merri937 Art and Expression, Kids Are Thinking, Lesson Plan Ideas, Nature, Students, Teachers

Haiku for the Blue Planet Student Mosaic Part 1

So, in the previous blog post I shared a mosaic that my students put together for Earth 2010. This year, we were already working on haikus which are traditionally written about nature to for our unit of poetry. (Happy Poetry Month!) I had my students decide what they wanted the picture to be, draw it, cut it up and each student wrote his/her haiku on a piece of the planet.

We started first by drafting our poems:

Then we checked over them to make sure they followed the correct format:

Then we wrote our haikus on our little pieces of the planet:

Next we put them all together to create our mosaic:

I added a little extra credit assignment that my students were really excited about. We went outside and took pictures of nature with our camera phones and then I had the students post their pictures to Instagram and put their haiku as the caption. We used a hashtag them so I could find them and give them credit. They liked that they could share their assignment on a social media site they often use:

merri937 Art and Expression, Gifts and Talents, Lesson Plan Ideas, Nature, Students, Teachers

Ode to Earth Student Mosaic Part 1

Back in 2010, I had my students create a mosaic to honor Earth on Earth Day. Each picture has a poem, in the form of an ode, celebrating nature. We pieced them together to create this beautiful mosaic in the hall which we dubbed, “Ode to Earth”. This year I plan to do the same thing with my Creative Writing class only this time we’ll be focusing on haikus since we’re deep into our poetry unit and are focusing on poetic form. (Happy Poetry Month! btw) That mosaic will probably be much more detailed. I will be posting the results. Stay tuned!

merri937 Character Education, Community Involvement, Corporate Reform, Empowerment, Families, Politics and Policy, Students, Teachers

While School Doors Close, Prison Cells Open

Four major cities are closing several schools next year: Philadelphia (23), New York City (23), The District of Columbia (15) and Chicago (54). I’ve often wondered what the ramifications might be for so many school closings aside from larger class sizes and already overwhelmed resources such as wrap around services (social workers, resource teachers, etc) being abused, and I found an article that outlined many more problems for districts in the future. Here, Education Week argues why closing so many schools only temporarily saves district budgets.  



I also watched, “The House I Live In: Takes a Hard Look at the War on Drugs” yesterday on PBS and found that so much money goes into the war on drugs. With the privatization of the prison system, prisons in this country are looked at as more of an asset while our schools are considered liabilities. Convicting felons is a business that turns a profit. Hence why while the U.S. contains only 5% of the global population we have more 25% of the world’s prisoners.  More money is invested in convicting non-violent offenders than educating our children. The lack of investment in education causes the overpopulation of our prisons. When are our priorities going to change?


It is important to put a proper workforce engaged in keeping our streets safe, but do you think there is a disproportionate amount of money and human captial invested in the war on drugs versus what is spent on schools? Why or why not?

In what ways can law enforcement work with and within schools to decrease the number of convicted felons in the future?

According to the documentary, the drug problem in America is only a symptom of larger problems related to social structure, public health, and economic issues. In your opinion, what are these problems and how can community organizations (schools, law enforcement, religious organizations, social workers, etc) ban together to find a resolution? 
merri937 College and Career Ready, Community Involvement, Empowerment, Families, Students, Teachers

180 Days: American High School

PBS follows one struggling District of Columbia school’s journey to redemption. This is probably one of the more realistic depictions of what really goes on in urban schools across the nation. Here, you get to hear from the CHILDREN, teachers, parents, and community leaders who all come together to support the school. There aren’t any assessment companies, sponsors, or politicos recording this to insert propaganda or political agendas. They instead delve into the lives of the people interact with the children the most. I’ve seen this story play out in so many places. Parents, teachers, and communities do in fact care for their youth…I’m just glad someone caught this on camera for a more accurate picture. 

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