I'm Disagree! Poems Between Teacher and Student is a digital chapbook collaboration between Grabiela and Mr. Brendan. Written as call and response, this epistolary collection is our attempt to describe the classroom experience from different sides. Scroll down to read the poems, see the originals, and get the full backstory!
Below are the original poems in their original order. The nice handwriting is Grabiela's. The messy handwriting and typing are Mr. Brendan's.
I'm Disagree! Poems Between Teacher and Student began as a series of conversations between Mr. Brendan and Grabiela about how the class was running. Every day, Grabiela would say Mister, another and Mr. Brendan would find another metaphor for class. Eventually, he typed them all up and handed the pages to Grabiela, thinking that was the end. A few days later, Grabiela showed back up and said Ok so I'm almost done but I have a few questions. She had independently divided each page and written a response. From there, she wrote her own poems and Mr. Brendan responded, and what you see here is the result of this work. The title is a result of our classroom seminars, after which Grabiela started yelling I'm disagree! every time she passed Mr. Brendan in the hallway. It took a lot of time and effort to get here, but we're so proud of this project!
Grabiela would like to give a shoutout to her past class, because if the class wasn't how it was, she wouldn't have come up with these things. It all started there. Also, thanks to Mr. Brendan who understood that she had another viewpoint as a student and came up with metaphors to open her mind and stuff like that.
Mr. Brendan wants to thank Grabiela for taking these ideas and running with them. Additionally, every student who has helped bake a cake.
Earlier drafts of I'm a Waiter at One of Those Korean Barbecue Places Where You Cook On Your Table, Bust Also I Read Them the Menu After They've Eaten, They Make Elaborate Self Portraits Out of Folded Book Pages, and Every Day Is a Cake But Also You're a Planet were also published in PRISM: The Journal of the Internationals Network for Public Schools.
Grabiela is a sophomore who likes to see things from two viewpoints and figure out which one she identifies with. She likes to support everyone making moves in their life.
Mr. Brendan is usually fairly agreeable. He teaches 9th and 10th grade English and loves picture books, poetry, games, and comics! He is always ready to take on a new project with any student who disagrees.