By Miss Amanda Hultin, English & Religion Faculty, and Charlie Mosse, Gillian Yue, Cooper Giblin, Hailey Dubose, Peter Ackerman, & Mark Wang, IV Form

“I Am” Poetry

In the first days of school, there is much that I want to learn about my students. I ask them to write, “How can I be a good teacher for you?” “What do you want me to know about you as a student? As a person?” The answers are read only by me.

I also want my students to learn about each other and to begin creating the learning environment unique to each class. I assign the “I am” poem as an exercise in thinking, writing, and talking about one’s identity. The assignment is simple:

Create a poem describing your identity. The poem should be two stanzas of four lines each. The lines in the first stanza will begin with “ I am…” and each line in the second stanza will begin with “ I am not…”

Below are the resulting products of the assignment.

Charlie Mosse:

I am my passion

I am my resilience

I am try, try again

I am seizing the day

I am not anyone else

I am not wasting my opportunities

I am not giving up

I am not failure

 

Gillian Yue:

I am a tree

I am its bent flexible branches

I am the swimmer against the current

I am gentle persistence

I am not a balloon

I am not a scarecrow

I am not the hollow tree hole

I am not emptiness

Cooper Giblin:

I am growing up in a broken world

I am witnessing great evils everyday

I am cared for by my peers

I am supported by community

I am not going to let my life fade away

I am not in control of my fate

I am not satisfied with myself

I am not the person I thought I was

Hailey Dubose:

I am not perfect,

I am not loud,

I am not scared,

I am not small.

I am happy,

I am heard,

I am bold,

I am courageous.

Peter Ackerman:

I am not the one shipped off to school

I am not the one who did something bad

I am not “the failure”

I am not the person they expected me to be

I am the one who raised eyebrows

I am the one whom people talked about

I am the one who changed what people thought about him

I am the one who surprised everybody

Mark Wang:

I am an eagle soaring up the sky

I am a tiger ruling over the ground

I am a dolphin jumping through the ocean

I am a young grass, waving across the wind.

I am Mark Wang

I am not a random Asian

I am not a prisoner locked in my own cage

I am not a greedy human picking up all of what is left in the world

I am not sadness, nor frustration.

I am just Mark Wang

***************************

Charlie Mosse is a IV Form boarder from Beverly, MA.  He plays hockey and lacrosse and entertains all with his sense of humor.

Gillian Yue is a IV Form boarding student from Shanghai, China. She lives in Thayer, plays soccer, and enjoys playing video games. 

David Cooper Giblin is a IV Form day student from Westborough, MA. He plays lacrosse and squash, and he enjoys spending time with his friends and family. 

Hailey DuBose is a IV Form boarding student from Raynham, MA. She plays varsity soccer and enjoys spending her free time with her friends.

Peter Ackerman is a new IV Form boarding student from Westwood, MA. He plays squash, lacrosse and is the thirds’ soccer goalie.

Mark Wang is a IV Form boarding student from TianJing, China. He went to Fay School for three years, and he plays tennis and basketball.

​Amanda Hultin teaches both English and religion. She earned her BA in Studies in Religion at the University of Michigan and holds a MEd in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has experience as a coxswain on the men’s rowing team at Michigan and will coach in the crew program this spring.

Image Sources:

https://portfolium.com/entry/who-am-i-1

https://studentaffairscollective.org/meninsa-all-identities-come-with-privilege/