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Archive for the ‘Slice of Life’ Category

SOLC2019 Day 1 and Poetry Friday: Poetry of Place

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged , , on March 1, 2019| 17 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life
Poetry Friday round-up is with Linda at Teacher Dance.

Today is the first day of March, so you know what that means: The annual March Slice of Life Challenge at the Two Writing Teachers!  I will be writing a blog post every day and linking it up to Two Writing Teachers.  What’s the point?

  • Writing every day is an important discipline for a writer and for a teacher of writing.
  • Connecting to other teacher-writers inspires and informs my teaching and writing, and I usually make new friends along the way.
  • There are prizes! 

I first met Jen Vincent through Kate Messner’s Teachers Write, a virtual summer camp for teachers who want to write.  If I remember correctly, we did a Google Hangout with other writers and read a section of our work.  I further connected with Jen through blogging and Twitter and met up with her at NCTE in 2014.  These connections are invaluable to me as a teacher and a writer.

One day I saw that Jen was teaching a workshop.  Silly me, I thought it was virtual, so I replied to her message on Facebook, “I want to come.”  Since Chicago and South Louisiana are pretty far apart, that was not feasible, but Jen thought of a way.  She created a virtual workshop.

We met one Saturday morning by Zoom meeting.  She led me through an exercise from Teachers Write by Tracey Baptiste.  We made a graphic organizer in our notebooks and labeled three places we had been recently. We then divided each column into two columns. On one side we wrote descriptions about the places and the other side we wrote emotions we felt about the places.

I chose school, dance lessons, and a restaurant where we go dancing.  I decided to connect the three places with the thread of dancing.

Dancing Days

I dance through my days…

Halls of smiling teachers
greet my wobbly walk
weighed down with backpack,
lunch bag and Yeti cup.
Miss Marie says, Show me that grandbaby!
After we view the latest pic on my phone,
I dance down the hall to my classroom.

At Dance Around the World studio,
bright purple walls of mirror on mirror
reflect my partner and me.
Miss Lou says, Right. Left. Back step.
We follow along,
find our balance–
weightless in a jitterbug twirl.

I dance my way to Friday night,
Nouveau String Band at Joie de Vivre,
wooden floors echo the sounds
of greetings, giggles, and two-steps.
Buck says, This waltz is for you.
The weight of the week disappears
to the beat of fiddle, mandolin, and drum.

(c) Margaret Simon

This workshop was a test run for Jen for her new Patreon page, Story Exploratory.  If you’d like to find more ways to write, I highly recommend Jen as an instructor. You can view this workshop and others by visiting Jen’s patreon page, Story Exploratory.

 

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Slice of Life: A New House for Wood Ducks

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged , , on February 26, 2019| 10 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

Living on the Bayou Teche has many benefits.  In the fall we joined the T.E.C.H.E. Project, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of the Bayou Teche.  In January, my husband Jeff attended one of their workshops on wood duck houses.  When he came home and started talking about it, I knew this was something we needed to do.  But the idea brewed for a while until I got a text from a friend who lives downstream.  She had set up a Ring camera in her wood duck house and a hen had come in.  She sent me the video, and I was sold.

The next day we toured her wood duck set up, and Jeff said, “We can do this!”  He found the wood he needed and got to work.  We took a trip to Costco to buy the Ring device.  It’s intended for use as a doorbell.  So genius!  It connects through your Wifi and sends motion detection with video to your phone.  What will they think of next?!

This weekend Jeff finished the house and got the pole in the ground.  We set up the Ring device and had it all ready by 4:00 PM on Sunday.

On Monday morning while I was hurriedly getting ready for school (I always run late on Monday!), I got an alert on my phone, “Movement detected at the wood duck house!”  Already!

Sure enough, a hen had come inside and posed for the camera.  When we looked outside, though, we noticed Buzz, our outside cat guarding with watchful eye.  “On Jump Day, Buzz will be in the shed,” Jeff said.  Jump Day happens on the day after the eggs hatch.  All the little ducks jump out to the water.  I’m so glad we invested in the camera, so we can keep an eye on this whole process.

 

 

Buzz keeps an eye on the wood ducks.

 

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Slice of Life: Word Group Love Poems

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged , , , on February 19, 2019| 16 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

 

On Valentine’s Day last Thursday, I challenged my students to write a love poem without using the word love.  On Facebook I had read Charles Ghinga’s poem for his wife Debra.  I used it as a mentor text.

YOU ARE THE MOON

(for Debra)

You are the moon.
My only one.

You bring light
Where there was none.

©Charles Ghigna

After we read this poem, we brainstormed a list of things in nature that could serve as a metaphor as moon does in Charles’ poem.  I pushed my students to be specific.  Some of the more interesting things they listed:

sunflower
lily pads
stars
swans
sea eagle
grass
northern lights

Page of word groups from Writing Poetry From the Inside Out by Sandford Lyne.

 

I used a poetry resource by Sandford Lyne called Writing Poetry from the Inside Out. In this book, Sandy writes about “Poem Sketching” with word groups.  The back is full of pages of word groups.  I photocopied one of these pages to give to my students.  Each student chose a word group to write from.

Magic happened.  Was it writing about love without using the word? the model poem from Charles? the word groups from Sandy? or the magic that happens when writing in a safe community?

We cut out construction paper hearts and wrote our poems on them to give to someone special.  I gave mine to Madison because I used a quote of hers.  Chloe gave hers to me, probably because I loved it.  And Madison gave hers to Chloe.  Poetry gifts from the heart.

Love poem gift from Chloe glued into my notebook.

You can read more poems on our kidblog site. 

Journey They Will Take

Two dolphins
under the sea
two deer
in the woods
and
the northern lights
watching
the four animals
coming together
On the journey they
will take.

Chloe, 3rd grade

I think your feelings for me

are a midnight walk

where it’s easy to get lost.

My feelings for you are as bright as stars

when I’m alone.

I’m a neighborhood of sadness,

a pool of cries,

an ocean of regret.

Our feelings are as wild as animals.
by Jayden, 5th grade

My poem for Madison:

She says, “Did you know the sea eagle
has a wingspan of eight feet?”
I write it down in my notebook
realizing that her knowledge
opens the surface
of our classroom
like the blossom of a tulip.
Digging into depths
of learning
makes everyday
as fascinating
as the sea eagle.

–Margaret Simon

 

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Slice of Life: Responding to Quotes

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged , on February 12, 2019| 8 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

 

In my classroom, we pick a quote of the day and write it on a clean notebook page.  Sometimes the quote leads to writing, but not always.  As I write alongside my students, I find the quotes influencing the flow of my pen. As I gear up for the March Slice of Life Challenge, I like that I can find inspiration for writing in quotes.

From my notebook page:

The opposite is also true, Pablo, that everything real is imagined. All meaning comes from our past experiences. Take this writing pen, for example.  I watch the teal blue ink flow onto the page.  I know that when I form these motions these letters will be created. The practice of my writing creates the writing before me. 

Imagine the tiny seed that lies beneath the earth grows minute by minute into a flower you will notice in spring. 

Everything you can imagine is real
as
the
ink
here
as
my
hand
moves
as
real as everything you can imagine.

I can’t stop writing skinny poems.  The rhythm of them.  The simplicity.  See directions and more skinny poems here. 

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Slice of Life: Poems and Art Collage

Posted in Creativity, Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged , , on February 5, 2019| 15 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

 

Last week I collaborated with artist Marla Kristicevich on a workshop for teachers designed around poetry and art collage.  The workshop was part of the Arts in Education professional development series held at the Acadiana Center for the Arts.

After I presented about finding elements of poetry in my poem “I am a Beckoning Brown Bayou,” Marla shared how she had taken words from 3 different poems from my book Bayou Song, and circled words that represented an element of art.  She then created a magazine collage to reflect those words and images.  While Marla’s complete presentation was in a PowerPoint slide show, the part that touched me were the amazing and beautiful collages she had created from my words.

Marla’s collage from interpreting the poem There is Always.

We had 12 dedicated teachers attend, and they enjoyed the time to sit and create with materials from magazines, painted paper, and other scraps.  The collages were varied and lent new meaning to the poems we worked with.

Then I led the teachers in writing their own poem by gathering new words from their own collages and selecting a form to use.  My hope is these teachers will take what they learned, their joy of playing with words and art, and bring it into their classrooms, but more than that, my poet’s heart was touched by the way my poems from Bayou Song led to more poems.

Collage from “There is Always” by Cissy Whipp.

 

Cissy’s Poem

Dance/Nature Triptych

I.

My dance is in the way
the leaves calmly curl and crinkle
under my feet.

II.

My dance is in the water
rippling, rising, rushing
around my ankles.

 III.

My dance is in the place
between land and water –
the muddy, mysterious marsh.

 

Finding the poem inside.

 

Kay chose the I Am form to use when her collage revealed things about herself.

Kay’s collage from the poem There is Always.

Hands Up High

Kay Couvillon

I am fiery red in summer beach walks,
I become lavender peaceful
with restorative yoga.

I hold my
hands up high
to the lights of
love, trust, dance, and
cold beer.

I am an
E. Broussard eagle
in awe of the
bald eagle’s nest.

I sway in the
wind of the leaves after
hibernating when I feel like
torn cardboard.

I love red, pink, and scented
geraniums in clay pots from
Mother Earth.

 

 

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Slice of Life: I Am

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching on January 29, 2019| 9 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

I enjoy learning from other teacher-writers who post on Slice of Life as well as on Poetry Friday.  That’s how I met Molly Hogan.  She blogs at Nix the Comfort Zone.   A few Fridays ago she posted a beautiful original I Am poem.  Her ideas for this poem came from poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, which is a book I have and value “freeing your life with words.” (Only $3.99 at Abe Books)

When I read Molly’s poem, I decided immediately to use it as a mentor text for my students.  We read the poem and noticed so many metaphors.  Using colored pens to underline the poetic devices, one of my students said, “This is a very colorful poem,” and she meant that literally.

I am granite grey
plain Jane, sturdy and dependable
but sometimes sunlight shoots across my surface
igniting flecks of mica and quartz
into quick showers of sparkles
here, then gone (Read the rest of the poem here.)

Following our reading and noticing and discussing, I asked my students to turn to a clean page and draw circles.  Oh, about 5-7 circles will do.  Then we read the poem again.  In the first part, she says “I am granite grey.”  What is granite grey? A color. Label one circle with color.

As we traveled through the mentor text, we filled in more circles: shape, tree, word, animal, nature, etc. We even made a split circle of inside and out.

During sacred writing time (10 minutes on the Zen Timer app), we filled in the circles with our own ideas and wrote a draft of our own poems.

I know that metaphor is a high-level concept that can take years for younger students to fully grasp, but I dare say that my students got it.  Their poems were long and beautiful.  Having this amazing mentor text helped greatly.  Thanks, Molly, for your inspiration.

Here’s a link to our kidblog site.  Please read and leave comments.  My students feel such pride when you do.  Thanks!

I Am…

I am pink,
chapped and worn,
supple and soft.

I stand on the base of a triangle,
stable, reasonable,
striving for perfection.

In my mind, I criticize–
a checklist of do’s and don’ts
a chapter of why I can’t be.

I am not like the oak
confident in its old age;
I am more of a willow,
seeking, bending in the breeze,
greening in spring.

I search for kind
in your eyes,
your song,
your words.

I do not hunt like the hawk;
I wait and watch like the heron
stepping carefully through the muck.

I am a magnolia blossom
open, fragrant but
easily bruised and brown.

Be soft with me.

(draft) Margaret Simon

 

From Wikimedia Commons

 

 

 

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Slice of Life: Kondo Monday

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged , on January 22, 2019| 7 Comments »

Read more slices at the Two Writing Teachers.

 

The advantage of having a big kitchen with lots of cabinets is that you have more places to clutter.  In my kitchen, not only do I have a junk drawer, I also have a junk cabinet.  It’s right at the end of the counter where I place my purse, so it often catches things I take out when I clean out my purse.  It catches mail I want to keep and old cell phones, a gift card or two, and so on.

On Monday, I had the day off.  I didn’t have much planned, but I definitely wasn’t planning to clean out the cabinet.  I’ve been hearing about the art of tidying up as professed by Marie Kondo.  I watched a few episodes at my daughter’s house.  I haven’t bought the book or embarked on any life changing goals of being more organized.

However, I was looking for something.  Tickets to an event this week.  I was sure they were in there, but when I started looking, stuff started to tumble.  And before I knew it, I was looking at a pile of “junk” on my kitchen counter.  I couldn’t leave it there, and I couldn’t put it all back, so I had to sort it all out.

Before…

I found some trash: receipts from two Christmases ago, expired credit card, punch cards from out of business yogurt shops, etc.

I found some treasures: a can of cash that we were collecting for our food pantry, the tickets I was looking for, a gift card to a nice restaurant, and a pair of earrings I had bought for a gift.

Sorting, tossing, finding, remembering…

This was cleansing and satisfying.  A really productive winter afternoon.  This weekend, the bathroom cabinet.

Do you enjoy cleaning out or do you put it off, like me, until the task forces itself upon you?

 

After.

 

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Slice of Life: Vision Board

Posted in Blogging, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged , on January 15, 2019| 9 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

 

What is your vision for 2019?  We really can’t know what the future holds, but we can think about what we want to do and be in the coming year.  I’ve never done a vision board before, and I can’t say that I am any kind of expert. I started when my students were working on One Little Word magazine collages.

Yesterday I made the necessary step to add more yoga into my life.  I signed up and paid for a class beginning in February.  And I put it in as a regular alert on my phone.

I’ve been making smoothies for breakfast ever since the winter break when my middle daughter visited.  She made a smoothie every morning and got me hooked.  My youngest daughter gave me a Magic Bullet blender in which the container converts to a cup with a top, so I can blend and go.  My typical recipe is quarter cup Greek yogurt, quarter cup oatmeal, half cup milk, teaspoon of flaxseed, half a banana, half an avocado (or Kale, if the avocado isn’t riper yet), and quarter cup blueberries (or strawberries). I am amazed at how full I feel after drinking it, and I’m not hungry until lunch.

My students worked this week on their one little word projects. I gave them options for creatively representing their words.  I also invited them to blog about their words.  I was moved by Madison’s post.  This 5th grader has the wisdom that I have longed for all my life.  She is comfortable in her skin.  I hope she will hold onto her values of Possibility.

This year, my word is possibility. I like this word because there is no such thing as completely impossible, they say, but I’ve added on it: but there is such thing as possible. Always try because if you don’t, if you lay down and let others control and use and block you from your goal, leave them. Always try. Never set a true goal that limits yourself- whenever you achieve one, go higher and higher, always trying. Have confidence. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The way it’s hard is what makes it a good challenge. Nothing ever comes easy, and it never should, or we’ll all be lazy and fat. Be aware of yourself, and don’t let yourself fall out of shape or routine or such just because you don’t feel like it even though it benefits you.

Because, as hard as it’ll seem…

It’s always

Possible.

(Blog post by Madison: to leave comments, click here.)

 

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Slice of Life: Happy New Year!

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged , on January 1, 2019| 10 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

Happy New Year!  On Friday, I posted about my art journal that I am using for scrap paper poems.  Often I am inspired to write while out and about.  This weekend I was driving to my parents’ home in Mississippi listening to On Being and watching for birds on the highway.  The muse hit, and I scratched out this poem in a tiny notebook I keep in my console.

We are all dizzy
tilting this way and that
speeding through our days
at 75 miles per hour.

We distract ourselves with distractions.
We cover noise with sound.

So look
at the egret, still and patient.
He flies on white wings
dragging his long stick-like legs
behind him.

(c) Margaret Simon

My wish for you in 2019:

Slow down.

Watch the birds.

Savor the sunset.

Speak to the moon.

Hold your loved ones close.

Know when to let go.

Live each day.

Laugh more.

See more.

Be more.

 

 

 

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Slice of Life: Santa Clauses

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged , , on December 18, 2018| 5 Comments »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

Yesterday I read aloud the book Santa Clauses to my students.  Written by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Chuck Groenink, Santa Clauses is a book of haiku for every day in December up to Christmas Day.

I read the opening author’s note: “Santa is a man of many talents.  He’s a toymaker, a reindeer trainer, a sleigh pilot, and a world traveler.  But did you know he is a poet?”

Chloe, 3rd grade, said Santa must’ve written the haiku and sent them to Bob Raczka to publish.  I agreed that seemed like a reasonable idea.  (I love having believers in my classroom.)

Of course, in response, we had to write our own Santa clauses.  Here are a few:

So warm at nighttime
I love eating my cookies
with tasty milk cups.

by Breighlynn, 3rd grade

Paper, ribbons, bows
wrapping love in a package
Open carefully.

Margaret Simon

Rudolf is happy
that history is alive
He will tell Santa.

by Chloe, 3rd grade

I am participating in #haikuforhope along with others on Twitter. My poem today was made in Word Swag from an Instagram photo from my friend Jen Gray.

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