Grant money at Jackson Middle School purchases poetry books

I used the money I received from the grant to purchase poetry books. I used the poetry bibliography from the NCTE's Middle School Journal, Voices from the Middle, as the place to begin. I found quite a few books. My favorite poet and her book Waiting to Waltz was the first book on my list. (I bet you know I'm writing about Cynthia Rylant.) My students were very impressed with the amount of books. The other language arts teachers were very pleased to have more access to quality books. My students from last year thought it was "cool". The books are available for teachers and students to borrow and read. My students read the poems together and enjoy discovering each new book. One photo shows two of my students, Carmen Underwood and Victoria Inger, enjoying This Same Sky, a wonderful poetry book about tolerance. The other photo shows a teacher at my school, Michele Taylor, joyously flipping through other books while chatting with her student teacher, Renee Ochoa, about future poetry activities. My school received $250 worth of high quality poetry books which are easily accessible. Beginning teachers come in to borrow an anthology. This is the first time our school has begun to build a library from which collaboration among language arts teachers becomes a frequent, sought after activity. I have on video the coffeehouse we had in April in conjunction with National Poetry Month and our school's book fair. We honored our published poets (over 50 school wide) with an evening of poets' voices. It was a packed evening as adults heard the voices of their young. It brought tears of joy to several of us.
Miquelita E. Martinez-Broome - Teacher
Jackson Middle School
Albuquerque, New Mexico