Residencies
Extended engagement, lasting student voice.
Residencies go beyond a single workshop. They give students time to build trust, write deeply, revise, rehearse, and share work with confidence.
Residency Arc
What a residency makes possible.
Foundation
Students learn poetic tools, identity frames, performance confidence, and shared language.
Practice
Drafting, feedback, revision, rehearsal, and classroom-specific support across multiple visits.
Celebration
Residencies can culminate in a poetry cafe, assembly, showcase, chapbook, or community sharing.
School Fit
Built for more than a single assembly.
The residency model adapts to literacy goals, belonging initiatives, arts programming, leadership development, and community-building work.
- Repeated classroom contact instead of one-off inspiration
- Grade-aware lesson structure and revision time
- Teacher-visible process and student artifacts
- Optional culminating Poetry Cafe or showcase
Documented Residencies
Three school residency records ready for public pages.
Dr. Donald Massey School
April 11-29, 2022. Three-week Edmonton residency with whole-school assembly, junior high classroom workshops, elementary sessions, and showcase planning.
Belvedere Elementary
April 1-14, 2025. Identity-focused K-6 residency reaching 297 students through 70 sessions, 47.3 program hours, and 1,168.8 student-hours.
Aldergrove Elementary
February 9-24, 2026. Planned British Columbia K-6 residency with 96 sessions, 62.5 program hours, and focused Grade 4-6 programming.
Curriculum Alignment
Poetry work built for classrooms.
Identity writing
Students explore self, family, cultural background, and school community through original poems.
Grade-aware outcomes
Lesson structure maps to Alberta English Language Arts outcomes from rhyme and recitation to figurative language, structure, revision, and performance.
Public sharing
The residency can culminate in a school-wide assembly, Poetry Cafe, chapbook, or community showcase.
Planning
Residencies need room to breathe.
Send the school calendar, grade range, number of classes, goals, preferred dates, and whether a public sharing event is desired.