A few years ago, I started learning poetry by heart on a daily basis. I’ve now memorized about a hundred poems, some of them quite long — more than 2,000 lines in all, not including limericks and Bob Dylan lyrics. I recite them to myself while jogging along the Hudson River, quite loudly if no other joggers are within earshot. I do the same, but more quietly, while walking around Manhattan on errands — just another guy on an invisible cellphone.

Conquer test anxiety by knowing
about half the people who take the test.

This method will be especially helpful if a hundred
words make up about half your vocabulary.

In the second half of the lesson
you will find out how many words you know.

Approximately half of the tests
in the second half of the lesson

test less than half of the half
of students who have studied

for less than half an hour. And still,
more than half will get it wrong.

Analogies are no longer part of the preparation
for the approximately half of the tests.

It’s no mystery how to do well on this test:
half the GRE is only the SAT.

A person with a highly developed vocabulary
will only know about half the story.

-Andrew in Ohio (search phrase “When Knowing the Vocab is Half the Test”)

Poegles.com, believing in the art of poetry, threw itself into the action this year with a vengeance, raising $5,400 to date for poetry and literacy projects in high poverty schools in New York, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina.  If you’d like to know more about the projects we supported, below are links to some of them on My Giving Page:

Differentiated Learning Through Differentiated Texts
100 Students; Only One Langston Hughes
Change My Students’ View of Poetry
Desperate Need for a Classroom Library
Using Poetry to Unlock the Universe
Fun Reading that Increases Learning
“Lucy’s” Literacy Lessons For Second Graders
Recording Oral Histories
Inspiring Poets
Mortals, Be Not Fools! Give My Students Shakespeare!

We want to thank everyone who has given to date.  Here’s just one of the “thank you” notes we’ve received from teachers whose projects we have supported:

Words cannot express my appreciation for your generosity. I cannot wait to tell the kids. They will be so happy. We have just started our journey as poets and now we have so many mentor texts to use and become familiar with and learn from. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and then fund our project. This gift will have such an impact on my students. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! The kids are going to be so thrilled. THANK YOU! Jennifer

The fundraiser will culminate at 7:00 pm tonight with ‘Stache Bash 2008, at the Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The ‘Stache Bash is both a party to celebrate a month worth of fundraising for a worthy cause, and also a terrifying Thunderdome-style competition; one which mercilessly pits one Mustache against the other — friend against friend, brother against brother — until only the Sweetest ‘Stache remains. This sole survivor will be crowned the Mustache King of New York, eventually to join the other Mustache Immortals in Mustache Valhalla!  Any of you who are in New York, please do join us.