One of the most important parts of being a teacher is being a learner.
Each year in my classroom and at my writing table humbly teaches me this truth I’m learning.
That’s why I love the writer’s workshop I’m part of at SC State University.
By learning I’m getting better at teaching.
This is good for me, and good for my 4th graders.
This evening in my writing workshop, I worked on figurative language.
I studied an article from the Poetry Foundation on metaphors, similes, hyperbole, sarcasm. paraleipsis (drawing attention to something by pretending not to draw attention to it - think, “Not to mention, everyone in school saw it, too) and aposiopesis (leaving a thought unfinished deliberately - think, “I can’t even.”).
This is the kind of fun a word nerd, or just a plain, run-of-the-mill nerd like me, has of a snow laden afternoon.
After studying the article, I got to work on an ode in the style of Pablo Neruda, who is one of my literary heroes.
Since I am writing a novel with the themes of migration and the beloved community, I wrote “An Ode to a Foot in the Field.”
Here it is in rough draft.
It’s definitely a kind of work like my grandpa did in his workshop.
I’m just tinkering with a pen and a notebook instead of Duck Tape and baling wire.
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