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DigiLitSunday: Crafting Digital Media

Posted in Digital Learning, Photography, Teaching, Writing, tagged #DigiLitSunday, creative process, digital media, Digital photography on August 14, 2016| 8 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

The crafting of digital media has never been so accessible to everyone. With only an iPhone and wifi, I’ve been taking videos of the flooding around my house, keeping family and friends informed with the touch of a button. (We are safe and dry at this time.)

And some have used this accessibility to create humor around this crazy disaster.

Found on Facebook

I have enjoyed playing with my own digital photos in apps like Word Swag. This is a photo of tree bark, and I added a quote.

Some images just lend themselves to contemplation and creative thinking. I took this picture from my balcony looking through the tall windows in my house. You can see the light reflection on the window and the flood waters beyond.

Using Canva, I made this digital poem.

To lead my students to digital creativity and crafting, I try it myself.

I am interested in exploring the thinking process during the creation of digital media. What questions do students ask? What appeals to them and why? What is the deeper meaning within the image?

When my students design digital media, I ask them to share their inner thinking. By asking about the process,I motivate my students to make intentional choices. Reflection on a creative process is important. Reflection can lead to self-discovery along with inspiring the wonder of others.

How will you lead your students through intentional digital creation? Please join the conversation by linking your blog posts below.

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Celebrating Resurrection Fern

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Photography, Writing, tagged Diane Mayr, dog walk, live oaks, photo poem, resurrection fern on August 6, 2016| 6 Comments »

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

I take a walk in my neighborhood. One of the gifts of living in South Louisiana are the live oak trees. We have been getting rain every day this summer. It helps to keep temperatures reasonable, in the 80’s rather than the 90’s, and it resurrects the resurrection fern.

This morning the sun was up and glowing on the fern. I often refer to this phenomenon in my poetry. A word search on my blog turned up 9 results. To celebrate the fern today, I am re-using the lines in a photo-poem.

My senses awake like resurrection fern after the rain,

Grandmother Oak holds her jewels
of resurrection fern and Spanish moss
like modest ornaments.

Fern glistens in the emerging sun.

Her branches open wide for resurrection fern.

Being present is easy
when the light shines
on resurrection fern
making shadows to
fascinate me.

Live oaks reveal God’s name,
open resurrection fern.

I also found this poem gift from Diane Mayr.

Image by Diane Mayr

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Instagram Found Poem

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, tagged Bonne Terre Cottage, found poem, Instagram on August 5, 2016| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with my kind friend, Tara at a Teaching Life.

When I am in need of inspiration, I take a break and check my social media feeds. Maybe this is really just distraction, but today I followed the yellow brick road to a poem from posts on Instagram.

Rainbows over Bonne Terre farm in Breaux Bridge posted by my friend Jen. Click to visit her B&B page.

Ominous sky,
Rain,
Tall cane,
Summer day.

Fat caterpillar
crawling up
Up,
Up.

The one
I’m always becoming
has caught me
again and again.*

A surprise
around every corner.
A rainbow
named Sparkle,
Endless
fascination
inside
a life.

I can’t wait
to bloom.

–Margaret Simon

*Glennon Doyle Melton

Photo by Dan Spiller.

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What Nature Knows

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged mbuntu, nature poem, New Castle Lake on June 17, 2016| 8 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Carol’s Corner.

Deer in woods near New Castle Lake.

I’m feeling a little guilty sitting on the porch on the lake in Mississippi surrounded by my loving family and a blanket of warmth (highs already reaching upper 90’s). There is so much happening in the world that feels out of control, out of my reach of consciousness. And yet I look at nature and see the connections.

On my drive here to my parents’ house, I listened to podcasts. On the TED radio hour episode titled Becoming Wise, I heard the word mbuntu. In this story, South African Boyd Varty speaks about how animals already know this concept, that I am because we are.

I think we all need more mbuntu in our lives. We need to turn our focus on each other to be fully who we are.

The kayaker doesn’t look up
to see me watching him,
seeing how his body,
his paddle,
the water are one.
Stroke right, stroke left
sends a ripple from the water
to the trees,
where light dances like fine feathers.

Branches spread from bald cypress
to shade the grass,
hide the tree frog,
nest the swallow.
A bird calls
Here-a-here-a-here.
Cicadas buzz
like maracas at a Spanish festival.
The sun rises
to the sound of Samba.

–Margaret Simon

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Slice of Life: Are you Bored Yet?

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged blueberry picking, summer on May 31, 2016| 16 Comments »

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

I just got off the phone with my mother-in-law who asked me if I was bored yet. I laughed. Well, I did clean the grout on the bathroom floor. Does that mean I’m bored?

Actually, my summer list is long and growing. This morning I accomplished one of my goals, blueberry picking. I do this every year the week after school gets out because this is the time when the blueberries ripen. In 2014, I wrote a poem about this ritual that begins with…

Some things wear their becoming,
like this blueberry, for example,
plump and perfectly indigo
surrounded by pinky-red brothers and sisters,
it boasts to be chosen
falls easily into my palm
joyfully plinks the plastic bucket.

See the rest of the poem here.

My friend Suzanne came along. She couldn’t believe she had never done this before. It was fun to share the joy of fresh blueberries with her. Here is the Facebook page for Bayou Blues Blueberry Farm.

A Painteresque view of me picking blueberries.

Blueberry sky

Kitchen brightened by fresh fruit and fresh flowers.

Slowing down, enjoying simple things, and savoring summer days. No, I’m not bored yet.

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Poetry Friday: Joy

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged joy, Kim Douillard, nature poem on May 27, 2016| 9 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Julie at The Drift Record

Photo by Kim Douillard

The Butterfly

touched my outstretched hand
for only a millisecond,
yet left behind
a tingle

on my sensitive,
scarred skin.
I kept my arm
outstretched
waiting,

watching
this fluttering yellow kite
dart through the goldenrod
Daddy grew from seed.

How could he have known
when he sowed and watered
that at this moment
when I needed it most

A butterfly would
leave Joy
on my outstretched hand?

Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

Reflection: Yesterday, I wrote about touch. I saw this amazing photograph on Kim Douillard’s post this morning. All day the gift of touch has been on my mind. Even the slightest touch of a butterfly can wrap us in a moment of Joy. What else is there?

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DigiLit Sunday: Intention

Posted in Digital Learning, Photography, Writing, tagged intention, Katherine Bomer, Summer reading on May 22, 2016| 7 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

The school year has ended for me. The end isn’t a celebration for me. I try to feel excited about summer, but my heart is hurting. I miss my kids. I wonder what they are doing. I miss our daily connection. I hear their voices in my head. Eventually this fades, and I fit into my days like they were meant for me.

This weekend in order to tender the depression I know is coming, I traveled home to my parents’ house on the lake. This is a beautiful place to reflect, read, and relax.

While at the lake, these Canada geese hatched five goslings.

Teachers need this time as much as our students do. Time to not worry about the next lesson or the necessary evaluations. Time to look out at nature and just be present.

This is my intention: Presence.

My other intention is professional reading. I have started Katherine Bomer’s book The Journey is Everything. What I love about this book is Katherine writes as if she is speaking directly to me. Her tone is easy and conversational as she marvels in the wonder of the essay. I think her book will transform me personally as a writer as much as it does me as a teacher. The very things I love about writing this blog, writing to know what I’m thinking, is central to her theory about essaying. I grabbed the following quote to keep.

In order to read with more intention, I will be joining a book study group. Let me know in the comments if you want to join us. I am planning a Twitter chat with Katherine Bomer for later in the summer, so stay tuned.

If you have written a DigiLit blog post this week, please click the link below.

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Slice of Life: Saturated

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Annie Dillard, Bayou Teche, nature poem on May 3, 2016| 18 Comments »

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

Emerging from 30 days of poetry, words eluded me. I looked outside for inspiration. With my camera in hand, I captured the natural meaning of the word saturated.

Reflections in the flood by Margaret Simon

After three days of incessant rain, I am saturated.
The ground below is just a shadow.
My words are hiding there.

Resurrection Fern by Margaret Simon

Fern glistens in the emerging sun.
Beauty finds me
speechless.

Lizard face-off
by Margaret Simon

Like these lizards,
face to face
puff up and show their true colors,
I dive back in,
searching for the light.

Bayou Sunspot
by Margaret Simon

When I am not even trying, poetry finds me. In reflection of her month-long poem-a-day writing, Violet Nesdoly posted this quote from Annie Dillard.

Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. – Annie Dillard

I turn to poetry when I feel inadequate. When I’m not sure what to write, creating a verse moves me forward. So here I am again, no challenge, no poem-a-day, just me, opening the page, and giving freely, so my writing will not turn to ashes.

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NPM16 #28: Dragonfly Eyes

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged dragonfly, haiku, nature poem on April 28, 2016| 9 Comments »

dragonfly eyes by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

Rest your agile flight
on a sunbeam, look about

with dragonfly eyes.

While I was attempting to get a photo of bees that are extremely active in a flowering tree, this dragonfly lit upon an African iris. I had the telephoto lens on. I was so excited that I captured such an amazing close-up. So clear I could see the eyes of the dragonfly.

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NPM16: #25 Ode to April

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged Kim Douillard, nature poem, odes on April 25, 2016| 3 Comments »

Magnolia

Heading outside for some well-needed Vitamin N; Kim Douillard posted about this necessary vitamin here, and invited us to post photos from our outings. So this post with be a photo ode as well as a poetic one.

To the tune of the lawnmower
and the cardinal at the birdbath,
April harmonizes
and paints the air
with buzzing bees
and wispy contrails.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow flowers

April celebrates Cathy’s birthday;
She shows me how to
stop and smell the flowers.
She names them for me:
“Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
is deep purple yesterday,
violet today,
and white tomorrow.”

pineapple guava

April holds a pineapple guava
ripe with red nectar
while the cashmere bouquet
hides its treasure
beneath wing-like leaves.

cashmere bouquet

April rains make a gentle waterfall
of a mere coulee, a watering hole
for passing dogs in the park.

April is as I imagine heaven,
bright with new light,
flowing on the breeze
a kite with strings
made of flowers.