Poetry, Inclusivity, and Creativity in Classrooms

Last month, I spoke at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Dr. Linda Pavonetti had invited me to visit her class, “The Author’s & Illustrator’s Art & Craft.” I was intrigued by the concept for the class. The masters students in education study the work of the visiting authors, illustrators, editors, etc. prior to the lecturer’s arrival. On the day I visited, I used my book ZING! as the basis for my PowerPoint focusing first on my books of poetry and why it’s my favorite genre as a writer. Sadly, many teachers feel hesitant to teach poetry though it’s a fine way to foster delight in language and to strengthen our writing at any age. I also stressed the importance of being inclusive of all the various parts of ourselves and of enjoying diversity in literature, colleagues and students. A key theme of my remarks was the seven practices I propose in ZING! to help nurture creativity in ourselves, our colleagues, and our pupils.

Symbols for the seven creative practices of ZING!

My flight experiences on this trip were the worst of my life (the challenge of flying these days), BUT I so enjoyed part two of the class when, after meeting in groups, the students asked me many thought-provoking questions. As educators at all levels prepare for a new academic year, I wish them excitement as they prepare to foster creativity in themselves and their students. Life’s details, technology, etc. can snare us. I find it takes daily effort to value our unique inventiveness.

Teacher Appreciation

Colorín Colorado shared several videos about appreciating teachers, including my poem, "Ode to Teachers." In addition, individuals such as Dr. Thelma Meléndez, Rafael López, and Kristina Robertson share their own memories of special teachers who had an impact on their lives.

(Image from Colorín Colorado.)

Teacher Appreciation Day

Congratulating dedicated teachers at all levels! Thanks for the vitality, the ZING you bring to your classrooms and libraries.

Zing! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students

A Grand Autumn

What a glorious autumn in Santa Fe! Though soon all the gold leaves on the aspens and cottonwoods will fly away, they have been stunning and a grand source of energy. I’ve been traveling again: two wonderful Texas visits, to Brownsville and Fort Worth. At the former, I met many children, and wonderful librarians and community members very excited about growing Día in that region. In Fort Worth, I saw about a thousand students in two days from 250 kindergarteners—at once, and beautifully behaved; to a group of teens interested in creative writing. Again, I met more committed librarians. How they energize me and how grateful I am to them and to the wonderful teachers with whom they work. And speaking of teens, I was fortunate to be on a poetry panel at YALSA organized by poetry champion Dr. Sylvia Vardell. I so enjoyed meeting librarians who savor working with young adults. My final trips of 2010 are to the Savannah Book Festival and to NCTE in Orlando.


This fall season seemed a good time to post an essay on leadership (and geese) that I wrote years ago. Interesting that many of the ideas surfaced again in my newest book, ZING! Hope you enjoy the essay.

Wishing you a Thanksgiving that includes lots of laughter and becomes a wonderful and sustaining memory in your life. I’ll have two of my children and a dear son-in-law (I call him my son-in-spirit) here with me. I’m giddy with delight.

Landscape Inspires Color and More

What an amazing sight this week: the full moon. Like gazing at the wide Southwest desert landscape, the full moon reminds me how small we humans and our endless squabbles are on this earth.

My web team and I have been making some changes to the look of this blog lately. I chose some colors that say Santa Fe to me: clay shade of adobe, the word meaning brick in Arabic, turquoise often mined in New Mexico, popular in jewelry here, and hints of green, seldom the dominant color in the desert.

Each month, under the cover of ZING!, my new book on creativity, I’ll post a quote from the book. I certainly had some wonderful teachers in my home city of El Paso. Did you also have some memorable educators? I went to Catholic schools from kindergarten until I graduated from high school. In those days, the Sisters of Loretto still wore long, black habits. I remember my kindergarten teacher, Sister Margaret Ann who loved licorice as do I. To discourage her from eating it, Sister’s mother told her that it was made by cooking all kinds of candies together into a black goo. Licorice: yum! Sweet memories: yum.

Children as Creators

What are you reading these days? I’ve been savoring some mighty special books made for me by the third graders at Hoffer Elementary School in Banning, California. Last March, I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at the Charlotte S. Huck Literature Festival in Redlands. It felt grand to leave cold Santa Fe and thaw out in sunny California. The organizing committee was warm and welcoming, my fellow speakers interesting and informative, and my sweet “angel” for the weekend, student Sarah Fiske-Phillips cheerfully escorted me to each event.

A highlight of my visit was meeting with those third graders though. Not only were they attentive and enthusiastic, they brought me gifts! In honor of my first children’s book, A Birthday Basket for Tía, they presented me with a large book they’d made titled, “An Author Basket for Pat Mora.” How I enjoy turning the pages and seeing the writing, art work and photos the students created after reading some of my books.

These talented students also made character sketch posters, a book of “thanks” inspired by Gracias~Thanks that includes statements and drawings, and a book about why libraries are important inspired by Tomás and the Library Lady. The children also presented me with a basket that day that included chocolates because I’d written Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico!, a lovely tea towel on which a mom had cross-stitched lovely poinsettias because I’d written The Gift of the Poinsettia: El regalo de la flor de nochebuena, and, one of my weaknesses pan dulce, Mexican sweet bread, made by a mom that morning because I’d written, The Bakery Lady/La señora de la panadería.

The children and teachers had decorated the room with their work including a bulletin board of “scary masks” inspired by reading Abuelos. The children said I could use the masks on “any kids you might know.” You can imagine how overwhelmed I felt at all the hard work that had been done by the students and their two wonderful teachers. I was also so impressed at the critical thinking the teachers had prompted in their students.

After their presentation, I asked the children how they thought I felt.

“Amazed?” they asked.

“Stunned?”

I laughed and said, “Teary,” which is the way I’ve felt as I typed this memory. I also received illustrated thank-you notes after our time together. As I say in my new book, Zing! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students, teachers are treasures. My deep gracias~thanks to Ms.Gretchen Pelle and Ms. Kelly Mineo for reminding me how outstanding teachers enrich the lives of their students and for showering me with gifts and happy memories.

Creativity in the News

"Creativity in America: The Science of Innovation and How to Reignite Our Imaginations.” Cover story NEWSWEEK, July 19, 2010. Authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in their article “The Creativity Crisis: For the First Time, Research Shows That American Creativity Is Declining. What Went Wrong -- and How We Can Fix It” illustrate the national and international interest in creativity, its importance, and discuss the fostering of innovation in our educational system.

Are you creative? Magazines, newspapers and conferences are proclaiming the relevance of innovation as we confront the challenges of a complex, inter-dependent world and as we strive to develop our unique talents and those of our diverse young people. In my book ZING: SEVEN CREATIVITY PRACTICES FOR EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS recently published by Corwin, I propose seven habits that assist us to develop our potential to enrich our communities and our own lives. Using a personal letter format, I share my strategies as a writer, speaker and advocate. Sample the introduction and begin the journey of fostering your creative self.

NCTE Supports Día

At its annual business meeting held in November 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) adopted a resolution in support of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day.) Since then, NCTE has increased awareness and programming to support culturally and linguistically diverse literacy activities at home, in school, and in the community for more successful readers. The photos highlight some of the NCTE supported activities hosted in schools, libraries, and homes across the country to spread “bookjoy.”

“Pat Mora’s efforts with the Día initiative have enriched our schools, libraries, and homes through a reading, book-rich life. Indeed, our literate lives are in bloom. ¡Bravo, Pat!"

               −R. Joseph Rodriguez, educator and researcher

Thank you to our guest blogger R. Joseph Rodriguez, Ph.D. with the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA) at the University of Texas at Austin.

Cookjoy & Bookjoy

Have you seen the movie “Julie & Julia”? If you like to cook and aren’t a vegetarian, you’ll probably thoroughly enjoy it. I did. I’d just finished Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France, which moves along happily from meal to meal. It was my reward for sending off my new manuscript tentatively titled, Zing: 7 Creativity Practices for Educators & Their Students, to the editor at Corwin last week. Whew! A book of letters to teachers and librarians, it’s due out in the spring.

In the last letter I have a quote from Julia Child that I found some years ago about her zest for what she did. I found Julia Child an amazing story — a woman who didn’t know how to cook and who, by falling in love with France and French cooking and by her optimistic persistence, shared her cookjoy with America. She worked for years experiencing many set-backs, but she’d dust her ego off and continue. Paul, her supportive husband gets a gold star too. Julia Child is a high-spirited, cheerful and hard-working example for those of us excited about sharing bookjoy.

Share Bookjoy!

Literacy Teamates

Becoming Teammates: Teachers and Families as Literacy Partners
Charlene Klassen Endrizzi
NCTE (978-0-8141-0273-2)

Charlene Endrizzi's new book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning about strengthening the partnerships between parents and teachers as they work toward mutual literacy goals. She graciously agreed to tell us about her work and the ideas in her book.


Tell us about the work you do as faculty at Westminster College.
As a teacher researcher, both symbiotic roles help describe my daily work. Teaching literacy courses to my undergraduate and graduate students is my passion yet I also feel compelled to inquire about literacy learning alongside teachers in classrooms. My love of children’s books enables me to continually explore new avenues for connecting students with texts, thus enabling them to understand themselves and their world more completely. Currently I am on the advisory board of the World of Words, an International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature, housed at the University of Arizona. Our goal is to build bridges of understanding across cultures through books.

Your book, published by NCTE, Becoming Teammates: Teachers and Families as Literacy Partners, focuses on teacher and family collaboration. What led to your writing this book?
I began exploring the role of family-school literacy partnerships 16 years ago when I started teaching at Westminster. I carried out three key partnerships between graduate students, preservice teachers, classroom teachers and their students’ families over twelve years. I draw from these three diverse settings to describe an array of avenues for helping teachers build literacy partnerships with families.
Becoming a mother eight years ago also significantly shifted my understanding of the power of families as each child’s first and last learning partner. Teachers need to reach out to families, investigate their diverse funds of knowledge, and consider how to build upon these rich resources as they create their literacy curriculum.

What was the most significant point(s) you learned about partnering with families?
When teachers and families combine their different wisdoms and resources, they create a synergetic force for learning. As teachers reach out to families and learn about their distinct ways of knowing, their vision of each child and literacy learning is dramatically transformed.
Teachers have endless opportunities for building a more vibrant community of learners that includes families. One delightful exploration I share evolved from an author study conducted with a second grade teacher, Karen Tarka Jones, and her students. Before Pat Mora came to visit Westminster College several years ago, these second graders carried out a Family Stories study by first exploring Pat’s remarkable books. Using her books as inspiration, children then authored their own family stories tales. This exploration concluded with children sharing their treasures with parents at a family literacy gathering where Karen and I also explained our beliefs about Writing Workshop.

What’s your personal definition of Bookjoy!
As a mother of an eight year-old boy, I delight in jointly exploring texts like Spiderman comics and Molly Bang. Right now I am trying to convince my son, Bryce that females have the right to read the Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden, if they happen to be a mother of a boy.
As a teacher researcher, I am thrilled to watch my preservice teachers discover and fall in love with texts like Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora, or I See the Rhythm by Toyomi Igus and Michele Wood. Last month I experienced great satisfaction as I observed my Reading Specialist graduate students conducting a literacy advocacy project. They advocated for and initiated classroom and school-wide celebrations like The National African American Read-In (sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English), Read Across America, and El dia de los ninos.

Many thanks to Charlene for taking time to share with us.

Thanks Teachers & Librarians!

Where do the weeks go? Tomorrow I leave (again) to Chicago Public Library’s Kraft Great Kids Family Night. Families who have been reading my books (thanks to wonderful Chicago librarians) will be bussed to an evening reading. Every child who attends will receive a signed copy of one of my books thanks to the Library’s efforts. I also get to chat with Chicago Public Library’s children’s librarians. Such occasions are always a treat for me.
In the future, I’ll say more about the Día celebrations I was privileged to attend in ’08. I’m so grateful to everyone around the country who took part or supported Día events that honored children, all our children, and that promoted literacy. ¡Gracias, gracias!
A week ago I received an Honorary Doctorate at North Carolina State University. That afternoon, I spoke to the first graduating class of elementary education majors. It’s always difficult to convey to teachers and librarians what a significant role they play. Congratulations to all you teachers and librarians out there. You are so important!
(posted by Laurina for Pat)