Celebrating Poetry Month as a Staff

We, as teachers know how important it is to advocate and practice what we teach. If we want our students to love reading, then our passion for reading as teachers needs to be visible and present in our classrooms. The same can be said about writing. When we show our students that we are writers ourselves, then they not only see as their teachers of writing but also as models, as writers. Every time my ELLs embark on a writing journey or project, I write with them. I show them that I also care about this topic, that I am a writer as well just like them. And it works, like magic, everytime. So at my wonderful, extraordinary school, Beechwoo

d Elementary, our dear staff listened to me read the book  My People by Langston Hughes and Charles R. Smith Jr. at our last staff development day. 

If you have not read this book, or if  you have not heard or read this poem by Langston Hughes, then you are in for a treat. The poem itself is so powerful, and now the book combines the magnificent photography by Charles R. Smith Jr. and you have a winning combination. Inspired by this book, our teachers at Beechwood Elementary we

lcomed Poetry Month by writing their own adaptation to the poem. The big question was...what is important to you, what is beautiful in your eyes? what makes it special? And the respond was overwhelmingly beautiful. Some teachers wrote about the efforts of their students being beautiful, some described their love for their significant other, some talked about their own children's laugh. I wish I could publish each poem for you to read it, but they are in the hallways of our school as a reminder to the community that we are not only teachers, but writers and poets as well. Here are the pics that I promised. This is how our school welcomes and celebrates Poetry Month...