PTSW: O Captain! my Captain!

Facsimile of the Author's Proof

I have been a little wary of homeschooling, though one of my nephews seems to have benefitted from it and one of my closest friends successfully homeschooled his two young sons for a year or two. But I am a fan of one of the heroes of homeschooling, E.D. Hirsch, and of Hirsch's emphasis on "Cultural Literacy". I think many of the current generation of students have huge gaps in their "cultural literacy".

In February I like to recite this famous poem by Walt Whitman for my class. It mourns the loss of the Great Emancipator and was written very soon after Lincoln's assassination. It is definitely the exception to many of Whitman's rules. The regular rhythm and strict rhyme scheme is unusual for Whitman. They say he became so wearied of being asked to recite this poem that he expressed regret for ever having written it!

I.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring.
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red!
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

II.
O captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up! For you the flag is flung, for you the bugle trills:
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths, for you the shores a-crowding:
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

III.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won!
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

-by Walt Whitman

I memorized "O Captain! my Captain!" when I was in fourth grade. I suppose Miss Brown required it, though I really don't remember that that was the case. My greatest heroes at the time were Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. I suppose my Confederate forebears were spinning. Come to think of it, I suppose those two old enemies are still in my top ten.

-----------

The series of posts, A Poem to Start the Week, is my little anthology of poetry, many of which I have used with my students in elementary schools during 27 years of teaching.

Previous Poems to Start the Week:
Metaphor
Introducion to Poetry
Loveliest of Trees
Flax-Golden Tales
The Dinosaurs Are Not All Dead
Owl Pellets
Mummy Slept Late
Just My Size
The Kindest Things I Know
Miles to Go
Love that Brother
Oh, Frabjous Day!

Other Posts about Children's Literature:

The Lion's Paw top kid's OOP book!
Harry
Aslan is Dead!
Multiplying People, Rice, and Readers
A Teacher's Life

You can read some of my own efforts at poetry here.
And then there's Alien Invasion.

A weblog dedicated to Poetry for Children.
Watch Sonja Cole's reviews of children's books at Bookwink.com.

Jamie Barton - Wow!

Photo Courtesy of Indiana University.
Copyright Holder: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

Jamie Barton, our Armuchee girl, has made it bigtime in opera this year. We have known Jamie since she was a young teen. She is one of the finest, most unassuming kids ever - unbelievable pipes but definitely not the stereotypical prima donna. Today NPR broadcast the finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Jamie's two arias were outstanding, as I knew they would be. She sang the witch's aria from Hansel und Gretel with great skill and humor. And our local kid was one of six Grand Prize winners! Congratulations, Jamie!

Here is her journal of the competition from the Indiana University website.
Here is the story of her win from the same website.

Time Machine: Environmental Quiz Bowl 2007

Pictures of the Armuchee Elementary Team and others at the "EQBowl" from 2007. I do not know the exact date. I posted these to Facebook on February 11, 2014.

Armuchee Elementary has won the CRBI Environmental Quiz Bowl three times so far. The first was in 2007. The team members were (L-R) ?, Garrison Lanham, Alex Castro, Kerri Rogers, Tripp Lanham, and Rachel Garland. (I am so sorry I can't think of the name for the fellow on the left!)

Garrison, Me, Tripp, Alex, Kerry, Rachel

Armuchee Elementary has won the CRBI Environmental Quiz Bowl three times so far. The first was in 2007. The team members were (L-R) ?, Garrison Lanham, Alex Castro, Kerri Rogers, Tripp Lanham, and Rachel Garland. (I am so sorry I can't think of the name for the fellow on the left!)

PTSW: Metaphor

Metaphor

Morning is
A new sheet of paper
For you to write on.

Whatever you want to say,
All day,
Until night
Folds it up
And files it away.

The bright words and the dark words
Are gone
Until dawn
And a new day
To write on.

by Eve Merriam

This extended metaphor is a good one for early in the year when we can talk about the magic of the school year - it ends: you get a fresh start each fall! And, in a way, a fresh start each grading period. And, yes, in a way, "... a new day to write on" every morning.

Click on the "PTSW" label to see previous posts in this series.

Learning in the Great Outdoors: Second Edition

Welcome to
A Nature Walk at School...
the second edition of
Learning in the Great Outdoors,
the carnival of environmental education.

It has been a busy month for your host here at the Limb. I completed a grant application for an Outdoor Education project at the elementary school where I teach and anxiously await news of its fate.

I have received several interesting submissions for this edition, despite the technical difficulty we experienced with the first edition. I apologize to all who found that post difficult to load. I still have no idea why it kept generating nonsense code. Evidently it was an issue with Blogger because the problem seems to have spontaneously disappeared. (If you should have any trouble loading this post please let me know at thelimb(at)mac(dot)com.)

Let start this month's nature walk in the Library.

Before our walk, a little research in the library...

Tricia at Miss Rumphius Effect has written a wonderful three-part guide to Exploring the Natural World (one, two, three). While visiting with Miss Rumpius be sure to enjoy the poetry!

A few days ago I wrote a post about the need to get kids outdoors so that they can spend time exploring the natural world. I was an outdoor kid, so this comes naturally for me. I always took my kids (students) outside for study, and today I take my preservice teachers and the practicing teachers I work with out to consider all the ways the outdoors can enhance and expand their teaching. Even with structured guidance, I still have students who are reluctant about this approach because they aren't sure how to begin or what exactly to do once they go outside.

- Tricia at Miss Rumphius Effect

Julie Dunlap celebrates the centennial of the birth of the author of Silent Spring with Bring Kids to Carson's Birthday Party posted at Pines Above Snow, saying, "Rachel Carson's 100th birthday will be celebrated May 27, 2007. Reading good books about her life devoted to nature is a good way to celebrate her Centennial with children."

Barb reviews a couple of great nature study books: The Heart of Harmony - Nature Study: Found Some Gems at the Library posted at The Heart of Harmony, saying, "We are encouraging a love of nature in our children through nature study, nature journaling, and sketching in the great outdoors. We love to share what we have found that enoucarges us."

See the Nature Journaling lesson plan link in the Botany section.

Out the garden door from the library...ah...choo!

Speaking of nature sketching, have a look at the sketches of Don West. He has a go a illustrating the stuff that's making us all Sneeze, Cough, Wheeze posted at Idle Minutes this spring.

This blogger found an old issue of Country Living magazine with an article about nature journals and posted Starting a Nature Journal at Ravenhill Cottage.

School at Home is blog of a homeschooling mom who often posts about her experiences teaching in and about nature. In 100 Kids and 4938 Years she talks of ancient trees.

Don't forget to look up at the birds. My wife and I have enjoyed watching the industrious, agile, and beautiful barn swallows and cliff swallows swooping up and down the levee, gobbling insects and building their mud houses on the undersides of Rome's many bridges. The Core Team at 10,000 Birds bemoans the slim pickings in April for birders, but still enjoy, as I do, the return of the gorgeous swallows.

I was so happy to see Tree Swallows back in their houses, the uncontested masters of a broad swathe of brown meadow. These agile birds, brilliant in a hundred hues of shimmering blue, are among the first species to arrive in spring. It’s fitting that they get the stage to themselves for a while, because they’ve got serious star power!

Another homeschool blog that posts about nature study is By Sun and Candlelight who hosted a Nature Study meeting for homeschoolers in her home.

Got some unwanted botany? Like poison ivy? Here's someone with an alternative to commercial herbicides: Vinegar for Poison Ivy.

So many species of trees! You can find something about most of them at the Festival of the Trees, a blog carnival dedicated to the giants of the botanical world.

Dadgum it! Look at that privet, poison ivy, -- and there's a Bradford Pear growing in the middle of our forest. Let's pull out the invasive species! John Peter Thompson of Invasive Notes considers the wicked inconvenience of tree-planting.

Granny J. of Walking Prescott points out the delicate spring tassels in an illustrated post called Dangles.

Here's a Nature Journaling lesson plan for elementary grades from PBS Kids.

Let's pick a mess of greens on the playground and by the stream...

Years ago your host enjoyed trying out Euell Gibbons wild things. Stephanie makes me want to try it again. She has been eating fiddleheads! Check it out! Wild Greens posted at Stop the Ride!.

Don't forget to take the camera along...

Terrell (your host) posted an account with pictures of his outdoor walk on the day of the Virginia Tech tragedy, At Peace While the Nation Mourns. And when Terrell visited the school during Spring Break he found the wild things enjoying the peace and quiet, The Wild Life, at Alone on a Limb.

Reigh Belisama at The Ribble Cycle Diaries has posted a gorgeous group of photos at Two Spring Evenings at Marshside. I have enjoyed keeping up with the Ribble since Reigh submitted an interesting post to our firt edition last month.

Then there's the 100 Acre Wood next door and a new foal to check out.

While you are visiting the neighbors stroll through Oekologie, another carnival focused on environmental science.

Back indoors, check out these websites for tools and ideas...

Ms. Newburn has a couple of great tools for environmental educators on her blog recently. Look for the teacher alternatative to YouTube: TeacherTube and Free Range Craphics.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Essay Contest for High School Students posted at SharpBrains, saying, "Let's spread the word of this Essay Contest on Learning the Brain for high-school students!"

And as long as you are already at the computer, send along a little something for the next episode of Learning in the Great Outdoors!

That concludes this edition. If this is your first visit please take a look at our first edition, as well.

As we struggle to become established as a clearinghouse for information, ideas, and inspiration for Learning in the Great Outdoors, we will continue to explore the internet for a few extra items that outdoor educators might find interesting. Please take a few minutes to let us know about websites and blogs that you have found helpful in any aspect of environmental education. And please submit your own posts when they might be of interest to outdoor educators, parents or children. I will also welcome guest hosts. If you would like to host Learning in the Great Outdoors on your site for an upcoming month please e-mail me at thelimb(at)mac(dot)com. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
learning in the great outdoors
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

learning in the great outdoors, blog carnival.

Desperate Caterpillar

Checking our classroom garden on Thurday afternoon I found our four little milkweeds completely denuded and even the stems partially consumed. I looked around to find the crysalis that I knew had to be suspended from some nearby object. It wasn't on the bottom of a bird feeder or the air conditioner or a plant hanger or the garden tools leaned against the wall.
"Oh well, I hope the fella found a decent spot", I thought.
Then I picked up the playground ball that had rested in an empty garden pot by the door for three days. It was past time for it to join its fellows in the big red tub inside the door. Then I saw the crysalis:

This Danaus plexippus, a wonderful Monarch Butterfly in its pupa stage, is the descendant of a mother who overwintered in the mountains of Mexico. In a few days, when he or she emerges from the crysalis, its cells will be completely reorganized. It will dry its wings in our big classroom butterfly hotel. My students and I will admire its miraculous transformation, determine its sex, probably give it a name, and, with great ceremony, release it to fly northward. If all goes well, somewhere north of us, it will find a mate and continue the cycle that will produce many generations this spring summer and fall before its descendants return to Mexico before the end of 2007 to rest up for the journeys of 2008. Life goes on.

The Parson on Peace, Peace

Two of my regular reads have come together in one post: The Questing Parson has reviewed the new book of our friend and former neighbor Frank Logue, Peace, Peace : Finding peace in a frenetic world.

You can order the soft-cover or hardback version of the book, or you can save trees and money by downloading the virtual book.

PTSW: Introduction to Poetry

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy looking under the hood and kicking the tires, admiring the styling and color and detail.

I like knowing the history of the make and the influences that affected the designer.

But mostly I want to slide behind its wheel and cruise down the river road on this warm late April evening with the top down and Sheila nestled against my shoulder.

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with a rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

by Billy Colllins, "The Apple That Astonished Parts"

Y'all Come!

Garrison Keillor is bringing his radio show, A Prarie Home Companion, to Columbus, Georgia for a live broadcast. I get a big kick out of the PHC show. Guy Noir, Lake Wobegon, Powdermilk Biscuits, good music, jokes... While visiting the PHC website I happened onto Russ Ringsak's column, Gruntled. Here's a little of what he wrote:

April 20, 2007
Gruntled

For what it's worth, I've been told that "y'all" is singular. The plural is "all y'all." We're going to Columbus, Georgia, next week, and I understand that for travelers it's good form to try to speak, if even in just a few small snippets, the native language. I'm looking forward to it. Hoping to pick up a few more words.

As many of you know, that set me off. The misuse of "y'all" drives me up the wall! So I had to write Russ:

Dear Russ,

I'm right glad y'all are coming to Columbus. If I was as rich as those fellows you talked about I'd pay the $120 bucks for a pair of tickets (and the tank of gas it'd take to get to Columbus and back) to see y'all. I have enjoyed hearing the show for many years, and I guess that's how I'll keep on perceiving it. I did see the movie and got a kick out of it.

Now you may have noticed that I used the second person plural personal pronoun "y'all" a couple of times in that first paragraph. It's a useful word that I learned on my Mama's knee 60 years ago.

When I was about eight or nine my granddaddy, a barber who liked to own the latest gadgets, bought himself a brand new TV, and he gave his old one to my daddy and our world changed a lot. I got to hear folks who talked different from my folks. Not different like the big house folks in town, or the poor folks on the farm, but seriously different. People from Brooklyn and Minneapolis and other exotic places. I noticed that a lot of those people don't know the second person plural personal pronoun at all.

The TV showed lots of old movies and lots of old movies are set in the south, but I guess very few old movie actors were from the south. The actors who played southerners would put on such gosh-awful imitations of southern accents that it would make your skin crawl. They seemed to think that if you'd just throw in a whole lot of double negatives, honey-chiles, and y'alls, you'd conquer the dialect. Their worst crime -- like fingernails down a blackboard -- was the use of the second person plural personal pronoun in place of second person singular personal pronoun. That's just plain stupid. No self-respecting, reasonably intelligent Southern person would do that.

It is true that occasionally a person might use the term "all y'all" much as we might in informal speech use a double negative - for emphasis.

Look back at the first paragraph. Being a Yankee, you might have thought when I said I was glad y'all are coming that I was only glad that you are coming to Columbus. Now you know I'm glad that you and Garrison and Tom and Tim and Mr. Noir and that barking boy and any-hitchhikers-you-pick-up-along-the-way are coming. It's good for business and will give some entertainment to all the folks rich enough to attend and all the rest of us listening on the radio.

So, what I'm trying to tell you is, no matter what fool thing you've heard about the term "y'all", it is, exclusively, the second person plural personal pronoun. The boy that barks will tell you. He's from Georgia. Of course he's one that will mess with you it you don't watch out.

I hope y'all have a ball down here! Eat some barbecue but don't let somebody pawn off beef or chicken on you. Barbecue is pig. If you eat some grits for breakfast, do it right for mercy's sake. Ask somebody else. I don't want to have to get into that subject, too.

Say hi to Garrison for me.

Yours very truly,

Terrell* Shaw

* Nowadays some folks are bad about screwing up my first name by putting the emphasis on the second syllable [TuhRELLE]. Don't do it! The accent is on the first syllable: "TEHrul". Lord, I didn't know this note was going to get so complicated.

Well, I hope I was some help to the old boy.

Late Bulletin:
Ol' Russ found my missive so helpful that he responded by offering me, pending availability, two of his comp tickets to the show! Brannon is singing at a friend's wedding that night, but I'll just have to go hear her sing (and hug the bride) at the rehearsal-- I don't want to miss free tickets to A Prairie Home Companion! I swanie! All y'all Yankees have moved up a mite in my estimation. I am no longer disgruntled, but as pleasantly gruntled as a freshly slopped hog!

College Town

Rome, Georgia - my hometown - is a college town. We have Shorter College, Berry College, Georgia Highlands College, and a technical school now known as Coosa Valley Technical College.

It is a crying shame that Sheila and I have lived here since 1971, and have only been regularly taking advantage of the cultural events at the colleges for the last few of those years. A favorite activity for me is attending the "Senior Shows" of the musical theater students at Shorter College.

Tonight, after a stop at the new Starbucks for overpriced coffee and pastries, we saw one of the most entertaining senior shows I have seen -- though Brannon's is still the all-time best in my humble, biased, and correct opinion. Meagan Lewis is a sweetheart and a friend of our daughter's. Justin McGough has performed with Brannon several times and was a fellow cast member of "The Civil War" with me last year. Courtney Foster also shared a stage with Brannon.

Meagan, Justin, and Courtney put together a well-crafted, quick-paced, thoroughly entertaining show. It was often hilariously funny, occasionally achingly romantic, once or twice steamily exotic, sometimes intricately staged and choreographed, sometimes intimately simple. Meagan wowed the audience with a long medley of Disney Tunes ranging from the lovely "Candle on the Water" to the raucous "Poor Unfortunate Soul". Later she had us laughing out loud at "Alto's Lament." Justin dedicated a beautiful love song to his girlfriend and captured the exquisite passion of Snoopy (Charlie Brown's beagle) in "Suppertime". Courtney had a ball with the elaborately choreographed "Show Off". Those are only a few of 22 excellent numbers.

Tomorrow evening and next Tuesday we will return to Shorter's Callaway Theater to see other Senior Shows of young folks we have come to love and admire.

Random Flickr Blogging: 4374

Nothing profound or witty here... just a little jealousy: Wouldn't you love to visit New Zealand. Check out this person's pics of New Zealand. Isn't it interesting that the reflection of the mountain is clearer than the direct image of the mountain?

(Click on the pic to see the original.)
----

Tom Hilton at If I Ran The Zoo originated and posts "Random Flickr-blogging" every Monday and invites other participants. Check out how it works here. Here's my all-time favorite Random Flickr Post.

The Wild Life...

A quick walk through the campus and woods today to see what's bloomin' turned up little in the way of newly showy flora.
But...

...clandestine sprites have cleaned up my classroom garden, assembled and placed the new garden bench, and planted an assortment of new flowers! And I think I know the identity of the sneaks! Thanks!

And three glorious surprises on my nature walk today...

...a Red-Spotted Purple sipping at the stream, safer because he mimics the poisonous Pipevine Swallowtail...


...a 48" plus snake (rat snake? water snake?) lying in the blackberry brambles awaiting lunch...


...and a scurrying little groundhog, too curious to stay holed up for long....

At peace while the nation mourns...

I spent a blissful day walking around the Lock and Dam Park nature trails today. Taking pictures, contemplating the beauty of a river, the calm of a wetland, the graceful flight of a pair of hawks, the delicate tracery of phacelia clinging to a stone outcropping, the clean, shiny red of new poison ivy leaves, the delicate waxy white flower of the May Apple drooping beneath twin umbrella-leaves, the craft in the park walkways and bridges, the majesty of a gigantic tulip poplar and a huge four-trunked red oak. When I tore myself away and arrived home, I downloaded the pictures:

...then I absently switched on the TV.

Back to the cruel world of mankind.

Why must unhappy folk compel others to share their misery?