Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school! We are going to be learning a lot this year, and hopefully by the end of the year you will all be better communicators in our beautiful language of English. This week we are looking over the syllabus and requirements for this course. One of the important things we talk about is how to be successful in school. What is the responsibility of the student? I find that students often forget that it is their own responsibility to be successful, particularly in making up work after an absence.

Remember, even when you aren't in class, learning is still taking place, and it is your job to make sure that you have made up your missing work from those absences, even when they are excused! I've used this poem as an illustration before, but I think that it is the perfect way to start off the school year. Tom Wayman wrote this poem as a mock dialogue between a teacher and student after a student's absence. I guess you could say that the point of the poem is that we should not ask "Did I Miss Anything?" because of course the answer is yes!!! Instead, a student who misses a day of school could ask, "What did I miss?"

To receive extra credit in English class, please write out in your own handwriting the following poem in PINK (either ink, or colored pencil, or crayon) AND write out the paragraph regarding excused absences from your syllabus in PINK. This is due by 7:43 a.m. on Friday, August 19, 2011.

Did I miss anything?

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 percent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring the good news to all people
on earth

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human experience
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren't here.

by Tom Wayman