Introduction

I see you. You are standing in your classroom, full of thirty-four drooling zombies as you talk about ancient Egypt. You raise and lower your voice. You raise and lower your arms. You even point to a picture of King Tut on your new interactive whiteboard. Yet all you get from your students is snoring.

Why?

Your class is boring, that’s why. Outside of class your students running around, yelling and screaming, texting, playing action-filled video games, and watching rapid-fire images of strange-costumed people singing, rapping and dancing on TV. Your class on the other hand, has you talking about some dead person wrapped up in cloth whose been sleeping for several thousand years. No wonder your students don’t care about history. They live in the now. The past is just some torture adults dreamed up to fill the space between English and Math.

What do you do? What do you do?

Don’t give up. There is an answer. The answer is….

Poetry!

Stop! Don’t close this book. Give me a chance to explain.

Poetry is the key to getting your students interested in ancient history or in all history for that matter. Poetry can hook your students, and get them moving and breathing again. It can get them motivated and most importantly, get them LEARNING about history. Poetry will make you the teacher you always wanted to be. Your students will cheer you. Your peers will once again admire you. You will stop getting threatening e-mails from your principal.

Are you still there? Want to learn more?

Then this book’s for you!