follow wherever the mind takes you

[Annabelle Archer]

Class Roster:
@neigh
Gavriila Shahar
@jeanneclaire
@neighneigh
Kallistos Rolleston
@maeve
@ransom
Sina Aleardi

---

With her travel mug in hand, Belle set off to the academic building. She had readied herself for this class for the past week. She knew what she would be doing the first day whether the students liked it or not. That was why she was the teacher and not them. Though she knew that they were a big challenged in the English department she was going to challenge them. There were other teachers milling around the hallways, not any students yet. Sitting her mug on the desk, her eyes scanned the room making sure that everything was set. A cup of extra pencils, pens, highlighters, erasers and notebooks sat on the table in the back of the room, she hoped no one had to utilize any of the supplies this early in the school year, but that was why it was there.

Belle turned to the white board. Miss Archer got written off to the left along with the date. Poetry was written in the dead center of the board. She smiled and capped the marker and placed it back in the tray. She heard the bell ring that alerted students that they could start finding their ways to their classes. Soon enough she spotted her students entering the room. She could already tell some of them were not ready for the academic portion of the day, with their sighs and groans she smiled knowing that she had her work cut out for her. 

"Welcome everyone, please find a seat." Belle hoped that they would sit towards the front because the class was small enough, she did only give them a limited amount of seating to begin with for the very reason that she didn't want to have to raise her voice just so the students could hear her. Once the warning bell rung that students only had five minutes left to find their classes she stood in the front of the class. Finally the tardy bell rung and she began not wasting a minute. "Hi everyone and welcome to Language Arts. I'm Miss Archer for those of you who are new. She gave a small wave and turned back to the board. "So to put some of you at ease we are not going to do those silly get to know each other games. I have your pictures and names, I will take some time to study it and get to know you. As for your fellow students, please if you don't know someone's name do it soon. We will be working in partners and small groups in here most of the time at random so don't get too comfy." 

Using her index finger she pointed to the word in the middle of the board. "We are going to start with poetry, yes I know that some of you don't like the subject but tough, you are going to learn to love it." She pointed to the side of the room where she had stacks of lined and plain paper, "If you don't have a notebook I suggest you acquire one, if you can't I have extra in the back of the room. But for today each of you needs a piece of lined paper, which I also have. " Taking a breath Belle gathered her thoughts and spoke again, "We're going to jump right into things and start with writing a poem. Pick a color any color and write it down, I don't want anyone to have the same color so we will go around the room and say our color."

Once they had done that she continued, "Now that you all have a different color I want you to write a poem with it, don't make it harder than it is, which it is not. I want you to write down thinks that pop into your head when you think of the color, feelings, pictures, anything. The poem needs to be at least ten lines, if you want to write more go right ahead. I will be collecting it at the end of class, if you have any questions just raise your hand I will come to you. Feel free to use your peers to bounce ideas off of."

[Kallistos Rolleston]

There was a bounce in Kall's stride as he made his way into the English classroom. The reason he had picked this class wasn't because he struggled with the subject, it was more so that he could prefect the way he wrote, make sure he had all his structures correct and all that.

He quickly found a seat and pulled out the spiral-bound notebook he had for this class and opened the cover, leaving one page blank - so he could create a title page for the class - he turned to the next page and then turned his attention to the board. He couldn't stop the snort that escaped him. Though he'd never actually written poetry before, being a cheerleader, he was quite used to the flow of words.

He listened as the woman, Miss Archer, started the class and pulled a face at the thought that they would actually be writing poetry "Blue." He said the first colour that came to mind and fell silent as he listened to the rest of the class. His eyes widened when he heard they had to write a ten lined poem, but didn't comment - even though short of the "poem" liking like a list, writing ten lines was an almost impossible feat for someone who had never written poetry before.

Tearing the page out of his notebook, he titled the next one "Blue" and the page that he had ripped out, he began to list things that were blue: Sky, ocean, emotion, flowers, clothes, cars, pens...

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina had been worrying about her classes all morning, although she knew she probably shouldn't. But there was an element of it in her readying her messenger bag, sticking in all of the notebooks that she might need and a binder full of looseleaf paper. A small baggie of kibble went into the front pocket, along with a bottle of water, while Derecho's lunch portion was secured carefully in the side pocket of her backpack, just in case she did need a piece or two. After making sure that Derecho's vest had everything that she expected him to carry, Sina called the dog over, dressing him and then buckling on his headcollar, to which she attached the leash. She'd been giving the dog a bit of leeway recently to make friends with the general population, but now she just needed him to focus on her.

They found their way to the English Lit classroom easily enough, and as she walked in, she spotted Kall immediately, the only student yet present. With a brief nod to the teacher, Sina walked over to the seat next to her friend, grinning at the boy, "You wouldn't believe how glad I am to have a familiar face." She pulled out the chair from the desk, "Der, under." As the canine settled himself into the small space between the legs of the desk, curling himself to fit with his head facing Sina. The girl nodded and dropped the dog's leash before she took off her own bag, setting it against the outside of the desk and then pulling out a notebook and pencil.

When the teacher began her introduction, Sina leaned back slightly in her chair and listened, noting the woman's name and then that they wouldn't be forced to introduce herself. As she heard that they were supposed to, Sina glanced over at Kall and raised an eyebrow slightly, although she didn't murmur the joking question that came to mind. Might not be the best start to the year! As she heard the introduction to what they would be doing, she nodded briefly, not too worried. Poetry was simple enough, she figured. Anything could be interpreted, and especially if there wasn't a specific form requirement, she'd be good. As they started calling off numbers, Sina jumped in with her favorite, "Green."

When they were released to work on their own poems and jot down ideas, Sina pulled out her binder of looseleaf and removed a piece, then set it on top of her notebook, picking up her pencil and starting to jot down ideas. Green was a simple color for her, with the many directions it could go. Nature, envy, contamination, there were so many directions to go in!

[Deleted]

    Living on his own was certainly different. Well, not entirely on his own but in his own room without his parents breathing down his neck to get out and do barn chores and clean the house. It was just him, so he kept it rather tidy. He made his bed every morning, just to make it seem nice and clean. He grabbed his backpack that had a few notebooks, pens, pencils and highlighters, as well as a calculator. Everything he would need for his classes. He took one last glance around his room, checking to make sure it was tidy in case there was a room check, and then he closed the door and locked it, sliding his key in his back pocket. He was slightly nervous for his first class, but he was sure it would be fun, and it would for sure be good to get to know people. It's been a week now and he hasn't talked to anyone other than the secretary when he first arrived, and his parents over the phone. 

    He arrived at the classroom five minutes prior to class time, and glanced around the classroom. He did not see anyone that he had ever met before, as he expected. There was the teacher, two boys and two girls, and one of the girls had a service dog. He sat down in the middle of the classroom, settling in quickly. He figured that he was probably the oldest in the class, and that was apparent, and slightly awkward. How did he get put in with a bunch of kids who must've been at least two years younger than him.


    He opened up his notebook to the first page, writing his name, the class, the teachers name and the date in the top right corner. In the center of the head of the page, he wrote in large letters POETRY. He was excited to start with poetry. It's one of his favorite subjects. He listened to his teacher's request, and the first color that came to his mind was grey, as it was the color of his little arab mare, Pie. After listening to the other four call out their colors, he called out, clear and confident, "Grey," and then immediately ducked his head down to write down some ideas. Stones, the angry sky, storm clouds, grey hair on your grandparents' head, grey parrots, dolphins, fog. He was jotting down all ideas that came to his mind to help him brainstorm.

[Annabelle Archer]

Now late:
Gavriila Shahar
@jeanneclaire
@maeve

---

Taking note of the dog that came in with a student, she knew who Sina was, according to the email she got concerning the canine mostly. She looked to each student and nodded to each of them who said their color she was happy to see that not many of the kids looked disappointed when she told them they were writing poetry. "Good now that all of you have your color, go ahead and jot down some ideas, brainstorm if you will, and I will give you until about ten minutes before class ends, we will be sharing aloud so write something you are confident about sharing with us." She returned to her desk and watched them write down their poems. The exercise was more for her to see the creativity level of the individuals in her class, as well as the writing and vocabulary level of each of the students as well.

Looking to the clock she saw that it was just under ten minutes before the bell would ring. "Alright everyone now you've all had time to write your poems, it's time to share, it doesn't matter who goes first, but just know that no one leaves until everyone has read their poem, so go ahead. Oh and whoever is speaking must stand." She stood at the front of the class and waited for someone to rise from their seats, she was curious to hear what they had written.

[Kallistos Rolleston]

Kall beamed as Sina entered the room and approached him. "You're telling me!" He agreed to her comment. He watched as the dog positioned himself. "Would it be easier if he used the space between our legs?" He asked with a shrug, after all Dre was anything but a little dog.

He listen to the instructions once everyone had given their colours and he released a dramatic groan when Ms Archer mentioned they would all need to be read out loud. It wasn't that he was ashamed of sharing what he was going to write...well, not really anyway, but it was a sound that was expected when a teacher mentioned reading out loud. He flashed the woman a grin before he went back to jotting down ideas about the colour blue.

He leaned slightly closer to Sina. "At least if I could have had two colours I could have done; Roses are red, violets are blue, red is a colour and blue is too." He grinned, knowing it was a lame joke, and then felt guilty that he could have interrupted her train of thoughts.

It wasn't long before his poem began to fall into place, going for the typical rhyming verse, and by the time that Ms Archer said it was time to read them out, he shrugged and rose to his feet. "Ok, this is what I have written about the colour blue:

Blue is an emotion,
cold and aloof.
Blue is the sky,
that gives the earth a roof.
Of many shades and textures,
tones and hues.
One of the three primary
colours is blue.
Blue is the flower,
that smells so sweet.
And in the candy bowl,
for a tasty treat.^©"

When he finished, he flashed a smile and sat back down, happy to have gone first and got it out of the way. He was pleased with what he had written and knew that if he'd remained sitting and waiting for other to go first, he probably would have changed it a million times and then ended up with hat he had started with anyway.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina grinned at Kall's offer, "He's fine, thanks though." It was surprising what all a dog could be taught to tuck into... But then, she'd flown with him, and he'd done perfectly fine with that, too. A desk was nothing compared to the economy seats on a plane. As Julius sat down on her other side, Sina glanced over and returned the boy's smile, then turned her attention forward.

When they'd settled who was doing which colors, the class was left to their own devices, and Sina bent over her paper, slowly forming the lines of a decuain poem. At least it had some sort of structure, she figured. She'd just gotten the 'A' rhymes figured out when Kall leaned over to share his 'poem' with her. Chuckling slightly, Sina responded, "Roses are red, that much is true. But violets are violet, not really blue." She smirked just slightly, then turned back to her own poem, trying to decide if she wanted to do the obvious, and use 'tree' to rhyme with. But why shouldn't she?

The time to write went somewhat quickly, and Sina was just quietly counting out the syllables to make sure that she had ten per line when they were told that it was time to present. As Kall volunteered, Sina set down her pencil and watched him, listening to his poem and nodding slightly. It was a different style to what she'd done, but hey. That's what the class was for! With a brief hand signal to keep Derecho where he was, Sina stood up to go next, glancing down at her paper before she began reading it,

"Birch, pine, juniper here, all shades of green,
A home such as this, no need for envy,
Love of nature encoded in her gene.
There in the distance a beautiful tree,
Its healthy color attracts the buzzing bee,
Quieting his hunger on the flower.
And in the blue pond, fish feed on algae,
The green nature giving them their power.
Up high in her nest sits the shamrock queen,
Looking down at her forest, eyesight keen."

She finished and then sat back down in her seat, ready to turn to face whoever was going to go after her.

[Deleted]

    Writing was definitely not one of Oliver's strengths. He loved to read, but write? It could always be better. He sighed quietly as he struggled to think of something to write about. He didn't want to be judged for writing horribly, or sounding stupid. He stared at the blank paper for awhile, narrowing his eyes and twirling the pencil between his fingers. All he could think about was going to see Pie. That's all he wanted. He finally just started with the first line. Once he got going, he knew it'd be okay.

    He went with an A,B,C,B rhyming pattern and a 6,6,5,6 syllable pattern, in two groups, and then the last two lines were both six syllables that rhymed. He just put a period on his last line before the teacher informed them that their time was up. He sat back in his chair. He knew it didn't make much sense, but he got something written down and that's all that mattered. He listened to the other students' poems, and noticed that none of them were the same. He grinned when it was his turn. He stood confidently, and ran his fingers through his hair. Taking a deep breath, he began.

"With an incoming storm,

comes the grey clouds and sea.

Both angry and sad,

they don't always agree.

Skipping a small grey stone,

the dolphins were at play.

Fog set on the sea,

Keeping sadness at bay.

And those who understand,

will know that grey is grand."

    He finished his poem with a grin and then sat back down in his seat, taking a deep breath. He hoped he didn't look like an idiot. He leaned back and waited for further instruction from the teacher.

[Gavriila Shahar]

Gavriila woke up at 5 in the morning and went for her usual run. She was dressed in tennis shoes, and athletic clothes. Pulling her hair up in a high ponytail, she grabbed a water bottle and her cell phone before leaving the dorm. Losing herself in running, she quickly lost track of time. Taking her phone out to look at the time, she swore as she ran back to her room, pausing only to grab her book bag before running off to class. 

Entering the classroom silently, her cheeks flushed red from being late and sprinting for so long, she grabbed the first empty seat she could find and took out her pen and notebook. The poems were all about colors. She quickly chose the color black, writing the poem quickly. Writing it down on paper, soon it was her turn to say it. "A black night sky
The dark hue its only goodbye
Many shades of black, all can vary
except for one thing
The hue is regarded by people as weary
A fabric perhaps or something else
The pitch black outside, covers any signs of light
Black is nothing more than a hue or color
But those who look at it, may choose to perceive it as something other." Finished reading the poem, she sat down gracefully in her seat, as she waited to hear what poems her other peers would come up with.