April is National Poetry Month. As we consider online learning opportunities, I’ve been thinking about how we might get our students to play with words through poetry!

Ask students to write a poem by choosing one of the following constraints:

• two words per line
• fifteen words
• three-syllable words
• only verbs
• words that do not include the letter ‘a’
• one word on the first line, then two on the second, then three, etc.

Rather than dictate which constraint your students should use, let them choose from a list like the one above. (You may decide to change the constraints based on the grade level you teach.)

As an example, I have included my latest creation. I gave myself the constraint of two words per line and began each stanza with the same two words: These Days.

These Days by Karen Filewych

These days
I am
at home
self-isolating
working here
writing here
waiting for 
the world 
to return
to normal
or a
semblance of.

These days
I am
walking daily
with Jak
through puddles
and muck
and grit
happily though
despite needing 
daily doggie
baths upon
arriving home.
  
These days
my walks
have become
my only
ventures out
during this
world pandemic
not expected
days home
yet needed
to keep
everyone safe. 
 
These days
will help
me appreciate 
regular life
hugging family
meeting friends
shaking hands
working together
with teachers
with students
in the 
same room.
  
These days
will end
we’ll be
stronger happier
more generous
likely more 
appreciative too
relishing in
a sense 
of normal
a return
to routine.
  
These unusual
unprecedented days: 
life lessons
if we
let them…
these days. 

(Thanks to the The Writer magazine for inspiration this week…)

We’re hunkering down to keep each other safe. In these uncertain days, with an ever changing reality, strong leadership is essential.

In Alberta, our Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Hinshaw, has risen to the occasion and been the leader we need: calm and compassionate, reassuring and real.

I also appreciated Justin Trudeau’s message this morning: he took the time to thank Canadian kids for making sacrifices to keep others safe in this far-from-normal time. Missing out on play dates and spring break plans. Helping their parents work at home and keeping up with school work as best they can.

How are you being a leader in your home or for your class or school? How are you reassuring the children in your life at this challenging time? Are you modelling healthy habits: limiting screen time, taking daily walks, diving into a good book? Are you checking in on those more vulnerable and finding ways to spread some cheer?

Brian Tracy once said, “The true test of leadership is how well you function in a crisis.”

So today, remember: lead with courage, be truthful and transparent, inspire acts of kindness. We’re all in this together.

There’s no denying it: this is an unusual time.

Events cancelled: major and minor. Businesses and facilities closed. Precautions taken. Misinformation spread. Panic buying. Potential long-term school closures.

It’s been a far from typical week.

Let’s face it. Our students are hearing bits and pieces of the news. Their events and extracurricular activities have been cancelled. Many are watching their parents stock up on supplies. Some families are voicing fear and concern. And in Alberta, as of a few hours ago, classes have been cancelled indefinitely.

If this is a scary time for adults, imagine for our students.

I am putting together some language arts suggestions for remote learning. (Stay tuned…) One of the first things to consider is the opportunity for students to (continue to) write in a weekly journal: the opportunity to reflect and respond, to sort through their feelings, especially given these unprecedented and confusing circumstances.

The platform might be different, but the purpose remains the same.

Take the time to write short notes back to reassure your students. Respect the emotion and perspectives that emerge. We may not know what the upcoming weeks and months will bring, but this is certainly a way to stay in contact, and provide our students with authentic reasons to read and write.

Do any of your students have negative views about reading or writing? Likely someone, admittedly or not.

My fundamental goal as a teacher of language arts is to change these attitudes. How?

First, take time to discuss illiteracy. I tell students about my encounter with an illiterate adult, a parent of two former students, in fact. We brainstorm all the things this adult would not be able to do in her daily life. We also consider the feelings associated with illiteracy.

Then we discuss the opposite! How empowering to be able to read menus, field trip forms, ingredients, prescription labels, and job applications. How empowering to communicate through emails, letters, poetry, stories, or social media. How empowering to learn about the world and the experiences of others, to find comfort and connections, through books. How empowering to participate in the literate world.

Second, it is essential that we make the teaching of reading and writing strategies explicit and accessible for our students. We cannot merely tell them to be better readers and writers. (Oh, if only it were so simple!) We must empower them to become better readers and writers through the strategies we teach: one by one… step by step… day by day…

Flip your students’ negative attitudes. Open their eyes to the wonder of words!

Teachers’ Convention. How is it that a common message emerges each year regardless of the speakers I hear?

Gerry Brooks, Temple Grandin, and Jann Arden. What could these three – a principal, a professor of animal science, and a singer, song-writer – possibly have in common?

All three spoke either directly or indirectly about the inevitability and usefulness of hardship. Gerry Brooks reminds us that “ervybody ain’t gonna like you” and that’s okay. But while these folks are challenging us or confronting us, he reminds us to consider any truth to the claims being made. This honesty with ourselves will ultimately make us better and stronger.

Temple Grandin has faced adversity because of perceptions about autism. As she proved in her keynote, her diagnosis is not a disadvantage. It is because of autism that she thinks differently. It is because of autism that she is able to educate others about the need for (and the incredible contributions of) different thinkers in our world.

Jann Arden has faced considerable hardship in her life, and yet, she is grateful for the experiences because of the learning that followed. While telling her story, she said repeatedly, “Good from bad.”

If I hadn’t yet caught this message, it was reiterated at the theatre last night by dear ol’ Shakespeare: “Sweet are the uses of adversity.”

How does this translate into what we do in the classroom? Quite naturally, I think. As we read about the stories of others, as we discuss the origin of an invention, as we study history, revolution and change, as we try to establish a growth mindset within our students, this lesson endures: Sweet are the uses of adversity.