{"id":32963,"date":"2025-04-30T01:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T01:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookcreator.com\/?p=32963"},"modified":"2025-05-06T15:09:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:09:26","slug":"empowering-young-poets-with-book-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookcreator.com\/2025\/04\/empowering-young-poets-with-book-creator\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Young Poets with Book Creator"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students at Horizons-on-the-Hudson (HOH) Elementary in Newburgh, NY, are \"leveling up\" their curiosity, creativity, skills and civic-mindedness by embracing Book Creator in their library.<\/div>

T<\/span>he Horizons-on-the-Hudson (HOH) library (a Newburgh Enlarged City School District school) is bursting at its seams with students of all identities, curiosities, and personalities, and one major reason is a transformation destination, Book Creator!<\/p>\n

Many students, for the first time, are developing and honing their poetry-writing skills and showcasing their original work in classrooms, on bulletin boards, willingly participating in State-level and international poetry calls and contests, and even initiating their own contest. Through it all they are making discoveries about their storied community.<\/p>\n

Notably, for most, if not all, the ultimate goal is actually to \"level-up\" to Book Creator.<\/p>\n

For my students, Book Creator is many things. It is a safe, kid-friendly space where they can experiment with popular, new and emerging technology like gifs<\/a>, removing backgrounds<\/a>, use of a pen tool<\/a> to illustrate and AI<\/a>. It is a space where after the best version of a written piece is vetted by me (the teacher), or their peers, it gets the green light to be transformed from \"still life\" to virtual and interactive and it is that final step in their poetry-writing journey. It is also an opportunity to inform peers in our local audience and engage a global audience as content creators!<\/p>\n

For me, Book Creator is many things. Besides circulating materials, librarians can accumulate tons of physical \u201cstuff\u201d (resources) over time and, therefore, need efficient methods of \u201cspring cleaning\u201d. Motivating my students to aspire to higher standards or \u201clevel up\u201d with exemplars from their peers has been quite effective. Many of my students are thrilled and honored to see that they have become a resource when they recognize their work (sometimes from earlier years) on display, but that requires an awful amount of curation to preserve, store, display, and rotate samples. I have begun to \u201clevel up\u201d myself to Book Creator by creating Student Exemplar eBooks.<\/p>\n

Book Creator can be many things to you whether you are a fellow librarian, educator and lifelong learner. Here are 10 ways that you can replicate the successes I have had, in your own library, classroom or educational environment.<\/p>\n\n

1. Spark curiosity and pride in community:<\/h2>\n

Our local library, the Newburgh Free Library (part of the school district and the Ramapo Catskill Library System) is an extraordinary place, engaging patrons of every identity and interest in three localities with innovative programming. They issued a call for poetry submission for their program, Where We Live Poetry Walk<\/em>, as part of the 2024-25 Big Read grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.<\/p>\n

Over 200 students are creating poetry that explores the places and things that illuminate Newburgh\u2018s historic significance to our country, as well as its picturesque, dynamic and resilient past, present and promising future.<\/p>\n

What started as a call has resulted in genuine curiosity and pride and use of many authentic primary and secondary sources. Best of all, having my 4th grader Yadiel BR ask for additional help finding more facts about The Hudson River for his poem, reinforced for me, that Book Creator has continued to help HOH as a whole, plant the seed of lifelong learning and facilitates for our students, self-reflection about their place and role as valued members of the Newburgh community.<\/p><\/div>

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2. Make Book Creator one of your key milestones to achieve.<\/h2>\n

Fernanda recognized that by carefully crafting her message to the world, she could take the next step to share it far and wide, motivating her to \u201clevel up\u201d to Book Creator. What was a lovely paper collage, was transformed into a book with animated GIFs bringing the poem to life:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fernanda's Handwritten Our Savannah Poem (2023-24)<\/p><\/div><\/div>