First, a disclaimer: If you want to learn more about “picture book remixes” and their literacy connections, click on the links found within this post.  In a well-known TED talk, Kirby Ferguson invites the viewer to “embrace the remix.” In the talk, Ferguson posits: “Our creativity comes from without, not from within. We are not […]

           I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.            All I know of flight and fright is that both need to be ridden out into the eventual and veterate truths provided by gravity and by grace:        […]

Since we first made a connection with one another, master poet and classroom teacher, Lee Bennett Hopkins had always invited a phone call. “Call me sometime” an email would end. Lee, Dear One, was among the first of many within the poetry community to extend condolences upon my father’s passing. It was Dear One who […]

The Greatest Labor Saving Device Ever Brought to Light      When I was sixteen, I worked at Glen’s supermarket. It was a local franchise in northern Michigan named for the family who owned it. A family that named their all of their offspring “Glen.” It was a simple concept. Glen A., Glen B., Glen […]

Our Madalyn turns seventeen today. As a young girl, Madalyn would introduce herself as “Maddie-Doo.” It just kind of stuck with me, and when she took an interest in art (drawing), it became natural to just start calling her “Doodle.” And I still do.  I’m the only one who does. It’s what many would-be father’s […]

I think it happens every April. Jumping into National Poetry Month with fidelity and excitement and then hitting a period of fallow and of enervation. It must come of everything April brings with it as far as school is concerned. Everything of a school year that culminates does this in late April and through May. […]

Naomi Shihab Nye invites the would-be poet/writer to Let Your Title Open the Door within the section, “Writers Select Titles” in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres.   Of course, I must take pause to recognize the poetic gift that is Naomi Shihab Nye. I got to […]

  I’ve always loved discovering that the title of an album is actually a lyric embedded in one of the albums tracks. It’s like a little discovery that helps to solidify the title of the album for me as the listener. Jagged Little Pill is an example from the 90’s is an example of a […]

  Poetry friend, Sara Holbrook pops into Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres within the Writers Craft Beginnings and Endings section. Holbrook invites young writers to “End with a Surprise.”   Here is Sara’s poem from the book:   “Brave”   Red means stop. Look both ways. […]

“Decide How Words Will Look on the Page” is the invitation from page 124 of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres. April Halprin Wayland provides the mentor piece here with “Morning Dog.”   As a part of a category called Writers Play with Language, it is important […]