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| Hideko Secrest teaching poetry to a Jr. High class. |
She hangs from trapezes, she loves Shakespeare, she speaks 4 languages, and she is a Project Learn School (PLS) parent who is also teaching a poetry class this semester at PLS. Meet Hideko Secrest, a PLS parent for nine years.
Hideko is teaching a junior high poetry class at PLS for the fall semester. She started teaching in grad school at Yale University, where she taught an undergraduate section of a Shakespeare course, and a year-long freshman literature survey course in drama. She also tutored a creative writing class called "Daily Themes" where students had to write a two-page story every day and meet with her once a week to discuss their writing. In addition she taught literature, journalism, and writing at Tsuda College in Japan, and French and creative writing at the Clinton Middle School for Writers and Artists in New York City. In her class, Hideko has her students read poetry as well as help them find different techniques for writing poetry. “I definitely prefer reading it. I find poetry very difficult to write.” she says, “Because of that, I am doing the writing assignments along with my students so that I can be more sympathetic to the problems they encounter.” ”I like teaching poetry because I love seeing the flash of insight come over a student's face when she or he suddenly understands what a poem is talking about,” Hideko shared. “I like to talk about poems because there is so much great stuff jammed into such a little package. Analyzing a poem is like decoding a secret message. And I like teaching creative writing because I find young adults are in some ways the most open to the creative process: they're unaware of the rules and they're not yet trying to impress.”
Hideko is teaching a junior high poetry class at PLS for the fall semester. She started teaching in grad school at Yale University, where she taught an undergraduate section of a Shakespeare course, and a year-long freshman literature survey course in drama. She also tutored a creative writing class called "Daily Themes" where students had to write a two-page story every day and meet with her once a week to discuss their writing. In addition she taught literature, journalism, and writing at Tsuda College in Japan, and French and creative writing at the Clinton Middle School for Writers and Artists in New York City. In her class, Hideko has her students read poetry as well as help them find different techniques for writing poetry. “I definitely prefer reading it. I find poetry very difficult to write.” she says, “Because of that, I am doing the writing assignments along with my students so that I can be more sympathetic to the problems they encounter.” ”I like teaching poetry because I love seeing the flash of insight come over a student's face when she or he suddenly understands what a poem is talking about,” Hideko shared. “I like to talk about poems because there is so much great stuff jammed into such a little package. Analyzing a poem is like decoding a secret message. And I like teaching creative writing because I find young adults are in some ways the most open to the creative process: they're unaware of the rules and they're not yet trying to impress.”
“Poetry class is fun because we get to write in new types of poems,” Elya Kaplan commented.
Hideko has many other interests like sewing, gardening, circus aerials, reading and writing. In addition to Shakespeare Hideko enjoys other authors and poets. Her current favorites are Kate Atkinson, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Elizabeth Bishop.
To be or not to be? It is definitely ‘to be’ when it comes to Hideko’s poetry class.
To be or not to be? It is definitely ‘to be’ when it comes to Hideko’s poetry class.
I've really enjoyed being a part of this class! It's given me a chance to renew myself with poetry on an academic level.
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