A Clerihew Poem

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Today I substitute taught in a Gr.6 class. We had extra time so I took my iPad and looked up examples of Clerihew Poems. I then thought it would be great if we created one together as a class.

Me: Give me a famous person

Student 1: DARTH VADER!!!!! (laughter erupts)

Me: Awesome! (wrote it on the board) What rhymes with Vader?

Student 2: I know. Darth Vader was always a hater!!

Everyone:  Yeah!! That is so terrificly awesome!

Student 3: With the force, he had a divorce!

Me: He didn't get a divorce! His wife died. He loved her!!

Student 3:  No! Divorce with the force.


Me: OH!! That is PERFECT!! (finished writing the poem)

So we read it all together:

Darth Vader

Was always a hater

With the force

He had a divorce

We were all so proud of ourselves. 

I wanted to get on Twitter and Facebook and shout it out to the world. Wouldn't it be great it Grade sixers from all over could laugh with us? We could share this happy moment with more people and laugh even harder!! 

But I didn't. I just couldn't do it. Time wasn't a factor. It would have taken 2 minutes. But what if another teacher came in? Would they think we were wasting time? Should I even have my iPad with me? I didn't know the dynamics of the school.

I hope that one day our schools will be full of students and teachers creating together and sharing with the whole world. I hope that if another teacher walks into our room that they will expect to see our devices out and us sharing our learning with anyone who would listen