When Logan Fisher, the Instructional Coach at Glens Falls School District, was looking for a way to continue to encourage students to write during this time of virtual learning, she immediately thought to partner with another group that has been struggling during this time - local restaurants. In support of both parties, Poems To Go was created - a way to celebrate the writing of their students while also encouraging folks to support Glens Falls restaurants.
“We’re always looking for interesting ways to get kids to have a reason to write, and have an audience to write for, so I just thought that this would be a really great way to build some community spirit”, said Logan. “We thought it might serve two purposes - the biggest purpose for me was that I wanted the students to have an audience to write for, and then of course, to support our local restaurants during this difficult time.”
Carrie Krogmann and Logan Fisher
Carrie Krogmann, her partner in this endeavor, is a first grade teacher at Kensington Road School and also just so happens to be part of a family of restaurant owners. Carrie helped to contact other local restaurants and coordinate the effort, and ended up with eight participating restaurants where folks can order food to go and receive the anthology of poems free with their purchase. The poems will also be available at Hannaford on Broad Street, as it was important for them to be sure that families who are food insecure had a place where they could get the poems without the necessity of paying for take out.
M&M Digital Printing stepped up in support of this project to print the anthologies for free. The response from students submitting poetry was amazing - much more than expected - and George Normandin of Normandin Marketing stepped up to cover the additional printing costs incurred.
Matt Flint and Matt Flint Jr. of M & M Digital Printing along with Carrie Krogmann and Logan Fisher
Many primary students formed groups based on what style of poetry they chose (thesaurus, list, etc.), and groups met virtually with teachers to work through the process together - creating the poems, giving feedback, and working toward the final result. Older students wrote independently.
“At GFSD, we’ve been telling the kids that writing can serve two purposes during this pandemic; to escape and to make sense of,” said Logan.
For example, Ila Fisher, a 4th grader at Kensington Road School, wrote the following list poem to make sense of the pandemic:
This one (a thesaurus poem) is by Lucy Coker, a 4th grader at Kensington Road School:
And finally, a poem written by Natalie Zachar, 6th grade at GFMS:
Poems To Go will take place this Wednesday, June 3. Participating restaurants include: The Bullpen Tavern, Fenimore’s Pub, Talk of the Town, The Grateful Den, Poopie’s, Mean Max, Sam’s Diner, and Downtown City Tavern. To take part, simply order takeout from one of these restaurants as you normally would, pick up your food and your packet of poems, and share photos on social media using the hashtag #poemstogogfsd.
