whether students will get into it or not. But we did the best we could to create the right atmosphere: we decorated the library like kind of old coffee house. Some freshman helped me make "brick walls" out of long sheets of brown paper stamped with whiteboard erasers full of dark red paint. Then we hung up some abstract-looking art pieces from the art classes and strung white lights all crazy-like around them. It looked sooo awesome. I can't even express to you how awesome it looked, especially with the lights all dimmed.

So then students recited poetry all the way from 4th period to 7th. And a few teachers in between wowed us with some really great performances of "The Raven," "Jabberwocky," and some Blake poems. I read the Spiderman poem by Jim Hall, which the junior highers always love, and which, apparently, quite embarrasses my little sister. :) Anyway, it was so great because, although most students were required to recite, we had a period of "open mike" time, and once it got going, a ton of students wanted to read their favorite poems. There was just a really fun, good atmosphere--I couldn't have asked for it to go better for our first year. And a bunch of kids have said they really want it to happen again next year. So, yay!

And then there's just a half day of school today, so my unfortunate week is ending on a good note. Our school auction is tomorrow--which those of you with ELCA associations will be familiar with. I actually quite like the auction: it has lots of great childhood associations for me. I remember my dad always coming home with unexpected things and there being lots of good food, like fried chicken and cookies and things. It's not quite so exciting and fully of adventure these days, but I still like to go and see people and watch part of the auction. Besides, you never know what might end up coming home with you...

Labels: poetry, teaching

2 comments

I HAVE to see that! Did anybody get a video of you? -lve

By  Anonymous, at 3:02 PM  

I love that Spiderman poem. Did I ever read it to your class in school? I can't imagine I didn't because I always got a big kick out of reading it every year.

Glad it went well! And hey, I though I was going to participate or something but I see how it goes...mmmhmm. And you're not being quick with Scrabulous either? Not feeling the love.

By  Stephanie, at 10:22 PM  

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