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. Ten-day Edmonton K-6 residency delivering 96 sessions across 16 classes, including the Connections and C.A.R.E. programs.
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.