When I started working on poems for the poetry slam a few months back, I joked with my students that I should write a poem of only the little, quirky sayings I often use in class. Several students kept asking for the poem, so I wrote one up for their last day of classes. I projected it so that they could read it as they were coming into the room and getting settled. It was so much fun watching them read it, nodding and chuckling when they recognized one. A couple students commented on how this is a little like my script for the day -- I start at the beginning, put in math wherever it fits, and just keep going through the list until the end of the hour. Perhaps I could give this to the administration as my general lesson outline.

Ms. Arnold-isms

Hello! How are you today? It’s my turn!
You have something you should be doing.

PAUSE.
Volume, please.
No, thanks for asking.
Is it do-able?
Zero to five?Thumbs up/thumbs down/ishy?

-ish...
All that jazzIt’s just a little plastic surgery

Difference between lightning and lightning bug…
I'm a math teacher, and even I don't want to do it.

I'm an English teacher -- why are you asking me?Halleluiah!

It's my dyslexia kicking in.
That's a lie.
I need more working and less chatting.
That's grand.
Any questions before the next step?
That's a good question.
What are my expectations with a test?No communicating whatsoever, at all, period, until the last test is in.
I need people in desks, not on or near them.
Thanks for working so hard for me today!
Do the homework!
Have a good day!

Encouraged Writing

I may be a math teacher, but my colleagues are wonderfully encouraging me to write creatively more and more. One colleague and friend was gracious enough to let me read some of his work, and another has now asked me to write a handful of pieces for a publication at the school. So here's round one, first drafts...

Anticipation
Wondering when
Makes it worse
Checking & checking
Again
Still Nothing

This time
Something
But only
Spam

Not you


Contracted
The words itch in my fingertips
Press to flow out the pen's tip
Buzz around between my ears
Rhythm aligning
Rhymes coupling
Each action, observation, conversation
Gives a new twist


Here
I step out the patio door
Close my eyes

Listen to the cardinals
Smell the flowers, freshly mown grass
See the outstretched prairie
Horizon only interrupted
By the occasional hill and tree

Open my eyes
To the brick and shingle
Of the apartments beyond the square of grass
The traffic a block away
The neighbors' conversations and TVs

And I step back inside



Digital Procrastination
Working with my laptop open
Gmail, Facebook, and Pandora staring back at me

Write
Glance at inbox

Calculate
Scroll NewsFeed

Evaluate
Click "Love this song!"

Exchanging higher productivity
For a sense of immediate
Connectedness



Systematic Approaches
The lines only match up
End to end, intersecting
At the correct coordinates
When I make the effort

The lines only rhyme
When the words are
Lame
Naive
Contrived

The lines are too standard
Too forced
Too predictable
Everything expected of me,
nothing of my own.

Today is for free verse,
Squiggles and doodles

Today is mine.