The World Within Our Minds

Waukegan, Illinois is located northeast of Chicago on a beautiful harbor. It has fine restaurants, a good theater and a busy school district. We have students from many different cultures with as many different languages and points of view. As teachers in a multi-cultural school, we must teach to all these differences, even when the students are reluctant to learn, if only to make a difference in their lives. We know our students will eventually help makes changes within our community to make it an even better place to live. Students coming through our doors tend to work at their own speed. With each passing day, our students are consistently learning something new, whether they realize it or not. School work comes easy for some and for others it more of a challenge. It is up to us, as teachers, to find the tool that works well for each individual no matter what the discipline. By the time they graduate, many students will have found the hidden secret to their own success. However, some of our students need more assistance in finding their path to success. I try to help those students. My students have a harder time in learning how to write well. And, for me, it was a great challenge to find the right techniques to teach them how to write. Sometimes it took a lot of repetition to get them to understand the technique being taught. I had tried creative writing, expository writing, and persuasive writing. None of those techniques worked. Until one day, I tried poetry. It was as if they saw a neon sign flashing in their minds, "POETRY." Poetry can be short, which allowed my students to be as creative as they wanted to be. At last, my students started writing. They wrote from their hearts, their minds, and their souls. They wrote from within themselves. I was extremely proud of what they had achieved. I couldn't let it just sit in a pile of papers going to waste. I finally decided to put their collection of works into a book. Poetry built up their confidence so much that they started doing better with their writing skills in general. Even their short stories became easier to write, and as you will see, some of those stories have been incorporated into the pages of this book, "The World Within Our Minds."