#sealeychallenge 31/31: I felt this collection was a good choice for the first day of school for students. All the poems were excellent, but I was amazed by what middle school-aged students contributed. I have a few sets of metaphor dice and so many ideas to share with teachers!!!

#sealeychallenge 30/31: Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd aja monet’s call to action in the foreword is how I’d frame my response to these poems. They challenged and awakened me and helped me find words for what I know to be true.

#sealeychallenge 29/31: Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black by Alrene Keizer I made this immersive by looking up the paintings and texts referenced in each poem. I’m currently reading James Baldwin and listening to Marian Anderson. This may end up being my favorite collection of 2026.

#sealeychallenge 28/31: Exploding Chippewas by Mark Turcotte I bought this at a used bookstore and didn’t notice that it’s autographed! These poems were captivating. As soon as I finished, I wanted to read the collection again.

#sealeychallenge 27/31: Notes on the Assemblage by Juan Felipe Herrera Another five-star collection!

#sealeychallenge 26/31: The January Children by Safia Elhillo I’ve learned so much from Elhillo's work. From the dedication: “The January Children are the generation born in Sudan under British occupation, where children were assigned birth years by height, all given the birth date January 1.”

#sealeychallenge 25/31: Golden Axe by Rio Cortez I needed an audiobook today because I knew I wouldn’t have time to sit and read a physical book. This was excellent!

#sealeychallenge Day 24/31: Magic City by Yusef Komunyakaa This was probably not the best choice for the opening day of the school year because I could have spent at least a half hour with each of these poems. It is an amazing collection.

#sealeychallenge Day 23/31: When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz Diaz’s words drew me into the world of these poems, and I could not put this collection down. The poems detailing the family’s response to the brother’s addiction were heartbreaking.

#sealeychallenge Day 22/31: Hide: Poems by Carolina Ebeid This was fascinating. I loved how Ebeid played on multiple meanings of words and incorporated multimodal elements.

#sealeychallenge Day 21/31: Strange Beach by Oluwaseun Olayiwola Brilliant!

#sealeychallenge Day 20/31: A Village Life by Louise Glück I loved this!

#sealeychallenge 19/31: Party Line by Kyle Carrero Lopez This was excellent. I wish I had more time to write about these poems, but the school year has started, and I barely have time to read

#sealeychallenge 18/31 When I choose a collection based on an intriguing title, I know there’s a risk that I may not love it, especially if it’s written by a poet I’m not familiar with. This collection, however, was excellent. I loved how it made me stop and think.

Hugely important aspect of tackling this issue. I see it as the key pillar, along with also showing students that human expression is uniquely meaningful and that the EXPERIENCE of writing is meaningful in and of itself. Students have more to offer than any LLM.

Jane Rosenzweig@janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The single most important thing I have done in my writing classes since 2023 is teach students how LLMs work--and to create curriculum for this that was adopted across first-year writing at Harvard. Right now we cannot assume students understand this-and it matters. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...

Very good development that this thinking is breaking through to the mainstream, as illustrated by @danagoldstein.bsky.social's article in today's Times. Many of us writing teachers have been issuing these warnings for years and now we're having a better conversation. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...

What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?

Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.

nytimes.com

#sealeychallenge Day 17/31: Duende by Tracy K. Smith It was my first day back at work (for new hire training), so I wanted to pick something I knew would be good to read after a long morning. Tracy K. Smith is always amazing.

#ealeychallenge 16/31: I wish I could rate this higher than five stars. I’m often in awe of how poets pack so many layers of meaning in poems that take up minimal space on the page. Clark is a master of this, and I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood is only her first book of poetry.

#sealeychallenge 15/31: Side Notes from the Archivist by Anastacia-Reneé This is one of my favorites (so far)!

#sealeychallenge Day 14/31: Mermaid Theory by Maya Salameh This was excellent! I enjoyed being able to spend time with this before having to pack up and head home. I'd say more, but I just spent five hours in a car and am trying to unpack.

#sealeychallenge 13/31 I’ll just let Gibson’s words speak for themselves. From “Anything” “Storms are born/from the same sky we write hymns to when the sun shines./Sometimes it takes tempests to wake rainbows/that will wind our pain into halos.”

#sealeychallenge 12/31 This collection is brilliantly written and addresses the experiences of refugees, immigrants, and women. I had to stop and read many of the poems multiple times because of the power of Shire’s words. I need to read more of Shire’s poetry.

#sealeychallenge 11/31 I’m very familiar with the poem “Diving into the Wreck” because it’s important to the main character in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, a novel I loved to teach, but I hadn’t read this collection. A lot of it resonated, and I found it very moving.

#sealeychallenge 10/31: You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World edited by Ada Limón This was so beautiful.

#sealeychallenge Day 9/31: The Natural Order of Things by Donika Kelly This will be my reading spot for the rest of the week (weather permitting). It was the perfect place to read and reflect on Kelly’s poems about family, love, and connection.

#sealeychallenge 8/31: In Mad Love and War by Joy Harjo We leave for vacation today, so I wanted to read something I knew I’d enjoy. Harjo’s writing is always musical and thought-provoking, and I love spending time with her words. This collection was excellent.

#sealeychallenge Day 7/31 What struck me most about these poems was how vividly Soliman is able to capture the tension that arises as humanity interacts with the natural world. They are also meditations on what home means to various people who inhabit the land.

#sealeychallenge 6/31 I would love to use these poems as mentor texts and have students choose their own lines as starting points. I’m sure today’s teenagers would come up with clever poetry of their own while developing a deeper appreciation for poetry and Shakespeare’s language.

#sealeychallenge Day 5/31: Poems of Akhmatova I have always been drawn to Russian history and literature, and I loved that the introduction and notes on the poems provided context for Akhmatova’s writing. She captured so much of the fear, anger, and uncertainty of her time in her poetry.

#sealeychallenge Day 4/31 Young captures the tension between losing his father and becoming a father in such a raw and powerful way. This is a reminder of how fleeting life can be and that no matter how much pain we experience, there are still reasons to hold on and find hope for the future.