There’s a Diamond in My Soup: Diamonte Poems

Our Host Stacey L. Joy is a National Board Certified Teacher with 38 years of teaching in the elementary classroom. Teaching her Joyteam scholars the power of knowledge, self-advocacy and justice are at the core of her practice. Stacey is a poetry lover, a creator …

Recuerdos de Comida y Amor / Memories of Food and Love

Our Host Stacey L. Joy is a National Board Certified Teacher with 38 years of teaching in the elementary classroom. Teaching her Joyteam scholars the power of knowledge, self-advocacy and justice are at the core of her practice. Stacey is a poetry lover, a creator …

Building Relationships to Discover Reading Identity

Building Relationships to Discover Reading Identity by Kimberly H. Johnson, Ed.D. When I looped up from teaching primary and elementary students to teaching middle and high school students, I felt a gut punch when I discovered students’ reluctance to read in secondary grades.  Young children, …

Over the Bridge: Using Phone Calls to Connect Students’ Worlds 

Over the Bridge: Using Phone Calls to Connect Students’ Worlds  by Brenda Moreno Early this summer, I visited the Chicago Botanic Garden. As I made my way from one garden to the next, I came across a sign that reminded guests that bridges symbolically link …

person holding a mirror on an open field

Self-Perception: Concrete Poetry

A very special thank you to our August Open Write hosts: Denise Krebs, Gayle Sands, Wendy Everard, Scott McCloskey, and Ashlyn O’Rourke. We so appreciate your generosity of time and compassion in creating these writing prompts and attending to our lines and stanzas these past …

multicolored abstract painting

Embodying Art

Scott, a teacher from Michigan, has been playing with AI to turn photos into paintings and is, currently, underwhelmed with his results. Inspiration Somebody more mathematically astute than me said a picture is worth a thousand words. I’d wager they didn’t see the above picture. …

stylish interior of bar in restaurant

Ode to a Poet

Wendy Everard is a high school English teacher and writer living in central New York. Her role as mother and teacher has given her plenty to write about since she started writing personal narrative and poetry, lifelong hobbies kicked into overdrive when she joined a …

tilt shift photo of two white bird eggs on a nest

Nestlings: Hidden Poems

Gayle lives in Taneytown, MD (just south of Gettysburg, PA) with two useless small dogs, three cats and a really lucky husband. She has three adult children and a much-loved toddler granddaughter, Maya. (She cannot wait to disrupt the very careful upbringing enforced by Maya’s …

photo of people s hand on top of wooden table

Hands

Denise Krebs is the chief learner in life’s adventure. Since she retired from teaching at the end of 2021, she has had time on her hands (sometimes too much). When she wrote her mentor poem on hands, she realized she needs to do some planning …