Category Archives: Poem with teacher notes

TEACHER’S REVENGE! by J R Poulter

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TEACHER’S REVENGE !

“Time, boys time!” the teacher said,
“Enough’s enough, now off to bed!”
At least ten minutes we stayed before
Cautiously opening the dormitory door,
Held our breath and tiptoed out.
Everyone was just about
Ready to raid the pantry when –
‘“So! Caught out red-handed then!”

Right, left, right to the dorm we went,
Each of us dreading sir’s intent –
Very grounded the rest of term or
Each of us feel the cane’s full furor!
Now we all think twice about
Going forth after lights are out!
Everyone KNOWS what waits without!

J.R.POULTER

ACROSTIC – TEACHER’S REVENGE Teacher Notes by J.R.Poulter

My father was sent to boarding school from an early age. His stories of life in a large boarding school, about what the boys got up to, inspired my acrostic.

School life today is both the same and very different.

Activity: List ways school life has not changed.
List ways in which it has changed.
Are the changes for the better or worse?
In giving you answer, write an acrostic using the word,
YES, for changes to the better, and the word, NAY, for changes for the worse.

Monkey Mia by Virginia Lowe

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Monkey Mia
?
Word runs round the campsite
They’re in! They’re coming in!
Instantly the baking beach is crowded
We stand knee-high in sea
Yearning, stretching towards the horizon
Where the dolphins appear

A meeting, we trust, of minds
Eager as ours, for contact
For reaching across the species barrier
In love

They nudge our legs
We stroke their satiny sides
Well away from the eyes and
?blow-hole vents
Each name age and relationship
Is learned from the dorsal fin
Distinctive, notched or bent
This is the larger part of the pod
Females and young

In supreme trust one mother
Allows her baby to come closer
Guarded and shepherded by its
?big sister
To swim between the legs
Right at the shore
Oh little one! we greet it
With rapture

They leave
The beach is deserted, desolate
Under the searing sun,
the blusterous hot wind

We leave
Drive back through the bright jewels
Strung on their breathless chain of heat –
Stromatolites and Pinnacles aeons old
A gorge and its curving
Stone-carving river –
There is a snake, a lizard
And woe! a car-slaughtered emu

Leaving its life-long partner
Disconsolate

In Perth a small news item –
The dolphin baby is dead
Killed, it seems, by effluent from the camp
Oh little one!
It was our manure that was your doom

Home again
We bear bright cameos
Of beauty and strangeness and difference
Of wildness and creatures who trust
Of encounters with alien minds
Paid for by us with guilt and grief
Paid for by them with their lives.

Virginia Lowe

Notes by Jeanie Axton

This poem is an opportunity to discuss the environmental impact of Tourism. It was published in 1996. You could look at the changes that have been made in Tourism in Australia from then to protect the environment and our animal friends.

Here is a link to information on the current operation. Up to three rangers are on duty at any time and only selected people feed the dolphins.

http://www.australiascoralcoast.com/attractions-events/monkey-mia-dolphins

And a link to a YouTube clip:

The Stray, Christmas Morning by JR Poulter

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Teacher Notes:

English writing skills

Write a short description of what you would feel if you woke Christmas morning to not one present. Compare this to finding your Christmas wish granted had been granted.

 

Drawing and emotional intelligence

Draw a four frame comic showing the changes a thoughtful gift can make to a sad person’s facial expression.

 

Team work:

List ways the class could work together to make a difference in the lives of less fortunate folk this Christmas. With your teacher’s guidance, implement one of your class’s projects.

Sequencing:

Make a photo diary of how you all worked to achieve your outcome as a class.

 

Pic and poem and teacher notes by J.R.Poulter

Pure Mischief by J.R. Poulter

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Teacher notes: Great ideas on using this poem in your classroom

Themes: rules, boundaries, pet care, living together harmoniously, thinking of others.

Classroom: Write a list of rules, explain why they would be good rules. Write a story or poem, or draw a picture about a funny ‘oopsie’ with a new pet or a younger sister or brother.

Discussion – Why do we have rules in the classroom, rules on the roads.

Why do we have laws?

What would happen if no one obeyed rules, if there were no boundaries, no laws or penalties for breaking them?