Episode 75: Teacher-Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance

In 2015, English teacher Sarah Donovan created the “Ethical ELA” website as a place for teachers to “process everyday teaching experiences in the ELA classroom.” Every April, the community celebrates National Poetry Month by having a 30-day poetry-writing challenge, where teachers can write on a daily prompt and share it with the community. The challenge, called #VerseLove, has enabled teachers to develop their creativity outside the classroom and reflect on their life experiences through verse – a pastime that was especially fruitful during April of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the shutdowns that spring, many leapt at the chance to be creative, resulting in 50 teachers from 22 states writing nearly 1500 poems. Recognizing that the poems shared unique perspectives of teachers during a time when classrooms looked very different from normal, Donovan and others joined forces to create an oral history project to document the experiences of the teacher-poets.

This month, we’ll hear excerpts from this oral history project of teachers reading aloud the poems they wrote during the pandemic. We’ll also hear from creator of Ethical ELA and the COVID-19 teacher-poets oral history project, Dr. Sarah Donovan, as she discusses the origin of the poetry challenge and the importance of Ethical ELA’s writing community.