Onomatopoeia

on·o·mat·o·poe·ia

ˌänəˌmadəˈpēə,ˌänəˌmädəˈpēə/
noun, 
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoosizzle)

This morning I found myself thinking about Ms. Juanita Cocklin, my 7th & 8th grade English teacher. As I typed that, I had to slow down and make myself type "my," as being in Ms. Cocklin's class was anything but a singular experience. I don't think I've ever talked or even thought about her class without thinking "our" teacher.  She had a group of us for two periods straight, and I don't ever remember an organized lecture or lesson.  Instead, she had us play with language for a couple hours a day. I remember writing poetry, reading crazy books, experimenting with rhetoric, and being generally comfortable being myself in the modular classroom parked beside the school.   It was great, and as I look back, it was one of the few parts of middle school that I thrived in.

So why exactly was I thinking about Ms. Cocklin and what does it have to do with Onomatopoeia? Yesterday morning, I had the pure joy of watching my 5-year-old son running down the soccer field chasing after the ball, yelling, not "charge!" or "aaahhhh" or any other cheer one would suspect, but a long crescendoing "onomatopoeiaaaa!"  Ms. Cocklin has passed, but I bet she would have gotten a chuckle out of that one, and I'm smiling to myself knowing that my kids will love some of the same things about school that I did.