Frog Hollow Poetry Exhibit

The Seattle classes have collaborated on a poetry exhibition in the hallway art gallery at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. If you’re in Delridge, drop on by! We wrote and illustrated poems largely on the theme of wishes and dreams in honor of Martin Luther King Day. But we didn’t define that narrowly — there areContinue reading “Frog Hollow Poetry Exhibit”

7 Ways to Strengthen Democracy Through Language Arts

This political season has me thinking about the importance of teaching democratic skills to children. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it with the kind of starry-eyed civic hope that maybe only elementary school teachers can summon. It’s the kind of hope a person gets when they are in position to do something about something thatContinue reading “7 Ways to Strengthen Democracy Through Language Arts”

Look and You’ll See: Observation as Writing and Social Practice

We began this year by doing observational writing. I took my classes to different places — a community garden, a meadow — and had them write down things they noticed. I asked them to only write down things they had observed, not their own opinions, and we talked about the difference. I see a greenContinue reading “Look and You’ll See: Observation as Writing and Social Practice”

The Disaster of the Cranky Crankie

So Lady Gaga had just gotten back from space and was wearing a hotdog costume. Hitler came up to her and said, “You look like a Wiener Schnitzel.” She says to him, “This is a bad romance, Adolf.” But I get ahead of myself. It all started when Hitler, Mitt Romney, Obama, Hans Solo, aContinue reading “The Disaster of the Cranky Crankie”