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    180 Days: Reflections and Observations of a Teacher
    180 Days: Reflections and Observations of a Teacher
    180 Days: Reflections and Observations of a Teacher
    Ebook97 pages36 minutes

    180 Days: Reflections and Observations of a Teacher

    By Stan Kusunoki

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNorth Star Press of St. Cloud
    Release dateMar 1, 2015
    ISBN9780878398294
    180 Days: Reflections and Observations of a Teacher
    Author

    Stan Kusunoki

    Stanley Kusunoki is a teacher, poet, writer, arts advocate, and musician. He has served on panels for the Minnesota State Arts Board and was on the board of directors for S.A.S.E., The Write Place. He has been a liaison between artists and school faculty through the Perpich Center for Arts in Education. He was the recipient of a Loft Asian Inroads mentorship, and a mentor for the Asian American Renaissance "Writers' Block" and Intermedia Arts "Exchanges" mentorship programs. He was the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board "Cultural Collaborations" Grant (with support from the Jerome Foundation) for The Beringia Project (with Jamison Mahto). He has taught poetry to children through summer camps and elementary school residencies sponsored by The Loft, S.A.S.E., The Write Place, and the Perpich Center for Arts in Education. Kusunoki is currently the High Potential Teacher/Coordinator at Red Oak Elementary School in Shakopee.

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      Book preview

      180 Days - Stan Kusunoki

      Acknowledgements

      Foreword

      One day a couple of summers ago, while I was out and about, I ran into Stanley Kusunoki and his wife, Claudia Hampston Daly. As we have since we met back in 1996, we talked about our work: writing and teaching. But that day was different. That day, Stan mentioned that he was almost finished with a manuscript of what he called teacher poems. The more he talked, the more excited I felt. Partly because he had been chronicling his years of teaching experience through poetry, but mostly because of the joy I saw on his face and heard in his voice when he talked about his students. Here is a man who truly loves his work and cares deeply about the children in his charge. He believes that all children, no matter their background, are small gems, worthy of being seen, heard and honored. In the opening poem, Vessels, he says:

      Some are cut glass. They take the wine

      and shine, their own alchemy golden,

      reflects and glows on our faces

      Some are Libby glass, resilient, but plain

      they too sparkle as we open new vintages

      to keep them filled with wonder

      Even jam jars can catch light,

      hold our labors’ offerings

      I met Stan three years after I founded SASE: The Write Place, when my staff and I were seeking teaching artists for our school residency program. He had recently visited the class of one of my board members, and she enthusiastically introduced him. Over the next few years, he taught in residency programs for both SASE and The Loft Literary Center, and he eventually joined my board.

      Stan has been writing poetry since high school but discovered his love of teaching through those residency experiences. He decided to return to school in his late forties and became a full-time teacher in 2000, after completing the University of St. Thomas’s Collaborative Urban Educator (CUE) program. He has since taught high potential students, children in special education programs and second and third graders. He has also been a substitute teacher. For the last ten years, he has been teaching in the Shakopee public schools and was nominated for the Minnesota Teacher of the Year award in 2012.

      180 Days: Reflections and Observations is a beautiful memoir in poetry, written at various times during Stan’s sixteen years of teaching. The book is divided into sections: Part One: Observations and Reflections takes us from the children’s elementary years through their high school graduations. Several of the poems in the early part of that section reflect on 9/11, juxtaposing that event with the everyday lives of his children. Over a Decade begins,

      . . . And yet every school year begins with an underlying dread

      security increased, eyes watchfull

      lock down drills now commonplace

      fear has become our "e pluribus unum"

      as once again we remember

      the one day in America

      that is everyday in Kabul

      in Damascus

      in Kandahar

      In the next few stanzas, he recalls the morning

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