Musings by Ellen A. Thompson, Ed.D. “The kids did nothing wrong.  The whole world stopped in March of 2020 for everybody.” I have made this statement a dozen times if not more, often after hearing teachers exclaim how low their students are this year. The children are where they are.  Start

Author: Ellen A. Thompson, Ed. D. During the summer of 2021, I had the good fortune to have a group of 12 educators join me in a course wrapped around the book, Forged by Reading: The Power of a Literate Life written by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. Not only

WELCOMING A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST OF IMAGINATION: Writing Hybrid Forms I was completely smitten by the book. I longed to read them all, and the things I read of produced new yearnings…But the urge to express myself was my strongest desire and my siblings were my first eager coconspirators in the

INVITATION STANDING BRING a leaf to me just a leaf just a spring leaf, an april leaf just      come Blue sky never mind Spring rain never mind Reach up and take a leaf and      come just come Paul Blackburn, (1926-1971) from The Cities, Grove Press:1967. Paul Blackburn, son of writer

Finding Poetry in Unusual Places Ellen A. Thompson, Ed.D. Poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.  ~Britannica.com A few weeks ago, I tried out something I had not done in quite