OTJ Poetry

A colleague sent me this poem written by one of her teachers as he struggled to make sense of overall teacher judgments.

So here I sit...asTTle looks back at me like a 2p audience with little content.
Child A's punctuation leaves me breathless as I stumble from below to way below,
And think back on all the incredibly imaginative dialogues I have had with these children,
Who now struggle to translate their thoughts into the written word.
Fault?...blame?...as child after child fails to meet the thin orange line on my spreadsheet.
They are like literacy athletes - puffed before the finish line
Desperately trying to reach some mysterious finishing tape that says they have made it.
If only a full-stop here. A capital letter there. It's all so possessive.
I marvel that some of them even make it here and have worlds they can write about.
Their experiences often are packaged in a paragraph......at most.
And yet at night when they are asleep. and there are no red lines in their dreams....
They are perfect.
Another Sunday at school......now for reports
Rod Davis