Grades: 3 – 12
Best Format: Weekly partnership, 4–8 visits
Focus: Poetry, creative writing, literary arts, visual exploration, experimentation, revision, and developing original work.
About Nellie
Nellie Bridge is a poet and teacher raised in Sequim and currently serving as Clallam County’s second Poet Laureate. Her first full-length collection of poems, Holes in the Ship of Theseus, is forthcoming from Black Spring Press Group/Simon & Schuster.
Nellie holds a BA from The Evergreen State College, an MFA from New York University, and a Washington State Teaching Certificate from Pacific Lutheran University. She taught high school English for 11 years and has spent the past two years working with upper elementary students. She loves designing creative, exploratory projects that invite students to experiment, take risks, and discover what they can make.
What Students Can Explore
Nellie’s workshops invite students into poetry, creative writing, and interdisciplinary making through clear, approachable starting points that open into experimentation. Students can build technical skills and creative confidence, create original work, collaborate, reflect on their process, revise and strengthen their work, develop independence, and build stronger classroom relationships.
Students get the most from Nellie’s teaching when: “They feel emotionally safe to experiment freely.”
In Nellie’s classroom, students: “Are involved, valued, and listened to.”
Nellie focuses on helping students: “Feel safe and empowered to try something new, often by making the starting point clear and doable.”
Students leave with: “Often, a sense of calm after surprising themselves by going through the fun discomfort of trying something new.”
Teaching Experience
General education classrooms, Life Skills classrooms, English Language Learner (ELL) classrooms, Highly Capable programs, alternative education settings, and outdoor learning environments.
Learner Needs Nellie Can Adapt For
Students with IEPs, students with 504 Plans, neurodivergent learners, English Language Learners, students with physical disabilities, sensory accommodations, emotional or behavioral supports, mixed-age classrooms, beginning learners, and advanced learners.
Best Learning Environments
Traditional classrooms, art rooms, small-group instruction, whole-class instruction, and independent facilitation.
Helpful Information + Teacher Support
Student age and grade level, class size, teacher learning goals or curriculum connections, accessibility needs, accommodations or learning supports, and a brief planning conversation before the visit.
Contact + Artist Information
Email: nellie@nelliebridge.com
Phone: 564-215-0892
Website: nelliebridge.com
Additional: nols.org/poet | @paradisetest
