From Picture Books to Profound Insights: The Power of Storytime in High School by Kyri Hester It’s Friday, I’m sitting in my special chair at the front of the class, picture book in hand, as my students stare transfixed. We take time to look at …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Battling Isolation One Message at a Time
Battling Isolation One Message at a Time by Erin Vogler If you’re here reading this, you know. You know how hard this work can be. You know the feelings of isolation that often find their way into your world, even when surrounded by supportive colleagues …
Let’s Get Flipped
Welcome to Ethical ELA’s Friday Teacher Scenes featuring teachers’ stories from their classrooms and experiences to contribute to and shape the public narrative of what it means to be an English language arts teacher in today’s sociopolitical climate. We hope to center and uplift one …