Happy to find Haiku on Education

Today while researching Haiku during class, I was happy to find a pretty site that had a collection of Haiku dedicated to Education!
Haiku after all has strayed from tradition, not only speaking on nature and the seasons! English and Japanese Haiku has kept the rhythm, 3 phrases, 17 syllables each (approximately), but is open to whatever subject matter you can think of.
Thinking about Haiku (6)
Feeling like a new child (6)
Simple messages (5)

Yeah! My first Haiku!

And I really loved the site that I found.

My favorite haiku was

"Teachers light a flame
But how long the fire burns
Is out of their hand"

By Stevie Gray, physical education teacher, Arlington,VA.

I look forward to writing more in this genre, and on education.
Can I wobble (3)
And write still? (3)
Is it okay to fall and get up? (9)

Ta Ta for now!

Angela

Teachers light a flame,
But how long the fire burns
Is out of their hands.

—Stevie Gray
Physical education teacher
Glebe Elementary School, Arlington, Va.

Dear Future President

The Honorable President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.

February 23, 2016

Dear Next President,
My name is Angela Rose Gerardi and I am current university education and communications student at Colorado Statue University in Fort Collins, CO. What I love about my school is the drive to make a difference for the future generations in caring for the planet, and changing the paradigm of education.  
At a time when standardized testing has become the norm and is taking up a month out of the school year for preparation work and testing time, my classes have come up with other ways of testing our country's youth in a more community-based, self-explorative way, while still aiming high at covering all required standards. In my writing in the discipline class, our professor, Cindy O'Donnell-Allen has structured our class so that we are doing a lot of writing but within a framework that allows us to self-pace, utilize media(blogging and twitter), and giving and receiving feedback from peers.  We are working with a badge system that gives us three levels to complete for each badge.  These badges rather than tests or research papers encompass a recorded portfolio of work that includes our own reflections on our work, research in the field of study, and a finished product.  
I find this style of assessment as demanding much more personal investment than what I have experienced in other classes, and previous experience in high school. 
I beg you to check out our class website where Cindy has recorded some pivotal moments as well as our personal blogs!  
You will see how intricate this process of creating a portfolio is and hopefully will bear witness to the validity and value of such a style of assessment.  
Education always has been and always will be a cornerstone of our country and a window into the future of our country, policymakers, business people, and educators.  
I urge you to reconsider the current public policies on education, and consider putting teachers and classrooms at the center of education.  

Thank you for serving our country!
Sincerely,
Angela Rose 

Zen Author Jon J. Muth on Haiku

Since I have chosen Haiku as my unfamiliar genre for the Unfamiliar Genre Project, the first Haiku author that came to my mind is Jon J. Muth.  He is a children's literature author and illustrator.  You may recognize the big cuddly and serene protagonist, Stillwater, who can be found in almost all his books.

When reading his book, Hi Koo!, I notice that his haiku poems usually speak of nature.  There is much imagery, albeit simple, short and sweet as haiku prescribes, they are potent and very stimulating for my imagination. They induce a feeling- peace, tranquility, being.  All very Zen, which makes perfect sense since Muth's stories are generally Zen inspired and infused.  I wonder if he ever wobbles, but then again, he must.  All writers have their wobble, no?  His finished work is definitely a product of flow.  As in Hi Koo!,  he is following Stillwater's little nephew who speaks in only haiku through the seasons.  What better cycle to flow through than the four familiar seasons.  So, do all haiku speak of nature? No, they mustn't. Do haiku come from a Zen perspective or philosophy.  This I have yet to find out.  

So, what is Haiku?

After looking on wikipedia, I read that Haiku is made up of three phrases.  There is a cutting between two subjects, or kiru, which creates a juxtaposition between the two ideas.  Traditionally haiku was Japanese, and written about nature or the seasons, but more modern Japanese haiku doesn't follow that tradition.  According to wikipedia, it is not meant to rhyme or to be using metaphor or similies.  I look forward to visiting the library and getting some other more credible sources on what haiku is.  But I think this is a good start. 

I think haiku would be a great genre for children to be playful with writing poetry.  It is brief, and it is mathematical, when it comes to how many syllables each phrase should have. This project will definitely benefit teaching haiku in the future.  This is going to be fun. 

What am I getting into with this Unfamiliar Genre Project in my CO301D class?

The Unfamiliar Genre Project is a student writing project that was designed by seasoned educators Cathy Fleischer and Sarah Andrew-Vaughn, and is presented clearly in their book, Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone: helping students navigate unfamiliar genres.  According to Fleischer and Andrew-Vaughn, we tend to stick to what is comfortable to us when it comes to writing, and can have major fears around many genres that are uncomfortable.  Through this project, students are encouraged to choose a genre that is not attractive to them, and that may be downright scary.  By doing this, we as students, and teachers, will delve into the unknown, a challenging space.  We will be supported by the research we do on the genre.  We will read in the genre, think about the how-to's from what we read, research and study.  And we will most importantly reflect.  This reflection piece will be part of our research. It's as if not only are we researching other's work in the unfamiliar genre, but we are also researching ourselves as writers, our habits, fears, desires, skills.  We will also collect five to ten pieces of work in the chosen genre.

I am excited to begin this project.  What comes to mind for me for an unfamiliar genre is haiku.  It is something I have never tried.  It is so filtered and boiled down, which is hard for me to do with my writing. I usually have a roundabout way of writing to discover the nut of what I am trying to express and get at.  I think I will be doing a lot of writing to exercise and whittle down to what my haiku will be.

What I must say I love about this book and project is that it is exactly the opposite of what standardized testing is in k12 schooling.  It is working over time, with a team, and community, using a number of different mediums, to learn a certain subject or genre.  It includes self-reflection, and peer evaluation, as well of course as teacher evaluation.  It incorporates community evaluation too.  It is so much more than studying for a multiple choice test, or even an essay prompt. It is more than an essay, it is a process.  It reminds me of what I have read about portfolio assessments in schools.  One website that I used for a debate I did last semester in my Public Argumentation class was Professor Mueller's website that is quite clear and covers the broad spectrum of what portfolios encompass. As a future teacher, I would totally utilize this project to bring portfolio type grading into my class.  

Oscars so white

 After reading the blog post #OSCARSSOWHITE: WHY REPRESENTATION MATTERS I was very moved to include more media literacy in my own future classroom.  I think it is so essential that students learn about the inequalities that exist in the marketing world as well as in Hollywood itself.  People of all races are not equally represented in most of the media we see today, and in movies that are oscar-worthy, much less.  I think it is so vital that students are taught to decipher the content of media sources, and ask important questions like, "Who made this?; Who's paying for this?; Who's profiting from this?; What is the intended audience?; Where are there fallacial arguments or inaccuracies?"  The more students can learn to consume media in a critical, aware fashion, the more empowered they will be, and less dependent on what the mainstream considers values.  They will also be more empowered to create meaningful, effective, socially-active media that will make important changes for their generation.
I love that this writer is working to tilt the balance that is so out of balance when it comes to multi-cultural awareness and equality in our society.  And good for her for working with students, and empowering them to be discerning and smart about what they see in media.

Toying with the idea of 'Not Yet'

To me, the thought 'not yet' is a little disconcerting.  I find myself to be a very ambitious person, maybe overly-ambitious at times.  I like to decide when, where, what, who, how, and see my dreams and plans realized in a pretty orderly fashion.  So, to think about something not happening in that order, and rather having to wait on a later moment, when met with the response of 'not yet' is uncomfortable.  However, when I fail, my plans fall through, there is an impediment and things crumble, well, I do seem to be pretty affected by it.  I am disappointed, in myself, and my ability to see things through.  In those circumstances, I think I do go through a hiccup that sometimes feels like an eon, where I do a little self-torture.  But for the most part, from experience, I've learned that life goes on, and that there are other opportunities out there. But, thinking back on it.  Other opportunities are usually what I re-direct myself toward. After watching Carol Dweck's TED talk on the notion of "Not Yet" as a mindset for growth, I found it highly intriguing.  Mainly, because with these two little words, I can use them to keep focused on my original target, not give up, and just be patient enough to pause and realize that the time has not come, but will.  That that goal that I set out to achieve does not need to be altered, or totally reassessed, but that I can take more time to work towards it, and persevere.  I think that is even more empowering than changing directions and foci.  To persist and follow through, achieve what was initially not a breeze. 
To have such a mindset is encouraging, it is hopeful, it is limitless, it is patient, and confident.  I'd like to say that I wouldn't mind bulking up on all those personal virtues.  And so, Not Yet will definitely be added to my tool belt.  And I will be sure to share its utility with my future students, and my own son.  
I loved that through her research and study, Dweck was able to really shift the achievement gap in schools across the country, like in Harlem, and on a Native American reservation in Washington, by teaching those students this growth mindset, with primarily those two words. 
And I love that our brains are malleable.  

Dear Angela Rose,

As you continue in your endeavors in being a writer, developing and refining your skills, I have a few heartfelt suggestions for you that I think might support you on your path. You are great at developing pathos in your work.  You have lived a full life up until now, and have many more rich experiences to share and draw from, which you do well. As a way to enhance your work and to relate to the reader on diverse levels, I would suggest that you think about the main nugget of information or wisdom that you are trying to convey.  Really work with that, to untangle it and tease it out into more diverse ideas. What I'm saying is that you do well with coming from a personal perspective, but it's time you try to come from an empathetic perspective as well.  Where are your readers coming from?  Who are they? Who do they relate to in their culture, community and society.  Drawing from voices and statistics and credible voices in the community will be helpful to bulk up the credibility of your points. So, in other words, do more research, really sit with the nugget and see what other ideas are there that can support it, more than just your own personal account.  Brainstorm, map it out.  You are creative, you are a good big picture thinker, and just taking a few moments before diving into your usual stream of consciousness writing style, pause, and you may have to wobble there for a moment.  You may have to go in and out of your own experience, and somewhere in it all you may find a flow that connects your voice to other credible, attractive arguments.