Slammin' Poetry

I have a tendency to get a little obsessive about things I'm interested in at the moment; you know, the issue d'jour, if you will.  Last year, I went to a poetry slam and became reconverted to the power of the spoken word.  This performance poetry reaffirms my belief in the the ability of words to connect all humanity through "universal truths."  I took some of my students to a poetry slam, many of them fell in love with the genre, and we wrote and performed powerful poetry in class.  We even had a small open mic session at the Family Support Center.  A year later, kids are still writing, still interested, and still anxious to have their voices heard in the Seattle Slam circuit.  So, last Friday I took some kids to the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in midtown Seattle and they competed for spots on the Youth Speaks Poetry Team.  It was......everything you would want in an evening of powerful wordsmithery...  One of my students made it into the finals and the other didn't make it out of the first round.  Both were beyond beautiful in their bravery and their heartfelt emotions.  Maybe the whole thing sounds too beatnickish to you, but it is so cool that you will just get swept up in the language ride.  So, this is what you should do.  Find a poetry slam in your area and go to one.  Maybe you'll feel like writing a little afterwards.  Maybe, like me, you'll find your head aswhirl with unwritten poems, awakened by the knock knocking of forgotten feelings.  It's about the poetry, my friends.  

P.S.  Ya, I know that Baby Fallon has nothing to do with poetry, but isn't she cute?  And besides, remember my theory?

No easy choices....

So I've noticed that people respond much more favorably to blogs with pictures of cute babies on them.  I'm thinking of beginning all of my blogs with pictures of Fallon.  Of course, Caroline is a cute no-longer-a-baby and therein lies this week's dilemma.  I have been "coaching" Caroline's Imagination/Creativity team and we competed on Saturday at Lake Stevens High School.  Because we have one 6th grader on the team, we are in the sparse category of middle schoolers.  We competed against 2 other teams and beat them both for a berth to state in Wenatchee.  Great, right?  Well, I have tickets to California to see my beautiful grandbaby beginning on the 27th. Took off a day of work to extend spring break. Bought a non-refundable ticket.  Didn't even know when the state competition was. Thought maybe the kids on my team would just be happy with the win and not really care about the trip to Wenatchee.  You know, the joy is in the journey, right? Thought wrong. Turns out that going to state for anything may well be the highlight in an 11 year old's life. I'm working it out that Caroline can go with Rick, but I can't bring myself to change my plans; I don't even want to think about it.  Ahead of me I have a meeting with parents, a "give me money" plea with the school board, and a b'jillian things to do to make it all work without me actually being there.  I will probably take some flak and I will certainly have residual guilt feelings for years to come, but I can't do it all, right?

My life (thus far) as a student...

I have been a student at many colleges.  At 18, I thought the University of Montana was the center of the universe.  This is where I read the words of Emerson and Thoreau and where I first acted on the stage.  This is where I stayed up all night just talking, and where I could linger at the local coffee shop over chocolate chip cookies pondering just the idea of what life had to offer. 

BYU was where I learned discipline and where I learned to write.  Where I decided that I wanted to be a teacher.....  

The University of Texas was a place where I felt like I got to SHINE as a student.  I was more mature (read, older) and more focused and school came easier to me. Much later, I enrolled at Everett Community College for Spanish where I learned that I should have started learning a language a long time ago.  

Now I am a student at City University in the Master's of Reading and Literacy program.  I love learning new ideas that I can apply right away to my classes. It is a GRAND experience to know that I am involved in cutting edge best practices that I can put into play immediately.   But.....(and you knew this was coming) I long for the swirl of ideas that surrounded my colleges of yesterday.  At City U, we pay dearly for our education.  We all have busy lives and we commute to the school one weekend a month, eyes always on the clock, anxious to know what is required, and discarding anything that we don't "have to know."  I remember how back in the day what I learned was more important than the grade I received; the experience was more valuable than the result.  I loved the discovery of thoughts that made me feel so connected to humanity; the excitement of feeling VITAL and pertinent and a part of something bigger. Alas, I don't feel that at my weekend school.  Maybe I am foolish to miss it so much.