Judith has more then ten years of experience offering workshops and residencies in listening, audio production, and writing, for students in grades K-12. She has been selected as an Artist in Education by the Wisconsin Arts Board, and is currently listed in the Madison Civic Center's Arts Alive catalog. (Funding for Arts Alive programs is available through the Civic Center). The state-wide Wisconsin River of Words/Poet-Educator-Naturalist pilot project is modeled on The Wingra Watershed Poetry Workshop Judith designed and offered in two Madison schools in 2002.

Judith designs each workshop or residency for a particular group of students. If requested, she will work with sponsoring groups to obtain funding for the workshop from local arts agencies.

Contact Judith Strasser for information on scheduling future workshops

Scheduled workshops and residencies include:

WROW/PEN workshops in Washburn and Bayfield, Wisconsin (October 2004)

The Lake Superior watershed is one of four sites designated for pilot Wisconsin River of Words/Poet-Educator-Naturalist workshops in the fall of 2004. In each watershed, a poet, a naturalist, and local elementary school teachers collaborate to present poetry workshops for students in grades 4 and 5, focusing on the local environment. This project will develop and test a model for WROW/PEN workshops that will be made available for adoption in any Wisconsin watershed in the 2005-2006 school year. For more information about this exciting project, check out the WROW/PEN) web site.

Poetry workshops for grades K-8 at Blessed Sacrament School, Madison, Wisconsin (April 2005)

Judith will present hour-long large-group workshops for grades K-3, 4-6, and 7-8. Students will be introduced to a variety of poems, and will write their own group poem.

Past workshops and residencies include:

Madison Children's Choir Presentations (spring 2003)

In collaboration with composer and choral conductor David Rentz, Judith created six pieces to be set to music and sung at the spring concert of the Madison Children's Choir. This project included a half-hour presentation and question-and-answer session with each of the six choirs (including students in grades 4-12) involved in the performance, discussing how the poems were created and how a "real" poet works.

The Wingra Watershed Poetry Project (funded by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, Edgewood Campus School, and Randall School parents, spring 2002)

Poet Judith Strasser, working with a local naturalist, conducted field trips and workshops in each of three Madison elementary school classrooms (4th grade and 5th grade at Edgewood Campus School, and a 4th/5th grade at Randall School). During the workshop, approximately 75 students created poems about the Lake Wingra watershed. These poems were published in a booklet and on a web site, presented at the Wingra Watershed Fair, and exhibited at Edgewood College, the Monroe Street Library and Victor Allen's coffeeshop on Monroe Street. Some of the poems were published in the national Nature in Legend and Story Newsletter, edited by Dave Aftandilian at the University of Chicago Press.

Library Week Residency at Gibraltar School (Fish Creek, Wisconsin, spring 2001)

Judith spent three days at Gibraltar School, meeting several times with students in grades 9 through 12 and conducting a multi-session "Poetry of Place" writing workshop for interested writers that included a naturalist-guided tour and writing opportunity in Peninsula State Park. The residency was combined with two talks, one for high school students and the other for the local community, sponsored by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, which covered part of Judith's expenses (see "Lectures and Readings").

Classroom Presentation, Shorewood Elementary School (Madison, fall 2000)

Judith met with students who had been working on a poetry unit with their classroom teacher. She read some of her own poems (including work written when she was a child), talked about writing poetry, and listened to the student poets read their own work for her. Several students were so excited by the opportunity to talk with a "real" poet that they chose to miss recess to show Judith their writing.