Poems by the Old Teacher

Do your students need a break from instruction all day? If so, read one of the poems in POEMS by the O’Teacher, really by Melissa Donovan.

• If you can handle the off-the-wall laughter, read “The BOOGER”, which starts off:

Okay, who put this big booger here?

Yelled Old Lady Grumpierre

Yes class, a nasty glob of rubbery snot

Just staring at me, still steamy and hot

Students all leaned over in their seats

Hopefully, to see the little gooey masterpiece

• If you’d still like a fun one, but not quite as gross, read “Our Class Clown” which includes antics throughout as;

with wadded pointy

pieces of paper

and a little rubbery

slingshot of sorts,

Jeremy aims

right for our teacher

enjoying one

of his best sports

And with every ping and zing

our class

laughs most hysterically

with countless ha, has’s

and many hee, hee’s

Forty five pages also offer other poems as “The Homework Monster” “Beware of the Big Buggy-eyed Morning Monster, and “The Teacher Stomp”, along with twenty-two other poems—all geared for student and teacher enjoyment.

• Teachers obviously need a break too or maybe a kick-off to a teacher in-service. Most all teachers will identify with “Retirement Time” or a more nostalgic one, “A Teacher’s Song” as the ending below depicts.

I miss that learning hum so

that sometimes at night

before I fall asleep

my mind tracks

my memory deep

and brings forth

that sweet and lovely

pulsetic

humming sound

The clicking and the ticking

and the working

of the minds

The rhyming and the chiming

and the ch-ch-chinging

of the minds

• Lastly, if you’d like to tie instruction to all of the poems included, they are stuffed full of figurative language as personification, similes, alliteration, assonance, rhyming, and more. An example of a poem filled with personification is “Beware of the Big Buggy-eyed Mourning Monster” with an excerpt below:

However, the next morning

when he’s hungry again

he’s right back at it,

bright and early,

snagging, snatching, lip-smacking

until he’s wiped out

our neighborhood clean,

free of every last tasty-tidbit

All I can say, is your students will love you even more for reading these poems, and they will never doubt your sense of humor!

Until Next Time,

Melissa

PS The indicated spelling errors above are all considered poetic license. Thank you.