Yesterday we endured one massive thunderstorm after another, all afternoon into evening . . . and meanwhile a blizzard was smothering Virginia. So bizarre. This morning our basement is full of water, but the electricity still hasn't faltered. When I stand outside on the stoop, I can hear the streams roaring over the rocks. It sounds like an April snow melt out there, not Halloween morning.

I'm gratified by the comments and emails I'm getting in response to the teaching diary I've been posting here. One thing has become clear, both in the course of my own teaching and in the remarks I'm hearing: poetry is an incredibly cogent and efficient way to teach the fundamentals of grammar. Yesterday in class we were all about conjunctions and sentence length; in previous lessons we dealt with commas and prepositions, nouns and their modifiers, gerunds as sound and sense, etc., etc. We've accomplished this in the space of four hours spread over four weeks. Moreover, the kids get it: they really are starting to grasp the idea that parts of speech can drive their own creative thinking.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the teachers in this school for letting me show up each week and figure this stuff out with their students. I teach many single-session workshops, but I almost never get the chance to build a cohesive program. These teachers are giving me that opportunity, and I am learning as fast as I can.