August | 2015 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for August, 2015

DigiLit Sunday: Wonderopolis

Posted in Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing, tagged digital learning, gifted classroom, Wonderopolis on August 16, 2015| 10 Comments »

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Wonderopolis is a wonderful site for nonfiction reading. Last year I used the site once a week with my students. I picked out the “Wonder,” and created a Wonder worksheet for the week that included other language activities. While this method worked well for me as a teacher, it wasn’t so great for my students. They enjoyed the site, but they hated the other activities. And why not, they were teacher-created. They became a burden to them rather than a learning tool.

This summer I was thinking about how to change this plan and still take advantage of the Wonderopolis site. I read this post by Tara Smith. She talked about choice. She gave her students a form to fill in with a Wonder of their own choice. What a great idea!

Last week I started classes with my gifted students. I introduced the idea of Wonder Wednesday and choosing their own Wonders. For my birthday (on Tuesday), Lani had given me a small rubik’s cube. One of my boys, Tobie, couldn’t stop playing with it. He decided his Wonder would be about how to do a rubik’s cube. He found the question on Wonderopolis! Then he watched a video. He got other students excited about learning. (I could say he distracted others with his enthusiasm.)

After watching the excitement spread, I decided to give my students the option to present their Wonder learning using technology. I will present different tools in the coming weeks: Piktochart, Canva, Emaze, Powtoon, Animoto. One presentation each nine weeks will be required.

Teaching a variety of grade levels has its challenges. Wonderopolis has given me a way to differentiate nonfiction reading, empower students through presentation, and generate enthusiasm for learning. Here is a link to my student form.

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Celebrating an Engagement

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged engagement, journal decorating, Prayer Shawl Ministry on August 15, 2015| 7 Comments »

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

Last weekend my daughter, Katherine, and her boyfriend, Wayne, came home for the weekend to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary and my birthday. Or, at least, that’s what Katherine told me was the reason for their visit. On Sunday morning my husband and I did our usual things. He went running, and I was walking Charlie. When I came into the kitchen, Wayne was there. He asked me, “Is Mr. Jeff up yet?”

“Yes, he’s running. Is there something you want to talk to him about?” I grinned. He knew I knew. Wayne offered to show me the ring. I was shaking and a little teary.

This was a “long run” day, so by the time Jeff returned from running, Katherine was up, so Wayne did not have a chance to talk to him.

Before I left for church, I told Jeff that Wayne wanted to talk to him. The talk did not happen, so after church Jeff just called Wayne on the phone. They made their manners, so to speak. Jeff offered our blessing.

We enjoyed a lunch with them at Jefferson Island Cafe. After lunch, Wayne said he wanted to walk around some more. Jeff and I left, and I prayed that Wayne would propose right there, in the very place they plan to have the wedding. He did.

Katherine is very happy and so are we. There will be a wedding sometime in the fall of 2016.

Katherine and Wayne with an Asian statue on Jefferson Island.

I also celebrate the recovery of my mother-in-law. One of my prayer shawl ministry friends made this beautiful shawl for her. Minga (her grandma name) had surgery in July for spinal stenosis. Her pain has been greatly reduced and her activity levels increased.

Anne with prayer shawl

This was our first full week of school. We started class on Tuesday, my birthday. I brought cookies and watermelon, so we had a party on the first day. We decorated our journals this week. I used my birthday cards to cover mine. The hand painted one is by my sister, Beth. I love that I will be able to enjoy her art work all year long.

I appreciate joining the Celebration Saturday each week. I feel like my world is larger with all of my virtual friends reading and celebrating with me.

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Spiritual Thursday: Is it enough to pray?

Posted in Spiritual Growth, tagged prayer, students on August 13, 2015| 4 Comments »

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

Holly invites us to think about our spiritual journey. This week her theme could not have been more appropriate for the beginning of school, praying for our students.

Prayer is not enough. I am in no way discounting prayer. Sometimes it’s all you can do. But there are times when God calls on you to do more. This week was one of those times.

I don’t know why God chose me. I became the confidant of the mother of one of my students. Perhaps it was something I said in a conference with her. Perhaps it was her daughter’s trust in me. Maybe my phone number was the only teacher’s number she had. For whatever reason, I was the one who received her desperate call for help.

Many times over the course of the last few days, I have held my prayer hands pressed against my forehead. “God, give me your strength.”

Sometimes prayer is not enough.

This time I had to act. I had to turn to administrators, authorities, and counselors. I could not do this alone. I had to stay strong to tell her to stay strong. My precious student’s family was falling apart. It was not enough for me to pray. I held her tight. I helped her tell her classmates. I gave her someone to trust, someone to lean on, someone to be her advocate.

Jesus was called “teacher.” Teacher means more than educating a child. A teacher should be a stronghold for her students. She must create a safe environment. She should be open and flexible while respecting policy and authority.

Teaching is an act of the heart. My students become important in my life. Their families are important to me. Their lives are important.

In prayer, we can bring our students close to us, close to God. In action, we can express to each and every child that they matter, their lives matter. Our words should be carefully chosen, spoken with love and kindness. Because someday God may call us to action, to be His voice, and to save a child.

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DigiLit Sunday: Graphic Intelligence

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged Bloom's taxonomy, Creativity, graphic intelligence, writing about reading on August 9, 2015| 6 Comments »

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I don’t think Sunday morning is the time to launch into a research project, but when I typed “Graphic Intelligence” into the title line, I wondered, “Is this a real thing?” A quick search in Google turned up a book with the title, “Graphic Intelligence: Possibilities for Assessment and Instruction” by Barrie Bennett. Looks like this is a book all about graphic organizers from the least complex to the most.

My use of the term is not related to graphic organizers. What I am questioning early this morning is the presence of an intelligence for graphics. Not the use of a graphic organizer. In my field of gifted education, I am always trying to think outside the box, away from constraints like graphic organizers and more toward creativity. Creative problem solving leads students to deeper thinking at a higher intelligence level. The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy puts Creativity on the top rung. Create means to put elements together to form a coherent whole; reorganize into a new pattern or structure.

As I continue to explore writing about reading with an online group of teachers, I decided to try out using Canva to express my thoughts. Canva is a poster-making app. The site provides numurous images (many of which cost $1 to use). You can also upload your own image. I decided to use simple images and arrows. I don’t think my canva is a particulary brilliant construction, but I noted during the process that I had to synthesize my thoughts about the characters.

I could have used the well-used and time-tested Venn Diagram to compare the female characters. But if I give my students this tool, they don’t have to think beyond the comparison aspects. If I ask them to define characters in a new way using a graphic of their own making, I have now added the element of creativity to the assignment.

When I start working with my students in the next few weeks, I will show them the graphics I have made for response to reading. I hope to encourage and motivate them to try creative graphics to represent their thoughts about reading.

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Celebrating August

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, tagged Dr. Seuss, Heidi Mordhorst, Laura Purdie Salas, summer poem swap on August 8, 2015| 12 Comments »

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

August oppresses me. I know I shouldn’t let it. But the heat and heaviness of the air gets to me. Yesterday was my anniversary. I’ve been married an amazing 33 years to the best guy in the whole world, but I was in no mood to celebrate. I was hot and tired. But then this came: a package and a poem.

Heidi Mordhorst sent me a poem. We are exchanging in the Summer Poem Swap designed by Tabatha Yeatts. Heidi visited Greece this summer. We had a connection because I went on a trip there 4 years ago. The image captures the amazing blue of the Aegean Sea. And her poem captures the magic. Thanks, Heidi, for lifting my soul.

Laura Purdie Salas is one of my favorite poets and teachers. She has a great website and has published a number of teacher aids for writing poetry with students. I can’t wait to share this newest publication with my students. Catch Your Breath: Writing Poignant Poetry.

School started this week. I haven’t started pulling my students yet, but I saw them and hugged them in the hallway. I love having this kind of connection with my kids. I teach them year after year, so our relationship strengthens each year.

At one of my schools, the year theme is reading and books. We all wore Dr. Seuss t-shirts on the first day. I love the quote on the back. Reading is magic. I strive again this year to open this magic door for my students.

What are you celebrating this week?

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A Poem a Minute

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged Joy Acey, minute poem, summer poem swap on August 7, 2015| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round up with Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference.

I received another poem swap gift. Poets are incredibly creative people, so it’s always exciting to see what arrives. Joy Acey sent me a hawk feather, along with an artistic background and original poem. Her poem is a minute poem, 60 syllables. This was a new form for me, so I decided to capture a moment with a student today in my own minute poem, a sort of call and response with Joy’s poem.

Hawk Feather

The hawk soars in sky-high circles
floating on air
around the sun
riding jet streams.

Its rust and black feathers flutter
lifting to glide.
A feather drops.
Grab the treasure.

Pull the feather across your skin;
caress softness.
It feels so smooth.
Hear the hawk’s dreams.

–Joy Acey, 2015, all rights reserved

Joy Comes Back to You

Such joy returned
when I saw your face
upturned to me
from a warm embrace.

Summer sun kisses
on your pink cheeks
reflecting light
from your blonde hair streaks.

Like a new butterfly
on a wisp of wind,
you lift my spirit
once again,
my student,
my friend.

–Margaret Simon

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Wise Words of Malala

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Malala Yousafzai, summer poem swap, Tabatha Yeatts on August 4, 2015| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for Tuesdays Slice of Life Challenge.

Today is my first day back to school. The kids come on Friday. Ready or not?

This year our gifted team plans to focus on heroes. For one of our Summer Poem Swaps, Tabatha Yeatts sent a prompt to write a poem from the words of someone. I chose to look at Malala Yousafzai’s words with the theme of heroes in mind. I found this image and quote.

One child
can step by step
walk across stones
wobble, fall, rise
to hope.

One teacher
can line her shelves
with books, voices
pointing the way
to climb.

One book
can open young eyes
to injustice, prejudice, pain
so they can build a road
to peace.

One pen
can move a single hand
to create new lines, new words
new art, making a change
to the world.

–Margaret Simon

Who is your hero? Can you write a poem off his/her words?

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Using Piktochart for Reader Response

Posted in Digital Learning, Teaching, tagged Lost in the Sun, Piktochart, reader response on August 2, 2015| 4 Comments »

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Once again I am playing around with apps to use with my students. For my reader response this week with my virtual book club, I tried using Piktochart. I have mixed feelings about the results.

Piktochart is designed for business presentations that include data. Data is not my thing. Reading and writing is. So how could I re-use this program to fit in with digital literacy?

I chose a report template from the few free ones provided. Adding in a text box was cumbersome. We have gotten so accustomed to apps reading our minds. The text box never appeared where I wanted it to go, so I struggled to move it and arrange it. I don’t think students would have as much difficulty. They tend to be more savy with a mouse.

The part I did like about this process was the motivation to graphically design the ideas. Design is becoming a big part of digital media. If we tap into design with our students, I believe we add another element to their learning and processing. Making a product to represent their response to reading is a way to authentically create digital media. I may be wrong, but I think it would take some of the chore out of reader response. I still believe strongly in choice, so Piktochart will go on my list of choices for responding to reading.

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Celebrating Acts of Kindness

Posted in Celebration Saturday, clmooc, Gratitude, Writing, tagged #clmooc, Grand 16 Theater, James Taylor, kindness, Lafayette Strong, Prayer Shawl Ministry on August 1, 2015| 9 Comments »

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

Swinging for Addyson

1. When I heard the news that one of our students had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, I pulled out my crochet needle and created a prayer blanket for her. Saturday I gave her the blanket at a ragball fundraising event for her medical bills. Her smile says it all. Keep Addy and her family in your prayers as they continue to fight this battle.

Make yourself a park ranger.

2. Celebrating #clmooc and collaborative learning: This week marked the sixth and final make cycle of #clmooc. NWP joined the National Parks Service to encourage getting outside and exploring your national, state, and heritage parks. Kevin Hodgson invited me to join in the Google hang out on Tuesday evening. I love collaborating and learning from others. The archive of the hang out is here.

I had every intention of visiting a state park but the heat and the fact that my daughter was home kept me from participating further in this project.

Cheers to my daughter Martha.

3. Martha is home! My youngest flew in from Chicago for my last week of summer break. I’ve enjoyed spending time with her and just knowing she’s home.

4. My classrooms (I teach at two schools) are clean, organized, and decorated, ready for students to arrive all too soon.

photo by Jan Risher

5. Jan Risher, a writer for The Advertiser, the Lafayette regional newspaper, put out a call on Facebook for people to make paper cranes to honor the two victims of last week’s Grand 16 shooting. She gathered enough cranes to make two senbazuru. I made a few cranes and just doing this small gesture comforted me and helped me to feel a part of this community. I am very proud of the way the Acadiana community has responded with an outpouring of support and love. To me, it’s the only way to respond to violence…complete and utter kindness.

6. Speaking of responding with kindness and love, I celebrate James Taylor. In 1979 after our home had been totally flooded, the first album we purchased was James Taylor’s Flag. I listened to Up on the Roof so many times I memorized all the words. His music is still lifting up spirits and sharing love. Here is a recent performance in which the Charleston Low Country Voices joined him on stage. JT makes everything all right.