An hour is
60 minutes
3600 seconds
a lifetime.
haikus- pass May 13, 2014
Pass word needs 8
characters, a symbol, a capital,
and a number.
.
For your own security
Don’t write down your
user name or pass word!
.
Remember everything
even if you only use the site
once a year.
poem- A Candystripers’s Duty May 12, 2014
A candystriper’s duty:
*to smile a warm hello and assure a frightened face
that the hospital isn’t really a terrible place
*to smile in reassurance that the food isn’t bad
*to return a smile to a face that is sad
*to smile when we’re happy and smile when we’re not
*to leave our smiles with a lingering thought
*to smile all the time ‘til the end of our shift
and then when we’re done we can frown if we wish
But somehow the smiling we’ve done that day
keeps us smiling and we’re glad we smiled that way.
.
.
My father asked me to find this poem, because he’ll be speaking at a candystriper recognition evening this week in the extended care facility where he lives. I wrote it when I was 15 for a display. I volunteered at our local hospital and an extended care facility as a candystriper from grades nine through twelve, accumulating nearly 700 hours (close enough that I was given the charm for it). I worked surgical, medical, and pediatric floors, as well as admitting. We filled and distributed water jugs, distributed food trays, helped feed patients, ran errands, delivered flowers, etc. I was only vaguely interested in nursing, and my hospital time quickly informed me that I didn’t want to pursue a career in nursing, but I loved working at the hospital, helping people who needed my smiling face. I will try to scan in the photo of me with the display. I had to borrow a microscope to record the poem! lol
Haiku- Nigerian mothers May 11, 2014
The wells of Nigeria
are poisoned from the salt
of mothers’ tears.
#bringbackourgirls
poem- Measuring May 10, 2014
Video with my narration is in the previous post, but here’s the written version:
.
Measuring
Shawn L. Bird
This is me.
The standardized test says,
“She’s a C.”
But no standardized test
can measure my capacity.
The provincial exam or S A T
does not evaluate my reality.
A test does not see
my creativity
my audacity
my tenacity
my congeniality
No test can reveal
my totality.
They say
a standardized test demands gravity,
but I say,
it is a depravity
to define our youth with such rationality!
This is me.
No standardized test can measure
who I will be.
video poem- Measuring
Here’s a video poem I made for a presentation on issues in standardized testing for my Faculty of Education Master’s class on assessment at University of British Columbia (Okanagan campus) (aka UBC-O).
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April in the Library = Pushpin Poetry! May 8, 2014
I love this idea! I want to do it in my library, so I’m saving it here. 🙂
PBL JH students celebrated National Poetry Month this year by building micropoems on the bulletin board using a word bank and pushpins. I was so impressed by some of the results, I had to share! 
poem- marmot love May 7, 2014
Along the road
the marmots sit on their haunches
beautiful fur coats
glistening shades of light and dark.
They sit, admiring the view,
enjoying the sun,
sharing chirping whistles while
watching the antics of the tourists:
Canada Geese in town
for a romantic vacation.
Two marmots crane their necks
to watch the blue heron
high-stepping in the marsh
and cuddle next to one another;
Marmot-ly loving
on their porch
watching the world go by.
.
.
.
Marmots are pudgy rodents, about 20″ long, and prone to curious investigation. They kind of look like beavers, but with a bushy squirrel tail. There is a colony living in the ditch along the TransCanada Hwy at Canoe, BC that I pass every day. They are very cute. If you disturb them, they whistle warnings to one another. They’re pests, because they dig, but they don’t seem to annoy anyone where they’re at right now (a few years), so hopefully they’ll be allowed to stay. They’re quite entertaining. Yesterday one rose up on his haunches to balance on his back legs like a pudgy little man as I drove by, and made me laugh out loud.
Here’s a nice photo of one: http://www.cascadesgallery.com/image.php?set=9&id=2
Shawn L. Bird 