Aggressively Poetic

Leaves caked my front yard, suffocating the burgeoning grass below as I sat on the couch and told myself only one more episode of Law & Order and then I’ll get up and tackle the task waiting for me outside my front door.

Dead White Poets Society

Scads of English teachers have shown the movie Dead Poets Society in class to either begin their poetry unit or to try and inspire an appreciation for poetry. I technically showed the movie to teach media messages as constructs, but residual poetry appreciation was always an added bonus and hope. 

Women’s History Month: Lifting As We Climb

My favorite thing about Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Boxby Evette Dionne is that it’s accurate, and the author highlights Black women who fought hard during the Women’s Suffrage era to get women of color to the ballot box and voting in American elections. It’s not just...

Using Immersive Reader as Part of a Close Reading Routine

One of the key shifts in English Language Arts classrooms is the move for students to engage routinely with complex text. To prepare students for the demands after high school, state standards across the United States all contain language that requires students to be able to read and comprehend...

Women’s History Month: Fighting Words

In Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s Fighting Words, 10-year-old protagonist Della gives readers a front row seat to her daily life in foster care with her 16-year-old sister Suki who has been her main caregiver since she was born. Their life hasn’t been easy—with their birth mother far away,...

Women's History Month: I Am Malala

In recent months, the Taliban in the Middle East has taken over once again after American troops removed themselves. The first person I thought of was Malala Yousafzai and what in the world she was going to do about this. Her story is one of strength under impossible torture and pain.

Women's History Month: The Girl with the Louding Voice

The main character in The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, Adunni, is on a personal journey to give herself the best life she can despite insurmountably hard circumstances. Her mother dies prematurely and her father needs to pay the bills in Nigeria, so Adunni is sold to a man as his third...

Women's History Month: Powerful Women

If we all trace our lineage back generation by generation, you will almost always find a fearless woman at the forefront of care, kindness, and the ability to multitask just about everything. Women are strong. We’ve fought for our right to vote, own our own property, and we are still fighting for...

Black History Month: Death by Journal

Okay—circle of trust here. After dropping my youngest child off at college all the way from San Antonio, Texas, to Lawrence, Kansas, at The University of Kansas, I simply said goodbye and drove the 11 hours back home. Except, as soon as I got to our house, I stepped into the hallway bathroom and...

Black History Month: Fits, Photos, and Happily Ever Afters

Back when I taught at Southwest High School in San Antonio, Sharri Peterson, who dubbed herself my work wife, was my school spirit partner. Whenever there was a school spirit dress-up day, everyone knew Sharri and I would collaborate and a selfie would follow.