Practice Round

This is the official #MMPoetry 2014 PRACTICE ROUND!

Here are this year’s practice poems. Read them both and vote for the one that you like best.

5-exploded
My Pen Just Exploded
By Ed DeCaria

My pen just EXPLODED and Oh! What a mess!
There’s ink on my fingers and No! On my dress!
My mom’s gonna kill me, I know it, UNLESS …
Perhaps I could tell her you did it?

Say yes!

vs.

12-scavenging
Antiquing
By Charles Mund

Ninety-five bucks for an ink-covered quill,
Eighty-three more for two rusty old skis,
Seventy-one for a fan with no plug,
One-twenty-six for a grab bag of keys.

Mom and her sisters are zombies, possessed,
Mindlessly scavenging heap after heap.
Why don’t they shop in my bedroom sometime?
Same bunch o’ junk, but I’m sellin’ it CHEAP.

Public Vote
5-exploded vs. 12-scavenging

Authlete Vote (ID Required)
5-exploded vs. 12-scavenging
Classroom Vote (ID Required)
5-exploded vs. 12-scavenging


Like it? Share it!



Like me? Subscribe to TKT!


  • http://motherstreusel.com/ Mother Streusel

    Awesome! How do you find your ID if you are a classroom or Authlete?

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      I just sent an e-mail to all authletes with your authlete IDs.

      Classrooms will get the same (as soon as I get around to it!).

      • http://motherstreusel.com/ Mother Streusel

        Awesome!! Thank you so much!

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

    Ewww … I don’t like how the results look. I’ll be playing around with that. Also the little message that displays after you vote in the public vote doesn’t really show up on the gray background. That’s why we practice before we replicate x32, kids!

  • djts

    I can’t seem to vote on the practice round. Keeps saying I haven’t filled out the comment. I’ve put in my authlete ID, then I have to sign in to WordPress, then it says “No, way.” Or something to that effect. Let’s see what it does now.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Yikes. Okay, will look into that ASAP. Thanks, Donna.

  • djts

    No. Still getting :

    “Comment Error

    Please enter all fields correctly to post a comment.”
    when I try to submit my vote.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Try now, please.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      I think I figured it out. Please try again now. -Ed

      • djts

        I think it went. But first it gave me 2 vote buttons. The top one did the same as before. The bottom on appeared to take the vote.

        • djts

          It allowed me to vote again, or else it was just refreshing the page – same as last time. Still not working correctly.

        • http://motherstreusel.com/ Mother Streusel

          I got that, too, but I just clicked one again (the bottom one) and it worked.

  • Ryan Stockton

    Not sure if my vote is working. Have been getting the same error message as others, then after a refresh, I got two “Vote as Authlete” buttons. One gave me the same error message and the other refreshed the page. Not sure what to do!

  • Jackie Wellington

    This is not working for me…it is asking for worpress information and then it tells me that it does not exist. Sorry :(

  • Ann Magee

    I’m getting same results as others. What message, if any, appears when your vote has been registered?

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

    Alright everyone, this is a mess. I am trying a new polling solution, and clearly there are some issues. Will look into it late tonight.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      I seriously may need to punt on this polling solution. It is not doing what it claims to do. Ugh. Stay tuned.

  • http://www.glosonblog.com Gloson

    Woohoo! I can vote! :D

  • djts

    Yea! It works! Way to go, Ed! Hope you weren’t up all night.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Not entirely satisfied yet, so I’ll continue to tinker. But glad it’s working.

  • BJ Lee

    It worked for me, Ed!

  • Damon Dean

    Worked for me Ed…but let me vote as Public and as Authlete…I voted public first and as I scrolled down saw the Authlete vote with the code. It ‘seemed’ to take my vote both ways. Not sure that’s what it was supposed to do. Otherwise, no warnings or requirements to log in as WordPress. Or Disqus.

  • Ryan Stockton

    It didn’t take my login! I think I followed the directions properly from your newest email- I entered in my authlete ID and “authlete” as the PW, but it gave me the same error message from before!

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Ryan, what is the exact error message and where do you see it? In the log in pop-up?

      • Ryan Stockton

        Yes, it is in the WordPress pop-up. The error message is: Comment Error Please enter all fields correctly to post a comment.

        • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

          Thank you. Does it present you with “fields” or no?

          • Ryan Stockton

            Yes, there are fields in which to enter the info.

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

    Can someone please explain me exactly where this “comment error” occurs and what it looks like? Is it in the WordPress log-in pop-up? Is it in the poll itself? I am able to successfully log in and vote as each of the people who have said they cannot get it to work, and have done so in both Chrome and IE browsers.

  • http://www.pgwrites.com Patti Bumpus Richards

    Hey Ed…I voted again as per your second set of instructions, but I was not prompted to log into the site and enter a user name and password as your email stated. It said Thank You for voting, so I’m assuming it worked, but just wanted to let you know.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Patti, did you vote in the AUTHLETE POLL (with the red header) or the PUBLIC POLL (with the pictures)? I’m really hoping you say the public poll; otherwise that makes absolutely no sense.

      • http://www.pgwrites.com Patti Bumpus Richards

        There is no vote button below the red header authlete poll option, only for the classroom option. So I am still unable to vote there.

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

    OK, in the upper right corner of the site (below the header), you should now see a login button. Can those who have had trouble voting please try to login via this button and then come back to try to submit the practice vote? Again, I am flying blind here because all of your IDs work perfectly fine for me, so I cannot recreate the error that you are seeing. Let me know if you can vote in the authlete vote AFTER logging in.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Also, none of you should be seeing the option to vote in the Authlete Poll (or the Classroom poll) until you are logged in. Please let me know if you are seeing differently.

      • Ryan Stockton

        Sorry man, I’m still not able to log in. I click the “log in” button below the header, it takes me to the same WordPress fields as the pop-up did, and it gives me the same error message as before. It also shows that I have the option to vote as an authlete before I tried to log in.

        • Ryan Stockton

          I was able to log on finally! Although when I went to the practice poem, I could not vote. I don’t know if it was because it already counted my vote- I’m guessing that’s what happened. I think I’m in! Yay!

          • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

            Now THAT I can explain — I logged in as you previously and voted as you.

            At this point it seems to have nothing to do with the poll and everything to do with WP. But still others are having issues. Glad you could log in. And thanks for telling me about it!

  • Allan Wolf

    I logged in and voted. The only issue for some would be to know that once they arrive at the Think, Kid Think home page, they will still have to go to #mmpoetry2014 in the pull-down menu to access the March Madness stuff. Some folks may still not understand that MMP is merely a page on TKT rather than a site all its own.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      I’ll be changing out the home page slider and some of the sidebar stuff so MMP will be pretty hard to miss.

      • Allan Wolf

        You are the bee’s knees, Louise!

  • Debbie B. LaCroix

    Worked for me!

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

    Is ANYONE still having problems or can I break out the PEG+CAT “Problem solved! The problem is solved! We solved a problem! Problem solved!” song?

  • Ann Magee

    Worked for me. Can you check to see if you received my profile/bio info? Thanks.

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com/ Ed DeCaria

      Yes, on March 5th. Thanks, Ann!

  • http://www.pgwrites.com Patti Bumpus Richards

    Hey Ed! It worked for me this time! Thanks:)

  • Damon Dean

    Ed, I voted after your last email, and it allowed me to after it required me to log-in through WordPress. Seemed to work well. Now my screen shows I’ve voted as and authlete, but it didn’t require my authlete code. Is that how it should work?

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

      Yes, as long as you are logged in, you no longer need to input your ID into the poll area itself.

  • poulingail

    Login worked fine. Voted under the class area for my test. Hope that is okay even if it is practice ;P