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Celebrating Digital Connections

Posted in Blogging, Celebration Saturday, Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing on May 17, 2015| 7 Comments »

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

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Today I am combining posts, Celebration Saturday and DigiLit Sunday. This was a weird week because my students sporadically attended class due to all the end-of-the year stuff. This was my last official week with my students. This next week with be half days, splash days, awards days. I’ll spend time packing my room to move to another classroom. Such a bittersweet time of year, saying goodbye and taking inventory.

What I want to celebrate is connections.

Connections to the Community: Our 6th grade gifted students created a display at our local museum showing the wonders of Iberia Parish in art and poetry.

Mr. Al art and poems on display at the Bayou Teche Museum.

Connections to the World: On Monday, the local newspaper featured the 6th grade project and invited everyone to view the YouTube video.

Connections to parents: Some teachers hesitate to use Facebook to connect with parents. I am not friends with all of my parents, but the ones I am connected to appreciate and celebrate our connection. I’ve never had a parent abuse this venue.

Connections with other educators: I am not on Twitter much. I find it a bit overwhelming. But I have a small community of educators who tweet with each other. When someone tags my name, I feel delighted. The notification comes in on my phone. Like a text between friends.

Connections through blogging: Some days I don’t feel like writing. But knowing there is an audience waiting, I push myself to sit in the chair and “Just Do It.” Someone is always there to read, comment, and connect.

Cathy Mere and Julie Johnson led a Digital Makers Playground. The classes are over, but the connections continue. I’ve borrowed Carolyn Carr’s graphic she made about all the ways she connects digitally.

Digital Connections by Carolyn Carr

Connect with others about Digital Literacy:

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Spreading the SOL Love

Posted in Blogging, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #sol15, #TWTBlog, Bayou Warrior, Slice of Life Challenge on February 24, 2015| 9 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

I have been blogging since January, 2011. One discovery that has kept me going (teaching, writing, blogging) is the annual Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge in the month of March. This will be my 4th year taking the challenge along with my students. I am a believer in blogging. I have drunk the Kool-Aid.

I now have the best Professional Learning Community ever. These people are supportive of everything from surviving a bad day to winning awards. My cheering section is large. I want to spread the love.

Carolyn and I met about 5 years ago when we were both newbies in a school. Being a newbie can be uncomfortable, but Carolyn and I found each other and connected easily. Like minds, similar philosophies, everything to make for a lasting friendship.

Now Carolyn and I teach at different schools, but we try to have coffee every few weeks or so. Recently she was sitting in my kitchen looking at The New Yorker on the counter. She said, “You should submit a poem to this magazine.”

I said, “Yeah, right. In a million years.”

She said, “I challenge you!”

So I said, “I challenge you to start blogging and do the Slice of Life Challenge.”

She brought her laptop over on Monday, so I could show her a few pointers. “What should I write about?”

I said, “I don’t even know what I’m going to write about yet.”

Then we both cheered, because great minds think alike. We will write about each other!

Please welcome my friend Carolyn, the Bayou Warrior, to this amazing community. I know she will like it here.

I am truly humbled by her first post. Click here.

The blogging Bayou Warrior!

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Blue Birds Interview with Caroline Starr Rose

Posted in Blogging, Books, Digital Learning, Writing, tagged author interview, Blue Birds, Caroline Star Rose, verse novel on January 18, 2015| 12 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Boudreaux is Caroline’s furry friend.

One of the greatest gifts of Social Media is the connection my students and I can make to authors. Caroline Starr Rose blogs regularly about writing. Last year, I won a 30 minute Skype interview. My students asked her for a galley proof of her next novel. We received it in August. Vannisa, already a fan having read May B, read it immediately. I read it over the holiday break. What a wonderful story! Both Vannisa and I loved the characters of Alis and Kimi. We are amazed by Caroline’s way of making history come to life in her characters. After Colby Sharp of Nerdy Book Club and SharpRead, Vannisa wrote a 5,4,3,2,1 interview.

Can you tell me a little bit about the story of Blue Birds?

Alis and her family have left London to help establish a colony on the island of Roanoke. She is the only girl and lonely for a friend. Kimi watches the newcomers warily. The English killed her father and sister, but she’s curious about the girl. Alis and Kimi form a forbidden friendship that threatens to change both their worlds.

How did you manage to find all the information for the book?

I read a whole lot. I also asked experts to look over my work to see if I’d gotten things right.

What is your advice to authors writing a historical fiction book as accurate as yours?

Read, read, read. Be true to the times. But beyond the facts, think about emotions and feelings. Through the ages, these are the things that unite us.

Are you currently thinking about writing a new book?

I’m working on one now about the Klondike gold rush.

What is your advice to student writers like myself?

You have something unique to say. Your work can only improve if you keep at it! Don’t be in a hurry to be finished or move on to something new.

http://www.carolinestarrrose.com

This post is part of a week-long celebration in honor of the book Blue Birds.

Get this free quote with pre-order of Blue Birds

Author Caroline Starr Rose is giving away a downloadable PDF of this beautiful Blue Birds quote (created by Annie Barnett of Be Small Studios) for anyone who pre-orders the book from January 12-19. Simply click through to order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, IndieBound, or Powell’s, then email a copy of your receipt to caroline@carolinestarrrose.com by Monday, January 19. PDFs will be sent out January 20.

Add your Digital Literacy posts:

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Finding your One Little Word

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Teaching, tagged acrostic poetry, Emaze, OLW, One Little Word, tagxedo on January 4, 2015| 13 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

The Cyberspace Teacher Blogging space is full of Little Words. This is a wonderful tradition that I have been doing for three years. I want to pass this one to my students. I found Tara Smith’s OLW lesson for her 6th graders and put it on an Emaze to use with my students this week. I also used Mary Lee Hahn’s acrostic poem as a model for my students.

http://app.emaze.com/@AOFLCWZL/one-little-word

I plan to use this lesson on Monday and have the students Slice about their words on Tuesday at our blog site. You are welcome to use this presentation as well with your own students. Let me know if you do.

I made a Tagxedo with my word using all the synonyms that came up for me. I chose the tree as a symbol because the oak tree was my inspiration for my word.

I encourage you to try these activities with your students. Please join in the DigiLit round up with your link.

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Celebrating 500 Posts

Posted in Blogging, Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged blogging, teacher support on December 16, 2014| 15 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Today I am celebrating my 500th post! I have been blogging for about three and a half years, but only in the last year did I commit to blogging 5 days a week. I connect to The Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge on Tuesdays, Spiritual Journey Thursday, Poetry Friday, Celebration Saturday, and even started my own round up on Sundays, DigiLit Sunday.

This blogging business is making me braver. I have connected with some of the most supportive people on this earth. Some of my blog friends have become collaborators, some writing partners. On Sunday, I had two Google Hang-outs with fellow bloggers. The first group I met with is working on a presentation idea for NCTE 15. The second group was a writing group I was invited to join. My heart was full after these two meetings with like-minded people who are passionate about their work with students, teachers, and writing.

Whether you read regularly or sporadically, whether you subscribe or link up, whether I’ve met you face to face or only through comments, thank you for being here. Thank you for reading my thoughts and scribblings, for being supportive in any way, and for giving me this space to be myself.

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NCTE14 Revisited

Posted in Blogging, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Animoto, children authors, NCTE, Two Writing Teachers on November 25, 2014| 17 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Georgia Heard and Ralph Fletcher congratulate me!

I am having a hard time coming down from the high of NCTE14 in Washington, DC. To begin the weekend, I was honored at the Elementary Get Together for the Donald H. Graves Award for teaching writing. My acceptance speech is here. I was surrounded by notable writers Lester Laminack, Ralph Fletcher, and Georgia Heard. All three of them were kind and easy to talk to.

Selfie with Lester Laminack and Ralph Fletcher.

On Friday, I presented with my colleagues from the National Writing Project Professional Writing Retreat (2004). This was our 10 year reunion, and we talked about what keeps us writing. We created an acronym, STAMP, for Social Media, Time, Audience, Mentors, and Peers. Here is a link to our Emaze presentation.

Another highlight of my weekend was meeting so many authors. I passed Augusta Scattergood standing alone in the lobby, so I stopped and talked to her. She used to attend these events as a librarian and now she is an author. Her second book, The Way to Stay in Destiny, was available as a galley copy. I stood in line and was the last one to receive one. The guards at Scholastic did not want me to get it signed, but when we started waving to each other like silly school girls, they let me through.

Augusta Scattergood

Meeting fellow bloggers as long lost friends was a joy. We connected immediately and sought each other out at different sessions. We had dinner together with the Two Writing Teachers team on Saturday night and had a difficult time saying good night. We all wanted to continue the time together. Being in the company of kind, thoughtful teachers who think like I think and struggle like I struggle and love their students like I love mine was inspiring and heart warming. I feel like we have begun a long friendship as well as a strong professional connection.

Professional Book Exchange organized by Chris Lehman.

I made an Animoto video of all my pictures. I took along Jack, the lemur, for some of them. Jack is our class pet that Emily snuck into my school cart. He enjoyed NCTE as much as I did.

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Celebrating the Blog Community

Posted in Blogging, Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged Emaze, Hedwig, Kitlitoshpere on October 18, 2014| 6 Comments »

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

Today I am glowing a little brighter. My students and I enjoyed a few blog shout-outs this week.

My Spider zeno poem, along with a link to my Zeno Emaze was featured on Today’s Little Ditty.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater featured my student Emily’s Cloud Acrostic on The Poem Farm.
Donna Smith was inspired by my Emaze presentation to create her own fall poetry Emaze.

Hedwig’s story: A few years ago one of my students, who was a huge Harry Potter reader, was struggling with writing. He just wouldn’t. I was shopping at Barnes and Noble and decided on a whim to buy a stuffed owl, Hedwig from the Harry Potter series. Matthew became totally attached to the owl. Hedwig stood on his shoulder whenever he was writing.

This year, after Emily’s mother died, I decided to take Hedwig to my second school. Hedwig has been a comforter to Emily and has become a part of our classroom family. So much so that Emily made him a bed out of an empty tissue box. (Emily finished off the box after crying over her dog’s death this week. How much can one little girl take?) I celebrate today that this small little impulse purchase has brought comfort and meaning to my students.

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Digital Encouragement

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, tagged blog comments on September 21, 2014| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Comments encourage. They lift me up and propel me forward, like wind beneath my wings. I strive to be a good commenter, but it takes time. Time to read the blog post thoroughly. Time to reflect. Time to connect.

Selfishly, I love comments. In the classroom, I encourage them. My students are required to comment on at least 3 blog posts a week. They read each other’s posts, but I wish they would comment more. On Friday, Matthew read Tobie’s post about Harry Potter. Matthew loves Harry Potter. He sat at the computer and laughed and said, ” I love this post, especially the end where he says…”

I replied, “Don’t forget to comment.”

Matthew said, “Oh, I don’t have time for that. I have to write my own post.”

That is exactly how I feel! I usually post on Slice of Life Tuesdays, Spiritual Thursday, and Poetry Friday. Less frequently, I review books for It’s Monday: What are you Reading and Nonfiction Wednesday. I am also posting on Celebration Saturday and here today with DigiLit Sunday. That’s a lot of writing in a week. If I want and expect others to read my posts and leave comments, then I need to do the same.

The last few days, comments have supported me in the grief for a child’s mother, in the celebration of the NCTE award, and with the reading of my poem from Summer Serenity. Thank you, blogging friends, committed commenters. You sustain my writing. You comfort my soul. You are my friends. I hereby promise to be a better commenter.

Link up your DigiLit posts.

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Blogging Fever

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged Kidblog, student blogging on September 7, 2014| 14 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

My students have gotten the blogging fever. I did not expect this and am silently cheering. I am sharing our kidblog site with a colleague whose students are also posting. Also, two former students who are now in middle school are joining in. The site is getting lots of activity.

On my simple rubric for kidblog, my students have four requirements, each worth 10 points: Post 3 times, GUMS (Grammar, Usage, Mechanics, Spelling), 3 comments, and comments must be thoughtful and constructive. Here are the highlights:

1. Lots of posts! What are you reading? Slice of Life stories. Poetry Friday. My students are writing a lot. This must be good for them. I have seen great strides in just these first three weeks of school. They are adding details. They feel like their writing matters. They are using sentence structure and humor to make their writing more interesting.

2. I am using their posts to teach grammar, either in whole group or one on one. This is working. My students are realizing that grammar matters to the reader. They are noticing when other writers are not following grammar rules.

3. Sharing and caring! My students are getting to know the other students posting on our blog. They are relating, connecting, wondering.

How do I turn this activity into data? In this day of data-driven instruction, I want to find a way to track and analyze the progress of my students. I know it’s happening, but how do I prove it? I welcome your responses.

To read some of the many student blog posts, click here.
Please link up your own digital literacy post with Mr. Linky.

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Light on the Bayou

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, tagged #light, gifted education, PD for teachers, photography, student learning, Twitter, writing on July 13, 2014| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Today for DigiLit Sunday I have something on my mind about this internet PD community. I have tapped into so many teacher challenges this summer I run the risk of being overwhelmed. But instead I am fascinated and wonder what this may mean for my students and for the future of how we educate.

By participating in multiple online learning groups such as the Thinglink Teacher Challenge and Connected Learning (CLMOOC), I connect to other bloggers and find things that pique my interest. For example, Kim Douillard posted a weekly photo challenge in the CLMOOC Facebook group this week. Her blog site is Thinking through my Lens. I have a feeling Kim does not just use her phone for taking pictures, but that’s what I use. This week’s theme was #light. Just after I read her blog post, I took a walk outside to this amazing display of light.

Bayou morning photo by Margaret Simon

Did you say “Ah!”? Yeah, me too. That’s my world and sometimes I forget to appreciate it. So I uploaded my amazing bayou scene to Twitter and got this response from Carol Varsalona.

I will probably do this because I enjoy a challenge and especially one that makes me write. (Did I mention I am also doing Teachers Write camp with Kate Messner?)

So my Digital Learning question is this: How do we tap into student interests and create online learning environments for them to connect to and learn from? I teach gifted children. They have strong interest areas (obsessions, really). They are much more adept at computer skills than I am. Can we do this for them? Or is this being done and I don’t know about it? I did involve my students in the March Slice of Life Challenge put out by the Two (Six) Writing Teachers. They loved it. And for some, it was a deep learning experience.

Enter this conversation by leaving a comment. Should we have a Twitter chat or Google Hang out? I’ve never led one of those myself, but I’m willing to try.

Leave a link to your digilit post here.