Jessica has been a special educator in Arkansas for 15 years. A newly published author, she is employed at a school district in Morrilton, Arkansas.
I stumbled upon a poem that has now become a favorite of mine. My daughter, who was in 5th grade at the time, had studied this mentor text “By Myself” by Eloise Greenfield. I shared my daughter’s poem as well as mine through the Ethical ELA Open Write on April 28, 2022. The following school year, my son studied the same poem in 4th grade while reading Love That Dog. I volunteered to teach the lesson for the day and engage with the class in creating their own “By Myself” poems. Success!
The Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Ethical ELA
10. A comforting space for learning and growing.
9. Support and guidance for new ideas.
8. Pure authenticity.
7. Fresh air to breathe and let loose.
6. Pedagogy and heart all in one space.
5. New ideas for lessons and activities.
4. Room for all voices.
3. Collaboration and community.
2. Old and new coming together.
1. A wonderful human Dr. Sarah J. Donovan, the mind behind the creation of Ethical ELA.
I end this post with a Golden Shovel, a form I always said was too difficult to write. Yet challenging myself to be brave, and floating freely in the space of Ethical ELA I took the chance! I borrowed the words from the lines of the poem “Awaking in New York” by Maya Angelou. New York is one place I have yet to visit, but metaphorically speaking, 2025 is a year I am awakening dormant hopes, deferred dreams, and enlightened possibilities. A victory is a victory, no matter how small. We celebrate the growing, evolving, and becoming of our research and practices.
Educated Me: A Golden Shovel Taken from “Awaking in New York” by Maya Angelou
Hiding behind wind-shifting curtains
are dreams of hope forcing
ideas of change and innovation in their
lives glowing golden at will.
With everything to stand against
we will honor the
teachers who fight against the wind,
the future is our children
whose minds refuse to sleep
because of ideas exchanging
dreaming colorful, fragrant dreams
to carry over, carry through, and carry with
celestial seraphim.
We honor The
trailblazers who scan the city
with unspeakable joy that drags
life by the bootstraps itself
jolting vision and passion awake
all who dare to keep on
drifting on the subway
securing motivation, curiosity, and innovation with straps;
Curating, contemplating, and
customizing a plan only I,
one gigantic heart of a person with an
echo to sound the alarm,
to raise the fight within made awake
because of standards, mandates, and censorship as
no longer wishing upon a
false hope that the end of evolution is only a rumor
denied by the powers of
those with a lack of experience in educational war,
our necessary burdens lie
in our voices stretching
beyond and far into
a new dawn,
of relentless questions dared to be unasked
to wield the shield of knowledge and
power that fans beyond reach, unheeded.
Thank you so much for this timely entry! I discovered Ethical ELA about two years ago and my life has changed for the better. I love the community that is built here. I wrote my first Golden Shovel poem last year and it turned out I loved the form. Even though I had never heard of it.