CavanKerry Press believes that committed teachers are the key to New Jersey’s successful Poetry Out Loud program. Yes, the students are the ones up on the stage but the teachers are the ones who get POL started, and keep it going, in their schools. Therefore, every year we give a scholarship to the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching to the teacher of the NJPOL state champion. I’m pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2015 scholarship is Jennifer Kuszmerski, who teaches at Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield. How lucky her students are to have a teacher whose enthusiasm for poetry comes through so strongly when she lists her favorite poets and poems.
TERESA CARSON
How did you get involved with Poetry Out Loud?
JENNIFER KUSZMERKSI
I am a Teacher of English at Jonathan Dayton High School and the advisor of the school’s literary magazine, Jargon. I guess for this reason I was receiving emails announcing Poetry Out Loud and encouraging our school to participate. In truth, I ignored these emails for the first year or two that I received them, not knowing what Poetry Out Loud was. But, during the 2013-14 school year, something made me pay closer attention. That was the first year we registered and participated.
TC
How many Jonathan Dayton High School students participated in POL? Tell me a bit about the students who participated.
JK
The first year we participated we had 12 students compete at the school level. They ranged from freshmen to seniors. Most of them were active members of the literary magazine club and very passionate about writing and poetry. Most of them were poets themselves. This year, we actually only had four students compete at the school level, even though we promoted the competition in an even bigger way. My hope is that Beatrice’s success will inspire and encourage more of our students to participate next year.
TC
What value is added to your students’ experience of poetry by participating in POL?
JK
Poetry Out Loud has brought excitement to our students’ experience of poetry for sure.
TC
What value is added to your experience of teaching poetry?
JK
I have been requiring my literature students to select, memorize, recite, and present on a “favorite” poem for years, so, if anything, the Poetry Out Loud competition just validates what I already felt was a valuable endeavor.
TC
How did you help Beatrice prepare for the competition at the school/regional/state level?
JK
One thing Beatrice and I did early on was watch the video of her performance at the school-level competition and discuss what improvements she could make before competing at regionals. We talked about adding more emotion to her delivery and different ways that she could use her body to enhance her performance (without overdoing it). However, to her credit, Bea has been incredibly self-motivated from the very beginning and did a lot on her own to prepare. For example, she recorded herself reciting the poems and would listen back to the audio in her free time, not just to help herself memorize the poems but as a way to improve her delivery.
TC
What were the highlights of your POL experience at the regional competition and at the state finals?
JK
I’m sorry to be trite, but the entire experience has been a highlight! I knew from the very beginning that we had a strong competitor in Beatrice, but she has surpassed our expectations. I was happy enough when she made it into the second round at regionals. Imagine how we felt when she won the state finals!
TC
What advice or thoughts would you offer teachers who want to get their students involved in POL?
JK
I imagine that one of the more challenging aspects of organizing a school-level competition might be getting colleagues to help spread the word and to help judge the contestants. I have been incredibly lucky in this respect. Both last year and this year I had a group of colleagues who were happy to give of their time and judge the competitions. Our school principal, Elizabeth Cresci, has also been incredibly supportive.
Teachers who want to get their students involved should absolutely do so. Start small if you have to. All you need is two interested students to get involved! The overall experience of Poetry Out Loud, as well as the incredibly generous cash prizes, is too valuable to pass up. We owe it to our students to offer them the opportunity to participate.
TC
Based on Beatrice’s success at the state finals, you were awarded the scholarship to the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching. How do you feel about winning this scholarship?
JK
I feel very excited! I am very grateful to CavanKerry Press and your family for providing me this opportunity. I’m also grateful to Bea – without her hard work and dedication to this process, this opportunity wouldn’t be possible for me.
TC
How long have you been a teacher? What subjects do you teach? Do you have a favorite poet? A favorite poem?
JK
This is my seventh year as an English teacher. Before this, I was the Publicity Director for a small publishing company called Barricade Books, located in Fort Lee, NJ. Currently, I teach AP Literature and Composition at Jonathan Dayton, as well as a freshman course called Writing and Research. I enjoy Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, of course, and I also love the poems of Anna Akhmatova, Marge Piercy, Billy Collins, and Sharon Olds. As you can see, I’m a little bit all over the place! One of my favorite poems is “The Sentence” by Anna Akhmatova. It’s a haunting poem that I teach alongside 1984 by George Orwell. There’s also a very contemporary poem by Craig Morgan Teicher I love called “Another Poem on My Daughter’s Birthday.” The last line is “I must learn to have been so lucky,” which sums up how I am feeling lately in both my personal and professional lives. On a lighter note, I enjoy Billy Collins’s humor – I share his poem “To My Favorite Seventeen-Year-Old High School Girl” with my students when they need a laugh.
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