Nicholas Borchert, English teacher, decided to spice things up in his classroom; he gave his students an extra credit opportunity with a twist. He decided to make his extra credit project writing poetry and posting it on Instagram, and whichever student got the most followers won extra credit. Borchert said that the project was inspired by someone else who faked his way as a poet to see how famous he could get and wrote an article on how people reacted to his poetry afterward. 

“The extra credit project was sort of an accident, really. We read an article for my class by Andrew Lloyd, called ‘I Faked My Way As an Instagram Poet, and It Went Bizarrely Well.’ In it, the author speculates about the recent uptick in young people reading poetry on social media,” said Borchert. “He joins in and attempts to write bad poetry, but people end up liking it anyways. We were using the article to discuss what literature is, does, and should be in the world. Anyhow, during our discussion, I joked offhand that whoever got the most followers on Instagram for a poetry account would get extra credit, and a bunch of students’ eyes lit up. It took on a life of its own from there.”

Poseybelle Stoeffler, sophomore, is participating in the extra credit opportunity and has gained 118 followers. Stoeffler said that a lot of people on her account take her poetry very seriously and think it’s super deep, but she’s really just writing about random things when she’s bored. 

“Honestly, I put so little effort into these poems, which is kind of the reason I’m doing it. That’s what’s kind of funny about it: it means nothing,” Stoeffler said. 

Stoeffler said that all her poetry is just words dressed up to be pretty. She read some comments from people that found a deeper meaning in her poetry, while laughing.