by Mary E. Cronin | Jun 9, 2023 | Community connections, Poetry, Teaching
It was a joy to be the Visiting Poet at PS 86 in the Bronx last week! I attended kindergarten there, and PS 86 was also the polling place in our neighborhood. I have many memories of accompanying my parents to vote, and of my mother working as an election worker...
by Mary E. Cronin | Mar 31, 2023 | Cape Cod, Community connections, SCBWI, We Need Diverse Books
At the school where I work, the vast majority of children qualify for free and reduced lunch. A quarter of our K-3 students are English Language Learners, many from Brazil. Most of the children had never met an author, or had a book signed… until author Ana Crespo...
by Mary E. Cronin | Mar 22, 2023 | Community connections, FDNY
What a delight and honor to be invited as a guest on the “Bronx Heroes” podcast! My conversation with hosts Dan Zauderer and Rina Madhani was far-ranging. I got to talk about my deep affection for my home borough, growing up in a firefighting family, and how I try to...
by Mary E. Cronin | Mar 3, 2023 | Cape Cod, Conferences-workshops, Poetry, Teaching
This week I led a professional development session for teachers, “Vitamin P: Boosting the Use of Poetry in the Literacy Block.” For three hours, we played with poetry! We talked about how to infuse poetry across the curriculum, find rich and meaningful poems, and...
by Mary E. Cronin | Jan 20, 2023 | Poetry, We Need Diverse Books
There’s one book I can’t stop thinking about– STAR CHILD: A BIOGRAPHICAL CONSTELLATION OF OCTAVIA ESTELLE BUTLER by Ibi Zoboi. The brilliant combination of poetry and nonfiction is what drew me to Zoboi’s amazing middle-grade biography of author Octavia...