Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.
Thanks to Carol Varsalona for this image to add my words to.
Every time I walk by the kitchen window, I look toward the hummingbird feeder. I put it out after the flood two weeks ago. The rain had stopped. A hummingbird flew to the window and hovered looking right at me, as if he was saying, “Where’s the sweet stuff?” It didn’t take me long to find the feeder and a storage of food in the cabinet, but he did’t return…for days. I wondered if he ever would.
He’s there now, and almost every time I look. I’ve come to depend on his appearance. Like he’s the rainbow after the storm. He’s the sign we all need that life goes on.
Photo by Margaret Simon
Last week I read aloud the essay “Joyas Voladoras” by Brian Doyle to a group of 6th graders. This is the first essay in Katherine Bomer’s book, The Journey is Everything: Teaching Essays that Students Want to Write for People who Want to Read Them.
In his essay, Brian Doyle crushes our own hearts by writing about the hearts of hummingbirds.
(Hummingbird) hearts are stripped to the skin for the war against gravity and inertia, the mad search for food, the insane idea of flight. The price of their ambition is a life closer to death; they suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other living creature. It’s expensive to fly. You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine.
My students audibly gasped. Their reaction was pure emotion.
Katherine’s book leads us all on a quest for that reaction from our readers.
Watching my hummingbird, (Yes, he’s mine. I’ve named him Chuey), I realize that the smallest of beings, those minuscule moments, can bring about an emotional reaction.
However, to be open to these moments, I must be willing to write…every day.
Monday, I asked my students to start the class time sitting with their notebooks for 10 minutes and just writing. This freedom to express whatever was happening in their heads excited my young writers. There wasn’t a sound except the clicking of pencils for 10 minutes. Then they couldn’t wait to share!
- Jacob wrote about a song he couldn’t get out of his head.
- Noah wrote about imagining that everything was made of candy.
- Madison wrote about the fire drill earlier in the school day.
To grow my young students into writers, I need to help them view their world as something worth writing about. To show them, I join them. I write freely and share the dribble that comes out on the page. I talk to them about how we must weed through the dribble to find some good stuff. To find those small moments worth savoring and sharing.
If you missed it, here’s the link to the storify for the #DigiLitSunday Twitter chat with Katherine Bomer.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, I love this post. Though I am retired, I relish being in the classroom vicariously through your words about your students. Keep up the good work! Here’s hoping no more storms come your way.
Bravo Margaret! Wish I could have participated in your Twitter chat. Hope to meet up in Atlanta this year.
What wonderful inspiration for your students.
Bonnie K
This post is breathtaking for so many reasons. Chuey, the audible gasp, being open to those moments. Notebooking is the ultimate freedom. What joy@
Hummingbirds have always been little miracles to me as well. I would have gasped too. How beautiful. I love that notebooking allows them to gasp through their writing.
I didn’t know that about hummingbirds. How do they make that long, long journey? Amazing! And I can see that your students would sit with mouths open in awe after hearing that. I love hearing about the excitement, and about your own hummingbird! “help them view their world as something worth writing about” – so right!
I loved that essay in Katherine’s book and what an experience for you as a teacher as you shared it with your students and received that kind of reaction. Being open to moments is something I constantly work at. What a great the other night. Thank you for moderating and organizing it all. Such great learning moments.
“To grow my young students into writers, I need to help them view their world as something worth writing about. ” I love this…it speaks to why you are such an effective teacher, my friend.
That is my mantra this year. My kids’ voices are important and they deserve to be heard. Thanks!
An audible gasp! What a moment! Thanks for sharing.
Love this post. I can picture you naming your hummingbird and watching for him. What a great picture you got of him. Sounds
Like your students are writing great stuff and not dribble!
This is beautiful, Margaret. Yes, to help our students “view their world as something worth writing about.” That is the goal, that is how we find “those small moments worth savoring and sharing.”
That’s awesome! Love it !!
Margaret, I am searching your site because I had a poem from you and I can’t find it. I guess i missed this SOL16 post so I would like to comment now. Your students’ reaction to the essay was an aha moment for them. In your classroom, you find the time to “help your students view their world as something worth writing about.” Writing the World is a topic that I am starting to explore with teachers so they can turn around and share the experience with students. You are a living example. Thanks. I love your short poem using my template.