May 9, 2020
So, Sara and I have been working on an iteration of this project for almost a decade. We are going to be rolling out this resource this Fall. Nearly 200 lessons ready with slides to project and teacher notes to guide instruction utilizing poetry, prose, mentor texts, language lessons, standards based, while still being fun […]
March 7, 2019
As much as we relish our adventures overseas we love our visits to schools right here in the good ol’ USA. A whole bunch of our work is repeat business and our friend Lisa the librarian has invited us to three different schools where she has graced the library with her enthusiasm. A couple times […]
March 6, 2019
Nobody told us the wheels were going to fall off of the plane in Amsterdam. Hopping a plane from Istanbul to Brazil is not the most direct way to get Campinas – but, it’s the route we accepted. Here’s where being a frequent flier comes in handy – we were able to rebook our flights […]
March 6, 2019
Our contact in Istanbul – George the librarian was one of the most thorough poet wranglers we have worked with in a long time. He had everything spinning in time with the whirling serenity of the Dervishes we saw turn-tabling just before we began our week at ENKA International School. Celebrating our love of reading […]
January 21, 2019
Poets have always been trouble makers – in many places they have been arrested for stirring the pot a little too vigorously – or in the “wrong” direction. But – even poets can be guilty of staying inside their safe boxes. Whether that box be the safety of tenured academia or a local “scene” […]
January 19, 2019
12 years – that’s how long Sara and I have been coming to Eastern Middle School in Greenwich, CT. We love this little public school with its art covered walls and rambling old building and we really do have friends here. Eastern used to be traditionally our last school of the year but overseas scheduling […]
October 19, 2018
Ever have the feeling that you’ve been somewhere before? The Bahrain Bayan School was the very first international school we ever visited over 14 years ago! It was great to complete this big crazy circle with friends old and new. Our host with the most on this iteration was a force we met in Cairo […]
April 21, 2018
It’s truly amazing that things work out as well as they do sometimes. The bluebonnets were blooming on the side of the road on our way from DFW to the Abydos Literacy Learning conference hotel. Alise and Emily were navigating us, darting back and forth with the assuredness of veterans of Dallas traffic wrangling. There […]
December 29, 2017
Sara and I had the fun privilege of sitting down with Lori Caszatt of the Willoughby Eastlake Library for a chat on a chilly December day. click and listen.
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 […]
