January | 2016 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for January, 2016

Believe is not a Sappy Word

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged believe, OLW, poetry, spiritual journey on January 14, 2016| 9 Comments »

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

Paper Whites, Margaret Simon

For the next few weeks, blogger-friends and I will be posting about the spiritual aspects of our chosen words for 2016. This week we are writing about Carol Varsalona’s word, Believe.

I took this picture of paper whites blooming in my front yard this week. When I see flowers blooming, I believe deeper in the true magic of life. I didn’t plant these flowers, and yet, every year they pop up and show their little white star-like faces. They shine. Wake me up. Make me Believe.

I encouraged my students to create an acrostic with their words. An acrostic is when you use the letters of the word as the beginning letter for each line of the poem. Sounds easy enough, so I decided to write one with the word Believe. In my notebook I wrote about 3 half-possibilities. Each one kept sounding sappy.

But Believe is not a sappy word.

Believe is a strong word,
a word that holds on for dear life,
never letting you completely fall,
Believe buoys you up,
especially when troubles want to push you down.

Believe is a word you can count on,
holding its own weight.
Trusting in you to show up
when the sun is rising,
be ready for this new day.

Believe is a certain word,
proud yet humble,
a handkerchief that your grandmother stitched
calmly drying your tears,
then showing you the stars.
Believe believes in you.

–Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

Creativity and Me

Posted in Creativity, Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Big Magic, Creativity, fear, Lake Martin, poetry, tanka on January 12, 2016| 9 Comments »

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

I’m reading a new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m not sure where I read about this book. I know Leigh Anne is reading it, and so is Catherine. So here’s the thing: If there’s a group of us reading this book who want to chat, we could start a virtual book club. We could chat in Voxer or Google Docs. If you want to join in, email me at margaretsmn at gmail.

Four years ago I jumped into publishing and put out a middle-grade novel, Blessen. At the time, I found an old diary that told me I’ve wanted to be an author all my life. Notice my expectation as a teenager that maybe confidence came from someone else.

“I would love to be a writer if only someone would give me confidence!”

If growing up has taught me anything, it’s that confidence comes from courage that comes from your. own. self. No one else can give it to you.

Elizabeth Gilbert says she lives in fear everyday.

Creativity is a path for the brave, yes, but it is not a path for the fearless, and it’s important to understand the distinction.

Fear will always show up when you are trying to be creative. You can tell it to go away. But it’s always there. I love that this great author is telling me this.

I’ve grown to cherish this blogging space because I feel safe here. Whoever you are, reading and leaving me kind comments, you are my angels. You help me feel like my words are worthwhile and mean something.

Since my OLW is present, I am showing up. I’ll listen for the muse, the magician, whatever his name is and answer with a yeah, ok, let’s do this crazy creative thing together.

Being present this past weekend, my husband and I visited Lake Martin for the sunset on the way to our dinner/ dancing date. It was not the best of all sunsets. I got my boots muddy. But we showed up. With a little magic from the lens and Picmonkey, I created an inspiring image. On Sunday, I wrote a tanka for the image. And I am sharing it here. Kicking fear to the curb! See ya!

Photo and poem by Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

DigiLit Sunday: One Little Word

Posted in Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing, tagged Canva, digital literacy, OLW, One Little Word on January 10, 2016| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

In an attempt to get more participation in DigiLit Sunday, I tweeted out a topic this week, One Little Word. My students worked on their OLW projects the first few days of our return from break. I think this helped them focus and get excited about a new year.

As usual, I offered choices for their project. But for their blog posts, I had three requirements: an image, commentary, and poem. Many chose to write acrostic poems. Most of them chose to use Canva after I showed them how it worked.

Canva is a platform where you can create posters. We did not print the posters, but I uploaded them into their blog posts. Using thesaurus.com, they found synonyms for their words and in some cases, changed their word to one found in the search.

I have been thinking a lot about digital literacies, in particular visual literacies. How does the image convey meaning? I was careful to ask my students, “When you think of your word, what is the image you see?” For Jacob, his word Believe meant blue ocean water. For Madison, her word Effort was communicated by a rocket. Vannisa found a word that connected her interest in sleep (her passion project topic) and her zodiac sign (Pisces) by choosing Dream. She worked with the shape tools of Canva to create a cloud behind her word.

Kielan supported her choice of a star image (her word is Sparkle) with this piece of writing: “There are over a billion stars in the sky. Out of all those stars, there is one particular star that stands out from the rest. All those stars are one color, but this star is all colors. Blue, Red, Green, Purple, you name it. I want to be just like that star. I want to be bold, stand out, sparkle, and be like no other.”

Believe by Jacob

Dream by Vannisa

Effort by Madison

Link up your DigiLit Sunday posts. Topic for next week: Balance (of digital and nondigital)

Read Full Post »

Celebrating Reading Aloud

Posted in Books, Celebration Saturday, tagged Crenshaw, Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, read aloud on January 9, 2016| 14 Comments »

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

photo by Margaret Gibson Simon enhanced on Picmonkey

With the selection of my OLW, Presence, I thought about my classroom(s) and how I could be more present there. At the beginning of the school year, I wanted to make reading aloud an every day occurrence. It is a challenge with my teaching situation because I have students in different grades rotating in and out. With my morning group, I realized that most days we were all there at 10:30 AM, and they leave between 10:50 and 11:00, so Read Aloud became constant on the schedule.

This week we finished Fish in a Treeby Lynda Mullaly Hunt, the middle-grade Global Read Aloud choice. Being so closely involved with a book, so intimate, my voice cracked through the whole last chapter. I think I cried not only because Ally had triumphed, but also because I was looking out at the wide eyes of my students and feeling their love for Ally, too. When we finished, before I knew it, Emily had written a quote and taped it to the wall, “Nothing is Impossible. The very word says, I’m Possible!”

I have had more trouble getting a time to read aloud with my afternoon group, so this week I made it a priority. All work stopped at 2:40 and we read until 3:00. I started Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate. I loved it when Noah said, “Mrs. Simon, can we watch Crenshaw?” Isn’t that what read aloud is all about? Watching a book together.

Today, I celebrate special moments with my students to be truly present.

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: One Little Word

Posted in Digital Learning, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Canva, One Little Word, student acrostic poetry on January 8, 2016| 11 Comments »

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

This week my students and I wrote about our one little word choices. I encouraged them to select an image and create a Canva. I’ll write more about this process on DigiLit Sunday this weekend. Please consider joining the round-up. This week we are sharing about OLW in the classroom.

My newest student, a gifted first grader, wrote this profound poem about the idea of selecting a OLW.

A word is like a leaf,

So fragile,

Everyone chooses a word,

At the beginning of the year,

Little do they know,

Their word is a leaf.

–Lynzee, 1st grade

This student selected the word “Astonish” which is quite a big word for her age, but she wrote a personal acrostic that helped me understand her choice.

My OLW is Present. My student Vannisa helped me write this poem as I was showing how Canva works.

By Margaret Simon (with help from Vannisa)

Read Full Post »

My One Little Word: Presence

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged One Little Word on January 5, 2016| 20 Comments »

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

photo by Margaret Gibson Simon enhanced on Picmonkey

As the old year came to a close and the new one began, I was thinking about my One Little Word, a single word to guide me through the year. I thought I had it: Inspire. This word appeared as my friend, Julianne, selected a word bracelet at a gathering at NCTE. I grabbed the word Peace, but I liked hers better. So I began thinking about how Inspire could be my OLW. I couldn’t help thinking I wasn’t entitled to this word. I kept wearing Peace on my arm.

The last few weeks, however, revealed Presence to me. I read Richard Rohr’s quote: “We cannot attain the presence of God because we’ re already in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.”

I received a camera for Christmas. It calls me to be present, notice, see.

Fire by Margaret Gibson Simon

I slowed down and looked around. What is there but this very moment?

Living this word makes me a better friend, a better partner, a better teacher. When I am fully present, I listen and truly hear. I judge less. I don’t worry.

I sketched about Presence in my journal.

Than I made a drawing from my sketch. I shared this process with my students.

I took a picture at 5:00 PM on Monday. I’m not sure if I will keep this up. It’s an idea, but not a necessary goal for being present. I love how choosing this word, I am not obligating myself to anything but being… present.

Photo by Margaret Gibson Simon, 5 PM on Jan. 4, 2106.

Holly Mueller hosts a round-up on Thursdays called Spiritual Journey Thursdays. We will be writing about our own and other bloggers’ words. If you want to join, go to Holly’s blog here.

Read Full Post »

DigiLit Sunday: One Little Word for 2016

Posted in Digital Learning, tagged DigiLit Sunday, One Little Word on January 3, 2016| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Sky sunburst by Margaret Gibson Simon

Happy 2016! I haven’t been diligent about DigiLit Sunday during the holiday, but Tara Smith has set a new resolution and this posting is a part of it. Thanks, Tara, for waking me up with your “Emazing” post about Ralph Fletcher’s book, Making Nonfiction from Scratch.

Many are thinking about resolutions and hopes and dreams for 2016. I am working on my One Little Word. I plan to ~~reveal it~~ commit to it on Tuesday’s Slice of Life post. Last year I introduced the concept of One Little Word to my students. I plan to do this again when we return to school tomorrow. I created an Emaze presentation using Tara’s chart and poetry from Mary Lee Hahn and Ramona Behnke. The lesson worked well. You may use this with your own classes to get them thinking about their OLWs.

Last year we used thesaurus.com to find a word cloud of related words. This was fun for the kids. The Tagxedo app, however, did not work well on our old PCs, so I will likely not try that again. I think I’ll give that task over to the kids and let them choose their own way of illustrating. When I don’t know what to do, I give it back to them. They usually figure it out better than I could have done alone.

Here’s the link to the Emaze: https://www.emaze.com/@AOFLCWZL/one-little-word

Here’s the link up if you are setting a new resolution to participate in this round up. Go for it!

Read Full Post »

Celebrating Simple Joys

Posted in Books, Celebration Saturday, tagged #celebratelu, CYBILS award, simple joys, Star Wars on January 2, 2016| 7 Comments »

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

I had the privilege of being a round one judge for the CYBILS awards for poetry. Here is our list of finalists.

Sunset by Margaret Gibson Simon, all rights reserved.

For Christmas, I got a new digital camera, Sony a6000. This week while I was at New Castle Lake with my parents in Mississippi, I took this sunset picture. My plan for 2016 is to take more pictures and share them here. Images inspire me in many ways. Some, like this one, speak of quiet and being present with the light.

New Year’s Day with my husband was nothing special and everything special. He built a fire. It was a perfect fire-in-the-fireplace day, wet and cold. I put Pandora on the Roku (a gift from the children) and undecorated. Taking down the decorations can be a chore, but yesterday I actually enjoyed the process–wrapping each ornament in soft tissue paper worn with time and nesting the creche figures back into their boxes.

We cooked a meal together, black-eyed peas, cabbage, sweet potatoes, bread, and baked chicken. Sitting together at the kitchen table felt sacred to me. We rarely take this kind of time just to simply be with each other.

Then we went to see Star Wars! My heart was racing the whole time. As others have said, it is a must-see. Fond memories of the first Star Wars. Masterfully done.

My wish for 2016 for you and for me: An appreciation of the simple joys in life!

Read Full Post »

Twelve Ways of Looking at a Year

Posted in Poetry Friday on January 1, 2016| 9 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.

The Time is Now: “Think back over the past year. What does the memory of each month feel like? What is its emotional tone, vibration, form? Write a poem in twelve parts that tries to capture each month’s abstract feeling in a single line or stanza. Like Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,”

I looked through Facebook and blog posts throughout the year to create this poem. It may mean nothing to you, but it was a meaningful exercise for me. I hope you will find peace and kindness in 2016.

12 Ways of Looking at 2015

January:

Sometimes on the bayou in January
light hides behind grey,
the owl hoots before sunset,
shadows disappear
and I watch
for a poem hiding there.

February:

Sounds abound, poetic listening
beads flying to the beat
of the djembe drum.

March:

Wonders lead us
to a masterful old oak
walking his roots
to hear his wisdom.

Watercolor painting of Mr. Al by Jerome Weber

April:

Are you an author,
a poet, an illustrator?
What are you doing in this place?
no faking it here.

May:

Packing up mugs, vases, photos,
stories, memories,
voices of many children,
the heart of one teacher.

June:

A walk in the woods,
I come across a doe,
eye to eye
we are mothers
holding in a moment
nature’s promise.

July:

Life changes in an instant
gun shots in a theater
lives lost, lives changed,
tragedy closes in on home.

August:

She must come, August
and paint me in the picture
of a daughter engaged to a boy.

September:

Miles and miles to go
driving to Chicago
bringing a sister home.

Illinois farmlands

October:

She makes the dust fly!
Eating gumbo with queens
is the way to conquer the world.

November:

Glow like the lemon in the sunlight.
Be the harvest.

December:

Magic tricks, magic windows,
magical gifts, magical white wigs,
the season of magic is here.

–Margaret Simon