Assignment 2 – Rusko

Hundeez Donedeez

September was full of motivation
Understanding the situation
Of being put into lecture for endless hours
And forgetting to make time to shower.
Scaffold. Reflect. Reflect some more.
That’s what copy and paste is for!
November gave us a little taste
Of the class we would be placed
No! You don’t get a break.
Lesson plans that make your eyes ache
Classroom management and assessment
Yes, you always have to be present.
February brought on practicum
And snow days for everyone.
Trying to remember anything useful
From my fraudulent box of “teaching tools.”
Finally made it to spring break
Wondering if your FA made a mistake
But when you got that pass
You made sure to run fast
Straight towards your CFE
WHY CAN’T TEO JUST LET ME BE
(But Switzerland was pretty sweet)
Flew back Sunday
UBC Monday
Made beer BAE
To get through May
Heard “We pay 75 bucks a class”
Just to warm the seats with our ass.
Then Christmas came
With real jobs that paid.
Battle through June
Keeping telling myself we’ll be done soon.
Science world was all the rage
But I wish I didn’t see my classmate climb that cage.
Ending the program in Kedrick’s class
August eleventh came too fast.

Final Assignment

The New Curriculum

The world’s going to hell in a hand basket
But at least you’re learning useful things at school,
Even got a new curriculum:
English
Math
Science
Socials
P.E.
Career Prep

It’s the New Curriculum.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

New Math:
Quadratics, trigonometry, graphing…
God forbid we learn how to budget,
Cuz the debt crisis didn’t come from nowhere.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

New English:
Novels, poems, dead people…
All necessary to succeed in life,
Cuz who can really live without that drama?

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

New Science:
Periodic table, body parts and physics math…
All fascinating information at parties,
Cuz ya know everybody remembers it all.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

New Socials:
Ancient civilizations & Old-Canada
Don’t get too bored or you might miss something,
Cuz all this relates to your life somehow.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

So in a world full of problems
How about a curriculum that relates to our lives

Day 1 Block 1: Climate Change & Sustainability
Cuz this is not a debate. It’s a fact!
Can we survive like this? Well, can WE survive like this?!

Block 2: Medicine and mental health
Cuz one in five of you will suffer depression,
And anxiety and suicide are pretty bad too.

Block 3: Waste & water management
Cuz that land fill ain’t gettin’ any smaller,
And the Exon Valdez spills every year in the tar sands.

Block 4: Democracy, Law and Politics
Cuz how many of us voted last election,
And NAFTA lets gas companies put nerve toxin in gas.

Day 2:

Block 1: Computers & Programming
Cuz they run your lives,
And most of you don’t have a clue how.

Block 2: Racism & Oppression
Cuz most of the world deals with this problem
And Aboriginal people live what kind of lives?

Block 3: Equity and Equality
Cuz one is not the other,
And ladies make how much less money?

Block 4: Engineering
Cuz you drove here in something, you live in a building
And you should know something about them.

And anybody tell you that I missed poetry…
We in here talking about poetry.
I mean, listen, we talking about poetry
Not reality, not reality, not reality,
We talking about poetry
Not reality, the reality that I go out there and die for
And live every day like it’s my last
Not reality, we talking about poetry man
I mean how silly is that?
We talking about poetry.
I know I supposed to love it,
I know I supposed to lead by example
I know that,
And I’m not shuvin’ it aside
You know, like it don’t mean anything
I know it’s important
I do! I honestly do.
But we talking about poetry man
What are we talking about?
Poetry?
We talking about poetry man.
We talking about poetry.
We talking about poetry.
We ain’t talking about reality,
We talking about poetry, man.

Scaramucci found poem

In Conversation with the Universe

By Antony José Ma Junior

To Jupiter – A Star That You Might Have Been

Such turbulence

Such violence

You resemble a star

You were made a star

But a star that couldn’t quite make it

A star that might have been

Is that the reason for your turbulence?

Your Majesty

Named after the Roman God you are

The very King of the Roman gods

Your nature is that of a god

But you are substandard

King of only the planets,

not of our actual star

Therefore you rage

And rage and rage and rage

for centuries, eons and ages

An old rage

In turmoil for 5 billion years

A long time to rage

And still raging

Wildly uncontained

For not amassing enough gases

to light up like our sun

A long time to complain

You’re certainly not one to mess with

I know I wouldn’t.

Your violent storms

Such rage

Unceasing violent winds

Such violence

You roar and whistle I hear

What say you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp51_s37qX8

To Saturn – An Enigma

Just what are you?

Seemingly more serene than your raging neighbour

But ah! You are guarded

The very opposite to your outwardly angry ‘son’

You do not reveal yourself at first sight

You are a mystery to me

Your mysterious rings shroud you in a veil of secrecy

But a slightly lesser giant

with your own turbulence,

or is it?

A different kind of rage

Or is it even rage?

What say you?

There’s definitely a message here.

To The Vela Pulsar – Speeded Up by Death

Such speed

Spinning 11 times a second

After the violent explosive death

Of your former glory

Incomprehensible gravity

So very small you have now become

Yet so dangerous to be near you

You tear apart anything and everything

I cannot even begin to imagine how you feel

As you spin faster with further age

Eventually becoming a black hole

The actual doorway to hell

Woe be anything that strays near you.

Are you even sane anymore?

It feels to me you are sick

So very very sick.

What say you?

To the Black Hole – The Ultimate Endgame

You are the very door to hell

Nothing escapes you

Not even light

You are omnivore incarnate

The monster of destruction

The ultimate unimaginable violence

The ultimate endgame of stars

You have no mercy

Because you are death

Truly, ultimately, insatiably

I wonder

What happens when you take in another of your kind?

When two gates of hell collide?

What say you?

Such a universe of chaos and destruction

The very origins of life.

Collection

Audio to be played in class.

https://ezgif.com/add-text/ezgif-4-383b075723.gif

Wonder at wild light,

Flightless flee through fiery night.

Endure regrowth’s wait

I’d like to use GIFs as prompts for Haiku with an ELL2 English class.

GIFs are appropriate prompts for haiku in that they are short, moving pictures that capture a brief moment in time, in keeping with Haiku’s philosophy. By choosing timely, or seasonal, GIFs, the teacher can further capture this notion.

That GIFs are images also resonates with the purpose of haiku. As Ezra Pound appreciated, the power of haiku lies in its brevity and juxtaposed images. He wrote, “The image itself is speech. The image is the word beyond formulated language” (Poets.org. Web. August 2017).

Beyond the poetic form, ELL learners would expand their vocabulary, notice and count syllables, and use the present tense, to make meaning using formal Haiku form. In the process, they would build their confidence in engaging in meaningful writing practices.

Steps in the lesson:

1. Have Ss read exemplars of traditional Haiku.
2. Prompt Ss to notice similarities among the exemplars: syllables, lines, theme, subject, verb tense, adjectives, mood…
3. T instructs about elements of Haiku: present tense, 5/7/5 syllabic lines, about nature, simple
4. T shows Ss GIFs, asks Ss to find words to describe the GIF. Ss can use dictionaries.
5. T can further challenge students with parameters such as: only words beginning with ‘p’ (adding alliteration), or placing a number limit, such as 10 words, or 20 words, 8 adjectives, 2 nouns, 2 verbs (thus focusing learners on parts of speech), etc…
6. T hands out paper slips/recipe cards, asks Ss to write favourite words on cards (one word per card)
7. Asks Ss to recall Haiku form – writes on board
8. Ss compose their Haiku, counting syllables, and placing cards in order. When students want to use words others have found, the classmates can help one another understand the definitions, parts of speech, etc., practicing speaking skills, building community.
9. Next, Ss write finished Haiku on separate paper. Ss are encouraged to make as many Haiku as they can.
10. Ss read Haiku aloud to class. Ss share meanings and explain new vocab with one another – Ss teaching Ss.

Exemplars: