As Robert Frost once said, "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." I think this year’s poems written by my students truly reflect that statement.
Every year as a fourth grade teacher in the city of Rochester, I have introduced poetry. Some students groan at the thought of it, while others embrace it. It is always interesting to read everyone’s poems. Whatever the topic, everyone’s poems have so much emotion and each brings such personality to them. Poetry has a powerful way of helping children deal with emotions that they bring to school. Emotions that as teachers, we often forgot to acknowledge because we are busy trying to teach, and getting ready for state tests. We have at times, forgotten that they are indeed, children.
Children at School #6 come from many walks of life. Many paths that as adults, we cannot even imagine, yet they continue to attend school and they continue to be compared to those students in connecting communities. At times, it can be challenging for both the students and teachers, but we strive on.
This poetry unit was probably more powerful this year than in previous years. I’m not sure if was the events in the community that have taken place within the past year, or that these students are more open and honest than in the past. But when I first saw how meaningful the poems were, just in the beginning stages, I knew that somehow these poems were going to impact others, besides myself.
We hope that after reading these poems, that you can take something from them and remember one thing: that these are indeed children. Enjoy reading them as much as we have enjoyed writing them.
Heather O'Reilly
Fourth Grade teacher
Dag Hammarskjold School #6
595 Upper Falls Blvd
Rochester, NY
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