Tra-la-la-La-la

I must confess that at the current time in my life...I don't have a favorite poem. I know, know probably a shock and to some a slight disappoint seeing as I want to be a future teacher and all. However, I can't say I feel the same deep sense of lament about this situation (since this is of course what you all are feeling..lol). Do we all have favorite numbers? I highly doubt it...so do we all have to have favorite poems? Not in my opinion. That being said, I often write my own poetry to vent and process feelings I can't yet talk about or get a good handle on and I feel very comfortable with this form of wirting.
So how do I use my favorite poem in my future classroom, when it doesn't yet exist? To be very blunt, I won't. One thing I am very conscious of and believe whole-heartedly in is dealing honestly and being real with my students. So I won't lie to them and come up with some random poem as my favorite if it's not. And similarly, I will never require them to put on a front of loving math for my sake. If they truly do love math, I'm all for it (and those students get two stars instead of one...not really), but I get that math is an acquired taste that a lot of my students will not possess. But competency in math and a solid understanding in math concepts will be useful in their life, so as a their teacher therein lies my job. My students can hate math as much as they want, but it is my job to help them understand its importance and help them achieve the skills that will allow them to excel in life.

Cuz hate or love it, they'll be usin math in their life
And if they don't get it, it will cause them strife
And I hope with me
They'll get at least a C
But they should shoot for A's, and be proud of a B.

Man, I crack myself up (yes, it's corny). But for those of you that don't know, with a couple of tweaks, I just connected rapper Fifty-Cent to my math class. So stop hating and realize that poetry comes in many different forms. :)

I'm out,
Melissa