Poetry Research Unit Assist

Matt McCloud wanted to do a Poetry Research Unit and needed the Library Computer Space as he was "going to use book resources" as well as the computer. The computer lab in the Library was booked. I contacted the teachers who had booked the space when he needed it and found other space for them and explained that Matt needed the books as well as the computers and since they just wanted the computers, they easily were agreeable to changing with him.
Matt asked me to pull the poetry books and I did. He was chagrin. At this point, he showed me his assignment sheet which had a variety of excellent poets about whom we didn't have materials. I asked him when he was starting the unit; it was the next day.
Given:

Matt is such a great young teacher;
he was actually using books;
a high school library can never have enough good poetry books;
our collection is in desperate need of refurbishing;
funds have been made available for refurbishing;

I decided to go out that night to:
Sixth Chamber Used Books
Barnes and Noble

and bought ones to cover his/our needs.

They were entered quickly and used immediately.

Matt used the district data bases for his students to find biographical information about their poets.

When he had a student that was stumped, I found some suitable information for them along with the citation from which the information was taken.

In one case, the student chose a District person as her poet but couldn't find any biographical infromation for her. I contacted her and she was good enough to electronically send such information. I asked if she might be willing to be interviewed by this student for extra credit and Matt and I are considering it for the new year along with the poet.

It's fun to have a teacher who uses books, poets. and librarians!