November | 2014 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for November, 2014

Making a Difference

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Teaching, tagged Kaylie, Mother Theresa, Scholastic Mockingjay Change the World writing contest, teaching on November 13, 2014| 4 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
–Mary Oliver

Can we really make a difference? Can one person plant a seed?
Will it grow? How will we know?

I got a phone call today from a former student. She felt brave enough to enter a writing contest, the Scholastic Mockingjay Change the World Contest. She called to tell me she placed in the top ten and will receive prizes. I was thrilled! Her essay speaks of world hunger as the biggest problem we face today. Her experience volunteering at Solomon House with me and some of her classmates influenced her greatly.

An excerpt from her essay:

Though super powers are the quickest way to saving the hungry, there are still things you and I can do to help. During the Hunger Games, gracious sponsors donate food to dying tributes. This often saves them. Think of Katniss! She wouldn’t be alive if not for the kind-hearted people that gave her a chance. We should be the sponsors of this world…the ones that say, “I made a difference.” We can be those people. Today.
–Kaylie B. Read the entire essay here.

I do what I do in order to make a difference, to mean something to someone. But the tree does not bear fruit quickly, usually after years of growth. Even so, I should do the best I can with each precious life I hold. This is my responsibility. This is my vocation. Congratulations to Kaylie! I am so proud to be a part of her life as a writer and as a person who makes a difference.

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What Else Can We Do?

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged death, Prayer Shawl Ministry, spiritual on November 11, 2014| 15 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

A few weeks ago I wrote about making a prayer blanket for a friend whose baby was born prematurely. It was the first prayer blanket I ever made, and frankly, I had high hopes for its prayer power. I wrote a sweet note with the gift thinking that one day finding it tucked into her baby book, the child would read it as an adult.

Enough of my selfish plans. The victory was not mine to decide. I had no part in this.

Vivian died. Her too tiny body fought valiantly for 6 weeks. Two days before her death, I had given her dad my prayer blanket gift. This is not the way it was supposed to go.

I met Vivian today for the first time. She was wrapped tightly in the smallest casket I have ever seen. She looked like a china doll. Her mother hugged me long and hard. She said, “The last time I held her, I wrapped her in the blanket. It’s the only picture I have of me holding her. I didn’t have a chance to post the pictures before…” We hugged and cried some more. And I realized my connection was not just to the baby, my connection was to her mother.

I arrived late at school and Kat met me at the door. She stopped and said, “You are late today.” I responded that I had been by the funeral home. Kat knows loss. She lost her ten year old daughter last year to a battle with a brain tumor. She listened to my selfish lament over the prayer blanket.

“You do not realize how important the material things are. People tell me Kamryn is always with me, and I know this. But I still have to touch.” Kat touched an angel pin on her shoulder and a flower bracelet on her wrist. She explained that my blanket will be that comfort to the mother. We cried together, and I felt blessed. God works mysteriously. Sending Kat in my pathway today led me to a deeper understanding.

I wrote this poem the day after I heard of Vivian’s death. I was still angry, but even then I knew that there was more.

What else can we do
but pray to the moon
high in the morning sky?
I bow my head to her,
cry out
“What were you thinking?”

Bombs went off in Syria.
A bomb exploded.
Vivian’s too tiny body
could not stand the blast.

The variegated pink clouds
float like the blanket
I crocheted, hooking stitch by stitch
repeating her name,
asking for victory.

You forgot to tell me
the victory would be yours.
The morning moon mocks
me with an illusion of a smile.

The sun in the east
continues to rise
always rise,
even though
Vivian’s eyes are closed.
The sun will still rise.
–Margaret Simon

Lucy, the therapy dog, was at the funeral home comforting grievers.

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Creative Expression

Posted in Digital Learning, Writing, tagged Kidblog, PowToon, Sci-Port, YouTube on November 9, 2014| 9 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

This week my students continued to work on their PowToon presentations. Each one selected a topic from something they had learned on a field trip to Sci-Port a few weeks ago. I taught my students how to put a YouTube video into their Kidblog post. This way they are able to share their work with other students at other schools.

One thing I am struggling with is the varied amount of time each student takes to create their presentation. I have some stragglers who are working but aren’t finished. This keeps them glued to a computer, and I am not able to move on with the other students. I want everyone to feel successful and have the time he or she needs to complete their work, but it is also frustrating. Do any of you experience this problem? What works or helps?

I asked my students to write about their experience in creating the presentation in addition to sharing the video on Kidblogs. Tyler is making his presentation about lemurs into a fundraiser. Vannisa enjoyed sharing the video with her other teachers and their classes.

I am not big on giving a lot of instructions on creative projects. I like to see where my students will go with it. I watched as they researched their topics. They would get excited when they learned something new. Vannisa interviewed me and her classmates about what questions we had about gravity that she could research. Erin wants to learn about Newton’s laws of motion and is taking notes. Like a true scientist, she is the only one who could decipher her notes. Emily was fascinated by the many species of lemurs and wanted to show what each one looked like. Her video is very visual. Using a basic rubric, I was able to allow for freedom of expression. I am pleased that PowToon motivated my students. They were proud of their videos.

Link up your digital literacy posts:

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Famous Again

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Writing, tagged Acadiana Lifestyle, celebration, Gumbo, roux, Teaching Authors, thanku on November 8, 2014| 6 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

In our household, if you make it into our local paper, you are famous. I made it into a local free magazine, Acadiana Lifestyle. The writer Anne Minvielle called me about 6 weeks ago asking me about my hero. She was doing a feature on local heroes’ heroes. I didn’t have to think long. My hero is my mother-in-law, Anne Simon. I’ve written about her a few times on this blog.

When I married at the young age of 21, I moved with my husband to his home town, away from my family in Mississippi. So his parents became very important to me. Following his father’s death (ten years ago on Nov. 14th), his mother Anne and I got closer and closer. We affectionately call her Minga. That’s the grandma name my oldest daughter gave her. It was a baby’s version of grandma. We loved it and kept it. What a coincidence that the greeting in Burma is “Minga La Bal.” Yes, a few years ago, Minga traveled to Burma and came to my classes dressed in traditional Burmese clothes, bowing her head and saying, “Minga La Bal.” I wrote about it here.

Acadiana Lifestyle, November 2014

From the article: “Margaret speaks of her mother-in-law as if she were truly a hero. ‘She is like a mother to me, but more than that, she is a best friend, a writing partner, and a confidante. I can talk to her about anything and trust that she will love me no matter what,’ she says. What a blessing!”

While I write this celebration post, my wonderful husband is making a roux for a gumbo. That is the smell of cool weather and of home. However, the scent gets into all your clothes and your pores. We will carry that southern home smell with us all day.

Teaching Authors posted a challenge yesterday on Poetry Friday. Three Weeks of Gratitude. Writing thanksgiving haikus, otherwise known as Thankus. I did this activity with my students a few years ago and here is one from a student. I keep it pinned to the bulletin board in my kitchen.

The seed of a rose
You sprout your knowledge like roots
We share our petals.
by Kylon

Keep your hand moving: Roux in the pot.

Thanku to Roux

Heat tempered with love
Strong scent of flour and oil
Come home for gumbo.
–Margaret Simon

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Free Write leads to Poetry

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Ava Leavell Haymon, free writing, NCTE, poetry exercise on November 7, 2014| 15 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Random Noodling with Diane.

Even purple lemurs named Violet can write.

My students make really good guinea pigs when it comes to trying out new writing activities. This week I showed them a free writing activity I did with our state poet laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon, at the Book Festival Wordshop last Friday. I was not sure how this rather random exercise would work for producing a poem.

We started with a clean piece of drawing paper. Each edge of the paper, we filled with sense words (colors, sounds, tastes, smells, and physical feelings.) Then I asked them to draw a large circle in the middle of the paper. When Ava gave us this exercise to do, she talked about the negative voice that often invades our minds when we are trying to write, saying terrible things like, “You are stupid,” and “Why do you think you have anything to say?” Each student selected a bad color to use to make a shape around their negative voices. Some students had no shapes and others had multiple ones filled with ugly words. I think this helped those who feel intimidated by writing.

Inside the circle, I told my students to free write for 7 minutes. Free writing is anything that comes into your mind. Just keep the hand moving. I even gave them ink pens to use, a treat.

Select six concrete words from your writing. Then write a six-lined poem. The poems were as varied as the students themselves. I enjoyed hearing how the free writing influenced the final poem. I think they were richer somehow. We then created a folded book from the art paper and wrote the six lines on the six pages of the book.

Fall weather warmth

A caramel taste
an amber color
chilly nights
candle lights
a honeysuckle scent–
Fall weather warmth.

by Vannisa

I remember

I remember
sucking on an orange butterscotch,
being embarrassed about something I said
(what a thing to feel).
I remember it all happened
on Thanksgiving.

by Matthew

Night Warrior

Be a warrior.
Ride on your unicorn.
To battle the bullies,
be a sweet, kind hero.
Climb into the sunset.
You become a pink image.

by Erin

Folded book poem

NCTE is around the corner. I am getting nervous and excited. If you plan to be there, please try to attend the Elementary Get Together to support me as I receive the 2014 Donald H. Graves Award. I am also presenting with colleagues from the National Writing Project on Friday.

Link to my presentation at NCTE: Friday, Nov. 21st at 12:30 PM.

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My Stronghold

Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, tagged spiritual reflection, strength on November 6, 2014| 5 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

The light is changing, days are shorter, night comes early. I watch as the season changes, trees lose leaves, air cools, satsumas ripen.

Change happens. God is there.

Through centering prayer, I learned that God is not without. God’s abiding spirit is within, in my very core, a bright sparkle of light, saying, “You are enough.”

God is as near as breath.

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.” (Psalm 28:7)

My heart sings for joy.

My hands are strong that hold God’s love in prayer.

On Facebook, I watch videos of people doing amazing things; a four year old plays master piano, a baby is born, a boy receives a heart.

Even when I do something small and inconsequential, God is there.

God’s strength holds every day, every moment, from hope in a hopeless world to love for a hurting heart. I can depend on God when the day turns dark, when the leaves fall, when the earth turns.

Photo by John Gibson. Haiku by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

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Write. Draw. Poetry

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Ava Leavell Haymon, Louisiana Book Festival, poetry exercise on November 4, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

View of the state capitol from the top floor of the state library.

The weekend was absolutely beautiful for a trip to the capital city of Baton Rouge for the annual Louisiana Book Festival. The sky was clear, the air was cool, and the sun was bright. A great time to celebrate literary works.

I treated myself to a day off and attended a poetry workshop with our state poet laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon. Ava is brilliant and funny and an out-of-the-box thinker. She gave us each a large sheet of drawing paper and had us begin on each edge by writing different sensory words, i.e. sounds, smells, colors. Then we drew a large circle with a gold marker. In this circle, we were asked to free write. She said something about drawing other shapes to put your over-the-shoulder-negative voice into, but I didn’t do this part. After free-writing, we circled concrete words from our writing to use in a poem. Then to complete the task, we folded the large paper so that it made a book. (I found online instructions for the book form here.) After all this, I ended up with this poem.

Rose-colored Glasses

In-box flashes
“Teacher evaluations”
Her plate spills.
All she wants is to be
invited outside
to the trampoline.
–Margaret Simon

Completed poem book

As crazy as this whole exercise seemed, I like the idea of using a free write to compress ideas into a small poem. I want to try this with my students. I have not done free writing yet this year. I usually have a theme or prompt for writing. I wonder if students will be able to work with the randomness. Or maybe that’s the idea, random writing leads to poetry.

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PowToon has Power

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged lemurs, PowToon, World Wildlife Fund on November 2, 2014| 5 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Last week I read Holly Mueller’s Digital Literacy post about her students’ social justice PSA’s. Some of her students used an app called PowToon. I introduced it to my students on Monday while discussing presentation options. I wanted them to further research an area of interest sparked by our field trip to a science museum. After they watched the short PowToon introduction video, I could hear an echo in the classroom, “I’m using PowToon!”

My students are familiar with PowerPoint. PowToon uses a similar interface with an add slide button and graphics that are easily added with a drag and drop motion. My students were able to use this app independently. I watched over their heads as they created fun animated slides. Tyler ran into trouble when he tried to add music. He lost the whole presentation he had created, so we started the mantra of “Hit Save” after every added slide. Tyler was able to quickly recreate what he had done and even enjoyed trying new things, so it was not a huge loss.

After I viewed Tyler’s PowToon, I discussed ways he could raise money for lemurs. We found the World Wildlife Fund that has a lemur adoption kit. The cost is $55. I told him if he presents his PowToon to all the 5th and 6th grade classes and asks them to donate $1 for the cause, he is likely to raise the money. He agreed. I’m excited to watch this 6th grader move from an interest sparked to a social action.

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