OK, so this is not a poem on this Poetry Friday, but an essay about teaching and about poetry by John S. O’Connor.
Learning to Teach/Teaching to Learn
Last weekend my son announced that his 6th grade class was about to start a poetry unit. I thought I knew what this meant, having done guest spots in my kids’ classes since they were in nursery school. So, I asked my son to give me some lead-time to arrange my schedule for a visit. But this year would be different, I quickly learned. This year, HE was going to lead the class.
This was not cockiness on his part by any means. It was just that he’d seen me lead workshops before (in earlier classes and at local libraries), and it hadn’t frankly seemed so hard. So, he volunteered, and his teacher gamely agreed. He would lead two classes back-to-back.
Read the entire post on the Poetry Foundation website
Debbie Diller 
I am not sure if this is the point of posting this article, but this is what I gained from it. The author of this article said, “There’s no way to “get everything right.” If there were, the job wouldn’t be nearly as fun.” I appreciate that comment very much. I recently had an observation lesson (I teach 6th grade) during which my students were engaged, having fun, and thinking well above expectations. My principal cut the lesson apart. A common theme in her observations was about preparing these students for the state test. I have never had a negative response to an observation lesson such as this in all my 20 years of teaching. It was very discouraging. This article, however, and the author’s comments about teaching confirmed in my mind what is really true and hard to stick to during times of state testing/accountability, “race to the top”, etc. We cannot lose sight of the children for the testing. Where will these children be if all they are taught is how to do well on mandated tests.