Teachers, enter our Teacher Appreciation Week giveaway!

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 2017 Poems for May Day and Spring   For the beginning of May, read and share these poems about the flora and fauna of spring:   "To make a prairie (1755)" by Emily Dickinson "One Flower" by Jack Kerouac "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee "The Metier of Blossoming" by Denise Levertov "I Have This Way of Being" by Jamaal May "Lying While Birding" by Naomi Shihab Nye "Follies" by Carl Sandburg "Earth Your Dancing Place" by May Swenson "A Blessing" by James Wright

Lesson Plan: Noticing Poetry   In this lesson plan by poet and teacher Scot Slaby, students learn to notice the different ways language functions in a poem, beginning with Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" and continuing with a range of classic and contemporary poems. Find poems to share for Mother's Day on May 14. Celebrate Walt Whitman's birthday on May 31 with lesson plans, readings guides, poetry and more. Plan poetry for the rest of the year with the Poetry in the Classroom Calendar. Recommended Reading for Children's Book Week   This first week in May, celebrate the joy of reading with this roundup of recommended poetry books for children, including Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange and On the Wing by David Elliott. Thank you, teachers!   We at the Academy of American Poets are grateful for all that you do. To be entered in a  special Teacher Appreciation Week giveaway, please reply with the title of your favorite poem to teach in the classroom. Teaching Poetry and Science   The Wick Poetry Center is inviting teachers to engage their students in its Science Stanzas project. Share a collection of poems about science, curated by Jane Hirshfield, with your students, and encourage them to create their own using the words of featured speakers from the recent March for Science. Poems can then be shared on Twitter using #PoetsforScience and featured on the project website. Dear Poet Project   Thank you to all of the teachers and students who participated in this year's Dear Poet project! We'll be publishing a selection of the letters, alongside the Chancellors' responses, in the coming weeks. In the meantime, take a look at this special preview of letters from some of our education sponsors. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038