ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — No, it’s not a pep rally, or a cheering competition. It’s a poetry lesson with Bill Buczinksy.
Mucking around, clowning around, grabbing kids’ attention and focusing it on rhythm and rhyme is the specialty of this former high school English teacher turned poet performer.
Discovering the poetry within the students at Olive-Mary Stitt School in Arlington Heights is his goal this day, as National Poetry Month came to an end, students celebrated the written word — and Bill’s ability to bring them to life.
Students are asked to pour words onto a page, in their heads and get actively engaged — not just in the subject, but the rhythm.
Throughout the day, students are alert, hands are raised and poetry is fun instead of intimidating. Bill spends the entire school year taking his physical poetry lesson to schools across the Chicagoland area, hoping to show a younger generation the possibilities that lie in the paragraphs.
