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 reader, “Still,” and it was published in the April 2024 issue of Radical Teacher.

I’m grateful to work in a school that serves young children. It fills me with hope. At the same time, this summer break is badly needed– and I have more writing time!

Here’s the poem. You can learn more about Radical Teacher here.

STILL

Let me step aside 

from the reading wars

and data sheets

and progress reports.

Let me be still,

let me be 

still,

still here

still open 

to the wonder of you,

a seven-year-old

learning to read,

making sense

of Frog

and Toad,

and their bickering way of loving.

Let me listen 

to you stumble over words,

trip on the cobblestones

of afraid and friend,

yet keep careening

down the path of 

story.

Let me be part of 

your story.

How you arrived here,

wide-eyed,

wary,

angry.

And now you read,

you laugh,

you sit, 

still,

while I bend

to tie the frayed laces

of your shoe.