I Dwell in Possibility

In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I dwell in Possibility,” she writes about the superiority of poetry in comparison to prose. To Dickinson, poetry is a house “More numerous of Windows—“ with an “Everlasting Roof “ that are “The Gambrels of the Sky—” (Dickinson). This is the house I have been forced to live in for the last two weeks. When assigned to design a lesson plan that would use the spreadsheet as one of its elements, I dwelled upon the impossibility of the task. What would an English teacher do with a spreadsheet? I had ideas about how to use it in other content areas, but ran up against a brick wall when it came to my content area of English. Then I remembered something that I always tell my students when we study poetry, “Step out of your comfort zone!” Creating this lesson plan has been a humbling experience for me, but also a chance to practice what I preach.

Because I have taught literature for the last 18 years, I have my go-to methods and strategies that are tried and true. Developing this lesson plan forced me to “implement curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for applying technology to maximize student learning” (ISTE, 2000). Instead of merely telling the students about Dickinson’s use of common meter, students will be able to discover this themselves in their creation of the line graph depicting the syllable count for the lines of poetry. The use of the spreadsheet, as well as the inclusion of the audio resources for the music, and the animated video for the anticipatory set created a “technology-enhanced experience that address[ed] content and student technology standards” (ISTE, 2000). These resources also gave me the chance to “use technology to support learner-centered strategies that address the diverse needs of students” (ISTE, 2000). Once I opened myself up to the possibilities of what I could do with the spreadsheet, I thought of other ways I could incorporate technology into the lesson.

This experience has also taught me how difficult it is to be a student. I am learning so many new things in a very short period of time and am applying what I have learned to complete the assignments. Though I was excited to play with the website creators, it was difficult to abandon a website that I could not maneuver in despite the number of hours I had already invested in it. Again, if one dwells in a house of possibility, one must open the doors to all the possibilities and abandon others.

Every year I am faced with a group of 12th grade literature students who want to do anything but read poetry. I believed that I could write any other lesson plan but the one that was assigned. This assignment provided me with the opportunity to “dwell in Possibility” and to step out of my comfort zone. I learned how to blog, how to create a website, how to use a spreadsheet, but I also spent a lot of time making mistakes along the way. Overall, the experience has taught me that to dwell in the house of possibility is what every teacher should do for as educators our hope is that we can teach our students to “dwell in Possibility” (Dickinson) and be open to the opportunities that each challenge brings.

Dickinson, E. (1955). I dwell in possibility. Complete poems of Emily Dickinson. Retrieved from American Poems…Your poetry site website: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/10609

International Society for Technology in Education. (2010). NETS for teachers 2000. Retrieved from http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm

Magritte, R. The human condition [oil on canvas] (1933). Retrieved June 11, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ren%C3%A9_Magritte_The_Human_Condition.jpg