Using my poems as pedagogical tools
When I originally wrote these poems I had intended them to be used as spring-boards for discussion in classroom settings. I wrote them and then never really did anything with them. Years later, I have decided to dust them off and send them (unedited) into cyberspace to see what reaction ( if any ) I might receive.
If you are an educator and decide to make use of them in a school setting, I would be appreciative if you would answer some of the following questions:
- Which poems did you select and what influenced your choices?
- What grade level were you teaching?
- Are the poems easy to read out loud or do I need to work on them a bit more?
- Did the children react to them? Please describe.
- How easy was it to start a discussion based on the suggested topics?
- Did other topics arise?
- Did you experiment with any of the suggested classroom activities? If so, were they appropriate in your view? Which ones did you try?
- Do you have any suggestions for grade-levels?
- Was the material new to the students or were they well informed already?
- Are there any other topics you feel I could address?
- How user-friendly is the format? Do I need to flesh it out more? Any other suggestions to improve it?
Thank you for any assistance.
andrea
Andrea,
My son was bullied in middle school and high school. He eventually turned to drugs to fly away from his hurt. He died eight years ago from a drug overdose. We miss him so much. But now his story is saving lives. My wife and I have dedicated the rest of our lives to preventing and stopping bullying. I have written several books on the topic. I am currently writting lesson plan books (preschool-high school) and wish to use some of your poems and poems written by Harold in some of the plans. We will be selling these books to schools and the lesson plans may be made available electronically to teachers who purchase the lesson plans. Your suggest activities are also excellent and may or maynot be included. When we decide, we can let you know exacting which poems we wish to use. We will indicate that you are the authors and hold the copyright and we will indicate we retrieved them from your website and they are used with your permission. If you have a fee for their use, please let me know.
Thank you for what you are doing.
Perhaps I can send you my son’s story. I would love to have a poem written about him that I could share when I speak to students, parents, and school personnel.
Blessings! I can’t wait to hear from you.
If any of your visitors wish to send poems to me for consideration, that will be okay.
Allan Beane
Hello Alan,
Your son’s story is so tragic and sadly, one I have heard all too often. I admire your decision to dedicate your time and energy to battling this affliction. I wish you all the best and good luck.
I made the decision to post my poems and classroom suggestions on the web so that educators, parents, coaches… anyone who found them useful could feel free to use them to help the cause. So, go ahead. Just site me as the author. (Not Harold. I know it said that originally. It was an error.)
Do send me your son’s story. I’ll try to rev up my creative juices.
Take care,
andrea