March | 2022 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for March, 2022

Slice of Life: I Choose People

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged being mamére, family on March 21, 2022| 12 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

I have a to-do list. Don’t we all? And usually Sunday is set aside for the list. I want to start off Monday with a clean slate, at the very least with clean laundry. But yesterday that didn’t happen. And I need to be OK with it.

I chose people instead. After church I was invited to have lunch with a dear-to-my-family family. I accepted even though the list was waiting. The lunch was delightful and fun.

Home long enough to dash off a Slice of Life post, my daughter sent out a Help! message. Her toddler son’s ears were hurting. He was crying, and the baby woke up from her nap. I remember well the feeling of overwhelm as a mother of three, so off I went to help. The list could wait.

Now it’s early Monday morning. I scrambled out some lesson plans. I’ve got a rough draft of an article due today, and there are a few things left to do, but I’m going to take a walk, and start this week knowing that people (family) are more important than a list.

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Slice of Life #20: Tired Dancing Feet

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged dancing, Festival Acadiens on March 20, 2022| 7 Comments »

“I’m tired,” said Deborah. “We’ve been here all day. And John wants to stay to hear Cory, but I want to see Bonsoir Catin. If I do, though, I lose my dance partner.”

Oh, the woes of a music festival.

For two years, bands that normally play weekly have been banned. So what is a dancer to do?

It is a joyful problem to have. Who will we hear next? What stage is this band playing or do we want to take a food break? Look at art?

The Festivals Acadiens et Creoles has it all. Usually a festival that happens in the heat of October, this day in March was the absolute perfect weather. Sunny and 65. Doesn’t get better than that.

I was tired. My feet hurt. Post-pandemic wearies. All in the service to joyful dancing. Let the dust fly!

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Slice of Life: Symbols

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged charm bracelet, grandmother, The Slowdown on March 19, 2022| 7 Comments »

I wasn’t going to write today. My tired body and weary mind said, “Nope. You are all out of gas.” Then I took a walk. While walking I listened to sweet Ada Limón on her poetry podcast The Slowdown. More than the poem she read, I was inspired by her introductory words. She said, “There are symbols everywhere.” I took that line and mused on it. This is what I dictated into my Notes app (with some revision).

There are Symbols Everywhere

No one noticed
I wore my grandmother’s bracelet–
charms with each grandchild’s name
engraved, missing Beth, the youngest
born too late to make it onto the chain
before Nene’s death. I wonder
if she wore the tinkling charms
placing me in the center of her circle
a symbol of her love for us,
or a symbol of God,
family, humanity?
It is a symbol
nevertheless
to me, to me.

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Poetry Friday: Spring Triolet

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Irene Latham, student poetry, triolet on March 18, 2022| 10 Comments »

My drive to my schools changes with the seasons. In fall, the sugarcane is tall and takes my attention. In spring, these fields are fallow, and some become meadows of golden wildflowers. Horses roam. I wish I had taken a picture, but I’m usually on a strict time schedule.

Last week my student Chloe and I played with the triolet form, inspired by this Irene Latham poem, Triolet for Planting Day. It was a more challenging form than I thought it would be.

Triolet for Field and Breeze
When Field awakens to glimmering gold,
Breeze gallops upon green waves.
An ember mare nuzzles her foal
when Field awakens to glimmering gold,
and readies itself for a front of cold,
with frolics over winter’s graves.
When field awakens to glimmering gold,
Breeze gallops upon green waves.
Margaret Simon, draft

Spring Triolet
Spring colors over winter’s greed.
The rain fills all the holes.
Marshy areas buy blankets of reed.
And spring colors over winter’s greed.
Birds come home, now flight freed.
Out comes the little moles.
When spring covers winter’s greed,
The rain fills all the holes.
Chloe, 6th grade

The Progressive Poem Schedule is Complete. Click here to grab the schedule.

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Slice of Life #17: Thankful Thursday

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged full moon, wood duck house on March 17, 2022| 8 Comments »

Three Things I’m Thankful for This Thursday:

We have a wood duck house near the bayou in our backyard. This is the third year we have watched this amazing process. On the roof of the nesting box my husband built, he placed a Ring doorbell camera. It is activated by motion. He cleaned out the house and prepared for a new season in late January. It didn’t take long for a wood duck couple to find it and start laying eggs. Counting the number in this clutch (close to 20), it seems there may have been two hens laying the eggs. The hen started sitting on the eggs on March 1st. Every day I get multiple alerts “There is motion at your wood duck house.” She leaves twice a day to feed. She preens her feathers incessantly and turns the eggs. We are hopeful the recent freeze did not affect this clutch. They are due to hatch around March 28, so stay tuned.

One of my favorite things, a close second to seeing a rainbow, is a bright sun burst through a cloud. And with the bare branches of winter trees, this image fills me with hope.

Last night I attended church with a soup supper and good discussion. We prayed for Ukraine which feels like so little in such a horrible situation. When we were leaving, the full moon was high. I am grateful for my church family, for good food, and for peace in my community.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Reflection

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, Molly Hogan, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on March 16, 2022| 16 Comments »

Is it always the right time for reflection? The newness of the year has passed. In my spiritual life, it’s Lent which is a time of reflection. And the season is changing. But really, reflection should be an ongoing practice. Taking a look at what was in order to prepare for what is to come.

Reflection in a photograph is different. In a way this sort of reflection shows what is in a different light, new position. Molly Hogan is a writing partner, teacher, blogger who takes amazing photographs and offers them freely to this writing community. Take a minute to reflect and muse on this photo by Molly. Write whatever comes in the comments and leave encouraging comments for others.

You criss.
I cross,
and together,
we bridge.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Slice of Life: Grey is the New Blonde

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Grey hair, The Isolation Journals on March 15, 2022| 22 Comments »

I don’t remember who introduced me to Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals email. Each week a prompt from a well-known writer is featured. This week the prompt comes from Elizabeth Benedict:

Hair is elemental. It can define us, confine us, refine us, and when we’re faced with losing it, through age or illness, it can undo us.
Write about your relationship to your hair: how it shapes your own self-image. How others see you. Or how, when you lost your hair or changed it, you learned something—about yourself or someone else.
Elizabeth Benedict, Isolation Journal #186

I started letting my hair go grey a few years ago. I had gotten to a point where I could color my hair and within just a few short weeks, the white strands around my temple reappeared. All my life I have told myself I wanted white hair like my grandmother. But when it came time to stop fighting the change, I wasn’t sure how. I decided to go cold turkey and totally stop coloring my hair.

My hair is pretty much all grey and white now, but I don’t see it that way. To me, it still looks blonde in the mirror. I am shocked by photos of me that show such stark white.

People in general compliment my hair color. Who knew that so many like grey hair? Google grey hair and you get an article from Glamour titled “Oyster-Gray Hair is the Coolest New Color Trend.”

My stylist recommended a purple shampoo to use once a week. At Christmas a friend “complimented” the lavender in my hair. As if it was purple on purpose. Yikes! So I cut back on the purple shampoo.

I think most women have a love/hate relationship with their hair. I grow it out then cut it short. Go all one length, then layers. But most of all I am grateful for my hair. I finally look like my dear grandma, Nene.

What is your relationship with your hair?

Me with “Cat in the Hat”, our librarian.

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Slice of Life #14: Jamboard Quotes

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Happiness, inspirational quotes, jamboard on March 14, 2022| 13 Comments »

I teach different groups of gifted kids, so I try to find ways to connect us. One of those is by blogging. Each week my students write a Slice of Life and comment on each other’s blog posts on Fanschool (formerly Kidblog).

Another collaborative project is our daily quote of the day. We often pull quotes from the 365 Days of Wonder, a companion to the book Wonder by R.J. Polacio. My first student of the day begins the Jamboard. We recently got the use of a Promethean, so she pulls it up on the board and taps out the words with the pen. Together we choose a background image. And throughout the day, each student adds a personal response to the quote. Their response also goes in their notebook as a creative notebook page they can decorate for themselves.

I love this little ritual for a few reasons. One, it gets us talking first thing, analyzing the quote, thinking about what it means, and sharing our responses. But I also love how my students are influenced by the positive message in the quote. They are just happier when we do this. And that makes me happy, too.

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Slice of Life #13: Leo’s World

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged being mamére, pretend play on March 13, 2022| 9 Comments »

In Leo’s world,
a dog leash becomes
a mountain climber’s harness.
A mallet for the xylophone: his pickaxe.
A peg board
full of colorful pegs
is a birthday cake for you.
He sings “Happy Birthday to Momma.”
She smiles then blows.
We are all players
in Leo’s world.

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Slice of Life #12: After Irene Latham

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Artspeak, Irene Latham, student poems, teaching poetry on March 12, 2022| 6 Comments »

On Fridays with my 6th grade gifted kids, we unpack a poem. We discuss everything from form to figurative language, assign tone and theme, and write a poem in response. This is my favorite lesson of the week. The Promethean Board with the annotation tool makes it even better.

Yesterday we focused on Irene Latham’s spring poems. She posts a video each week designed for homeschoolers, but it works for me, too. This week we watched this video:

Using Irene’s Art Speak Padlet, we located the poems she highlighted and selected one to unpack. My first group chose “because every day is a symphony in spring.” So many things to see, imagery, personification, word choice, rhyme…

When yellow rings,
green cannot await
its return.
As white fades
in discord,
yellow rings.
Once again
as purple, pink
orange, and red
splash the fields.
Jaden, 6th grade

When green season
arrives,
the rainbow comes out
from every direction
and all around
you.
Red triangles grow with yellow spots
on green string,
orange sky falls
and the orange sky rises.
Yellow lights
shine through the heavy white marshmallows,
green spikes
poke out of the ground.
The sky’s blue
falling down in may,
with purple and pink petals
that have been waiting for
this season.
Green season,
green season,
full of delight
and color.
Katie, 6th grade