by Mary E. Cronin | Sep 1, 2023 | Poetry, Teaching
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...
by Mary E. Cronin | Jul 21, 2023 | Poetry, Uncategorized
I’m delighted that my poem “Glimpses of Green” is published today in the online children’s poetry journal Tyger Tyger, based in the UK. What I love about Tyger Tyger is that it is aimed at children and teachers– giving educators (and anyone who cares for...
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 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...
by Mary E. Cronin | Dec 16, 2022 | Cape Cod, Poetry
Playing with poetry in the classroom– that’s one of the best parts of my job as a Literacy Coach in an elementary school. Recently, I introduced the poem “Circle of Sun” by Rebecca Kai Dotlich in the first-grade classroom I work in each morning. It’s the...