Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

Poetry resource for BC high school teachers August 25, 2022

Three years of proven poetry units for grade 10 to 12 students, polished over twenty years. Three week units split into weekly lessons through the semester. Transform your students’ poetry experience. See the difference Poetry Friday makes!
Beta testers needed for the semester. Write if you’re interested.

 

quote- the world is high school August 22, 2018

Filed under: Quotations — Shawn L. Bird @ 11:34 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

“Maybe it’s better to look stupid, but strong, than it is to look smart, but weak.  I don’t know.  I not sure that I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school.”

Jim Butcher in Turn Coat.

 

Poem-Egger Pantoum December 9, 2017

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:10 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In our school, the chef’s training kids make ‘eggers’ in the morning.  These are buns with fried egg, cheese, and a sausage patty.  They are a popular fast-food breakfast fare, but I hate them.  Fried eggs are nauseating to me, runny yolks make me want to vomit, the smell makes me nauseous.  So, to avoid calamity, I do not allow them in my class room. Kids have to eat them outside the room. There are huge windows between room and hall, so the class can watch the egger eater outside, like a sad puppy at the glass, waiting to come in.  

Today we learned about pantoum poems, and before they wrote their own, I guided a class written one.  This was what A block English 11 came up with, as one student was barred and then didn’t realise the door was unlocked, so he could just walk back in when he was done eating his egger.  There was lots of laughter, as we wrote it!  🙂  I love Poetry Fridays!

Egger Pantoum (A block’s)

I wanted into English class.

I wasn’t allowed in.

They laughed at me, en masse.

Eating eggers is a sin

 

I wasn’t allowed in;

I walked away.

Eating eggers is a sin.

What a great start to the day.

 

I walked away.

I wandered through the halls.

What a great start to the day,

Trapped within these walls.

 

I wandered through the halls.

I’m chewing very slowly

Trapped within these walls

Eating eggers, I’m unholy

 

I’m chewing very slowly;

Tears are streaming down my cheeks.

Eating eggers, I’m unholy,

The door won’t open for a week.

 

Tears are streaming down my cheeks.

They laughed at me, en masse!

The door won’t open for a week.

I wanted into English class!

 

poem-serendipity March 12, 2016

Filed under: Friendship,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:29 pm
Tags: , , , , ,

Old friend synchronicity

Visiting one,

Another arrives out of the blue.

After forty years,

there are sympathetic vibrations

that draw us together:

joyful serendipity.

 

 

NaNo life November 16, 2012

Filed under: Commentary,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:26 pm
Tags: , , ,

We had a three day week, as BC had the Remembrance Day statutory holiday on Monday, and our school district had a closure on Tuesday.  That was great because I was able to get caught up on my NaNoWriMo words.  Yesterday we had Parent Teacher Interviews at school, and so I was away, working or with colleagues for thirteen and a half hours.  That’s a long day! 

I did manage to get MOST of my NaNo writing done, but I was 55 words short of par at the end the day.  It is a mark of how tired I was that I was not able to find 55 words before I headed to bed! 

The blog suffered a day or two of neglect as a result, and this is not going to be very brilliant.  However, with all the dog-ears on my copy of Stephen King’s On Writing, there is always a quote to share.  Here’s one for today, the day after report cards were issued at my school:

At the time we’re stuck in it, like hostages locked in a Turkish bath, high school seems the most serious business in the world to just about all of us.  It’s not until the second or third class reunion that we start realizing how absurd the whole thing was.

Stephen King.  On Writing. p. 54

.

NaNo Word count

Nov 15:   1554  (Total 24,945)

Nov 16:

 

 
%d bloggers like this: