This article augments the author’s grounded theory study of student and teacher interactions in alternative education classrooms by presenting poetic transcription as a way to portray the essences and experiences of the participants. The author builds on the experimental writing traditions of other researchers to embrace her own experiences as a classroom teacher in crafting the poems out of the participants’ words. In so doing, the author actively interacts with the texts to co-construct new meaning that elucidates research findings. Utilizing her position between the worlds of research and practice, the author crafts the poems to convey personalities, victories, and complexities involved in these classrooms. This application of the methodology of poetic transcription allows for a deeper understanding of students’ and teachers’ experiences in these schools.
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