We Want Mr. Bagert Back!

Our preK teacher told me this morning that one of her preK students told her he wanted to "see Mr. Bagert again." That's probably true of all the CAC students who saw Mr. Bagert in action.

We had three dynamic days of presentations by Brod Bagert, during which he met with all the ES grade levels and 6th and 7th grade. He is an energetic performer and he kept us all wildly entertained during each of his assemblies.

As a teacher-librarian, I appreciated the humor in his presentations, his focus on writing from a child's perspective, and especially his tips on adding expression to your voice when performing: first make your face reflect the emotion you want to express, move your body to reflect that emotion, and then speak. When you do, your voice will express the feelings you want, without you having to think about how to do it. Your face does it for you!

But of all his advice, the best was certainly to "first, do your worst!" When sitting down to write, one should try to write as badly as possible. This means not paying attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation at first. Rewriting is very important because it is in rewriting again and again that we can make a piece better. He told us that he might rewrite a poem 50 times, each time looking for ways to make it a better poem. One of the fourth graders sitting near me, nodded his head, saying, "That makes sense." It makes great sense to me too, and I know we teachers will be reminding students of this important message for the rest of the year.

Here are some pictures from the presentations. They are taken from my very old phone, so they might not be very good photos, but they capture moments that were precious and filled with fun.

We Loved the Poetry Open Mic Today!

Congratulations and thanks to the 31 students who signed up to read their poems at the first ever Poetry Open Mic at today's family picnic. These 31 students showed courage and responsibility in selecting a poem - or writing one - and practicing the delivery on their own to perform today.

The parent picnic is a great CAC tradition and it is always wonderful to see families coming together on our ES lawn. Today's picnic had an even better attendance than ever. Thanks for coming, parents!

Here are some photos of our poetry performers. Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions. I hope there will be a next time and we want to make it an even better event.

Librarians and teachers: This was very easy to set up. I opened up a sign up sheet a week in advance and students had to read their poem to me first. This was to make sure that the poem was appropriate and to give each child a little coaching. I had poetry books available and I made copies of each poem, although every student was told that he/she was responsible over his/her poem. Most did come with their poems, but having the flat copies on a music stand made it easier for students to read while holding a microphone. Each student had to say his/her name, the title of the poem and the author.