Poetry is not only a dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before. Audre Lorde Before I was a teacher, I was a …
July #OpenWrite: Praise Poem
Brian Glaser has written two books of poems, All the Hills and The Sacred Heart. He has also published many essays on poetry and poetics, and he teaches English at Chapman University in Orange, California. Inspiration I find inspiration in this description of the form …
July #OpenWrite: Monotetra
Our #OpenWrite Hosts Mo Daley and Tracie McCormick have been friends since they both taught at the same Oak Forest, IL middle school in 1995. Mo holds master’s degrees in English and reading specialist and works as a middle school reading specialist in Homewood, IL. …
July #OpenWrite: Ghazal
The ghazal is a Persian poem that is a chain of between 5-15 couplets which can be read as independent poems with a refrain of 1-3 words that repeat. In the traditional form, the word before the refrain would rhyme in each following couplet.The refrain is repeated in the second line of each couplet. Each couplet should be about the same length.
July #OpenWrite: Ode
Our #OpenWrite Hosts Mo Daley and Tracie McCormick have been friends since they both taught at the same Oak Forest, IL middle school in 1995. Mo holds master’s degrees in English and reading specialist and works as a middle school reading specialist in Homewood, IL. …
July #OpenWrite: Rondeau
Our #OpenWrite Hosts Mo Daley and Tracie McCormick have been friends since they both taught at the same Oak Forest, IL middle school in 1995. Mo holds master’s degrees in English and reading specialist and works as a middle school reading specialist in Homewood, IL. …
Becoming Anti-Racist English Teachers: Ways to Actively Move Forward by Michelle M. Falter, Chandra L. Alston, & Crystal Chen Lee
Becoming Anti-Racist English Teachers: Ways to Actively Move Forward by Michelle M. Falter, Chandra L. Alston , and Crystal Chen Lee of North Carolina State University The senseless police-initiated murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, amongst hundreds of other murders of Black …
June #OpenWrite: Writing with Author Melanie Crowder
Melanie Crowder is the acclaimed author of several books for young readers. She writes YA historical fiction: Audacity, An Uninterrupted View of the Sky, and the forthcoming Mazie. She also writes middle grade novels of all sorts: Three Pennies, A Nearer Moon, Parched, and the …
June #OpenWrite: Marcher or Leaper?
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. Margaret has been an elementary school teacher for 32 years, most recently gifted ELA. She renewed her National Board Certification in 2019. Her first book of children’s poetry, Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the …
June #OpenWrite: Memory Poem
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. Margaret has been an elementary school teacher for 32 years, most recently gifted ELA. She renewed her National Board Certification in 2019. Her first book of children’s poetry, Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the …