Thursday, May 10, 2007

my "thing"

now i am very aware that teachers can be a strange breed...sometimes i pretend that i am not a "typical" teacher. however...i have a confession to make. i've decided to make something "my thing"(...some pronounce it "thang"...ha) as a teacher. like you'll remember me because i was obsessed with "my thing". and my thing is going to be....drum roll please...poetry.
are you disappointed?
yes, it's poetry. i love teaching kids about writing poetry and i love having my kids read poetry...why not make it "my thing"?

now perhaps some of you are still wondering what it means to make something your "thang".

well...i spent a LOT of money in the last two months on Scholastic buying poetry related books. some i was able to get the school library to pay for. others, i wanted to keep for myself. i bought a 10 book set of Jack Prelutsky books. i bought a 10 book set of biographies of famous poets. i bought a book of poetry frames for writing poetry. I bought Alligator Pie, See Saw Saskatchewan, and A Poke in the I (a collection of concrete poems). I have plans to have kids memorize poetry and have poetry parties next year. that is what it means to have something be your "thing".

okay...so i got a little excited when i figured out "my thing".

but why keep this "thang" at ONE collectible item? so i picked another...

fractured fairy tales.

i love them! kids love them! they're so clever and funny. if you don't know what i'm talking about, go to your public library and take out The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales. i bought Big Bad Wolf is Good, The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza), and Goldilocks has Chicken Pox among a few others.

so i spent a little money at Scholastic. in fact, i'm in the red with the teacher who makes our orders. but i'm just so excited to have these two...things.

it's days like these that i know i'm a teacher.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I get to leave the first comment, b/c I know what Sharelle's comment is going to be: "I love your thing, Bec!"

And I also think poetry is great, and I'm delighted to hear that you're so amped to use your love of poetry to guide your teaching! I always knew you'd be a great teacher, Bec!

Alyssa said...

those are two great 'things'... I wish I could take your class:)

Anonymous said...

"shop-aholic goes scholastic" is my next fractured tale.

Ang said...

now I'm compelled to have a thing, so we can get together and talk about "how things are going". But every "thing" I think about is expensive.
I'm going to save my "thing" for retirement.




Then "my thing" will be rv-ing.


and diamonds.

Laura said...

Yes, poetry is wonderful. Bec, i'm sorry i have not given you the poetry for poetry party. I will work on that. I must say i love poetry too:) We've been doing poetry party in my class and it's amazing what kids can memorize. I was laughing when i read your blog as i just finished ordering a bunch of books on line as well:) Yeah for teaching!!

Sharelle said...

well now i feel sort of ripped off. rachel stole my comment. forget it, i am just going to say it again for emphasis:

BEST THING EVER!

Poetry is not only a good choice, its the right choice. haha. It is perfect this way because you start them young with poetry- then by the time they get to me they will be saying "teach us more, teach us more!". They will be writing epics and sonnets. Or not.

But seriously, your pun with the "poet-tree", you had to make it your thing just because of that. It's good you picked poetry, if you had picked math or something our friendship may have been ruined forever. Or not. haha.

Let's talk poetry sometime. I am interested. Can I come volunteer for poetry party?

Katie Marie said...

"Things" sound great, Rebecca. I actually just wanted to wish you a very Happy 25th Birthday (yesterday), and I hope your dinner and Lynn's shower went well. I am looking forward to seeing you next weekend when I come out! Sunday pizza dinner at your parents? Can't wait! Have an awesome week!