This is a villanelle, a poem inspired from one of Paul's slices, http://birdsandtreesofthemind.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/slice-14-villanelle/.
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This year I enjoy collaboration because we work well together and allow each person to be who he/she is. Still, collaboration is not without it's struggles.
Isn't This Great
At my school, the teachers all collaborate,
we learn from others, sharing what we know
Planning for kids’ learning isn’t this great?
documenting time spent, this some hate
trying to work together to make things flow
At my school, the teachers all collaborate,
to become as one, is this our fate?
disagreeing about the way to go
Planning for kids’ learning isn’t this great?
some come unprepared--some come late,
different pedagogies and what we know,
At my school, the teachers all collaborate.
Showing a new way to integrate--will they take my bait?
sometimes people think I'm just trying to glow.
Planning for kids’ learning isn’t this great?
some come together yet others berate,
is this about documentation, merely a show,
At my school, the teachers all collaborate.
Planning for kids’ learning isn’t this great?
Thank you Maya (and Paul) This one really does stretch the writer. You have inspired me to limber up, stretch a bit and have a go.
ReplyDeleteYou worked 'collaborate' into your rhymes -- brilliant! The statement you're making comes through loud and clear in the fact that your question becomes a bit more...mockingly ironic?...every time it appears. That's cool.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations -- you made it, and it makes sense and makes an important statement! Is there some type of secret "Villanelle Writers" society we can join? :)
Thanks, Paul. You are my villanelle muse. LOL. I hate to think I am mockingly ironic because I really do enjoy collaborating. It makes me better. Others keep me grounded and help me plan more fully. At the same time, sometimes I feel as if my wings have been clipped because I'm trying to stay on the "same" page and not everybody will go to my page with me--take risks and such.
DeleteI'm happy to amend "mockingly ironic" -- I thought it was too heavy a description, but didn't have better words at the time. In light of your comments, I'll step back a bit to just say that the line becomes more complex and perhaps problematic as your poem goes on. Anyway, it's still cool! :)
DeleteNew and timely! I hadn't heard of the villanelle before-ahhhh, a new topic to add to my writers notebook...I started keeping. Now, about the topic, very timely-something we all struggle with-especially when it is needed, it seems to break up right before your eyes-professional collaboration...
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to foster something that needs to happen so badly and be a model for our students when we don't do it, just like writing, reading...I think there are cases of couch potato collaboration. I just don't know what to do about it.
You have taken the challenge head on and won! My sister-in-law asked if we slicers are always trying to one up, compete? I strongly disagreed. We are a community of writers inspiring, listening, and engaging. Now I need to try a villanelle. (So I can be one up, JK:)
ReplyDeleteYou've made quite a statement about the collaboration and so subtly too! I like the clever word movement from line to line. Isn't it a challenge to have everyone on that same page, or even arriving at the same page, then discussing it? Thanks for the sharing of the problems so well.
ReplyDeleteI love collaboration. If you're weak in one area, there will be one to support you. Strong in another, you can support them. Win, win. I will check out the villanelle.
ReplyDeleteWay to stretch yourself and try this type of poem. You are brave! Collaboration is so worthwhile but also difficult (kind of like writing. I've found with co-teaching that it takes about until the 3rd year for things to flow really well as a group. It's a process.
ReplyDelete