by Kelly

Once a teacher always a teacher.

While it’s true that several years have passed since I made my living in the classroom, I’ll never be able to shake certain teacher sensibilities. I still think in terms of “school years.” I still rip articles out of newspapers and magazines because I see their lesson plan potential. When I ran across a copy of Teacher Haiku at my local bookstore, of course I had to buy it.

Randy Howe, the book’s author, is a teacher himself, and the haiku in this little gift book are chronologically arranged according to the August-June calendar.The first haiku bemoans the loss of summer vacation while the last haiku celebrates the very last day of school.

In between are haiku about curriculum maps, staff meetings, report cards, standardized tests and kids who miss school to go on vacation.

Which brings up an important issue. These haiku are not meant for students. They were not designed to be part of a lesson plan about poetry, vocabulary or Japan.

Instead, these haiku are for teachers. This one asks a question I often wondered while teaching:

If I give feedback

and students don’t listen do

I still make a sound?

And this one speaks volumes of truth:

The tables have turned

Homework is more work for me

than it is for them

This haiku brought a smile to my face, along with many memories of my days as a middle school teacher:

I will never be

too harried or too old to

chaperone a dance

Ahhh. The school dance. Always an eye-opening and entertaining experience! Maybe I can find an upcoming one to crash . . .