Year after year, publishing poetry has become a cherished tradition for Mrs. Manisha Winchell’s second-grade classroom at Harmony Science Academy-Cedar Park. Sixteen of her students recently received national recognition after their work was selected for publication in the anthology “A Celebration of Poets.”
Led by second-grade teacher Mrs. Winchell, students submit their original poems to the nationally recognized Poetic Power contest annually. According to contest organizers, fewer than 50% of all submitted entries are accepted for publication, making selection a significant honor.
“I get as excited as my students are about poetry,” Ms. Winchell said. “Learning the elements of poetry is so much fun and truly a profound experience that the students will always remember.”
Contest judges — published writers and educators from elementary, secondary and higher education — review submissions and determine which poems will be published.
Organizers emphasize that they reject more entries than they accept to ensure that publication remains a meaningful achievement. Teachers whose students have 50% or more of their entries selected for publication receive a copy of the anthology.
Harmony Science Academy-Cedar Park ranks as the fifth-highest school in Texas for the number of poems published through the contest and has been recognized as a “Contest Star.”
Winchell said her passion for poetry inspires her students to explore language creatively. She believes that understanding figurative language gives students deeper insight into language itself and empowers them to express their ideas in innovative and artistic ways.
The anthology is professionally bound in an 8.5-by-11-inch format. Each published entry includes the student’s name, grade, school and state, and each writer’s name is indexed. It can be purchased at poeticpower.com.
