A Just Right Teacher

We're heading to New York City tomorrow. I grew up in New Jersey, with that great skyline in view. I fell deeper in love as a student at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (Dramatic Writing, natch!)

I love sharing my favorite city with the kids.

And while we're on the topic of favorites, this past school year my daughter had her favorite teacher yet.

There's an elementary-level quatrain poem lesson coming, so skip ahead if you like. Or, read on for the back story.

In third grade, my daughter had a wonderful teacher, who left on paternity leave. He was a young guy and loved to tease the kids. My daughter says, "He knew how to tease you so you'd feel good about yourself." She was heartbroken when he left and never connected with the long-term sub.

(When her grandfather died six months later, my daughter cried, "I can't go through this again!" and I realized just how deeply she experienced the loss of her teacher.)

I was thrilled when we got my daughter's fourth-grade assignment this past August. The wonderful Mrs. Bray!

Jenny Bray joined the school when my son was in fourth grade and moved up with his class to fifth. I knew she was a warm teacher and decent person, but after my son had moved on to middle school, I'd gotten to know Mrs. Bray through mutual friends.

She's smart, even-tempered and her love for kids shines through everything she does. My daughter needed someone to encourage her and love her up. Jenny Bray was the Just Right Teacher.

One of the things Jenny did for my girl was encourage her love of creative writing. During the last week of school -- when videos were on in classrooms all over Maryland -- Jenny taught a lesson on quatrain poems.

Her model poem is "The Night Is a Big Black Cat" by G. Orr Clark. It begins...

The Night is a big black cat,
The Moon is her topaz eye...

You'll find the rest to read and hear at Highlights Kids. This poem is deceptively simple. It teaches form: rhyming quatrain; but it also develops an animal metaphor over four short lines.

For those of you, like me, who use Emily Dickinson's "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers" as a model for animal metaphors, "The Night Is a Big Black Cat" is an option for younger grades or newly emerging writers.

Here is the assigned poem that my daughter wrote in class. Oh, did Mrs. Bray fuss over her.

The Hurricane Is a Circling Hawk

by J. Shovan (age 10)

The Hurricane is a circling hawk, searching for food.

The Sea is its mother.

The Humans below are its prey.

It whirls and twirls, ready to smother.

The morning of the last day of school, I suggested to my daughter that she write another quatrain metaphor, this one about her teacher, to share with the class. We worked on fine-tuning a few words together.

Mrs. Bray

by J. Shovan

Mrs. Bray is a gentle deer

watching her fawns with a caring eye.

She teaches them to survive the forest of school,

but when summer comes, they say goodbye.

Okay, go get a hankie. Then stop by some  more Poetry Friday blogs posted at today's host, awesome Maryland kids' poet Heidi M. at My Juicy Little Universe. Hi, Heidi!

50 State Tour: Montana

Happy July 4! We're heading to Annapolis, MD to watch my son march in the city's parade. And have ice cream (great ice cream shops in Annapolis).

To help celebrate, let's visit the 41st entry in our tour of the 50 state poets laureate -- Montana. Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, was from the Treasure State. You can learn about her and other famous Montanans at Montana Kids.

Many well-known Native American leaders and writers were born in Montana. One of them is state poet laureate Henry Real Bird, whose primary language is Crow. He is a lifelong educator (currently teaching grades K, 4 and 6 at a tribal school) and a cowboy poet.

So many of us feel connected to our regional landscape. On our country's birthday, it's good to stop and honor that connection, to remember how much we value the physical United States.

Here is Henry Real Bird's poem, "Red Scarf," which honors the beauty of the American West. I loved the gentle musicality of this poem. Hope you enjoy and think of "Red Scarf" while you're watching fireworks tonight.

RED SCARF

Boots and chinks
Silver bit and silver spurs
Eased into the dawn
To walk out kinks
Horse like shiny, free of burrs
Trotted into day
I’m ridin’ bay
If you can see the beauty
In the sunset with many colors
I only see the beauty in the sunrise with many colors
You can find me
In the beauty in the sky
In sunrise and sunset
In the shadow of the sky
Among the stars
If you can see the beauty, in the sky
You can find me, in your eye
With a red scarf on
Boots and chinks
Here I am, I’m ridin’ gone
Ground about day
Lookin’ for a stray
Red-tail hawk blessed me with his shadow
Clouds peak to my south
Granite to the west
Sheep Mountains and the Pryors
Look their best

Read the rest of the poem at Henry Real Bird's website. Scroll down -- it's the third poem.

May a red-tail hawk bless you with his shadow today.

Summer Reads: A Tale Dark & Grim

If it's made of paper and words, my ten-year-old will read it.

Mystery and fantasy are her favorite genres. She devoured the entire Sisters Grimm series, by Michael Buckley. So I was excited to pick up a book for her at ALA called, A Tale Dark & Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz.

It comes out from Dutton in November. The ARC I picked up is marked "Ages 10 up/ Grades 5 up," but my daughter found it way scary. I'll have to read the book myself to see what bugged her, but I'm guessing this one is more fantasy/horror than fantasy/adventure.

Here's my daughter's feedback:

What was your overall impression of the book?
It's a tie between likes and dislikes. It involved quite a bit of blood and some stuff that people would think very disgusting and horrifying. What I liked about it, though, was that in some parts it was very humorous.

The story in one sentence?
Hansel and Gretel's true creepy life, including adventures like getting their heads cut off and killing a dragon.


Who were your favorite characters and why?
The three ravens can tell the future and they're in a way like narrators. They were cool. I liked that they could tell the future. That was a really neat idea.

What was your favorite part of the story?
When they killed the dragon, I liked that part. I can't tell you about it, because it would ruin the whole book.

What did you like about the cover?
It looks interesting. It's not an every day thing to see two trees with ghoul faces and a girl holding a sword with blood on it.

Would you recommend to a friend? What would you say?
I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody unless they don't get scared by violence and blood and stuff like that. If they're okay with that stuff, I'd say this is a pretty good book for them.

Mom says: You may want to check out another review here, or read the book yourself before handing it to kids on the younger end of 5th grade. You know best what your individual child can handle.

Miss J's Score: Two scoops.

Summer Reading Score Cheat Sheet
Empty Cone – Didn’t like it.
One Scoop – It was okay.
Two Scoops – Pretty good.
Three Scoops – Great book.
Sundae – I want to read the whole series. Now.