From: maggie_bo_at_comcast.net
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:29:59 +0000 (UTC)

I have a lot of fun at my middle school during poetry month. I'll share one thing I do that's turned out to have a wonderful ripple effect. Every day, I send out a POD (poem of the day) to the staff that they can, if they so choose, share with their students. I also post the POD just outside the lib rary. I've used everything from limericks, to classic poems, to Fibonacci p oems (check out http://www.squidoo.com/fibonaccipoetry if you don't know wh at these are--great to get your math teachers into the spirit). The first y ear I did this, I was surprised and excited when a few teachers started sen ding me poems they had written themselves, mostly parodies or responses to poems I sent. I asked for, and got, more staff poetry. Now, a few times eve ry April I'll do impromptu contests for the staff to keep the poetry coming . For example: I'll ask for haikus, and then randomly draw a winner from al l who submit one (prizes are a paperback for your classroom library). I pos t the teachers' poetry on my website an d in the hall (those that are school appropriate, anyway!) The kids love reading them, and what I think is more important, so many of our teachers who thought they weren't interested in poetry have found that they DO enjoy it. We have so many more teachers now who do more poetry activities, and with more enthusiasm, with their kids th an we used to. Seriously! Believe it or not, even our school's security gua rd has taken to writing poetry--and it's not half bad!

Maggie Bokelman Eagle View Middle School Mechanicsburg, PA
Received on Wed 20 Apr 2011 09:29:59 PM CDT