Pure and Simple

My students never cease to amaze me. One of my students who never shares his writing (because he gets nervous!) showed me a poem about the color white (in the spirit of Valentine's Day) that he composed in about 5 minutes. I nearly fell over, and the next teacher who came into the room almost did too.

White
2-14-2011

White.
White is colorful, mother of all colors.
Singing on top of a rainbow so soft, so sweet.
Warm milk pouring down like a white cloud.
Vanilla ice cream icy cold to freeze you.
Feels so soft, like a fluffy pillow.
White, mother of all colors.

How can such a beautiful poem not stir something inside of you? What else are these students writing that I am not seeing day to day? Sure, I got the whole Valentine acrostic poems and ones that tried to rhyme (and I even got a "'Twas the Night Before Valentine's Day"), but some were just so genuine and so simple. Wow.

And despite the craziness a teacher can only expect on Valentine's Day, the sweet cards (homemade and store-bought) were so darn cute that I was able to forgive the otherwise crazy behaviors at times.

Here is my favorite:

"Miss Foyle, This is what I think of you: (see picture below)"


Not quite sure where the 'Little Miss Daredevil' came from, but how funny!

Here's wishing you a very happy Valentine's Day too!