In creating my poem, I chose to put the victims names of the recent Nashville School Shooting on the right side of the page with large spaces separating the other words. I did this so there would be a pause separating the words with the victims names, which gives more significance and meaning to the victims, helping to pay respect to them. I also chose to put the word “school” centered in the middle of the poem. My reasoning for this is to remind us while reading it that we are talking about schools. Many of the other words on the page are about violence, guns, and attacks, so I put school in the middle to remind the reader that these are things connected to schools. Not the military, not wars, not the police, schools. Creating this found poem gave me a lot more respect and admiration for M. NourbeSe Philip’s work, Zong! While reading this book and glancing through it, it seemed like these words were thrown onto the page completely randomly, maybe even without meaning. After creating my own poem I realize how carefully each word is chosen and placed on the page and the deep meaning behind them.
I chose to create this poem because of the anger and sadness I feel every time I think about school shootings. I am in school to become an early childhood education teacher, so every time a school shooting occurs, it breaks a little part of my heart. Schools are supposed to be safe places where students go to learn and socialize with their friends, not where they should have to worry if they are going to make it through the day. As a future educator, in our college classes we focus primarily on curriculum and lesson planning, but lately we have had to focus on what we would do if a shooter came into our school or classroom. This is something that no teacher, student, or parent should ever have to worry about, although unfortunately it has become increasingly more common. I am also angry that the countless lives that have been lost due to school shootings are not enough to make real change and end the killings.
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Hi Lauren, I thought you did a great job with the way you played out each word in a specific spot. I think that the way you did that helped me to understand each word with more meaning and understand why each word is where they are. I also think that the topic of your poem on school shootings is the perfect time to create something like this. Recently there has been a surge of school shootings in the country and I definitely think that your poem is one that we should discuss more during class.
Hi Lauren, I chose your blog post because it’s something that we’re dealing with in our world right now. Your word choice in the way that you separated the words was a never-ending feeling of sadness but in a good way. If I was reading these words just on their own they would tell a whole story. “Murderers” and “violence” emphasizes that there’s nothing happy nor does it give families, kids, teachers, and school districts a feeling of safety. This is a real thing that happens and there is no way to sugarcoat it and I think that you showed that in this post. I feel the same way as you about the way the school systems are and what they have become to be. We are meant to go to school and learn and create a life for ourselves but we can’t do that when we are thinking about our safety. We want to safe school environment so we can build these relationships. As a future educator as well, I am scared of things don’t change.