November 14, 2016
There were so many welcoming folks we were overwhelmed with hospitality and smothered in traditional Brazilian hugs at every turn.
November 13, 2016
So this was the first time I met a monkey who I didn’t not like. One of the best perks to my and Sara’s job is the great folks from all over the world who we get to be friends with. This is the case with Heather and Tom who have just recently arrived at […]
October 14, 2016
And away we go! Sara and I start another school year and we couldn’t have asked for a better kick off than McKinley Elementary in Elyria, Ohio! Not only do we get to begin our season in our home State which has become too rare an occurrence for us (hint hint Ohio schools – we […]
October 12, 2016
Sara and my school year kicks off for earnest tomorrow with a visit to McKinley Elementary School in Elyria Ohio. This is on the heels of our visit to Bellingham Washington – just North of Seattle – and our presenting at and attending of Western Washington University and Pomelo Books amazing Poetry Camp. Shout out […]
August 25, 2016
Visiting family in Virginia and the lead story on the D.C. noon news is that 8 people die per day in OH from opioid overdoses, more than 3000 this year. Watched my home state fall in line with other troubled places in the world, Italy, Syria, Nigeria, and . . . Ohio. Just finished […]
August 17, 2016
“What I love and always get out of your presentations is that poetry is not only a form of writing or art to express emotions, but it can be a vehicle for showing learning.
May 30, 2016
We all come into this world crying, “me, me, me.” Insistent cries of my bottle, my grapes, my toys gradually (hopefully) grow into a feeble understanding of the concept of compromise. We call this turning point adolescence. Teaching adolescents requires that we help awaken kids to the awareness that there is a world on the […]
May 19, 2016
We are so excited to work at Eastern that one year Sara had us show up a week early – we peered into the dark hallway from outside noses pressed against the locked doors like ragamuffins in a Dickens novel until the realization that the school was on Spring break finally dawned upon us.
May 13, 2016
Poetry scares teachers – how do we teach it – and more problematic for instructors, how do we interpret and or grade it? Ought we beat it with a hose as Billy Collins laments, “…tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” Or should we just let it exist floating in the air like a balloon attached to our heart by a strand of silk, ephemeral and too precious to critique?
