Amherst Teachers and Students Participate in Exciting Creative Schools Program Initiative

Thanks to The Creative Schools grant funding program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, elementary and high school teachers in the Amherst schools are participating in a program entitled: Emily Dickinson: Poetry, Poet, and Place. This year the professional development program includes:

• Professional development seminars on “Emily Dickinson: Poetry, Language, and Meaning” for all teachers and on “the student as poet” held at the Emily Dickinson Museum;
• Nature walks conducted by Hitchcock Center for the Environment staff at Wildwood, Fort River, Marks Meadow, and Pelham Elementary Schools for students in the second grade;
• Special tours of the Emily Dickinson Museum for high school classes and second grade classes;
• On-going study group collaboration of the classroom teachers as they design, write, and implement the curricula;
• Amherst second-graders and high school students will participate in “A Poetry Picnic” on June 13th from noon to 2 PM where they will read Dickinson poems as well as their own.

The Amherst, Pelham, and Amherst Regional Schools are grateful to the Massachusetts Cultural Council and to their local partners, The Emily Dickinson Museum and the Hitchcock Center, for these exciting opportunities for both teachers and students to learn about our eminent local poet, or local environment, and the connections between understanding place and the expression of self through poetry.