Division: Middle School
Teaches: Eighth Grade English; Eighth Grade Dean
“When we get to our poetry unit and my students groan, I tell them that I love it enough for all of us, and we’ll find out what's dope about it together,” said GFS English teacher Rachel Reynolds.
Rachel is an active and accomplished poet, housed on the internet under the moniker Portmantoad. Their works have been published in magazines and literary journals like Faultline Journal of Arts and Letters and Jet Fuel Review. Her literary essay “Partite,” published in Duende, was nominated for “The Best of the Net” anthology, and her poem “some ways to disappear” was poet Fady Joudah’s National Poetry Month selection for the NPR show “All Things Considered” in 2022.
Rachel didn’t start writing poetry in earnest until 2019; they attributed this change to working at GFS.
“When I started here as the administrative assistant in Middle School, the intellectual curiosity around me rubbed off,” she remembered. “I was reinvigorated as a reader and thinker.”
Rachel decided to commence their poetry practice by waking up every day at 4:30 a.m. to write for a solid hour. Though she’s since let go of this intensive daily routine, Rachel returns to it from time to time if she’s feeling stuck.
“It helps me untangle my brain,” they said. “The precision of capturing something that I care about or feel haunted by is intensely satisfying and cathartic. I’m a little addicted to that feeling and I keep trying to get there.”