I wonder if I could get away with this every day!

Today we had a "poetry slam" in my AP English class - each student brought a poem and read it for us to simply ENJOY - not analyze or critique, just listen, savor, and enjoy. Some were better than others; some were spectacular. I wish I could do this every day - actually, I wish I could teach a whole quarter of just poetry to students who REALLY want to get into it. I admit that I haven't always loved it, but now I think I'd teach poetry all the time if I could.

I have a whole new stable of poets to learn from and about. We even had one poem recited in Spanish - sounded like music to me!

I really wish I could have had this crew NEXT year after I've had a whole year to learn what and how I want to teach. I have learned a lot about what is important to an AP English class - and it isn't just the test, of course. I don't think I did any real harm to this class - just that I could have done a lot more good. But they are so sharp, they'll do just fine in life.

Tomorrow I have a day off - then Friday we get to talk about their Screwtape Letter projects - FINALLY! Next week I essentially have two days with them - we're doing "character chats" where they have all chosen to be a character from any of the works we've studied this year. Then I choose a topic and pull four or five of them out of the class to discuss that topic. Just picture Katherina from Taming of the Shrew having a conversation with Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Gregor Samsa from Metamorphosis. Talk about a Kafkaesque scene!!! I've never tried this before - wish me luck!

Do yourself a favor - read a poem today. If nothing else, you can go to poetry.com and find their poem of the day.