SBL Alumni Profile: Tziri Lamm, Part 5
PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE| PART SIX
In part five of this six-part series, Tziri Lamm, an alumna of the M.A. Program in School Building Leadership Program at Brooklyn College, discusses the role of poetry in her English curriculum. The application deadline for the M.A. in SBL is March 31, 2019.
(5/6) “A Voice Through Poetry”
“I have a wonderful friend, Sari Mayer, another teacher whom I’ve known since we were children. I began to add a lot more poetry to my English curriculum, and Sari inspired me to teach reading and writing poetry at a higher level. One day we said to each other, ‘What if we did a poetry slam? Wouldn’t that be awesome?’ I had heard of schools organizing poetry slams for their students, and I wanted to bring the idea to Bais Yaakov institutions. For three years we had inter-school slams with many participants. Many of our students found them life-changing. I have former students who still talk about the poetry slam as ‘the best thing we ever did.’ We encouraged our students to write their own poetry, get up in front of a crowd, and present it.
The beautiful thing about poetry slams is that they combine self-expression and performance. For these students, there was a stage where they could stand up and share personal poems that touched upon real feelings. This gave them an amazing platform to be able to find their voices.
We wondered what would happen if we started a poetry journal for all Jewish students. So we did! It’s called the Bedford Ledger (thebedfordledger.com). We compiled a list of as many Jewish schools as we could find in the US and we sent out letters explaining who we were. We told them that we had created this journal ‘to provide a voice to Jewish students’ and that poetry ‘had the unique ability to unite us under the common things that draw us together.’ We’ve gotten submissions from more than twenty schools, with hundreds of students. We are up to our fourth issue and we are looking for creative Jewish students, boys and girls in grades 7-12, to send in submissions by April 30, 2018.
There is nothing more meaningful than creating an environment that empowers students. I also understand that a decade in the classroom is barely a drop in the bucket of what there is to learn about teaching. I have only just begun my teaching journey.”
This profile is brought to The Jewish Education Project in partnership with The Layers Project Magazine. Read part six.
