I have a podcast of this poem up a few posts down. From that you will notice the evident flare and intensity of this poem; what teachers make. I love the way Mali hooks his audience in here. This peom is so conected to my life as a student as I reflect on the impact my teachers have had on me. Yeah they make a hell of a goddamm difference. It is also a poem where Mali speaks literally as opposed to most poems where the poet writes with figurative language. I prefer these types of poems because they are easier to follow and it is easier for me to understand the poets message he is trying to convey.

Week 4 2/9 to 2/15

Monday: Finally got a snow day (wink wink). Today we had our work cut out for us on our backyard rink. We first had to snow blow the whole thing and then we had to shovel the remains. We finally got all the snow off by 2:00 and it was rewarding to get some family skating in afterwords. Because we were stranded we headed over to the neighbors afterwords to have some chili and pasta. That night I was excited to learn that their would be yet another snow day tomorrow.

Tuesday: Today I had to shovel the rink yet again. It was a good work out though. I had a painful appointment with the orthodontist afterwords but then I got back and skated with my neighbors for a bit before heading off to hockey practice that night. It was,definitely a day centered around hockey, which is something that I am certainly not complaining about.

Wednesday: I was happy to get back to school and now sick of all the snow days. I know that Mr. Ward was in an awful mood because of all the snow days and that we would be spending some time making up days in the spring. That sort of deflated me for the day but then the worst part of my day was a hockey game against Fay. I played maybe the worst game I had ever played in my life because I skated like I was in cement and turned the puck over tons of times. We ended up tying them, but that wasn't satisfying for me. Hopefully tomorow will be a better day.

Thursday: Today was a much more exciting day than yesterday. I practiced steel drums with Ms. Lean and really started to get a better sense of the rhythm of "Volcano". Then for hockey we had a "beanpot" tournament 4v4. Our team won and will be playing in the finals next week. Then I had an awesome practice with my Flames team as we get geared up for our tournament in Hyanis tomorow. 

Friday: Today went by nice and quickly. I am now 100% caught up on my work and ready for the first game of my tournament tonight. I got a good skate in with Fenn ad using this long drive to the cape to write this right now.  

Week 3:

Monday:

Boy have I gotten some good luck lately. I have never had this many snow days in a year before. It was all for the best though, because who wants to go to school the day after the super bowl? Almost no one. The game itself was the best Super Bowls I remember watching. I remember blighting my nails and having flashbacks of the heartbreaking Super Bowls where Giants receivers like David Tyree and Mario Maningham crushed the hopes and dreams of Patriots nation. I got these flashbacks as Jermane Kearse of the Seahawks hauled in a spectacular catch at the Pats five yard line. Malcolm Buttler saved the day thought with 25 seconds left he picked of Russell Wilson on the goal to lift the Pats to their forth title of the century.

Tuesday:

Well what do you know? Another snow day. This one was more exciting though because the roads weren't bad in my area. I decided to call up Max and see if we could head over to Nashoba for some snow tubing. Sure enough they were open at 1:00, so we decided to get on over there. It was nice because the park wasn't crowded because lots of people had school. The tubing was slower than usual because of the fresh snow, but we still went flying because the hill was huge.

Wednesday:

We finally didn't get a snow day which I was happy with because I wanted to finally see my friends again. Sure enough everyone was talking about the Pats game on Sunday. Walker and I went over our senate speech, and we were happy to learn that we now have another week to work on it. The highlight of today was a tilt against St. Sebastian's in hockey. I was eager to hit the ice again because finally the rinks opened.  I played with a chip on my shoulder that game because I was angry about our loss to Belmont Hill on Friday. We were all over St. Sebs and put up four goals. However, they put up four as well and forced us to settle for a tie. It was good to get back on the ice, but there is a lot of work ahead for our team to get to where we want to be.


Thursday: 

Today was nice because I finally got to get back into the steal drums. It turns out that we are going to play "Viva la vida" in addition to "Matilda" and "Volcano" which we had been practicing. I am excited to play Viva la Vida especially because I am a huge Coldplay fan. I haven't been able to see them live before though, and I hope to soon, but it will be exciting to play their music.

Friday: 

Ughhh! I am actually writing this on Sunday because I felt so horrible on Friday. I dragged myself to school while being hit with what seems to be a stomach bug and a cold at the same time. I kept having to drink water, which ended up not being such a good idea because I threw up after my hockey game ( which I should not have played in).

Week 2
Monday: The Patriots have their biggest tilt of the past decade in two weeks. The Pats and their high flying offense will be tested by a fastball Seattle Seahawks defense.  This will definitely be the biggest test for the Pats this season. Out of the final four teams last week, the Pats have gone the longest without a title. They are long overdue, and they need to get Mr. Lombardi out of Seattle and into Foxborough. Maybe I'll have time to watch the press conferences because we may have a snow day tomorrow.

Tuesday: Usually I consider snow days to be boring. There were definitely boring parts about today, but I was able to find stuff to do. I had a bit of school application work to do which ate up my morning.  Then we all went outside and shoveled off our backyard rink. We only got off the first layer of snow, so we have our work cut out for tomorrow. Then we got our skis and sleds and went over to a hill and built a jump to go off of. I want to go back to the hill tomorrow so that we can pack it down for awhile.

Wednesday: Today was similar to yesterday. I went back to packing down the sledding tracks we had made yesterday. Then we finished shoveling the rink so we could finally skate. I spent four hours of my afternoon on the ice. Once my dad got home from work we played some one on one. After we were finished I was exhausted, but I had to stay out there and zamboni the ice. Then our neighbors came over and skated so I had to shovel the ice again. Today was an exhausting day where I cannot feel my fingers anymore.

 Thursday: It was a rough morning for me. I had to pop up out of bed right away for the varsity hockey morning practice. The first couple minutes of skating it seemed like I was sleep skating. After awhile I was able to find my stride and get my energy going. After the morning practice I had gotten my "yayas" out, and felt ready to take on the school day. It was only a matter of time before I made it to lunch. It was nice because I was productive during the school day and didn't have much to do for homework. I got to leave early because I had practiced in the morning which opened up my night for me to relax.

Week 1:

Tuesday: Oh gosh! I am absolutely swimming in homework because I was out sick this past weekend. While the rest of my family was soaking up the sun in Puerto Rico, I had to sit in the hotel room and fight my cold. Now I have to fight against a Bio lab, Spanish and Math problems, and a Global test on Hinduism and Buddhism. Yeash that's a lot! I need to have all hands on deck for the next couple days.

Wednesday: I've never been so tired in my life. I was up until 1 last night because I had triple the homework load I usually have. I had a fabulous day on the ice today, for I scored my first goal as a senior at Fenn in a 6-3 win over Nobles. Not a packed day in schoolwork, but I know that a load is coming.

Thursday: Today was awesome for the most part. The teachers weren't super hard on us, so that took a load of stress off my shoulders. For hockey it was another day of preparation for our big tilt tomorrow against a Fay powerhouse that has a lot of kids I know on the team, but more importantly, the upcoming tournament on Sunday. I feel confident and prepared for the challenges that lie ahead for our team, and I know it will be a thrilling test.

Friday: The wait was over. I finally got to dual with my smack talking Fay hockey friends. What a packed game. We were losing, but we rallied the troops and came back to the the game with eleven seconds left. What a great way to deal with adversity. We know we have our work cut out for us for the tournament on Sunday that will be filled with plenty more adversity.