TL;DR: This post shares a poem that encompasses what goes through a teacher’s mind on a daily basis. ‘Twas the Night Before Teaching ‘Twas the night before teaching when all through my mind, No positive utterance of self-talk could I find. My briefcase was slung by the front door downstairs; Inside—tomorrow’s lesson—planned with great care. I was s’posed to … Read More
The Best Gift Is You
TL;DR: This post shares a yearly tradition to write a poem for staff and students on the last day of the school year before winter break as encouragement and to build community. I thought I would share with you, for this month’s blog, a poem I wrote for my school’s students and teachers. This is something I started doing back … Read More
Episode #71: Joe Pizzo
The AMLE National Middle Level Educator of the Year for 2020, Joe Pizzo teaches Integrated Language Arts and serves as the drama co-director at the Black River Middle School in Chester, NJ. A veteran middle school teacher of 47 years and an adjunct professor formerly with Union County College and the College of Saint Elizabeth, Joe has been with Centenary … Read More
Teaching Poetry? Take Away the Rules with Dr. John Littlewolf
In this episode we are discussing how to take away the rules for creative writing. So many kids may not like writing because we put writing in a box, follow these rules, these prompts, etc. There is no celebration of life or emotions which makes it hard for them to connect to the writing. In John’s experience, he advocates for … Read More
Celebrate Poetry: What Will Your Verse Be?
TL;DR: Poetry offers students an access point into language. Spoken and written word have the power to foster conversation, liberation, and increase student voice. Poetry instruction that is multimodal (spoken word, video, and audio) increases engagement and can be a great way to delve into social justice topics in the classroom. It’s OK to just celebrate poetry without feeling intimidated … Read More
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