Award Winning Slam Poet Gayle Danley Workshops with ICS Fifth through Eighth Graders

This November, Indian Creek Middle School welcomed an old friend to it's new campus: Award Winning Slam Poet, Ms. Gayle Danley.

Ms. Gayle, as the students call her, has won both the national and the international poetry slam titles and is the Maryland Library Association's Poet of the Year, Young Audiences of Maryland Artist of the Year, and Young Audiences National Artist of the Year. Gayle has published four books: “Naked”, “Soulfull—A Slam Poetry Study Guide”, “Passionate—Poems You Can Feel”, and "A Little Truth on Your Shirt." She has also been featured on Sixty Minutes, in the Baltimore Sun and in the Washington Post.

Ms. Gayle, who performs poetry and teaches children all over Maryland, has been working with Indian Creek students for nearly 20 years.  She inspires most everyone who hears her with her frank - and entertaining - personal revelations. As Middle School Principal Matt McCormick shared, "Ms. Gayle is an incredible poet, but she is also an amazing teacher.  She is able to inspire self-expression from even the most unlikely of students in ways that are astounding to us as teachers. We have been lucky to know her for nearly 20 years and are excited to have her back."

During her two weeks of with ICS fifth through eighth grade students, Ms. Gayle performed her poetry, taught writing and performing techniques, and workshopped with the students as they created their own slam poems. Her work was more than fruitful, as students and teachers applauded each other as they performed their original works last week. 
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Indian Creek school is a co-educational, college preparatory independent school, located in Crownsville, Maryland.  Students in Pre-K3 through grade 12 receive a vibrant educational experience based on excellent academics steeped in strong student-teacher connections.