Let’s take a moment to break for poetry

June 24, 2014beccakinla poem, poetry Tags: breaking rules, classroom, poem, poetry, rules, share, student, travel, waiting, writing 1 Comment

Sorry for the sparse posts in recent weeks. Things have been a little crazy ’round here. I took a trip up to the Bay area to see my sister, came home and got a burn on my dominant hand that was serious enough to send me to the ER in the back of an ambulance (I hope to share a personal essay with my readers about that experience soon). Thank G-d, I’m now on the mend and in the midst of several deadlines.

But just to let y’all know I haven’t forgotten you, I’m going to share a piece of poetry I wrote while waiting for my sister to pick me up at the train station in San Jose. Continue reading →

Writing for Children: not for those who want glory, fame, or big bucks

March 25, 2014beccakinla chareidi, children, children's books, inyan magazine, Jewish, Jewish writing, joy, Judaism, kindness, klempner, kosher, love, magazines, message, Orthodox, persistence, picture books, publishing, recommended reading, respect, stories, students, success, tafkid, teens, writing Tags: audience, children, classroom, dignity, don't give up, fame, fishel schachter, goal, kavod, keep going, kids, maggid, motivation, persistence, prestige, rabbi, Rabbi Schachter, respect, school, stories, story, storyteller, storytelling, student, tafkid, visit, weekly Torah portion, work, writing 3 Comments

Last week’s Hamodia/Inyan Magazine had an article by one of my favorite columnists, Rabbi Fishel Schachter entitled “Guided by Tale Winds.” While today Rabbi Schachter is well-known in the Torah world for essays and presentations for adults about the weekly Torah portion, parenting, and other subjects, he first gained popularity as a rebbi and storyteller to students in Jewish day schools.

Rabbi Schachter explains in the article that one of the adults in his audience told him many years ago that he had to choose between teaching grown-ups or kids — and he indicated that the natural choice for a man of Rabbi Schachter’s talent and intelligence was to teach adults.

Turning to his own rebbi for guidance, Rabbi Schachter asked if teaching kids was really beneath him? Were all the silly voices and so on undermining his stature?

Continue reading →

It’s less than 3 weeks ’til Shavuot and it’s been 5 years of Raizy!

April 24, 2013October 3, 2013beccakinla A Dozen Daisies for Raizy, author visit, authors, shavuos, Shavuot, teachers Tags: a dozen daisies for raizy, art project, books, classroom, day school, hachai, hebrew school, holiday, jew, jewish, judaism, lesson plan, librarian, library, literature, picture book, projects, raizy, rebecca klempner, school, shavuos, shavuot, teaching, writing 1 Comment

It’s the 5th anniversary of my picture book about Shavuos, A Dozen Daisies for Raizy, and I’d like to learn from teachers and librarians what activities they’ve used with the book and how their kids have responded to it. If you have pix of art projects or the like, that’s even better!

You can respond to me in the comments below or privately at beccaklempner@gmail.com.

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

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Writing for Children: not for those who want glory, fame, or big bucks

It’s less than 3 weeks ’til Shavuot and it’s been 5 years of Raizy!

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