Poem in Your Pocket Days 2013 (Part 1)

Today, the first classes came to read their poems in our poetry cafe.  We broadcast the poetry readings via Adobe Connect.  The room was setup with paper tablecloths, paper confetti, lanterns, and flowers in vases.  The microphone was surrounded by fabric and lights with a poet step & stool to read from.  Students read their poems and snapped to celebrate each reader.  Each student got a lollipop when they left.  We had online visitors from: Athens GA, Lexington KY, Buffalo NY, Hinsdale IL, UGA, Jasper GA, Cook County IL, Mason City IA, West Central MN, Bogart GA, Dacula GA, Hall County GA, Colbert GA, Gowrie IA, Fremont IA, and more.

As in the past, the comments from an authentic audience fueled the energy of the students.  They loved hearing shout-outs about their poetry.  An interesting thing that happened was that classes within our school were watching and students in those classes sent shout-outs to brothers and sisters.  It was so sweet to hear words of encouragement between siblings.  Thank you teachers for making that happen.  Each year unexpected, wonderful things happen.  This has become a day we all look forward to.

You can enjoy all of the readings again at the following links:

Shealey 3rd grade

 

Wyatt 1st grade

 

Watson 1st grade

 

Hart 1st grade

 

Selleck 4th grade

 

Wright 2nd grade

 

Freeman 4th grade

 

Stuckey 1st grade

 

Em 1st grade

 

Brink 2nd grade

 

Hocking Kindergarten

 

Yawn 2nd grade

Join us tomorrow, too.

Friday April 12, 2013

Time	Class
8:00	5th Cross
8:30	K Carney
9:00	K Boyle
9:30	K Li
10:00	PreK Doneda
10:30	3rd Spurgeon
11:00	4th Olin
11:30	K Vertus
12:00	5th Slongo
12:30	PreK Clarke
1:00	2nd Ramseyer
1:30	3rd Griffith

To login to Adobe Connect, follow these instructions:

• Go to http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter
• Click “enter as guest”
• Type your name
• Click “enter room” & wait to be approved
• Enjoy listening to the poetry and type your comments for students in the chat box.

Found Poetry with the Word Mover App

I always love collaborating with Ms. Hocking in Kindergarten.  A few weeks ago, she shared a great iPad app by Read Write Think called Word Mover.  It’s basically a magnetic poetry app.  You can choose from a word bank or from several famous works such as the I have a Dream speech and America the Beautiful.  In each word bank, you can also add your own words, change the font, and the color.  You can also choose from several backgrounds to put behind your poem.  Students drag the words in any order that they want to create their poem just like you would do with magnetic poetry on the fridge.  Students give their poem a title and save it to the camera roll.  From there, you can use the image however you want.  Ms. Hocking plans to display the poems on her smart board during April.  

This was a great tie-in to found poetry.  We also talked about how you could walk the halls f the school and borrow words from the student work that is hanging on the walls in order to write  a new poem.  The Kindergarten class used this tool without a lot of instruction.  Ms. Hocking and I walked around and helped students with questions.  The most common help needed was being able to read one of the words.  They really didn’t have problems using the technology.

Take a look at the poetry gallery below.

 

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2013 is Coming!

We are so excited that National Poetry Month is already here!  In just 2 weeks, we will be celebrating Poem In Your Pocket Days.  On April 11th & 12th, students in every class will come to the library to our open microphone poetry cafe.  The tables will be setup with tablecloths, lanterns, and poetry books.  A stool and microphone will be available for students to come up and read their original and favorite poetry for their class to hear.  Once again, we will be broadcasting all of this live online via Adobe Connect.  This has become a very special event for students because they are able to get their writing and favorite poems out to a much larger audience.  When people type comments in the chat feature of Adobe Connect, I always share those with students in the moment.  It creates a big pulse of energy in the group.  We’ve had family, friends, and other schools tune in from as far away as Afghanistan and England and as close by as the classroom next to us!  We hope you will join us to listen to our poems and leave some comments.  Here is the schedule:

  Thursday April 11, 2013                                               

Time	Class
8:30	3rd Shealey
9:00	1st Wyatt
9:30	1st Watson
10:00	1st Hart
10:30	4th Selleck
11:00	2nd Wright
11:30	4th Freeman
12:00	1st Stuckey
12:30	1st Em
1:00	2nd Brink
1:30	K Hocking
2:00	2nd Yawn

 

Friday April 12, 2013

Time	Class
8:00	5th Cross
8:30	K Carney
9:00	K Boyle
9:30	K Li
10:00	PreK Doneda
10:30	3rd Spurgeon
11:00	4th Olin
11:30	K Vertus
12:00	5th Slongo
12:30	PreK Clarke
1:00	2nd Ramseyer
1:30	3rd Griffith

 

To login to Adobe Connect, follow these instructions:

• Go to http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter
• Click “enter as guest”
• Type your name
• Click “enter room” & wait to be approved
• Enjoy listening to the poetry and type your comments for students in the chat box.

Leading up to the event, we are having an original poetry contest.  All entries are due by this Friday and prizes/certificates will be awarded in multiple categories in PreK-1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th grades.

Students and teachers are also contributing to a crowd sources poem that I will carry in my pocket on Poem In Your Pocket Day called “Our Library is Not a Quiet Place”.  They are submitting lines through a Google Form.  You are welcome to submit lines, too.  Just go to this link.

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2012 (Part 1)

Today, 14 classes came to our poetry cafe to read their original and favorite poems.  Many people attended via Adobe Connect:  parents, grandparents, other Barrow classrooms, and more.  If you missed the day or want to relive it, you can view the archives below.

Mrs. Sheppard’s 2nd Grade

Mrs. Hart’s 1st Grade

Mrs. Wyatt’s 1st Grade

Mrs. Em’s Kindergarten

Mrs. Li’s Kindergarten

Mrs. Watson’s 1st Grade

Mrs. Stuckey’s 1st Grade

Mrs. Shealey’s 3rd Grade

Mrs. Brink’s 2nd Grade

Mrs. Brewer’s 2nd Grade

Mrs. Yawn’s 2nd Grade

Ms. O’Prey’s 5th Grade

Mrs. Boyle’s Kindergarten

Mrs. Vertus’s Kindergarten

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2nd Annual Barrow Media Center Poetry Contest

Our 3 top winners

Almost 90 students entered our 2nd annual poetry contest.  It was once again very tough to decide, but ultimately one overall winner was chosen for PreK-1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade.  Other winners were chosen in a variety of categories based on the elements of poetry and various forms of poetry.  Some of these awards included list poetry, rhyming poetry, acrostic poetry, descriptive poetry, story poetry, and unique poetry.

 

The winning Prek-1st poem from Diana:

 

The winning 2nd-3rd poem from Eli:

 

The winning 4th-5th poem from Emma:

 

Here’s a gallery of our other fantastic winners!

Book Spine Poetry

Today Mrs. Yawn’s 2nd grade class made book spine poems.  This is a project that I started with classes a couple of years ago, but over time it has developed.  I’ve learned more about crafting book spine poems that make more sense than randomly pulling books off the shelf.  One tip that I give students is to look for book titles that don’t have character name in them.  I also suggest looking for one book title that speaks to you in some way and building upon that.  For example, the book I know Here refers to a place, so you might look for other books that refer to place to make a strong poem.  Here are the results of today.

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2012 LIVE!

On Thursday April 12^th & Friday April 13^th, we invite you and your family members to tune in to our live poetry broadcast from the Barrow Media Center.  Every class will visit the media center to read original and favorite poetry into our open microphone.  You can view these readings via Adobe Connect online where you will see and hear the students and also type comments for the students.  To access the webcast, follow these instructions:

• Visit http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter
• Select “Enter as Guest”, type your name, and click “Enter Room”.
• Mr. Plemmons will approve you and you should be able to immediately see and hear the broadcast.
• In the event that the image or sound suddenly disappear, just stay in the room and Mr. Plemmons will work to get everything reconnected.
• If you have technical difficulties at your computer, you can type comments to Mr. Plemmons in the chat and he will do his best to assist you.
• All poetry readings will be recorded and published on the Barrow Media Center blog soon after the event.  http://barrowmediacenter.wordpress.com

We hope to “see” many of you (and your family members) at our live webcast.  It means so much to the students to know there is an audience listening and commenting on their work.  Mr. Plemmons will share any comments you leave with the students.

Schedule for Thursday April 12^th                                           

Time	Class
8:20	Sheppard-2nd
8:40	Hart-1st
9:00	Wyatt-1st
9:20	Em-K
9:40	Li-K
10:00	Watson-1st
10:20	Stuckey-1st
10:40	Shealey-3rd
12:20	Brink-2nd
12:40	Brewer-2nd
1:00	Yawn-2nd
1:20	O’Prey 5th
1:40	Boyle-K
2:00	Vertus-K

Schedule for Friday April 13

Time	Class
8:00	Slongo-5th
8:20	Cross-5th
8:40	Carney-K
9:00	Hocking-Prek
9:20	Spurgeon-3rd
9:40	McCannon-3rd
10:00	Griffith-3rd
10:20	Clarke-PreK
10:40	Olin-4th
11:00	Freeman-4th
11:20	Selleck-4th

Poetry Lessons 2012

We’ve once again been busy in the media center preparing for our annual “Poem in My Pocket” day.  We have stretched the event across 2 days, April 12 & 13 to create a 20 minute space for each class to come to the library and read their original and favorite poems into our open mic at a poetry cafe.  We will once again broadcast the event live via Adobe Connect.  You are welcome to attend virtually on those 2 days (schedule will be posted soon) by visiting http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter

Some of our poetry lesson ideas can be found by visiting http://technopoetry.wikispaces.com/.

This year, I’ve been using Poll Everywhere a lot to craft list poems  with whole classes.  After looking at several mentor texts, the students each create one line in a list poem about “Things in Our Desks”.  The idea is to choose one item in your desk and add some describing words in front of the noun to make the line sound more poetic.  Using the iPads, the students submit their line for the poem.  All lines appear on the smart board, and we read the poem together and talk about revisions we might make if we were to finalize the poem.  I’ve also been using Poll Everywhere to create shape poems.  Students submit their description of a cat.  Then, I copy all of their lines and paste them into Tagxedo and put them into a cat shape.  Before the class leaves, I print a copy of the poem for them to take with them.

Our 5th graders have been working on a collaborative project between the media center and art.  Students are taking digital photographs of themselves, altering the photos in Picnik (before it disappears), and writing an autobiographical poem inspired by their photograph.

Our 5th graders have also been learning about many elements of poetry such as rhyme scheme, alliteration, personification, similes, metaphor, hyperbole, and more.  After looking at each element and hearing multiple poems that showcase different structures of poetry, the students have a poetry scavenger hunt through stacks and stacks of poetry books in order to find each of the elements that we discussed.

We are also hosting our 2nd annual poetry contest.  Students have been busy submitting their poems for judging on Monday April 9th.  We hope to have all poems judged prior to Poem in Your Pocket Day.

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5th Grade Poetry Contest Winners

Last week, the two students who had the top poems in the 4th and 5th grade category of our media center poetry contest came in to read and record their poems.  You can listen to them here.

Entranced by Delia

World Cup by Zoe

PreK Poets in Action

Recently, I blogged about a collaborative project that I did with a Prek classroom creating shape poem.  Over the past few days, these students have been coming to our BTV studio to record their poetry.  Students practiced reading their poems before coming to the studio, but many chose to add additional words to their poems or even change the words when they read their poems.  This is something that they try in their centers in the classroom.  They have a center option of doing freestyle poetry.  You can listen to Ms. Spurgeon’s introduction of the poetry project and the Prek poets by clicking the links below.

Ms. Spurgeon’s Introduction

PreK Poets 1

PreK Poets 2

PreK Poets 3