SCHOOL: First Day at School

First Day at School

A millionbillionwillion miles from home
Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?)
Why are they all so big, other children?
So noisy? So much at home they
Must have been born in uniform
Lived all their lives in playgrounds
Spent the years inventing games
That don't let me in. Games
That are rough, that swallow you up.

And the railings. All around, the railings.
Are they to keep out wolves and monsters?
Things that carry off and eat children?
Things you don't take sweets from? Perhaps they're to stop us getting out
Running away from the lessins. Lessin.
What does a lessin look like?
Sounds small and slimy.
They keep them in the glassrooms.
Whole rooms made out of glass. Imagine.

I wish I could remember my name
Mummy said it would come in useful.
Like wellies. When there's puddles.
Yellowwellies. I wish she was here.
I think my name is sewn on somewhere
Perhaps the teacher will read it for me.
Tea-cher. The one who makes the tea.

Roger McGough

This is one of my favourite poems ever because it sums up the childlike feeling of nerves, dread - and excitement - of that first day at school. As with a lot of poems, it contains an event that is universal - we have all shared this experience - yet it is instantly extremely personal to us all.

I love the way Roger McGough has captured those childlike misunderstandings that all youngsters make such as the "glassrooms" and the "tea-cher" which at this time in our lives meant very little to any of us.

Mr Howard

Poetry Anthology Checklist

What do you need if you need a reminder =)]

Mr H

7D's Poetry Blogs

Good morning Year 7. I would like for us to create our own pupil blogs to publish our poetry anthologies. This way, our poetry collections can be available for anybody to view anytime, anywhere.

First of all, you will have to create your own pupil blog. To do this, you will have to following these steps.

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/

2. Click on the "Sign up" box

3. Fill out the form to complete your blog sign up


4. When choosing the address of your blog follow the same format as my blog:
(dhsenglishmrhoward7.blogspot.com)
so your's will be:
dhsenglish followed by your first initial and your surname - followed by blogspot.com
so John Smith's blog will be dhsenglishjsmith.blogspot.com
This way I will be able to have a look at what you post!

5. You can now customise how your Blog looks - make it your own!

6. Whilst logged in, comment on this post telling me the address of your Blog so I can add it to the class list - that way I will see anything you post straight away.

What is a Blog?
A Blog is a series of posts that are displayed on a website. This can be extremely useful for homework as you can post your work on your Blog and I will be able to see it instantly - no need to worry about pendrives or finding a colour printer!

Homework for Half Term:
1. Create your own Blog
2. Your first post on your blog should be an introduction - Explain who you are and describe the Poetry Anthology task: Explain that over the last few weeks, you have been independently researching a series of poems of your own choosing for inclusion in a personal poetry anthology.


3. For each poem in your anthology, create a new post. The title of the post should be the category of the poem followed by the title of the poem and who it is by.
eg. "SCHOOL: First Day at School by Roger McGough"

4. In the body of the post you need to type out or paste in the poem you have chosen. Underneath you need to find a picture to illustrate what the poem is about - if you would prefer you could even draw a picture and take a picture of it on a phone camera and include that, or scan in a drawing if you have the facilities. Then you need to write a few sentences about why you have chosen that poem. You might consider the following:
*Is the message personal to you? Why do you like it? What do you think the writer is trying to say? Is there a particular line that you particularly like?

Any problems, you only have to reply to this post and I will offer support - so no excuses!!

Mr Howard =)



P.S. Here is a random picture of Boo. That is all.