One short-term project that came up this spring was the chance to work as a "poetry consultant" for WGBH in Boston. For years, they've had a wonderful website for math, science, and technology educators: Teacher's Domain. With help from the Poetry Foundation they've introduced a new poetry section (realm? province? what's part of a domain?) with streaming videos, background essays, discussion questions lesson plans, and the like. You can find it here; I didn't actually write the material myself, or at least not most of it, but I was involved in the brainstorming and editing, and I'm proud of the results.
Ten days ago I wrapped up "How to Teach a Poem (and Learn from One, Too)," a year-long series of monthly workshops for middle school teachers. Sponsored by the NEH, the workshops featured a great mix of guest speakers, including Baron Wormser and David Cappella (authors of the indispensible A Surge of Language), John O'Connor (author of the lively, jam-packed Wordplaygrounds: Reading, Writing, and Performing Poetry in the English Classroom), master teacher Eileen Murphy (coach of several Illinois state champions in the Poetry Out Loud recitation contest), and Danielle Filas, a splendid improv / drama teacher and alumna of my Say Something Wonderful summer seminar a few years back. Dani has a blog of her own now--Mission Improvisational; swing by and ask her about staging The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with nothing but desk chairs and a handful of wooden coat hangers.
Finally, kismet: this afternoon's mail brought my advance editor's copies of Ronald Johnson: Life and Works, now beautifully published by the National Poetry Foundation (on sale at their table at the Orono conference!--I'll get you a link when I can), and also the contract from MacFarland press for my next co-edited collection, a book of "new approaches to popular romance fiction" which I wanted to call The Mind of Love, but they've balked. Ah, well. Any suggestions?Off to the End of Year Party. Then, I think, to buy some strings for all five of my mandolins. At the end of a year like this one, we all deserve a treat!
