Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg When I was a classroom teacher, this was my favourite collection of poems to read with my class. They loved it too and would always ask for it if they had a choice! They are all set in a school environment and deal with the different aspects of school life. There are many to choose from but here are some of my favourites. The poem, Please Mrs. Butler, which is taken from the title of the collection, is about the trials and tribulations of a teacher who is asked too many questions in a day. Did you know that in a year a teacher can be asked over 30,000 different questions by her class? No wonder they get tired! You can hear the children asking the questions and the teacher getting more and more desperate in answering them. Another one that my class used to enjoy is ‘The Supply Teacher’. It tells the way in which a class can take over from a poor supply teacher who doesn’t know the organisation of the classroom. Please don’t try to do this! The Slow Reader. I always think of my dyslexic son when I read this to the class. He found reading very difficult. You need to read it slowly and carefully to get the full impact of what the pupil feels. A poem that all my class felt to be very true ‘The Detective.’ It tells the story of mothers who always know what you are up to. Mothers are ahead of you in most things! This delightful collection of poems has many more for you to read. If you look up on YouTube of Google it, you will find many people reading the poems for you. Why don’t you try to write one about the things that happen in your school?
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