"Jaswinski Bless America" (topic inspired by Erin, written by Rachel)
There once was Thumbody,
Who, although old and gray,
Enlightened his students with knowledge
Day after day.
As she nervously shuffled into his classroom
Grinning with dread
Of grammar tests, half-sheets of paper
And books she should’ve read
She thought, “What will today bring?”
“Poetry, Essays, Drama, or Song?
Or vertically folded quizzes,
With each answer wrong?
A negative score,
Not hard to get,
Or a literature exam,
That creates beads of sweat?
Or maybe an essay
With a perfectly constructed mix
Of simple and compound-complex sentences
And some figure of speech tricks?
"I’ve Been Working on the Railroad"
Maybe he’d croon?
With each verse and chorus
Perfectly in tune?
Or maybe it was her turn to perform
Her dramatic presentation
The time running out
Creating frustration?
Because in 7th grade English
She discovered what she liked to do
Act, sing, and dance:
Her dramatic debut.
While half-sheet of paper quizzes she dreaded
As she made fact sheets each morn
Her love for literary arts
Soon was reborn
But from each point deducted,
With green shades of flair,
She was reminded of how
To create a straight tear.
Though the quizzes were hard
Not to mention each test
The student persevered
Trying her best
Until one day she gave up
With no hope to be seen
Of escaping that ghastly
Uni-ball green
So the student stopped working,
No homework to turn in,
But with no effort
How could she win?
Then the trimester rolled around;
And report cards, too.
But with an incomplete in English,
What’s one to do?
“Why, maybe…” she thought
“If I work through the night,
I can finish each read and react,
Yes, I think I might”
So she pulled an all-nighter
Read each page front and back
Until in the end,
Not one assignment did she lack
And a grade was received!
Relief felt by all
“Congratulations!” said each person
She passed in the hall
But between serving “resource managements”
For not having her book,
This frustrated young student,
Finally got a chance to look
At the stark white report card
Taped to her door
And next to English was a 65--
Not one point more
“AHH!” screamed the student
Turning bright red
“When my parents find out,
They’ll have me dead!”
So she hid the report card
And the next, and the next,
And started reading each night
From her literature text
Until one day it came,
As fresh as the dew
Summer had arrived
Oh what to do?!
So she frolicked outside
With her report cards in hand
And when she got hot
With those dreaded documents, she was fanned
Until with one swoop she noticed
That each grade she received
Was even lower than English…
For her future she grieved.
Then her new academic schedule arrived
As the summer months faded out
She got that teacher again!
Her misfortune she needed to tout
So she called her friend Shannon,
And said “what can I do?!”
This type of fretting over English
Was nothing new
So Shannon replied,
"Fear not, my young friend
I have him, too
We’ll have him ‘til the end"
So another year went by,
A few more failing grades received,
And once all three classes were over,
She felt so relieved
She’d finished Latin,
English, and more
And learned that the essence of Pine Crest
Held Mr. Jaswinski at its core
And as she entered high school
On her very first day
She knew that no other class
Could scare her away
Because she’d learned to be successful
And with her head held up high
She took her freshman year grammar diagnostic test
Giving it, her best try
“I failed, the J-man,”
She thought in her mind
But she continued to read perceptively
Each figure of speech, underlined
And then it came back
With almost no green at all
While her new, Bocan neighbor
Had a percentage so small
I know why this is!
She thought to herself
As she looked at her framed scantron
Sitting upon her shelf
It’s because of this nifty man
I knew back in the day
He taught us some grammar and writing
In his own unique way
He would walk back and forth,
The same pattern he’d repeat,
As I listened attentively
From my back corner seat
He was smart and was funny,
And though disliked at the time,
Taught us to write,
To read, and to rhyme.
And though in his class,
Each of my answers Amol had to correct,
English quickly became
My most beloved subject
And so with the 1,000 dollar scholarship
And other awards he helped me to win
I slowly discovered
The writer within
And now as I sit
in English AP
With a high ‘A’ average
Not a single ‘B’
I think to myself
After all these years past,
In the mini-musical version of Pine Crest,
He’s the star of the cast
With the bell being rung,
And passive voice all around,
He’s created many fans,
All college bound
But though it is sad
To think he must soon depart
He may not be here in person,
But in each student’s heart.
Because as Shannon said
He’ll be here ‘til the end
And he’ll forever be
Our teacher, our friend.
Anyone not signed the j-man's yearbook yet? see me ASAP.
-rachel
Who, although old and gray,
Enlightened his students with knowledge
Day after day.
As she nervously shuffled into his classroom
Grinning with dread
Of grammar tests, half-sheets of paper
And books she should’ve read
She thought, “What will today bring?”
“Poetry, Essays, Drama, or Song?
Or vertically folded quizzes,
With each answer wrong?
A negative score,
Not hard to get,
Or a literature exam,
That creates beads of sweat?
Or maybe an essay
With a perfectly constructed mix
Of simple and compound-complex sentences
And some figure of speech tricks?
"I’ve Been Working on the Railroad"
Maybe he’d croon?
With each verse and chorus
Perfectly in tune?
Or maybe it was her turn to perform
Her dramatic presentation
The time running out
Creating frustration?
Because in 7th grade English
She discovered what she liked to do
Act, sing, and dance:
Her dramatic debut.
While half-sheet of paper quizzes she dreaded
As she made fact sheets each morn
Her love for literary arts
Soon was reborn
But from each point deducted,
With green shades of flair,
She was reminded of how
To create a straight tear.
Though the quizzes were hard
Not to mention each test
The student persevered
Trying her best
Until one day she gave up
With no hope to be seen
Of escaping that ghastly
Uni-ball green
So the student stopped working,
No homework to turn in,
But with no effort
How could she win?
Then the trimester rolled around;
And report cards, too.
But with an incomplete in English,
What’s one to do?
“Why, maybe…” she thought
“If I work through the night,
I can finish each read and react,
Yes, I think I might”
So she pulled an all-nighter
Read each page front and back
Until in the end,
Not one assignment did she lack
And a grade was received!
Relief felt by all
“Congratulations!” said each person
She passed in the hall
But between serving “resource managements”
For not having her book,
This frustrated young student,
Finally got a chance to look
At the stark white report card
Taped to her door
And next to English was a 65--
Not one point more
“AHH!” screamed the student
Turning bright red
“When my parents find out,
They’ll have me dead!”
So she hid the report card
And the next, and the next,
And started reading each night
From her literature text
Until one day it came,
As fresh as the dew
Summer had arrived
Oh what to do?!
So she frolicked outside
With her report cards in hand
And when she got hot
With those dreaded documents, she was fanned
Until with one swoop she noticed
That each grade she received
Was even lower than English…
For her future she grieved.
Then her new academic schedule arrived
As the summer months faded out
She got that teacher again!
Her misfortune she needed to tout
So she called her friend Shannon,
And said “what can I do?!”
This type of fretting over English
Was nothing new
So Shannon replied,
"Fear not, my young friend
I have him, too
We’ll have him ‘til the end"
So another year went by,
A few more failing grades received,
And once all three classes were over,
She felt so relieved
She’d finished Latin,
English, and more
And learned that the essence of Pine Crest
Held Mr. Jaswinski at its core
And as she entered high school
On her very first day
She knew that no other class
Could scare her away
Because she’d learned to be successful
And with her head held up high
She took her freshman year grammar diagnostic test
Giving it, her best try
“I failed, the J-man,”
She thought in her mind
But she continued to read perceptively
Each figure of speech, underlined
And then it came back
With almost no green at all
While her new, Bocan neighbor
Had a percentage so small
I know why this is!
She thought to herself
As she looked at her framed scantron
Sitting upon her shelf
It’s because of this nifty man
I knew back in the day
He taught us some grammar and writing
In his own unique way
He would walk back and forth,
The same pattern he’d repeat,
As I listened attentively
From my back corner seat
He was smart and was funny,
And though disliked at the time,
Taught us to write,
To read, and to rhyme.
And though in his class,
Each of my answers Amol had to correct,
English quickly became
My most beloved subject
And so with the 1,000 dollar scholarship
And other awards he helped me to win
I slowly discovered
The writer within
And now as I sit
in English AP
With a high ‘A’ average
Not a single ‘B’
I think to myself
After all these years past,
In the mini-musical version of Pine Crest,
He’s the star of the cast
With the bell being rung,
And passive voice all around,
He’s created many fans,
All college bound
But though it is sad
To think he must soon depart
He may not be here in person,
But in each student’s heart.
Because as Shannon said
He’ll be here ‘til the end
And he’ll forever be
Our teacher, our friend.
Anyone not signed the j-man's yearbook yet? see me ASAP.
-rachel