Today in Mr. Naughton’s 3rd period class, we took a moment to allow students to create a little magic with their adaptations of George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” poem. Madison has consented to me posting her poem. I am hoping more students will share theirs as well. Thank, Madison!
Where I’m From
I am from ice cold mornings
to hot, steamy, red lobster dinners,
I am from where the snow piles high and the fire glows at night,
I am from collecting sea shells on the Rocky Coast beaches
to roaming around with the black bears,
I am from the Pinetree state and it is wicked good!
I am from Maine
That’s where I’m from.
I enjoyed sharing this bit of history with my Odyssey students after hearing a segment on NPR this morning. It gave me a purposeful reason to share a musical rendition of the historical document that helped me learn the words as a child. However, reading (or singing) the words is an invitation to a close read and more. This complex text was crafted to be a document that would stand the test of time, with the caveat that it would be “the right of the people to alter and abolish it” if it did not whole true.
In spite of the historical context in which it was written, we can still ponder whether or not it was held as a truth from its inception or if it was, at least in part, a lie before the ink dried on the paper. What was its intent and reality for the indigenous and the indentured, the male and female, the black and the white? How is it living up to its creed today for Americans and would-be Americans?
Explore the resources below to examine each word and principal of this founding document of our country?
Susan McMillian and I were tempted to act as barkers for our iSummit 2014 session. Two vivacious animated personalities such as ours, we were committed to having fun even if we only had one particpant. As it turned out, we had about seven participants who ventured into the unknown for an hour of “Odyssey City Comes Alive with Technology”. While the title gives a nod to Odyssey Atlanta, the non-profit organization for whom Susan and I have worked the last eight or nine years, it probably didn’t convey what was in store for all of us – presenters and particpants. Using George Ella Lyons’ poem “Where I’m From” and student-writings as models, our participants performed a close read of the text and fully engaged in the process of writing their own poems, emulating Lyons’ style. Hopefully, in addition to leaving with the wonderful poems they created, they also left with some constructive and concrete ideas on how to use technology (in this case Keynote and Garage Band for iPad) to support literacy across the curriculum and community-building in the classroom.
Susan and I invited our participants to post their poems here, and I have also included the link for the conference evaluation form below. Let’s hope they post them here, and that you enjoy sharing them as much as we did.
Do you think that texting is having a negative impact on writing and communication skills? See what Lisa Singleton-Rickman suggest in “Does texting hurt writing skills?”
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