Today launched another collaborative project in the media center. The entire third grade is studying performance poetry. Glennda Shealey, a third grade teacher, and Shelley Olin, the media center paraprofessional, were the lead collaborators in this project. I also collaborated in a smaller role with the project.

In today’s kickoff, Ishues, a local hip-hop artist, came to share his spoken word, poetry in motion, and rap with students. He was accompanied by his manager, Life, who also offered his own spoken word and drumming to the students. Every poem, rap, and spoken word that these men offer students features a positive tone with no foul language. They delivered a message of positivity to students asking them to always believe in themselves even when others try to put you down. Ishues and Life had students participating in making sounds, drumming, interpreting movements, and speaking poetry during their presentation. The student energy was on fire by the time they left the media center.

On Monday, students will rotate through 4 centers in the media center: hip-hop lyrics, poetry & motion, poems for multiple voices, and performance poetry. The centers will be led by a parent, the media paraprofessional, one 3rd grade teacher, and myself. After these centers, students will write their own performance poetry in writing workshops and perform their poems for their families on May 14th.

View our teacher tube video of the performance

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Our poetry cafe came to a close today after two very busy days of open mic poetry readings.  Today was our official Poem in Your Pocket Day.  We kicked off the day on BTV with a video of book spine poetry, a reading of “Pocket Poem” by Bobbi Katz, a poetry reading from a student, and our principal sharing a poem from his own pocket.

Our cafe opened at 8AM and stayed busy the entire day.  All students, teachers, and staff in the school carried poems in their pockets and wore a “Poem in Your Pocket Day 2010” sticker.  Students shared poems they had written as well as poems they found in books.  Several incredible moments happened during the day.  When Ms. Olin went to do lunch duty, she saw students asking each other to share their poems.  Our principal went outside to recess on both of our school playgrounds and heard students saying, “Do you have your poem?  Let me hear it”.  In the media center, we saw several students who hardly ever speak go up to the microphone and share their poem.  We saw students do some impromptu multiple voice poems and choral reading.  We also heard a beautiful reading of Eloise Greenfield’s “Honey, I Love” from a 3rd grader.  We had several adults who also shared at our open mic.  Our school secretary, aka “The Queen”, shared a poem about being a queen.  Our technology integration specialist, Steve Piazza, shared a poem he wrote about pockets.  Meg Inscoe, a first grade paraprofessional, shared a limerick about her class.  Our media paraprofessional, Shelley Olin, shared two poems that she wrote about things she loves and dreams.  Several teachers, including Ms. Em, shared their poetry as well.  The list could go on and on.  The day was just filled with wonderful moments.

It was sad to take down all of the cafe decorations after school, but we have these pictures to help us remember this wonderful day until next year’s Poem in Your Pocket Day.

National Poem in Your Pocket Day is celebrated at the end of every April, but due to CRCT testing, we are holding our day on April 15th.  Today, some classes already came to our poetry cafe and read poems at our open mic.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow of the 2-day event.

Until then, I hope you’ll enjoy some of the Teacher Tube poetry videos that students have created by looking at our poetry page on the media center webpage.