The “Guess-Whose Favorite” Bulletin Board

Noreen Moore, the library media specialist at Neil A. Armstrong Middle School in Fairless Hills, PA, prepared for her school’s favorite poem reading in a way that built excitement and suspense. Two weeks before the event, she papered the walls of the cafeteria with favorite poems chosen by various people in the school. The students and staff read poems at lunchtime and tried to figure out — by matching poems to names on a list — whose favorite was whose. Moore asked everyone on staff at the school to find a favorite poem. “It has been wonderful to see staff members diving into the poetry section of the library,” she wrote.

The night of the event, the batch of poems was moved from the cafeteria to the library, each labeled with the name of the person who’d chosen it. Moore invited poets from the community — including the current Bucks County poet laureate — to kick off the event, which was an open mike for students, staff and people in the Fairless Hills community.