Tales from the Fourth Grade: Make a Joyful Noise

While my students were writing out their first book report for the quarter in cursive (my kids will have non-forgeable signatures, thanks very much), I decided to play some music to keep them motivated. Eva was enjoying my classical music and asked if we could listen to songs from Phantom of the Opera. I first …

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Tales from the Fourth Grade: Sing, Sing a Song

Something had to be done. The majority of my fourth grade girls had been singing “My Favorite Things,” loudly and off-key for a good minute now. I took a deep breath and approached the throng clustered around a poetry book that contained the lyrics. My students, singers and non-singers alike, eyed me with cautious curiosity. …

Music

She composes a symphony, not with the dots and lines of musical notes but with the dots and lines of letters. The plot is the melody, consistent throughout. Themes pop up at intervals like recurring motifs, reminding the reader of what is at stake... Read the rest of the poem in my anthology Ephemeral Impressions: …