Author Archives: Annie Campbell

I’m impressed.  They’ve worked like champs.  They sing like angels.  Their jokes make me laugh and their poetry makes me cry.   And the children of Room 204 work together.  Beautifully.  I love this class. They raised well over a thousand … Continue reading →

This weekend I emptied my pockets and found a poem.    It was by Edna St. Vincent Millay (one of my favorites) and was called Afternoon on a Hill.   The first line is “I will be the gladdest thing under the … Continue reading →

Driving down the downtown expressway this week, cars passed, rain splashed, and I mindlessly listened to All Things Considered on the radio.  That’s when I caught them together: bright sunshine and dark rain clouds.  That can happen on an April … Continue reading →

I would like to give a special shout-out to the Academy of American poets for choosing April as National Poetry Month. April in Virginia is stunning and it makes sense that it should commemorate something beautiful and life giving and … Continue reading →

What is your poetry story?  You have one.  You know… the moment when you decided you loved poetry.  Or hated it.  Someone gave it to you.  Or took it away.   Someone forced you to memorize a poem and you felt … Continue reading →

Dear Jen, In January, just when I thought Room 204 couldn’t possibly get any better, you walked in the door as our new student teacher. I remember telling the children that student teaching is a threshold and that it was … Continue reading →

When I look at the stars on the American flag, I see children. I see children I know and children I don’t.  I see children who have lived here for generations and  I see children who have just arrived… whose … Continue reading →

I reach to name that which bubbles in ready laughter and stands still in tears that don’t fall, but I can’t. There is a story being lived out everyday in our third grade that can’t be pinned down in words. … Continue reading →

Toward the end of his life, my father came to Richmond for a visit.  We knew there would be no more treatments.  We knew there wouldn’t be much more time.  But on that day he felt good and the weather … Continue reading →