Monday, April 26, 2010

Edge Poems: #12 - Parents Write Poetry Too!

Lucy Katz, parent of three Paideia students and a fellow chicken lover, created these poems on Earth Day.

Parents, your poems are encouraged and welcome. Find out what your bookshelf inspires in you!

Poem for Earth Day

by Lucy Katz




Fowl Play

by Lucy Katz

Friday, April 23, 2010

Edge Poems: #11

More poetry from the junior high:

Home Land

by John, 7th grade





The Truth in Beauty

by Zach, 7th grade





The Journey that Was a Huge Mistake

by Will, 7th grade

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Edge Poems: #10 - A Poem for Earth Day

I went out into the stack planning to create a poem for Earth Day.  As I suppose most ideas for poems do, this one morphed in the composing;  it's "natural", but not exactly environmental.


My Cat Growls in His Sleep

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Seniors 2010

Some senior pranks are better than others.  This one is kind of sweet: re-creating a playground in the high school commons.






Good thing they didn't try to get the Fire Engine from their preK days in here!


Edge Poems - #9

The Underdogs
Eliot H.
7th grade




Deadly Consequences
Michael W.
7th grade




AIDS
Daniel S.
7th grade

Monday, April 19, 2010

Poetry on the Edge, Week 2 : Poems #8

More Junior High poems from last week's flurry of poetic activity.

Untitled
by Helen Samuel
Martha & Greg's 7th grade

What if
I was Amelia Earhart?
Heart of a soldier
for this I was born

A long way gone
up high in the trees
Pierced by a ray of sun

How it was for me
so hard to say
the mystic arts of erasing all signs of death


What Girls Learn
by Ellery Koelker-Wolfe
Martha & Greg's 7th grade






















Untitled
by Leah Gilbert-Odem
Martha & Greg's 7th grade

Friday, April 16, 2010

Edge Poems - #7


Senza Titolo

by Elizabeth Lide
Elementary Art Teacher

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Edge Poems - #6

The bookshelves are a wreck, but poetry is blooming in the library.  Junior high students have come over the past couple of days, and teachers have been contributing as well.   The display shelves are filling up.




Freedom
by Aidan Brooks
Martha & Greg's 7th grade


A Series of Unfortunate Events
by Ben Siegel
Martha & Greg's 7th grade

 
The Civil War
by Reed Haury
Martha & Greg's 7th grade

Edge Poems - #5

A "virtual" poem (on display in photography only) created by high school social studies teacher and counselor Nisha Simama.

"No Neutral Ground"


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Edge Poems - #4

Students are making Edge Poems too!


"The War"
by Madison Redwine
Bonnie & Uri's 8th grade










Adria's poem can be read either way

or


"Untitled"
by Adria Gunter
Bonnie & Uri's 8th grade

Edge Poems - #3


"The History of Love"

by Junior High homebase teacher Bonnie Sparling.

The History of Love
A grammar book for you and I
Communion
Cultivating the mind of love
in relation
Everyday sacred
Joy school
Someone like you
not quite what I was planning
Bad boy
Surviving the breakup
At issue
Looking back on the end of the world
Tender at the bone
I Thought it was just me (but it isn't)
Nothing I see means anything
The power of kindness
so hard to say
What have you lost?
moment of silence
sailing alone around the room
No condition is permanent
plain and simple
Becoming whole
up a road slowly
Becoming myself
better
Durable goods
Born to ROCK

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

National Poetry Month Resources

If ever there was a national celebration made for literature teachers, this is it. So many resources, so many opportunities for total immersion in poetry. One of our high school teachers is asking her students to read a poem a day and respond to it in a writing journal, so I pulled together a list of web sources that will make it easy for students to find a new and different poem each night. Most of these sites also have some way to subscribe so the daily poem comes right to your e-mail or newsreader. How cool is that?

National Poetry Websites
  • Poetry Foundation.org (site of Poetry magazine)
  • Poetry Daily (a new poem each day)
  • Poetry 180 - a poem a day for High School students , from the Library of Congress
  • Favorite Poem Project -- Americans reading their favorite poems out loud, begun in 1997 by former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky
  • Poets.org -- Academy of American Poets Poem a Day archive
  • Poetry Out Loud - resource site for a poetry recitation competition, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts & the Poetry Foundation
  • Poem-a-Day from Knopf
Poem a Day blogs
PLUS Poetry lesson plans and ideas from my new best friend,
The New York Times Learning Network
:
"11 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month with the New York Times"

Monday, April 12, 2010

Edge Poems - #2

We the People
by Junior High specialist Eric Thomas

Edge Poems - #1


by Junior High homebase teacher Tony Helms

thinking straight by Robin Reardon
Nothing Pink by Mark Hardy
so hard to say by Alex Sanchez
Some Day This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Acceptance by Susan Coll
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan


ps -- I never realized how hard it is to take good photos of library books -- if not the shiny mylar covers, it's the spine label. Or both!