It was three years ago this week that I signed my contract to become a Literacy Coach in a school district here on Cape Cod. I love working in a K-3 school, where the magic of emerging readers and writers is crackling! I wrote a poem about working with a struggling...
News
Poetry (and raccoons!) in the Bronx
As the school year was winding to a close, I had the delight of returning to P.S. 86 in the Bronx to lead a series of poetry workshops. I attended P.S. 86 as a young child. The students were all-in-- welcoming, and ready to have fun! We talked about how every writer...
My poem in Radical Teacher– “Still,” about the magic of learning to read!
I wrote a poem about the magic of teaching a child to read, "Still.” It captures why I love what I do as a Literacy Coach in a K-3 school. It's just been published in the latest issue of Radical Teacher! Although there are days that I wish I could stay home and write...
Wintry delights: Illustrating Poetry with Young Children
Last week I had the delight of leading a Poetry Friday lesson in a second-grade classroom. I used my poem "Skating with Dad," featured on the wonderful poetry website Dirigible Balloon. After reading the chart together, we had fun using highlighter tape, finding each...
Sharing the news of my debut picture book!
The news of my debut picture book was shared on Publishers Weekly this week, and I could not be more excited! LIKE A MOTHER BEAR is a picture book biography of Jeanne Manford, an amazing advocate and mother who founded PFLAG, an advocacy group for parents and loved...
NCTE Convention 2023: A Sweet Spot!
Have you ever felt like you were in the sweet spot, a place where the two overlapping circles in a Venn diagram meet? That was me, attending the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) 2023 Convention in Columbus Ohio. Being at the conference brought...
Alegria: Celebrating and Elevating Portuguese-speaking Brazilian students with an Author Visit
As a Literacy Coach in a K-3 school with a large Brazilian population, I was thrilled to win a grant from SCBWI that allowed me to invite Brazilian and American picture book author Ana Crespo to be a visiting author to Cape Cod elementary school M.E. Small in the fall...
Poetry Friday Goes to School
Inspired by the lively Poetry Friday community in the blog world, this year I decided to bring that magic into my work as a Literacy Coach in a K-3 school. Each Friday, I share a poem via email to our school community. Teachers can choose to share the poem on a...
Feeling the beat, feeling the love
Poetry came to life when the very talented music teacher in our Cape Cod elementary school used my poem “Drum” in her exploration of percussion recently. What a delight to read my poem to our K-3 students, to hear children drumming, to listen to them beat out the...
Hope is a Drum
Feel that drumbeat? School is starting. A new school year fills me with hope-- hope for fresh starts, open hearts, new learning. I’m back to work in my job as an elementary school Literacy Coach. How perfect to kick off this school year by celebrating the publication...