During this March 3rd Community Meeting, we will host a panel of four active Poet-Teacher members from our network.  Each panelist will share a brief synopsis of a lesson plan, that is working well for them in the classroom.  Audience members will walk away with four lesson plan ideas or sketches that they can put into practice right away.  

Panelists Include:  Ron Alexander, James Coats, Michele Krueger and Milani Pelley

James Coats is a multidisciplinary artist, author, and educator born in Los Angeles and raised in the Inland Empire. He received his BFA from Cal Poly Pomona and his MBA from Cal State San Bernardino. As a creative change agent he believes the arts can inspire the youth and influence positive change in the world.

Milani Pelley is an educator, healer, poet and facilitator of self-expression.  Milani Pelley was born, raise and gave birth in Berkeley, CA.  Milani enjoys working with people of any age, whether 4 years old or 94 years old.  She feels everyone has a voice, story and journey that deserves to be heard and documented.

Michele Krueger has worked as a poet teacher with California Poets in the Schools for over two decades. Her poetry for children appears in many award winning anthologies, and her collection of poems LUTHER BURBANK: The Man Who Scattered Pollen Underneath the Sun highlights the botanical discoveries of a Sonoma County icon.

She is currently the Lake County Coordinator for CPITS and the Sonoma County Coordinator of Poetry Out Loud.

Ron Alexander Ron Alexander wrote poetry in high school and college until receiving a tepid review by a composition professor, after which he stopped for 25 years.  In 1974, he came out as a gay man and activist, and issues of social justice became prominent in his life.  In 1987, he tested positive for HIV and was diagnosed with AIDS in 1995, when the life expectancy for a newly diagnosed PWA (Person With AIDS) was 18 months to 3 years. 

He would be dead by the Millennium.  

But the next year, with new medications and protocols, Ron's health improved.  HIs best friend, a fiction writer, told him, "If you're not going to die, Write!"  With that in mind, they attended writing conferences where Ron eventually began to sneak away from the Fiction workshops into the Poetry sections. Nevertheless, they wrote a novel together and Ron returned to poetry after 25 years.  His work can be found online and in various journals and anthologies, and an erotic film made from one poem has shown at various  International LGBTQ+ Film Festivals.  Ron resides in Santa Barbara with his partner of 35 years, husband of ten.  

All past and present California Poets in the Schools' Poet-Teachers are welcome to attend the 1st Friday Community Meeting, during the lunch hour. This will be an informal gathering on Zoom. We will have a loose agenda that will be sent out in advance.  Bring a sandwich and stay as long as you are able. There will be time to network and share ideas.  Please register so that we can send you a Zoom link to join the event, and send updates.