Photography | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Daily Haiku #28

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #commonplacemarvels, #haikuforhealing, haiku-a-day on December 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

: Little blackbird fly;
Find in me a soaring joy
filling up the sky.
Margaret Simon
#haikuforhealing

Read Full Post »

Slice of Life: Walk on Dover Lane

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #commonplacemarvels, #haikuforhealing, Dover Lane, haiku-a-day, nature, walking on December 27, 2016| 6 Comments »

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

Before the rain on this grey winter day, I took a walk down Dover Lane where my parents live. Taking a walk in a different place makes me more alert to the #commonplacemarvels. I was also looking for writing inspiration. On this 27th day of Mary Lee Hahn’s haiku challenge, my inspiration is waning. I know as a writer and because Mary Oliver says so, we must pay attention.

I stopped to capture images to later inspire writing. Haiku can be challenging in its constraint of 5, 7, 5 syllables, but in that constraint, I can find a nugget that says everything.

Old, cracked, leaning in
open to new life, fresh roots
nature’s the sculptor

Tar trails twirl around
dancing on this walking path
road repair art

Read Full Post »

Thoughtful Promise Haiku #26

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhealing, haiku-a-day, Sahale snacks on December 26, 2016| 2 Comments »

Inspiration for writing can come from unexpected places. My brother-in-law’s family lives in Seattle, WA. His wife sent snacks for all of us. Sahale Snacks. Today’s haiku is a found haiku from the bag of pomegranate vanilla flavored cashews. Not only do they inspire poetry, they are yummy, too.

Happy Boxing Day!

Read Full Post »

Haiku Saves

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhealing, haiku-a-day on December 22, 2016| 1 Comment »

This angel statue was tucked in a small family cemetery on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. I was hoping she would inspire a haiku (or two).

My poetry writing friend Marion didn’t see this picture, but she was inspired to write an angel haiku rather than getting angry at the holiday traffic. When she arrived at our lunch spot, she handed me her poem.

angel choristers
made of Mississippi mud
little bits of love

Marion Rosser

Another writer-teacher-friend, Tara Smith, told me about how she lost her gingerbread man cookie cutter, so she made gingerbread angels. This haiku is in honor of Tara.

gingerbread angels
baked bits of heavenly love
savors of Christmas

Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

DigiLitSunday: Celebrate

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Photography, tagged field trip, Grand Village, Ms., Natchez, Natchez Trace, St. Francisville on December 18, 2016| 14 Comments »

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Celebration time is just around the corner. It’s moving in quickly with the cold front. My dining table is full of gifts and wrapping paper. Soon the gifts will be under the tree and my dining table will be clean and ready for family to gather. How will I ever get it all done? I ask myself this question every year, and every year, I manage to be ready for the celebration.

In our classrooms, the students are anxious and antsy. They have more difficultly focusing. When my colleagues and I began planning a field trip for December 16th, I thought we were nuts to do it so close to Christmas break when the weather (literally and figuratively) changes daily. It turned out to be the perfect time.

On Friday, the weather was cool but not cold, cloudy but not raining as we set out at 6:30 AM on a charter bus heading to St. Francisville, Louisiana to the Myrtles Plantation, one of the top haunted mansions in the US. The stories of the “little spirits” both intrigued and frightened my students. I have to admit I was a little unsettled when I heard ticking coming from the old desk I was standing next to.

Our next stop was the cemetery of Grace Episcopal Church. This cemetery is a beautiful place with draping oaks and old graves. Our students made gravestone rubbings that we will later use for a research/writing project.

Gravestone rubbings at Grace Episcopal Cemetery, St. Francisville, LA.

Grace Episcopal Cemetery

Taking students outside the classroom is an effort in planning, making reservations, arranging payment, yet every time we do it, I realize how important it is to get us outside and into the world. We traveled northeast to Natchez, MS. to visit the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, run the mounds, and learn about the ways of the original Americans. We walked the old Natchez Trace and visited an old inn.

Indian mounds at the Grand Village, Natchez, MS.

Walking the old Natchez Trace.

When we return from our winter break, we will revisit this field trip and turn our learning experience into digital posts and presentations. But, for now, I celebrate the opportunity to take students out of the classroom and into an earlier time and place to learn and play together.

I will be taking a holiday break from DigiLitSunday. Come back on January 8th.

Please add your own DigiLit posts with the link button below.

Read Full Post »

Haiku-a-day #12

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhealing, Bayou Teche, haiku-a-day on December 12, 2016| 1 Comment »

Read Full Post »

Why I Write: Collection of Quotes

Posted in Photography, Writing, tagged #WhyIWrite, National Day on Writing, NCTE on October 20, 2016| 4 Comments »

Today is the National Day on Writing! On Sunday, I wrote my top ten list and collected posts from bloggers on this topic here.

As I read blog posts, I was inspired to collect quotes and make them into images. You can use these images for Twitter posts or on your own blog posts. Spread the love of writing today!

Image by Margaret Simon. Quote by Ruth Ayres.

Image and quote by Catherine Flynn

Image by Pixabay
Quote by Michelle Haseltine

Image enhanced by Picmonkey. Photo and quote by Kim Douillard

Image by Pixabay. Quote by Julieanne Harmatz.

Read Full Post »

Celebrating All is Well

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Photography, tagged celebrating, sugarcane harvest on October 8, 2016| 4 Comments »

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

I took this video from my classroom window this week. Our school lies in the middle of sugarcane fields. The harvest season is here. The air is filled with the sweet smell of sugarcane. I celebrate fall, the cool sweet air, and the harvest. All is well.

My husband took this picture on Sunday after all the guests had gone, after a marvelous wedding night, after sending the happy couple off on their honeymoon. I celebrate the happiness of family and the quiet peace of knowing all is well.

Wayne, my son-in-law, sent this picture of him and Katherine in the mountains of Costa Rica. All is well.

Read Full Post »

August

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, tagged August, hummingbird poem on September 2, 2016| 32 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Penny. Yee Haw!

I am glad that August is over. It was a rough month down here in South Louisiana, but the hummingbirds have come. There is hope for fall, even though there is a hurricane in the Gulf and temperatures hit 95 degrees today.

Photo and poem by Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

Slice of Life: Writing Free

Posted in Photography, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Brian Doyle, hummingbirds, Katherine Bomer, notebooks, student writers, The Journey is Everything on August 29, 2016| 13 Comments »

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.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »