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Aboard the International Space Station, a poem by a Colorado teacher

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2min 09sec
Photo courtesy Kathleen Jakobsen
Sixth-grade science teacher Kathleen Jakobsen took a selfie in her classroom at Altona Middle School in Longmont, Colo.

Kathleen Jakobsen, a sixth-grade teacher at Altona Middle School in Longmont, wrote "The Stars in Their Eyes" about her students. It won the Out-of-This-World Art and Poetry Contest and was displayed aboard the International Space Station. She read it aloud for Colorado Matters.

I see you, my students, with stars in your eyes.

I mention Polaris and you ask, 'How far? What size?'

I see you, my students, with doodles of the moon, drawing crescents until there is no more room.

I see you, my students, bewitched by the solar flare. I hear you exclaim, "Less than eight minutes to get to here from there?!"

I see you, my students, trying to develop a cosmic view in a room with no windows.

So what can we do? I orbit you. You orbit me. And we learn to go beyond that which we see.

Kathleen Jakobsen