“One night I went to see this year’s YouthSpeaks Poetry Slam Preliminary performances.  I’ve been going to these Slams since last April, because the kids and their poems are always so moving.  At this particular event, I noticed a young woman there giving her time as the emcee of the event.  She was beautiful, brilliant, strong, funny, charming, early 20′s, and held the entire evening together, making the kids and the audience alike feel included in every part of the 3-1/2 hour evening.  As I listened to her I found out that she had helped start the Seattle chapter of YouthSpeaks, was herself a poet who performed when she was in the same age group, and was a supporter of all the upcoming youth poets as they find their way and their voice.  All in all, she was amazing.

I saw her again at another Poetry Slam months later, and this time she was filming the performance.  I was going to find my seat and didn’t want to walk in front of the video camera, so I walked behind, and there she was.  She reached out her hand and stopped me, and said, “Excuse me, but did you ever teach poetry classes at John Muir Elementary School?”

I told her that yes, I have, and that I was teaching there now.

“No, I mean a long time ago,” she said.

I answered, “Yes, I’ve been lucky enough to write with kids there on and off for probably about 10 or 12 years.”

That’s when she smiled said, “You came to my class when I was there and wrote poems with us, and you’re the reason I became a poet.”

Well, I actually had to gulp a few times to keep from crying.  It had been a challenging day and week, and suddenly everything in the universe was okay, and even beautiful.

We smiled and talked for a few minutes, I found out that it was about 11 years ago, when she was in 5th grade at John Muir Elementary that I did a Powerful Schools Poetry Residency in her class. She told me she still had a poem she wrote in one of the classes and had recently shared it at an event as one of her first poems.  When she described it I recognized it as one of the prompts I gave during the “Who Am I” Repetition lesson, after an exercise in similes and imagery.

I needed to take my seat for the show, but when it was over I went to her again.  The woman’s name was Rose McAleese. Rose had become a prominent figure in the local spoken word platform and was even part of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. I told her that I would be working a poetry residency at John Muir Elementary for another couple of weeks, and asked her if she would consider coming to the school and reading her piece to the class.

Rose did come in with me to a class a couple of weeks later.  She didn’t bring the poem she wrote when she was younger, but she spoke with the kids and gave them writing ideas as well.

As Rose and I were walking up the stairs to present to the 5th graders, she pointed out her second grade classroom.  At that moment I remembered her.

I said, “Wait a minute – you sat on the left side of the room facing inward, had bobbed brown hair, sweet little round framed glasses, and you wrote a poem about your feelings being in a locked box at the bottom of the ocean, right?”

She nodded and said, “Yes!”

I realized I had first met her in that classroom when she was eight years old, not 11.  She made an impact on me then just as she had now.

I wanted to share this story because without Powerful Schools, our talented teachers at John Muir­ and all the others who support and make possible the work we all do­ I would never have gotten to meet this young woman.  The words are small but my heart is full with them. I feel so grateful that poetry can be this thread that connects us through our truths through so many years.”

With generous support from grants and donations, Powerful Schools works to increase student reading levels by providing a reading incentive program that gives schools the opportunity to earn books for their school library, and incentives for students (such as field trips to the Zoo, pizza parties, etc.) based on the number of books successfully read and comprehended by students. The program has been very successful at increasing student reading & achievement at elementary schools in S. Seattle. Each school in the reading incentive program provides written reports about the program, including how the funds earned will be used. Van Asselt Elementary is a part of the reading incentive program and their students have been stellar, reading over 20,000 books over the past three years! We will work with the school district and others as needed to ensure the funds earned by the Van Asselt students were indeed used to benefit the school and the students. The reporting we received from the school and the documents/observations/reviews of our staff at this point do not indicate any of the reading incentive program dollars were misused.”

Tre’ Maxie, Executive Director & Anh Nguyen, Chair

As a young, Somali girl, Hana struggled to learn English. Now a student of the University of Washington – Bothell, she credits much of her success as a student to the Powerful Schools Reading Intervention program she participated in during elementary school. Hana, the oldest of six, now attends college, works and helps with her younger siblings. Her youngest brothers are now in the Reading Intervention program at Hawthorne.

“In elementary school it was difficult being a bilingual student, who is learning English for the first time and not able to get help from home, because my parents couldn’t speak English. Powerful Schools helped me become the person I am. Today, when I am in my college classes, I don’t feel disadvantaged. I can read, speak and write at the same level as my peers,” stated Hana.

We were fortunate to share Hana’s story via video at our 2012 “Inspiring Minds & Creating Opportunities” Annual Breakfast in March!  Check it out for yourself below:

Students from Graham Hill and Hawthorne Elementary participated in an after-school “UGottaGetABike” class, which provided each student with a free newly refurbished bike, helmet and lessons in bicycle safety, including a “how-to” on adjusting bike seats and helmets, practicing proper hand signals and fixing flat tires.

“Helping kids get bikes is pretty much the coolest thing I do,” stated Bike Works’ Program Coordinator Leland Gipson. “Just to see little kids blown away that we’re going to give them a bicycle is great.”

The goal of Bike Works’ “UGottaGetABike” program is to get low-income youth onto bicycles. Programs like these work to enrich students’ lives with positive, empowering activities.

Powerful Schools’ Extended Learning Director Debbie McGibbon states:   “Powerful Schools’ after-school classes help students discover new strengths and passions and assist them to engage in learning through a variety of ways. Partnering with Bike Works allowed these students the opportunity to learn bike safety and engage in an activity they might not have done otherwise.”

Powerful Schools is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the academic achievement gap by creating strong partnerships with public schools to help children thrive. Through academic intervention, in and out-of-class learning, family learning and school readiness programs Powerful Schools is ensuring that all children succeed both in and out of school.