Inspiration Golden Shovel: Inspiration for our poems comes from many places. Terrance Hayes created the Golden Shovel poetry form from Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool.” Hayes named his poem “The Golden Shovel,” and if we look at the last word in each line of …
This week, I wrap up my first semester as tenure-track faculty. In case you missed it, I left my 15-year position as a junior high language arts teacher in June to become a full-time teacher educator. How does that happen, you ask? Since you asked, …
Social media is a blessing and a curse. As an introvert, social media offers access to people, places, and lives I would otherwise never know because, except for certain times of the year, I am mostly a hermit. Still, when on social media I see …
This year I have the privilege of attending all four days of NCTE and two days of The ALAN Workshop. Up until now, I had always been a classroom teacher who had to pay her own registration and travel, take her only two personal days, …
Thank you for joining us to write this November. I hope to see you at NCTE. This is where I will be: If you have teacher-friends and writers who would enjoy our community, please invite them to sign up for December with the wonderful Glenda …
Inspiration Try a quatrain today and see if it restricts or liberates — or some combination. A quatrain is a four-line poem that can have the same number of syllables in each line to create rhythm. You might try an end-rhyme pattern like abab, aabb, …
Inspiration A Piece of Artwork. While you might not be able to zip off to the nearest art museum (if you can, do!), zero in on a piece of artwork – a painting, a sculpture, a ceramic piece… here at the St. Louis Art Museum, …
Inspiration Reflect on your greatest struggle, however you define it. Tell the story of how you overcame or are overcoming it. Consider how enduring the struggle has changed you — perhaps, for the better. A few questions to help you move through the the process. …
Inspiration Rituals/Traditional Moments. We generally all tend to certain rituals or routine acts that seem to have a sort of comforting rhythm, a familiarity. Often these involve traditional details and props that help smooth the edges of the moment. Our daily lives are full of …
The ALAN Workshop is Monday, November 25th to Tuesday, November 26th. I am thrilled to be on the ALAN Board and to have had a few glimpses behind the scenes of the massive undertaking by Dr. Steve Bickmore and his crew. I look to ALAN …