Stevenson Elementary School, Mountain View

Jennifer Swanton Brown is teaching right now at Stevenson Elementary School in Mountain View. Here are some photos of the work she is doing with third graders in Ms Katrina's third grade class.

This is the word list generated by the students during a lesson on bees. 

These are words generated during an exercise about fall ...

... and these are examples of haiku about fall, using season words

This is the tree lesson word list ...

... and these are the words the students came up with for what eucalyptus trees smell like. 

2015 CPITS Anthology "My Mouth The Galaxy"

The newest CPITS anthology was published in September and is now available from the CPITS website.

The first poem in the book, "Toss Me into the Leaves," is written by fourth grader Briceila Avila,  from San Benito County, taught by Amanda Chiado (poet-teacher). Amanda has a poem of her own, "Our Parents' Crater."  (Amanda is an honorary member of Santa Clara County, as she teaches in neighboring San Benito County and works often in SCC.)

Four poems by fifth graders from Santa Rita Elementary School in Los Altos were published this year, all taught by Jennifer Swanton Brown (poet-teacher). Jennifer had her poem, "Her Multiple Sweet Tongues" publishes as well.

• "California Scenery" by Sofia Mujica
• "Sadness" by Jade Daujean
• "Secret Places" by Cameryn Krauss
• "Energy" by Aidan Brenner

The anthology is beautiful and full of many engaging and moving poems by kids from all over the state. A great team of editors worked hard to sort through the many submissions.  Two of the above mentioned poems from Santa Clara County are reproduced below, with stanza formatting corrected slightly from what appears in the book.

Secret Places
by Cameryn Krauss

My secret place

The lightning yells as it flickers on and off
as the trees sing in harmony, the wind is so
faint it is a whisper in the shadow
the clouds take me to the rainbow slide and it happens
all over again.

Our secret place

We jump over the sky and sleep on the clouds
it smells like sweet sugar cane and sounds like a
boom crack
we dance on the river and lay in the trees
we fly on a cloud and land on tomorrow.   

Her secret place

First she walks into a hall and drops to the floor
she disappears into the dust and junk
she goes there and waits there and no one knows
where she goes, until she tells us it was grand
that's her secret place
no one knows where

The secret place of the world

The secret place of the world
is where you and me can hide
it is where there is
fear
lurking around every    corner
this secret place no one can escape
it is the world of torture
it is the    it is the   land of fear
it is the    it is the   land which no one goes to
even if it's a dare

My secret place

Is where all my fans come to
greet me it is where my castle shines
like the sun
it is the best place in the world.

----------------------------------

Her Multiple Sweet Tongues
by Jennifer Swanton Brown 

there is enough envy for both the present and the past even enough for the future enough envy for gardens that will be more beautiful friends who will be more true for poems that could always be better for poets always younger envy like worry expands to fill all the space you set aside all the space you imagine dream and plan with her trailing skirts envy obliterates the landscape with her song like a happy child she lays claim to all your listening with her baroque table envy will tempt you and feed you and each jewel-like morsel will taste buttery and spicy the way hunger hides a rotten seed or rancid bone with her multiple sweet tongues

walking in the neighborhood
counting her failures
poppies wave to her

----------------------------------

Writing Poems with Kids and the Cupertino Library at the Diwali Festival

Read about the great adventures at the October 17, 2015 Cupertino Diwali Festival.

Great Poetry by Students in Baltimore

Black Words Matter.

Writers in Baltimore Schools is a non-profit organization that -- if these poems are any indication-- is doing important and powerfully beautiful work. (Photo from their Facebook page.)

Here's the first stanza of one of the poems published in the article.

I feel most colored when
by Jaida Griffin (grade 11)

I feel most colored when the pen bursts. When spurts of pigment mark my palms I see that brown and blue is not a combination so common as black and blue.

Media Poetry Studio Screening August 1st

My two good friends, Erica Goss and David Perez, are running Media Poetry Studio, a summer day camp teaching video poetry to young women. This program is fiscally sponsored by California Poets in the Schools. 

Each student is producing a short film inspired by her creative writing. As such, we are holding a screening to showcase their work! 

We are so proud of our students' work thus far. Every day they come with fresh insights and a willingness to experiment with new technologies and filmmaking tools. 

Join us to help celebrate their work in this exciting genre. 

Milpitas Library (in the Auditorium)
Saturday, August 1st. 1 - 2 pm
mediapoetrystudio.com

Photos from Silicon Valley STEAM Festival

The Silicon Valley STEAM Festival was amazing. It was loud and proud and fun and jammed with people, planes, cars, food, music, robots, and bubbles. Not a place you'd expect to find poems, but there we were!  Here are some photos of the scene, the kids and their families, and the poems we wrote. I worked with Erica Goss, newly minted CPITS poet/teacher and current Los Gatos Poet Laureate.

Click through here to read the San Jose Mercury News article about the event. Lots and lots of photos of cars and planes.

Here's Erica in the booth. We made our own CPITS sign, and had three tables inviting people in. We had chalk on the tarmac, but it didn't turn into kids writing on the ground. Please notice our Proceed With Kindness sign!  The inside of the booth was also decorated with bright colored paper chains and the chalkboard sign. (Erica wrote the great prompt on the chalkboard!!)
We hung sample plane poems from the paper chain. 

The booth had three tables: on this one I had anthologies, student poem bookmarks (it was really windy so we kept them in bundles, which meant that they didn't get taken unless we offered them) and business cards, CPITS flyers. There would have been Kleenex (see not about wind) and we had hand sanitizer, which a LOT of people liked. 

The longest table had white paper taped down, with poem prompts written in bright colors. We had planes and luggage tags for poems, different colored pens and pencils. This section was shady and had chairs.
This was the POEM MAKING STATION.

The third table had the magnet poetry. This usually draws a lot of people, but I think most of the crowd were too overstimulated to play. Later in the day more did. 

Here are some of the kids and the poems they wrote. We had a lot of fun. 

At the end of the day, this is what three exhausted, wind-blown poets look like!

Erica Goss (CPITS poet/teacher), Amanda Williamson (Cupertino poet and CPITS friend), and me, Jennifer Swanton Brown (Santa Clara County Area Coordinator and poet/teacher)

"Write A Poem and Make it Fly Away!"" 

Here are some close ups some of the way the different poems could hang or be attached to strings or sticks. Holes at the top made the poems hang well from a string or bar. Holes at the nose of the plane made good "kites" and also could be tied to wrists. Sticks at the bottom made poem-plane puppets. One smart kid thought of tying the luggage tag behind the plane -- so I wrote an example of that to show (she took hers away before I could get a photo!)

This is friend's math limerick poem. It shows the custom stamp we made, too. "This is my poem" with the date and the CPITS website. This got stamped on every poem that walked out of the booth. 

This is Erica's poem. 

Planes are loud!  Planes are loud!  Poems are quiet. Poems are loud, too.

This is my daughter's STEAM haiku. 

This poem reads "There was a sad war and a sad song"
Kids are amazing. 

Silicon Valley STEAM Festival

CPitS and Cupertino Poet Laureate will host a poetry creation station in San Jose this Saturday, July 11 at the Silicon Valley STEAM Festival. Free and open to the public. Plenty of creative car and aircraft displays, and of course, creative poetry play. All ages welcome!

Come join us for poetry to read and write, poetry about airplanes, a chance to glimpse  "old-timey" writing technology -- chalk boards! typewriters! -- as well as to chat with real poets and make your own poems!!  

Welcome to Silicon Valley S.T.E.A.M. Festival

CARS CARS CARS!  Hundreds of vintage/classic/hotrods/exotic cars - sponsored by Hot San Jose Nights and The Car Guy Channel!

AIRPLANES!  WARBIRDS!  HELICOPTERS!

Up to 100 Exhibitors with awesomely fun Hands On Stuff to Do
Live Music!
Gourmet Food!

FREE ADMISSION, FREE PARKING!
Much MUCH more!

• San Jose Reid Hillview Airport
• 2500 Cunningham Ave, San Jose,CA (near Eastridge Mall, across from Lake Cunningham Park).
• About 200+ exhibitors are expected to join us
• TONS OF FUN at the biggest, most fun hands-on science, arts, do-it-yourself, FREE festival in Northern California.

Annual Report Photos

It's the time of year when CPitS poet teachers and area coordinators write up their annual reports for the office. The past school year in Santa Clara County was slow, but we are making strides by training new poet teachers and reaching out to new schools. As Area Coordinator for the county, I've been busy with my Cupertino Poet Laureate jobs. That will end this fall, and then I'll have more time to focus on developing CPitS more in this great and large county.

Of note this year, we taught in a new school for the first time: Santa Rita Elementary School in Los Altos. Here are some of the photos of our fun times!  Many thanks to Robin McLaren for getting a grant for her students through the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

Two new poet teachers completed their training this year in the county, Erica Goss and Molly Spencer. We'll be raising money and getting into classrooms the best we can coming up in the 2015-2016 School Year. Watch this space!!

Santa Clara County Parks for Life Challenge -- Read Poetry in the Parks!

Parks for Life Challenge is a social media game sponsored by the Santa Clara County Parks.

Erica Goss and I (both CPitS teachers) are playing as team "Poets in the Parks" -- check out our adventures at these recent parks!

• Tree hugging at Vasona Lake Park 
• Frolicking and bird watching at Vasona Lake Park

You can join a team and play along, or just go sit in a park and read poetry. What a great way to spend some time with your family and friends this summer.

Check out this page on the Cupertino Poet Laureate website for suggested poems!

CPitS Symposium Registration Open Now!

Join us!  Great for classroom teachers as well as poets of all shapes and sizes!

Casa de Maria Retreat Center, Santa Barbara, September 11-13, 2015

Friday writing intensive led by Marsha Delao. Friday night poetry performance by Marsha Delao and Amanda Gorman; Saturday Morning Keynote by Nels Christianson; Workshops on poetic craft, teaching strategies, open mic, surprise appearances, and more!   

To sign up: info@cpits.org or follow CPITS on Facebook to get the latest program details. 

• Download: Class & Presenter Descriptions
• Download: Registration Form (PDF) or Word Version Registration Form

May 2015 CPITS Newsletter

Is here!

Read about awesome doings in Marin, Mendocino, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Save the date for the September 11-13, 2015 CPITS symposium!