Tales from a Loud Librarian

Next week we are doing something fun for poetry month.  I printed out about 50 different poems on green paper.  Below you can see some students helping to prepare the poems. I collected poems from teachers and students either favorite poems or poems they had written. The students cut them out with fancy edges and we rolled them up and tied with a ribbon. Then on Friday after school, I will have some helpers who will hide the poems all over school. On Monday, any student who finds a poem, is expected to read it, of course, and then they will bring it to me in the library. I will give every student who brings me a poem, a prize. Then I have a bulletin board where I will post all the hidden poems once they are found. Usually, during poetry month, I just email a poem to every staff member and every student, but this year I decided to go a little further. I want to encourage my students to read poetry. Do you think this will help? I sure hope so.

 Monique Polak, author of Miracleville , and I have been conversing via email about book reviews. She loved the review that one of the Taylor students wrote about her new book. Anyway, we started corresponding, and she mentioned the student and me in her blog. I wanted to share with you, too. Click here to visit Monique's blog.

The above is the heading for a new blog called Gilbert & Gomez. It is the brainchild of Enjoli Gilbert who is the president of the Patrick Taylor library book group, Bookmarked, and Hayley Gomez, who has been a faithful member of Bookmarked since it was established when she was a freshman. Both students are friends and graduating in May. (I am really going to miss them both next year). They have been avid readers in the YALSA YA Galley program. They have been talking for months about creating a medium on-line where they can gab about the wonderful books that they are reading.  I am so amazed by what they finally created. They give some great insight into their thoughts on the books--their reviews are so much better than what I would write. If you like young adult literature, or just want to see what two teenagers can accomplish when they put their minds to it, check out the Gilbert and Gomez blog:  http://gilbertandgomez.blogspot.com/ .

I love National Poetry Month. Monday through Friday throughout April, I share a poem by email to every student and every staff member at Patrick Taylor. I have done it for the last two or three years. I can't remember exactly. I don't think teens read enough poetry, so this is a chance to spread the word. I get my poems from a variety of places. Here are some links to help you celebrate poetry during April: Poetry 180 : A poem a day for American High School Students Poems for Teens provided by poets.org Celebrate Poetry Month 30 different ways from poets.org Children's Poet Laureate, Mary Ann Hoberman , shares some of her poems on video Scholastic has some fun poetry resources for teachers to use in the classroom 30 Poets 30 Days April 2011 edition