Over the weekend I started a collaborative online project involving Haiku as a creative expressive form that has a wellness related side benefit – stress reduction. Working with the definition that stress results when demands exceed our coping mechanisms and that extreme stress can result in trauma from the loss of internal locus of control, Haiku enables us to create (ie. control) simple yet aesthetically enjoyable poems that help remind us of everyday beauty.
Fuji in Springtime
Fuji in Spingtime
Hangs like grapes from a trellis
Reminds me to breathe
The project is simple. Contributors tweet out haiku and they are automatically added to an archive on my blog rather than lost into the Tweetsphere forever. (Please click to see a fuller description). The idea is that the haiku reach all of the followers of the author on the initial tweet but then can be enjoyed by others. Paige McClement an educator from Cochrane, Alberta, Canada picked up on the project and involved a few of her students as contributors. Their haiku have been really enjoyable to see come in. (Please click to see their haiku).
On the YIS front, over the next few weeks I will be working with our two wonderful humanities teachers Rebekah Madrid and Alex Guenther to introduce the project to some of our middle school students. I am excited to reciprocate the energy injected into the effort by Ms. McClement and her students and see how our students respond to the idea. It would be wonderful to see the haiku they create uploaded on to their individual student blogs as well.
One useful resource I came across is this haiku lesson outline (click) created by Kimiyo Tanaka from Ehime Prefecture, Japan. She is clearly passionate about Haiku as well and also recognizes the potential of online endeavors like the one we are working on. I look forward to potentially involving her in this project as well. Click here to see her blog. – AC
Adam Clark is a school counselor at Yokohama International School in Yokohama, Japan. Find out more at http://whoisadamclark.com/who-is
Posted On: Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Posted In: Counseling, Haiku
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Comments: 5 Responses
We wrote them today as a response to the class novel we read – Thunder Rolling in the Mountains. The kids could choose to write as themselves or as the author or a character in the book. I will try and figure out how to add them!
This is great, Sonya! Are you on Twitter? If so I will add you as a contributor to the Haiku project. If not, I could make a page for your class to just post their Haiku as replies. Twitter is the easiest all around but I’d really like to include your student’s work so whatever works for you.
Hi Adam, I’m not on Twitter, but I have a haiku for you.
Shedding snow blankets/flowers yawn, stretching their limbs/rising from winter
Great Meg! Perfect picture of unfolding spring…
Thanks for posting your Haiku here. I find them addicting!
I really enjoy them too. Great idea posting them on your page.