Making Poetry Come Alive

"...it's a good thing to get poetry off the shelves and more into public life....When you get a poem on a billboard or on the radio or on a cereal box or whatever, it happens to you so suddenly that you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school." --Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate 2001-2003

This year, I wanted to try something new with my freshman to deactivate their "anti-poetry deflector shields." I wanted them to write their own poetry and read each others' poetry, but I wasn't sure how to do it in a way that they would actually enjoy.

I've also been wanting to integrate more technology into the classroom, so I decided to have my students present their poems digitally. I was inspired by this TED Talk that Billy Collins gave, where he shares his work with five different artists to animate some of his poems. I showed the TED Talk to my students as inspiration, and the students wrote several poems from which they could choose to do the project.

I gave them various options for apps and websites to use, but the students who were most successful tended to use the iMovie app on their iPhones (Wevideo was a great substitute for those who didn't have a mac product).

One of the most unexpected and wonderful things about this assignment was that the best videos did not necessarily come from students who always get top scores. I think this type of assignment allows students who are creative to shine in a way that traditional schoolwork doesn't always do. 

Here are three of the best videos from my classes: 

Making a Library Display

I have always wanted to try a "If you liked that, try this" library display, and last month I got my chance! I wanted to promote some titles by African-American authors in honor of Black History month, and I thought the best way to do that was through music.

I am definitely not a music aficionado--in fact, I've been thinking about how I need to listen to more new music--but I didn't want to pair them up without a reason. So I spent some time listening to excerpts of each album to get a feel for their themes and moods.

Some of the pairings were a bit of a stretch, but most were very intentional. For example, I paired The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas with Tupac Shakur's Thug Life because the title of the novel is actually inspired by a song from that album, and the narrator talks about Tupac throughout the book.

I also paired The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson with Beyonce's Lemonade; the former because Beyonce has said it is one of her favorite books, and the latter because the mood of the poetry in Lemonade reminded me of some of Woodson's poems.




The logistics of the display were a little tricky because our library has very little wall space, but lots of low shelves for displays, so I had to get creative with the way I displayed the images and text. I think it worked out pretty well, and a few of the books were checked out, so I hope that students noticed it!

Thoughts on Creativity

There was a time, when I was in high school and college, when I thought of myself as "creative." I spent hours developing film in the dark room at school, or sitting in smokey cafes, writing bad poetry. I imagined myself one day living in a quaint village by the sea, writing a novel on an old-fashioned typewriter. I don't know that I ever took that dream seriously, but it was my dream nonetheless.

All that romanticism slipped quietly away in my later 20's, replaced by bill-paying and graduate school, and eventually having children. I would say that children are the ultimate killers of creativity, but that seems so ironic, because they are so creative themselves. I suppose the truth is they don't kill your creativity, but instead hoard it for themselves, funneling it all into elaborate imaginary play scenarios.

Anyway, I didn't miss it much until my dear friend from college announced she was publishing a novel.

I'm not surprised--Elizabeth was the only one of my close friends (all English majors) who actually pursued an MFA and continued to write after we graduated. Even back in college, I thought she was the most talented of us all, and the most persistent. Her novel is called Everything You Came to See, and it is beautiful and captivating and I am so proud of her for writing it.

It got me thinking about the role of creativity in my life, and whether I wanted to prioritize it more. Elizabeth has no benefactor allowing her to sit in a cabin by the sea; she has a job and a family just like I do. She made time and space in her life for writing because it was important to her.

Of all the priorities in my life right now, I suppose writing doesn't make it to the top of the list... but I do have this little blog, and I guess I can now explain why I'm writing it at all. Writing about books inspires me to read more, and writing about the things I make encourages me to be more creative at work. Creativity begets creativity! Maybe someday I'll have time to sit down and write a masterpiece, but for now this is all I need.

Screen Time

Last year I had a weekly one-hour commute and it just happened to correspond with TED Radio Hour, which made it  not only bearable but actually enjoyable! If you're not a listener yet, you should be. Each week, they pick TED Talks that all deal with the same theme and adapt them for radio, usually interviewing the speaker to add to the piece.

An older one that I continue to think about is a 2-part episode called "Screen Time." The episodes explore all aspects of the way we consume technology today, and how it affects our attention spans, our social interactions, our children.

As an aspiring Library Media Specialist, I know that I need to dive head-first into the pool of educational technology. It's not going anywhere, and I want to help teachers and students find the tools that will help them, inspire them, and allow them to fulfill their potential.

However, I do not advocate for technology-for-technology's-sake. This is a very dangerous minefield for educators. Parents and administrators get excited when they walk into a classroom and see Smart Boards and tablets and other shiny gadgets. But if students are using those tools to simply consume information passively, then we are failing them as educators.

Educational technology should be used to engage students in interactive learning. It should allow students to create products, to connect with people and places outside their daily lives, and to access resources that they would otherwise never know about.

"Screen Time" warns us about the dangers of over-using technology: decreasing our compassion, our attention span, and our social interactions (among other things). As educators and parents, we have to help our kids find a balance that allows them to use technology in positive, responsible, and healthy ways.

In some ways, this TED Radio hour inspired my new PBL unit. This year, my freshman English research unit was focused on potentially dangerous technologies. I designed this project-based learning experience to target several key standards in reading informational texts, writing, and speaking and listening. Students paired up and researched a developing technology of their choosing (e.g. self-driving cars or cloning). One person had to argue that the technology was dangerous and unethical; the other had to argue that it was innovative and good for society.

It was really exciting to see these "digital natives" actually think about how technology affects our lives. So many of them take it for granted--they have grown up with tiny computers in their back pockets. They have instant access to the music, TV, and information they need at all times. My own daughter (age 5) was upset the first time she saw a commercial because all she had ever seen is Netflix!

I don't know where our society is headed when it comes to technology. Maybe we will all become immortal cyborgs, maybe the Matrix really will consume us, maybe the robots will enslave us. Or maybe, if we're thoughtful enough, we can find a way to harness technology's power without destroying ourselves in the process.