CarrieMattern.com

Isla Rose, also now known as the youngest prankster in the world, had officially turned three today. We are not sure where the time went, but we have loved laughing with her and watching her learn (aka plan pranks) each day.

So the prankster did not become official until the third day in a row that I found Play Doh in my shoes-and it wasn’t the same shoes, either. She legit put it in different shoes, three days in a row. I get dressed in the dark, so you can only imagine what I thought when I felt that unfamiliar squish. Each time I gathered courage to grab whatever it was deep in the dank sole of my favorite ankle boots or tennis shoes or loafers, I took a breath then laughed aloud: Play Doh again.

Another instance is the great Tootsie Roll debacle. Let me set the scene:
I was actually in the small bathroom going the bathroom (gross I know, but parents deal with this crap-literally-all the time), and Isla came in unannounced with a Tootsie Roll. She asked me to open it.

I said, “No. Wait until I am done here.”

She replied with tears-and not just a little whiny-it was those big fat elephant ones accompanied by sobbing. Wailing, A limp body to the floor. So, I broke my rule and gave in. Just this once.

“Here you go tiny, funny, scary, mini-me. Take the candy and shut the door.”

While deep inside I just wanted the peace of my own potty time. After a few minutes I hear a lot of chaos-typical with four kids. But then I hear something different: Leo is yelling. He is gagging. This is not good. He is quite a puker. So I wipe, wash, and run to my son at the other end of the house and he yells, “Stop!”

I am almost in his room and he screams, “Isla pooped on the floor!” I look at him, cowering on his bed, then look at the floor and see it: a baby turd, with what appears to be some weird gooey diahreah trail.

“Oh God. Gross,” I say as more kids begin filing into me-blocking the doorway of his room. “Yuck!” yells Pearl. “Oh God,” says Claire.

I look around at them all stacked behind me Mother Goose style, then up back at Leo on his bed. And suddenly, Isla rolls up with a bright smile on her face. I look at her. Look at Leo. Look back down on the floor.

“Isla? Is that poop?” I ask. She nods, smiling. “I’m sorry,” she says as she giggles, looking at Leo. I tell Pearl to go get me a baby wipe and send Claire for the disinfectent. Then I get down on the ground. I peer at it closely, but without any glasses or contacts on so I have to get closer. UG. Pearl arrives and hands me the wipe. I again breathe in a courage, scoop up the turd, and it’s not soft or warm, but it is hard and has a very similar texture to a Tootsie Roll. Claire arrives with cleaning product. I look at Isla, who has her hands over her mouth. But that smile is massive and it peeks out from beneath her fingers. She knows that I know. She’s laughing hard now.

So what do I do? Place the “turd” in my mouth and begin to chew. The kids go crazy, but Isla is laughing hysterically. I chew slowly, savoring their horrified looks, then show them the wrapper that I had still in my pants pocket from a few minutes prior.

Another time we were watching a movie at the theatre which doesn’t happen often-in fact, Isla has only gone to The Grinch last year because she is in love with him. Seriously. In love. But I took her and Pearl to a movie a few weekends ago and we were watching previews. And you know when the previews end, right before the film starts? It’s actually one of the only quiet moments in the theatre because everyone is still, in anticipation of the opening scene to start. Well, at this point, Isla screamed from the back row, “GOD DAMMIT!” I looked at Pearl. She looked at me. We both slid down into our upholstered seats, faces as red as the cushions. She yelled it again, and I covered her mouth. She began laughing hysterically, and thankfully, at that time, adorable Arctic Dogs appeared on screen.

And even more recently, Isla likes to fib. One common example is that she keeps telling everyone that she will be 4 today and not 3. And what is funny is that a lot of people buy it because she sounds so sure of herself and she speaks so clearly. This child is full of laughter and light, and we are so lucky she is in our lives! Happy birthday, Isla Rose. May the joke never be on you.

*First pic taken by Kaptured By Kassie, fall 2019

My beautiful husband is 40. And as per custom, and because he also deserves the world, I want to immerse him in precious memories and words to honor what a remarkable human he is, what an understanding father he is, and what a supportive partner he is for such a stubborn Shay-born bossy lady.

When he was born in Iowa forty years ago, it wasn’t snowing, but it was cold. So cold for so early in the month. His mom wasn’t aware of the weather outside, because on the inside, in her hospital room, the sun was shining. Paul arrived quickly-in less than a half an hour. And he was bright and beautiful. Since those early moments of his life here on Earth, he has been referred to as “Sunshine” by his mom. And I know his dad, step mom, and step dad would all agree. Maybe not when he was 16, but even now Paul’s smile and infectious banter light up a room.

When he walks in, the party begins, even if it’s a random Tuesday night. And even if you aren’t a social butterfly like me, he still is patient and works to be inclusive with all of his friends.

Speaking of friends, does this man foster irreplaceable bonds with others. I have learned more than once from him that friendship is family.

The family he has brought into our family are special-our kids have so many local “uncles” they can learn on. One for sweets, one for piggy back rides, one for cut downs, one for hugs, one for life talks. How grateful we are for the friendships Paul manages.

He goes out of his way to do anything for his friends-and this is something that our kids will value later.

Now they just wonder why the hell they have to drive to Detroit on a Wednesday night with Tikis attached to a trailer and onlookers honking, pointing crazy at the car. Or why they have to go to Lansing to help sweep up a warehouse. Or even why we have to bag up donations in separate piles for Habitat, the women’s shelter, not Goodwill, not Salvation Army, rather than throwing it all away like mom would just trash all the things.

And although his things might be not organized how one would like, his value in friendship has taught me that it is so much more to life than the things in order. Taking the time to play, to listen to music, to snuggle, to do chores together, to run errands together, to have mimosas: these are the meaningful moments that our kids will remember.

That they are learning from just as much, if not more, than I am. So in honor of his special day, here are just a few very special friendships he has forged throughout the years.

Friends that are mainstays in our holidays, road trips, and daily lives. Friends that I am lucky to love-if loving my husband wan’t enough.

Happy birthday Sunshine. Thank you for brightening our world with your rays. We love you.

I have been meaning to write this for a few years, but never made time or thought that it was necessary. But at the suggestion of Dr. Parker on Twitter, and at the impending presentation I have in a few weeks (now days lol) at MCTE, I think writing through this process may help guide other teachers who wish to do something similar with poetry. Now I am not claiming that this is revolutionary, or new, or uniquely mine, but it is something that I think I (and more so my students) have found success with in terms of poetry analysis and writing.

Like you may have, I started teaching a long time ago using the TPCAST system of analysis or the RAFT or the SWIFT method, and while those all work for a variety of learners, I think they were more foundational for me to push my students further in their writer’s notebooks. In additional to those methods of analysis, I also had a solid foundation in Kelley Gallagher’s approach and used an “Article of the Week” analysis five or six years ago until our school pretty much overdid it (and the joy of learning about current events was completely diminished by a worksheet style article in numerous classes each week) which is a blog for a later time-but that exercise got me thinking: if we can do it with articles, why not poems?

And all that mattered was finding the right poems, right? I thought I had a pretty good grasp on spoken word poetry from watching Slam Nation countless times and watching Saul Williams perform in Detroit and then years later at U of M-Flint, but what else could I use for my students to grasp? Somehow, maybe through friends at #CleartheAir or #DisruptTexts or #THEBOOKCHAT, I found #TeachLivingPoets on Twitter and everything fell into place. I am beyond grateful for the work of Melissa Smith and the #TeachLivingPoets crew. They reminded me that living poets were more than just slam poets. Poets still publish books, Carrie. Duh. I began to learn everything I did not know about the world of poetry once I began researching this group and their mission. As I grew into this community of online educators, I also grew a process of writing that seemed powerful, inspiring, and relevant to the political climate and moreso, issues my BIPOC students were facing every day.

At first the writing process was hard. For all of us. Students were not well versed in analysis, even as seniors, so I had to scale back a little bit, but also switch up the how we attempted the process every week. I thought I could lecture about it and show them my work every so often, but that was not the case-I needed to write alongside them. Usually the schedule follows: M-Step 1 & 2 most often whole class or small group, T-revisit/clarify any step 1 & 2 questions/comments then work on Step 3, W-Step 4 brainstorm which calls for a revisit of notes in Step 1, Th-Brainstorm for Step 5, F-work on Step 5. While this may not fit your particular schedule, it is flexible based on if you meet for blocks or if you assign homework. I do neither. I also start every day with choice reading, so once the flow is felt by the majority of the students, I always add another layer of work (class book, book club book, essay, etc). This usually occurs after MP 1 when students are able to balance the reading and weekly writing expectations.

So here are the steps:

1. Annotate the poem: consider the Kelley Gallagher questions from Readicide-What is being said? What is not being said? Who is saying it? Why does it matter? But also look to Tricia Ebarvia and ask, Whose voices are being centered? Whose voices are left out? Consider mini-lessons with devices and how they help create meaning in the poem.

2. Write a one sentence summary on the poem (bottom right corner). If someone has never read the poem, how could you quickly tell them what it is about?

3. Respond in a ½ page to the poem (all opinion-evidence optional) Did you like the poem? Why or why not? Did you connect with the poem? Explain. Was it a window, mirror, or slider (Dr. Bishop).

4. Analysis of the poem: ½ page minimum (evidence and citations necessary) Using your annotations from Step 1, think critically about the moves the author is making. Write that analysis practice.

5. Remix the poem (I used to call this Imitation, then it became an After Poem, but my students dubbed it a remix last year so this is what I call it now) What inspires you with the poem: content or structure? Now practice writing a poem in your own way.

There are a few things that never change though:

-we read the poem aloud and watch the video if there is one, multiple times (and I am well aware of NOT reading it aloud as a WW as it can be offensive when written by a BIPOC author so that is why audio and video are integral)

-we always complete 5 steps (which was not the case right from the start-early on I allowed Ss choose 3 of the 5 steps, but then it did not show the growth I knew they had inside them)

-we share our best work after the semester (or half-way through) which can be a spoken word event, a hallway gallery walk, or a classroom walk (also can be anonymous if author chooses)

-we revise and discuss further based on what the Ss need from me as a guide (not an expert at all since the poems are also new to me)

-we have bailed on poems before, but not too many times (we just scrap it and write)

-I read and study the poem ahead of time but don’t do the steps prior to class (I do it alongside students which helps two fold: prove that poetry is subjective based on the experiences we bring to the reading, and how vulnerable teaching and learning can be)

-sharing can be really personal so often we share lines or ideas of how to remix but not necessarily entire poems (if we share whole group it is in a gallery walk form w/some choosing to be anonymous)

Here is a list of poems that have been successful in my classroom:

“To the Notebook Kid” by Eve Williams

“Call and Response” by Kyle Dargan

“For Trayvon Martin” by Reuben Jackson

“Complainers” by Rudy Fransisco

“Touchscreen” by Marshall Davis Jones

“This Has Always Been our Active Shooter Drill” by Jason Reynolds

“10 yr old Shot Three Times but She’s Fine” by Patricia Smith

“Hir” by  Alysia Harris & Aysha El Shamayleh

“For the Dogs Who Barked at me on the Sidewalks in Connecticut” by Hanif Abdurraqib

“We Should Make a Documentary About Spades” by Terrance Hayes

“American Arithmetic” by Natalie Diaz

“Anxiety: A Ghost Story” by Brenna Twohy

“Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo

Ode to Cheese Fries” by Jose Olivarez

“If they Should Come for Us” by Fatimah Asghar

“There are Birds Here” by Jamaal May

“There is a Lake here” After Jamaal May by Clint Smith

“American History” by Michael Harper

“Ode to the Only Black Kid in Class” by Clint Smith 

“Death Poem” by Alysia Harris

“A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay 

“african american ii” from the Salt Collection by Nayirah Waheed

“Ohm” by Saul Williams

“Don’t You Wonder Sometimes” by Tracy K. Smith

“My First Memory” by Nikki Giovanni

“Flounder” by Natasha Trethewey*

“Dinosaurs in the Hood” by Danez Smith

“In Praise of My Manicure” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

“Microaggression Bingo” Fatimah Asghar

“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith

Overall I am proud of our efforts with #TeachLivingPoets and our weekly writing. I have attached a few samples (with consent) so you can get a sense of the student work that is also happening.

A Tribute to “ If They Should Come for Us” by Fatimah Asghar By B. G.

Sometimes I wonder what will happen            If we are all united under one 

When they come for us                                  Flag then why do we not act like it

Should I run, should I hide or should              We watch each other differentiate

I stand in front of them ready                           And isolate ourselves rather than

To face whatever will come my                         Love and embrace

Way I am from a city where                               I am from a city where hate and death 

You dont want them to come for us                        Is well and alive everyday

Where if they come for you                                             But so is peace and love and the 

Lifes are in jeopardy both yours and your assailant                       And the demand for it to thrive 

Even if they aren’t assaulting you, where                                 Yes I am from the city where no 

If they come for you, you may lose                                          One wants to live because the

Everything but your life                                                     Water is tainted and there are murders

However your dignity will be tainted                                  All around but there is also a beauty

Like the water in Flint, and your struggles                      A beauty most people can’t see 

Will mean nothing to those unaffected                                 Because they are looking with their 

I wonder what will happen if they come for us                   Eyes and not their soul I am

Should we run, should we hide                                       From a city with hope and resilience

Or should we speak for those who 

Have no voice

If we unite we can make things right

How about we all band together

To make a change

Whether you’re white black

Mexican muslim asian

It doesn’t matter we are all people

If They Should Come for Us

                                                                     After Fatimah Asghar     By J.H. 

These are my ancestors & I find 

them chained together at the bottom of the ocean floor.

my ancestors my ancestors 

Broken physically, mentally, and emotionally 

Brought to a foreign land then

auctioned off to then be known as someone’s

“Property” and left with nothing but utter humiliation

and loneliness.

I claim you..

 To the women that are sexually assaulted,

Molested, raped, and left to care for children that will soon be 

Made to live in the same conditions as their mother. 

I claim you too.. 

To Egyptian man that went up the river and 

 fell in love with the African American woman

I want to say thank you for creating a new shade of brown. 

dear black sister, I claim you! 

Better yet I applaud you for crawling so that I can walk

For displaying such selflessness and bravery. 

I want to thank you too, for spreading our bloodline 

In places like Spain, Ireland, and even France

For helping create so many beautiful brown women 

And men through the world. 

To the biracial children of America

That don’t know about how significant 

Their ancestors sacrifices were 

I claim you too 

Because even though you may not like 

Watermelon or the color of your skin is 

Too light to be considered black 

When I see you, I see me too. 

If you’re familiar with me, you know I’m an avid reader. Within the last ten years, I’ve made literacy my focal point in the classroom, as well as outside of school within the community. Now I would like to help you.

Every summer I get requests from friends and family for book recommendations. This summer I decided I would offer a more dynamic service: a collection Curated by Carrie.

For $50 you will receive a collection of at least three books along with a few surprises. This curated experience is available after taking a brief interest survey. Think of it as a stylist would his or her clothing, but with the added features of A). Local shopping: you may receive a book from a local author who I already have an established partnership within our community. This also might mean your surprise gift-thematically connected to your book choices-will also be locally sourced and B). I will strive to be eco friendly with your books (gently used if possible-Amazon will only be used as a last resort), packaging material, and gifts. Handwritten notes from me will also be written on scrap paper as opposed to newly purchased stationary.

Any proceeds will be used for two things: to continue cultivating my classroom library without having to beg donors every three months and to help my daughter, Claire, mitigate costs associated for ballet instruction at the Flint School of Performing Arts.

This would be the perfect time to give yourself the gift of reading or share your love of reading as a present with someone who you know has everything. Reading is the only gift that continues to give. I will curate a collection for any age.

Once you contact me via email matterncarrie@gmail.com and send your $50 through Venmo @Carrie-Mattern, I will share the survey link with you and you can expect your shipment within 2 weeks. Shipping is included unless international. I’ll contact you again when your curated collection is shipped. I’ll reach out in the future to see if you were satisfied. If you are, please share with friends and family. If all this technology seems to be too much, just call me to order and we will go from there. 

Thank you for reading. Thank you for your continued, valued support. I look forward to curating a collection for you or someone you love. #curatedbycarrie    

Email: matterncarrie@gmail.com

There is an old saying about girls and sugar and spice and while it is pretty stereotypical, it’s also pretty true of our Pearl girl. She is one minute sugar and the next spice-spice so hot it leaves a little heat in your throat for the rest of the day. 

Despite this life of extremes that Pearl offers us, we are the luckiest family and embrace her fully. We are so in love with this future unicorn princess fairy. 

Pearl began this year switching schools and although she left some awesome friends and amazing teachers behind at St. Paul’s, she has been met with open arms at Teddy Thomson Elementary. 

We found out that this is her teacher’s last year teaching so that has also proved to create a special bond between the two. Pearl has been really sick this winter and her teacher misses her every time she’s not in class. It probably helps that her teacher is a Pearl Jam groupie, too! 

Pearl also is able to ride the bus every day which she absolutely loves. She’s made quick friends with everyone on the bus including Mr. Mike, their driver. 

But, for the first few months of school she would get off smiling then see me and solemnly hang her head. “What’s wrong baby?” I’d ask. I was met with quiet. Then shrugged shoulders. Finally a whisper: “Mom. I stuck my middle finger up at school, but no one noticed,  so I think I’m ok.” Some days it was at recess while other times it was even on the bus. Sometimes it was even in the library. This lasted a few months and every single day I heard about her middle finger adventures. Then I imagine she learned that there are things you just get away with in life sometimes. But it’s still best to always tell your mom. 

Pearl began gymnastics this year too. Her instructor what shocked it was her first year-they even asked her to join the dance team! The best part was watching her peek over at me when she completed something new-just to make sure I was watching. I’ll always be watching.

This year, as her birthday falls on a week of vacation, Pearl was able to experience a trip of a lifetime to Disney with the help of family and friends.

She met and curtsied Belle, played a lot in Dumbo’s big top tent, rode a few rides, and saw a fireworks show that left her speechless. That last one might blow your mind if you know Pearl. She literally still had her hand on her mouth when she awoke-the morning after the fireworks! 

While Pearl brings us a mix of sugar and spicy drama, we would be remiss if we didn’t share with you how much she loves her family, her Carla, her Sue, and her Boo. 

And while her sugar and spice are a beautiful combination, this year we have sensed an awareness of others that she has about her-a special intuitiveness and empathy that resonates deep within her heart. 

When they say Disney is magical, I can’t help but imagine Pearl there someday performing as Cinderella, Elsa, or the next warrior princess ready to take on anything that stands in her way. Happy 6th birthday Pearl Girl.

(Post has been updated as of 8/6/19-see sources below for more info.)

I gathered most of this information for my presentation a few weeks ago at Michigan State University (Amplify the Silenced) and to inform my own teaching (which began a few years ago when I felt that I needed to address my own white privilege, racism, and lens thanks to the Women’s March and confronting white womanhood session), but now there is greater urgency to share, to resist, and to confront our own biases as white teachers.

It annoys me to hear what educators say that “(Whatever racist video/event/issue) makes me so mad but I just don’t know what to do about it. I hope I can raise my kids better. I hope I can guide young people better. I just don’t know what to say.” There is no hope. Quit placing any stake in hope. Or in sadness. Or your “shock” that these things keep happening. You MUST address it. You MUST do the work. You MUST address your own racism and micro-aggressions prior to doing the work. You MUST cite black women who have done the work. You MUST cite indigenous people who have done the work. You MUST cite the LGBTQ community who are doing the work. If you can’t, or aren’t willing to, please leave the profession.

This can be overwhelming and exhausting, but I am hoping to provide you with a start. Take one item, research it, read it, and see how you can apply it yourself. Stop saying you don’t know where to begin or you can’t figure out how to use this in your classroom-you are the adult-the classroom leader. Do the work. Also, most of you are the majority still today in classrooms across America-this is where the work MUST happen. Too many white teachers feel like they don’t have a place to do the work- in fact, it is your place. It’s not the job of other minority students, or even teachers of color.

Start with this literature for personal reading:

• White Fragility by Robin Diangelo: find an excerpt here
• There, there by Tommy Orange
• Stamped from the Beginning
• God is Red: A Native View of Religion
• The New Jim Crow
• The History of White People
• The Warmth of Other Sons
• The Activist Learner by Wilhelm, Douglas, and Fry
• For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Ya’ll Too by Christopher Emdin
• White Rage by Carol Anderson
• He/She/They/Us
• Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
• The Power of Positive Deviance by Sternin, Sternin, and Pascal
• Excluded by Julia Serano
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Growing up Gay in America

Move to following these organizations, educators, and community members on Twitter:

• Twitter Groups: #ProjectLitCommunity #ClearTheAir, #TeachLivingPoets, & #DisruptTexts, #SeedingSovereignty
• Social Justice Warriors: @ValeriaBrownEdu, @aprilbakerbell, @LittleMissFlint, @tanayawinder, @Triciaebarvria, @Katrina_HRM, @IamGMJOhnson, @JessycaMathews, @GeorgeTakei, @joshthompedu, @jarredamato, @juliaerin80, @ChristieNold, @Lyricalswordz, @TchKimPOssible,@MsPackyetti, @LadyofSardines, @DulceFlecha, @jthompedu, @chelsie_acosta, @MrJess_BHS, @CodyMillerELA, @jessthe5th
• Indigenous writers, artists, educators: @debreese, @MicJordanMusic, @TallPaul612,  @FrankWaln, @LylaJuneLove, @xodanix3, @byRad, @HeidErdich, @cutchabaldy, @atachine, @NatalieGDiaz,

Bring in these poems to your classroom:

• “A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay
• Counting Descent by Clint Smith
• “American Arithmetic” by Natalie Diaz
• everything by Danez Smith
• everything by Fatimah Asghar
• “Flounder” by Natasha Trethewey

Bring in these videos to your classroom:

• “When Every Word Does not Belong to Everybody” TaNei’sa Coates-YouTube
• “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “A Conversation with Native Americans on Race” Op-ED NYT
• What is Systemic Racism

Bring these YA fiction books into your classroom library (no matter what subject you teach-you must have a diverse, engaging, classroom library):

• Dear Martin by Nic Stone
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• Simon v The Homosapien’s Agenda
• The Symptoms of Being Human by Becky Albertali
• They Both Die at the End by Adam Silva
• Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth
• Tradition by Brendon Kieley
• All America Boys by Brendan Kieley and Jason Reynolds
• The Bus 57 by Dashka Slater (non-fiction)

Bring these articles into your classroom:

• Dr. Rudine Sims-Bishop (windows/mirrors)
• Critical Issues in Policing Series: Guiding Principles on Use of Force (March 2016)-Comprehensive Guide (excerpts may work best)
• The New Republic: A New Law to Reduce Deadly Police Shootings
• The Case for Reparations by Ta’Neihisi Coates
• An interactive map detailing violence done by police
• What is White Privilege, Really?

Still don’t know where to begin? How about here? Send this to your kid’s schools or share with your building principals and librarians. Thank you Jennifer Serravallo.

If you have concerns or questions, DM me. Views expressed are solely my own.