After spending some time myself writing poetry at various retreats, I found that spending time in nature really fueled my own work. So one day when I was taking a hike on a Saturday in south mountain it occurred to me that my students could benefit from taking advantage of this peaceful, natural resource in our community.
It was a big success last year. Some of the students had never been to the reservation. This year I added the element of photography to couple with the poems. The students loved it. We discussed going back each season, observing how nature changes and write about it.
All of these lovely ideas have sort of married on the cement wall outside my classroom door. It drives home the idea that poetry is an art and that we are in fact studying language arts. Students and teachers alike stop daily to read the new additions to the wall. It has become a place of reflection and color. My students planted a seed which really blossomed into something beautiful.
