Jennifer Jacobson is the author of award-winning children’s books including Small as an Elephant(IRA Young Adult’s Choice, Parents’ Choice Gold Award), Paper Things (ILA Social Justice Award, NTCE Charlotte Huck Honorable Mention)and The Dollar Kids illustrated by Ryan Andrews (ABA IndieNext List and Bank Street …
Lauryl and Lizzy are preservice teachers. lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and is currently a junior studying Secondary Education: English at Oklahoma State University. She plans to become an English teacher at the high school level upon graduation. When she is not in class (or on …
Gayle Sands started teaching middle school English as a second career at 42. She taught ELA for 25 years, and is now enjoying a a stint as reading specialist. She had a very “interesting” (aka challenging) household with a messy husband, three (now grown) children, …
Kari Anne Holt is the award-winning author of many middle grade novels in verse including Redwood & Ponytail, Knockout, House Arrest, and Rhyme Schemer. She is also the other of several middle grade fantasy and sci-fi novels, as well as the picture book, I Wonder, …
Inspiration Music is the source of beauty, memories, and emotions. When I was experiencing a dark and depressing period of my life, I turned to poetry and music for healing. Find something in music or lyrics that bring you peace and healing to write a …
Inspiration In the vignette “Hairs” from House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros reveals many interesting details about the narrator’s family, especially her mother, through a discussion of one physical trait: hair. Her first paragraph describes the hair of the narrator’s father and the hair of …
Inspiration Etheree Taylor Armstong, an Arkansas poet, created a simple poetic form called appropriately Etheree. An etheree consists of ten lines with each line’s syllabication increasing by one. Line 1 begins with one syllable, line two has two syllables, line three has three syllables, etc. …
Inspiration Today I invite you to compose a Blitz poem. Created by Robert Kiem, the Blitz poem speeds along in a succession of short phrases reinforced by repetition. Although 50 lines long, the short phrases and repetition make the Blitz a snappy poem easy to …
Thank you for joining us for #verselove, a 30-day celebration of poetry for April, National Poetry Month. This celebration is open to all– preservice teachers, new and veteran teachers, teacher educators, retired teachers, people who work with youth, and parents (because you are a child’s …
Inspiration Today let’s write Dramatic Monologue Poems. Sometimes people ask us to say something to our younger selves, your first-year teacher self, or your before-you-got-married self. Today’s inspiration comes from seeing a picture of me in 5th grade and remembering all the stress from being …