Ms. Neeland's Green Screen Mo Po Poetry Project

One of my fabulous former students is Carol Neeland, a teacher at the American School of the Hague (in the Netherlands). She is doing really creative things with kids incorporating technology in promoting and responding to poetry-- she calls it "green screen poetry." I've shared some of their gems before and have permission to do so once again. Here are very clever poem movies that her students created for two poems by Shel Silverstein.

"Crazy Dream" was created by 6th graders Amanda and Anna and it features some special guest stars:

Dr. Richard Spradling, Superintendent
Ms. Mary Russman, Middle School Principal
Mr. Doug Teter, Grade 6 Science Teacher
Mrs. Rochelle Slachta, Grade 6 Language Arts teacher
and Mrs. Carol Neeland, Middle School IT Teacher

Amanda and Anna's interpretation of poem gave them the "power" to make the Superintendent and Principal stand on their heads and to send their teachers to outer Mongolia!

"Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, too" was created by Kevin and Jakob, but they needed someone to play Tickle Me, so Jin joined them as well. They used Photoshop to create the flying shoe and then used green screen to put themselves inside of it. Don't they make flying in a shoe look like fun?

This was all part of their big Mo Po celebration for National Poetry Month. (Mo as in "MORE" and Po as in "Poetry!") Way to go, Carol! And thank you for sharing their work with us. Keep the MoPoMomentum going!

The poetry of shoes

I'm currently in Bali (yes, THAT Bali) for the IBBY Asia Oceana Congress to talk about poetry, what else?  (More on my presentation, "The World in Verse," later.) But first, I've done a bit of touring and ran across this and I had to share!

Since I am a shoe lover (although I just can't manage the way-high heels I wore in my "youth"), I get  that shoes and bags do have their own kind of poetry! Don't you agree?




(Also, my apologies for being AWOL. Bali is blocking Gmail and Blogger, but I stumbled upon a "back-door" today, which will probably slam shut any moment! If not, I'll post more nuggets soon...)

9th Annual Poetry Round Up at TLA

This time last week, I was lucky enough to host the 9th annual Poetry Round Up at the Texas Library Association conference in Fort Worth.  What an amazing lineup of poets and what a great audience. For those of you who couldn't join us, here are a few video clips to share the magic!

Robert Paul Weston
http://robertpaulweston.com/

 

Charles Waters

http://charleswaters.net

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
http://www.amylv.com/ 

Michael Salinger
http://www.michaelsalinger.com/ 

Rebecca Dotlich
http://rebeccakaidotlich.com/

&
Jane Yolen
http://janeyolen.com/

SELECTED BOOKS BY 2013 ROUND UP POETS

Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2001. Lemonade Sun and Other Summer.  Boyds Mills.
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2001. When Riddles Come Rumbling: Poems to Ponder. Boyds Mills.
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2004. Over in the Pink House: Original Jump Rope Rhymes. Boyds Mills.
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2009. Bella and Bean. Simon & Schuster.
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2010. In The Spin of Things: Poetry of Motion. Boyds Mills.
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2012. What Can a Crane Pick Up? Knopf.
Heard, Georgia, Ed. 2012. The Arrow Finds Its Mark. Roaring Book Press.
Holbrook, Sara and Michael Salinger. 2006. Outspoken!: How to Improve Writing and Speaking Skills Through Poetry Performance. Heinemann.
Holbrook, Sara and Michael Salinger. 2010. High Definition: Unforgettable Vocabulary-Building Strategies Across Genres and Subjects. Heinemann.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett, ed. 2011. Nasty Bugs. Dutton.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 2014. Amazing Places. Ill. By Chris Soentpiet. Lee and Low.
Hoyte, Carol-Ann and Roemer, Heidi Bee. Eds. 2012. And the Crowd Goes Wild!: A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. Ill. by Kevin Sylvester. Friesens Press.
Lewis, J. Patrick and Rebecca Kai Dotlich. 2006. Castles: Old Stone Poems. Boyds Mills.
Lewis, J. Patrick. Ed. 2012. The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. National Geographic.
Salinger, Michael. 2004. They Call It Fishing Not Catching. Boyds Mills.
Salinger, Michael. 2007. Stingray: New and Collected Poems. Wordsmith.
Salinger, Michael. 2009. Well Defined: Vocabulary in Rhyme. Boyds Mills.
VanDerwater, Amy Ludwig. (forthcoming). Reading Time. Boyds Mills.
VanDerwater, Amy Ludwig. 2013. Forest Has a Song. Houghton Mifflin.
Vardell, Sylvia and Wong, Janet. Eds. 2011. Gift Tag. PoetryTagTime.com.
Vardell, Sylvia and Wong, Janet. Eds. 2011. P*TAG. PoetryTagTime.com.
Vardell, Sylvia and Wong, Janet. Eds. 2011. PoetryTagTime. PoetryTagTime.com.
Vardell, Sylvia and Wong, Janet. Eds. 2012. The Poetry Friday Anthology K-5. Pomelo Books.
Vardell, Sylvia and Wong, Janet. Eds. 2013. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School. Pomelo Books.
Weston, Robert Paul. 2008. Zorgamazoo. New York: Razorbill/Penguin.
Weston, Robert Paul. 2012. Prince Pugly. New York: Razorbill/Penguin.
Yolen, Jane and Dotlich, Rebecca. 2013. Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy Tales with a Twist. Ill. by Matt Hahurin. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
Yolen, Jane and Peters, Andrew Fusek. 2010. Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems. Candlewick.
Yolen, Jane and Peters, Andrew Fusek. Ed. 2007. Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry. Candlewick.
Yolen, Jane. 2002. Wild Wings: Poems for Young People. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2003. Least Things: Poems about Small Natures. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2004. Fine Feathered Friends. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2006. Count Me A Rhyme: Animal Poems by the Numbers. Wordsong/Boyds.
Yolen, Jane. 2007. Shape Me a Rhyme. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2009. A Mirror to Nature. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2009. How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? Scholastic.
Yolen, Jane. 2010. An Egret’s Day. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2011. Birds of a Feather. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
Yolen, Jane. 2012. Bug Off! Creepy Crawly Poems. Wordsong/Boyds Mills.

Special thanks to these publishers and their wonderful representatives: Penguin Books for Young Readers and Laura Antonacci, and Boyds Mills Press and Kerry McManus.



Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2013. All rights reserved.

P*CON at TLA 2013

The whole P*CON poet crew and me!

Michael Salinger

Rebecca Dotlich

Jane Yolen

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Charles Waters

Robert Paul Weston

Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Jane and Rebecca discuss collaborating on GRUMBLES FROM THE FOREST

Will Richey and teens rock the house; volunteers step up to participate

Our enthusiastic audience; Jane and Charles talking about process; poets in the audience

Thanks to the poets who spoke so eloquently and each stayed for the entire 4 hour institute. Thanks to Penguin and Boyds Mills Press for bringing several of our poets. Thanks to our lovely audience who were so committed, open, and enthusiastic. And special thanks to Dr. Marianne Follis, Chair of the Children's Round Table (of the Texas Library Association) for conceiving of P*CON (the poetry version of Comic Con!) and for all her support. This was TLA's FIRST post-conference institute and I think it was a big hit! One participant said it was the highlight of her entire conference experience!

Image credit: SylviaVardell

Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2013. All rights reserved.

Blast from the Poetry Past: 2006

The Children’s Poet Laureate was established by the Poetry Foundation in 2006 to raise awareness of the fact that “children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.”

2006
The first Children’s Poet Laureate was Jack Prelutsky, chosen in 2006. 

2008
Mary Ann Hoberman was selected as the second Children’s Poet Laureate in 2008. 

2011
J. Patrick Lewis was selected as Children’s Poet Laureate in 2011 and also received the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children that same year. 

2013
The next Children’s Poet Laureate will be announced in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!




Wishing everyone happy El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) celebrated every April 30. Buy a book of poetry for someone you love today!


Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2013. All rights reserved.

Image credits: nwbookfest;poetryfoundation;forum.teachingbooks.net