Slice of Life | Reflections on the Teche

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Slice challenge #5: A Perfect Day

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Louisiana on March 4, 2018| 5 Comments »

What do you do with a perfect day?

Sky’s a clear blue… let’s canoe…bayou still…no wind…smooth strokes…sun setting slow…an orange glow behind the towering smoke stack…abandoned mill…concrete riprap…a nest for trash…discarded life tokens.

A distant roar…speed boat…they see us hanging at the edge…cut the motor……push, pull, turn…cross waves…speed on.

Crossing under the bridge…sun’s gone…sky darkens…paddle strengthens…then we hear it…a distant hoot…the owl swishes overhead…beginning his hunt…who-cooks-for-you-you-all familiar call…calling sunset’s end… pull to dock…warm glow of home.

The idea for this poetry format came from Poets and Writers The Time is Now Writing Prompts.

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Slice Challenge #3: Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Slice of Life on March 3, 2018| 10 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

Librarian Melissa Armentor as Cat in the Hat and Coach Regan as Sam I am. Fun picture day!

This week was Dr. Seuss week at two of my three schools. Each day had a theme. The walls were covered in Seuss-inspired art and quotes. At one school, the librarian was in costume each day.

Fun dressing up as Dr. Seuss characters.

On Friday, I sat next to Chloe, a 2nd grader, to help her write her second post for the March Slice of Life Challenge. She wanted to write about Dr. Seuss week. She is a huge fan. As I looked at blue feathers circling her head, I knew this was going to be a fun slice to help her with. She told me that her favorite book is “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Using some of the ideas from this book, I suggested she write a poem.

We collaborated on this poem but most of the words came from Chloe. I just typed them into a poetic looking form.

Dr. Seuss books are lots of fun.
You can read them in the sun.

Dr. Seuss books are the best thing ever.
They can trick you. They are clever.

Dr. Seuss books are kind of silly.
Like the one with crazy Billy.

Don’t know that book? Have some fun
And write one!

See Chloe’s complete post here. Please leave a comment.

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Slice Challenge #2: Poetry Friday What Animal are You?

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Animal in You, animal poems on March 1, 2018| 32 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

Poetry Friday round-up is with Renee at No Water River.

For a few days last week, most of my students attended the state Beta convention, so I had fewer students. I seized the moment to do something out of the ordinary.

One of my gifted teacher colleagues told me about the website Animal in You. This site has an online quiz that determines what animal you are most like.

Each student took the quiz. Then they wrote a blog post about their spirit animal. We also made masks on round cardboard discs. I had no idea how popular this activity would be. The news spread to the Beta kids, and they have been taking the quiz on their own time. It’s become a “thing.” I put the writing prompt into our padlet for Slice of Life challenge ideas.

This activity led to poetry. Here are a few student poems that emerged.

Eagles,
flying high,
touching the ocean blue sky
with their soft silk feathers.

Eagles,
Bird of Prey,
you are majestic but carnivorous,
helping us keep balance.

Eagles,
feathers soft as silk,
soar high and long
like love in my heart.

–Dawson, 4th grade

A note about Dawson’s writing: He wrote this on a scratch sheet of paper with words going all across the page, no form. Previously, Dawson’s poems have been silly and rhyming with little sense of poetic language. I held my tongue, knowing that more exposure would lead him, that I did not have to tell him about writing poems. I had to show him. The poetic format was done by me to show him his poem.

Roosters
Fierce and Strong
Protector of his home.
Fast like the wind
Soaring on land
With their butt feathers in the air.
Screaming,
“Predators over there!”

–Trace, 5th grade

My youngest writer, Chloe wrote about life as a lion.

If I was a lion I would like to play and jump.

If I was a lion I would have a big circle of friends

If I was a lion I would like to play in the tall grassy fields.

If I was a lion I would like to play fetch with my friends.

If I was a lion I would like to slurp the water.

If I was a lion I would sleep all day.

If I was a lion I would eat a lot of gazelles.

Wouldn’t it be fun to be a lion? What animal would you like to be?

–Chloe, 2nd grade

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Slice Challenge #1: Spiritual Journey through Music

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged Anglican Chant, Irene Latham, School People on March 1, 2018| 16 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

For more Spiritual Thursday posts, click over to Irene’s Live your Poem

Welcome to the first of 31 daily posts for the March Slice of Life Challenge. This is my 7th year to do this challenge, and every year I think I won’t make it through. Somehow I do.

Writing daily is a discipline I try to keep, but when met with a daily publishing deadline, it becomes more important somehow. Someone is waiting to hear from me. Someone is listening. Someone cares what I have to say.

Today is also the first Thursday of the month when a group of us who met through blogging come together to write about our spiritual journeys around a theme. This month Karen Eastland is hosting at Irene Latham’s blog. Her chosen theme is music.

Music is an integral part of my spiritual life. I’ve been in church choirs ever since I was a teenager. To me, singing a hymn is praying, loving, praising.

This poem is a golden shovel. The line of poetry that forms the right margin is from Irene Latham’s poem Music Teacher that is included in Lee Bennett Hopkins collection School People.

When I sing in the loft, the music fills my soul. I am transported and transformed. Last Sunday, I was given the opportunity to chant the Psalm. The chanting music is notated with a line of music at the top of the page. Each line of the psalm has symbols for changing intonation and moving notes. It’s complicated. I can’t read the music and the words at the same time and the notation is a blur. So I just have to feel it. I sing whatever comes out. I have no practice or education in Anglican chant, but I’m willing to breathe in and let God take over my voice. True consecration of my lips.

Sample of Anglican Chant music

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Slice of Are you Ready for a Month of Slices?

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Slice of Life Classroom Challenge, student writng on February 27, 2018| 10 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

March is coming soon. And you know what that means, a month of slices every day. The Two Writing Teachers has been hosting the yearly Slice of Life Challenge for 10 years. 2018 will be the 11th Annual Slice of Life Challenge. This is my 7th year to participate. About 4 years ago I got my students involved in this challenge. When I bring it up, many of my students who have been in my class for more than a year groan, then smile. They say, “It’s terrible. It’s horrible. I’ll never do it again.” and then “But this year I’m going to try to get all 31 slices done. Just watch me!”

One thing I can count on is their competitive spirit. I do offer a prize of a free book if they write all 31 days. I only require (for a grade) 3 slices a week. So this week we are getting ready. Noah already has 3 slices drafted. He is in the warm up position, revving his engine.

We started a padlet for writing ideas and will add to it as the month goes on. You can view our idea padlet here. We talked about a class hashtag and decided on #GTSOLC18. I set up a category in our kidblog site just for the challenge. I will be putting up sticker charts and a space for badges. A few years ago, Kathleen Sokolowski made badges and shared them in this Google Doc.

Kathleen set up a padlet this year for the classroom challenge. If you click here, you can see all the classes participating.

I am looking forward to joining my students on a monthlong writing journey. It will take us to places we are not expecting. Would you like to come along? You can view my students’ writing at Mrs. Simon’s Sea.

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A Slice of my Art Journal

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged art journal on February 20, 2018| 22 Comments »

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

For 2018, I chose the word Explore. I’m not sure if this means I need to get out of my comfort zone, but I have somewhat interpreted it this way. I long to be an artist. I’ve tried many kinds of art, but this year I am trying art journaling.

In the fall I took a class about making your own books by sewing pages together. Using a discarded falling apart book, I took out the pages and sewed my own pages into it. I decided that this would be my art journal for 2018. I glued in a postcard from a postcard exchange that started me on a path of using color to define each month. The postcard was blue, so January was my blue month.

February became my red month. I am working in collage. Each month I will collage a heart map reflective of the month. My art journal is only for me. It only needs to please me. And it does.

On Saturday, there was a free open workshop at a local gallery. I decided to take my journal and work on some of the pages. This is a work in progress, but I am happy to be Exploring possibilities and expressing myself with creativity.

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A Slice of Community Change Makers

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Daily Iberian, feature article writing on February 13, 2018| 10 Comments »

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

What is a change maker and who are the change makers in our own community? I asked my students. I made a list on the board of people I know from our area who are making a difference. Each student chose one to interview based on his/her own interest.

I called Vicky Branton, a feature writer for The Daily Iberian, our local newspaper. She agreed to come visit with my students about interviewing for and writing a feature article. She had good advice:

Begin with the 5 W’s: Who, what, when, where, why?
During the interview, listen.
Record the interview in order to be completely present and to go back for direct quotes.
Elaborate: Find the interesting thing.

For the first three days of last week, I scheduled interviews. In all, we had 5 interviews. Students then began writing. We had to juggle the computer around for them to listen to their recorded interviews. Eventually, they had a draft of a feature article.

This was a motivating project for my students. They were elevated by their interviewer status. They learned a great deal about the good things happening in our city. They learned how to take a quote and turn it into narrative. They learned about themselves in the process, too, and have renewed aspirations for what they may want to do to be a change maker.

Faith is interested in an anti-bullying program that is in the early stages in our community:

Mrs. Dawn and Mrs. Sharon say they really feel like Chez Hope is impacting the community. Russo expressing,”…What we do is not easy, it’s not easy work at all, it’s hard.” Over time they are helping the community. These crises are a big problem in our community. And many people are afraid that they aren’t going away any time soon. To add on to that, I would like to say that I feel like Chez Hope has impacted our school. When Mrs. Sharon and Mrs. Dawn came to our school, they left an impact on me and others as well. Once I walked out of that room, I knew I had to do something to help stop bullying. I also took away that I should never bully anyone. Also, if some one bullies me, then I need to tell an adult. I don’t need to be put down and be bullied. So stand up for yourself and tell an adult. (Faith, 6th grade)

Bully Free Kids T-shirt from Chez Hope

Jennie Lallande, Acadiana Lifestyles “Women Making a Difference 2016”

Andrew wanted to know more about how Jennie Lallande became involved in the community garden and school garden programs.

Jennie Lallande is a massive change maker. She helps in the community garden, but the garden is made in a place where people don’t have much access to fresh food like lettuce or carrots. She was recruited because she has a experience in sustainable agriculture.

Erin is doing a fundraiser to make care packages for foster children, so she wanted to know more about the system from someone who had adopted a foster child.

When I interviewed her I got a lot of information about her and the foster system, which will help me with my research because I want to learn more about the foster system. A lot of new information was revealed to me. I thought the social workers were supposed to help the parents. But according to Mrs. Schlicher they don’t really help. She said they provided her with false information so that she would take children in.

From interests to interviews to writing, my students are discovering who is making a difference as well as planting seeds for their own future as change makers.

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A Slice of Ekphrastic Poetry

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged ekphrasis on February 6, 2018| 10 Comments »

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

Once again this year I have joined Laura Shovan’s February writing challenge. Her birthday is this month, and she celebrates by inspiring others to write a poem every day. I thought this was maybe my third year of doing this challenge, but the other day one of those Facebook memories came up and reminded me that I’ve done this for 5 years. That’s a lot of poems!

This year’s challenge is writing ekphrasis which is poetry about art. Every day a participant posts a work of art for us to respond to. I’ve managed to write each day since the warm-ups started.

I’ve set up rules for myself. When I see the image on Facebook, I save it and place it in a Google doc. Then I do not allow myself to read other people’s poems until I’ve written mine. (I cheat on this one.) I write and revise quickly, no overthinking the process, and copy and paste my poem into the Facebook post as a comment. I comment on at least 3 other poets. The group has grown to over 100 people, so it’s just not feasible to comment on them all.

Ekphrasis is a good way to inspire poetry because there is no form attached. You can write in any way you choose, form or free verse, short or long. You can write a mask poem from the painting/sculpture’s point of view. You can be on the outside looking in or on the inside looking out.

The flexibility of form appeals to me. Some days the poems come easily and others I have to let sit a while. Sometimes I research the artist. When a sculpture by Rodin came up, I researched and found a quote to work from. Sometimes I research the topic. I collect words and then write.

Writing a poem a day is a challenge. But when you are participating in a group of kind responders, the writing is worthwhile and rewarding. We need each other. We need to feel a part of something bigger. We need affirmation and acceptance.

One of the most profound for me was Laura’s son Jay’s self-portrait. Here is the portrait by Jay Shovan and my poem.

Unfinished portrait by Jay Shovan

Unfinished

Deep brown eyes
stare at me,
look through me,
hold me still.

Slashed and dripped
with strokes of green,
baby blue, white
on flesh, each brush
from the palate played

like a piper in a parade
leading me to you,
but all I see now
are your eyes

drawing me into a window
of my own soul. These
are my eyes.

–Margaret Simon, (c) draft 2018

On the more whimsical side was this funny spoon sculpture by Raul Zuniga circa 1971.

Owls three
Smiley, Cranky, and Boastful
perched on a branch of a safety pin.
Bring me your wise ole thoughts
Find me a place to perch
Help me be the Who
I am meant to be.

–Margaret Simon, (c) draft 2018

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Slice of “Further” Research

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing on January 30, 2018| 3 Comments »

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

Last week my students and I read together a Scope magazine article titled, “Escape from Alcatraz.” The title alone was enough to interest my students as well as the images of three fugitives believed to have escaped the highest security prison that ever existed.

Armed with the article and a video from MythBusters, I asked my students to make up their own minds about whether or not the fugitives escaped. Students worked on rough drafts and by Wednesday were poised at the computers to type up their essays.

Photo from Wikipedia by D. Ramey Logan.

They were still bothered, however, because they didn’t know the truth. Did the three men escape or not? Searching for images to put into their blog posts, a student came upon a recent news report, recent as in “3 hours ago.” We all eagerly gathered around the computer, reading over his shoulders.

A letter allegedly written by one of the escapees recently came to light. CBS San Francisco exclusively obtained it from a source.

“My name is John Anglin. I escape from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!”

CBS News Jan. 24, 2018

What happens to an essay that has been written and worked on in conferences when new evidence emerges?

Different students responded in different ways. One student placed the link to the article into his post. Another changed his whole essay and threw away the rough draft. Others adjusted and added to what they had already written. And some were not convinced by the evidence. They kept their original theory.

In a recent blog post by Kate Roberts on The Educator Collaborative, Kate asks these questions: “Is it ever worthwhile to read as a community, to read a text someone else chooses for you, one that you would never read on your own? ”

Like Kate Roberts and many reading workshop gurus, I believe strongly in choice. But when it comes to nonfiction, experiencing the text as a whole class is engaging and exciting. Nonfiction encourages more research. Students push each other, ask questions, and engage in a deeper way when reading nonfiction together.

This week we are reading aloud Poison by Sarah Albee to prepare for a Skype visit with her on Thursday, World Read Aloud Day. I look forward to discovering where this will lead us. Keeping kids engaged, wondering, and curious is what teaching is all about.

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Slice of a Joy Jar

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Brene Brown, journaling, personal expression on January 16, 2018| 9 Comments »

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

I am a co-moderator with the #TeachWrite chat on Twitter. (Note the graphic on the side bar.) One of my colleagues in this endeavor is Michelle Haseltine. Michelle put a photo on Facebook of a journal page from one of her students. The page was filled with the outline of a jar and words and sketches were drawn inside the jar.

I took this idea and presented it to my students with a Brene’ Brown twist from Braving the Wilderness.

We all have times when we feel lonely. Have you ever felt alone in a crowd? Like you just don’t fit in? There’s no one around who sees you or that you connect with.

We all have these times. But when we do, we can take with us a jar of things that make us feel joy, make us feel safe. What would be in your jar?

One student jumped up from her seat to draw a jar on the board. She labelled it “Our Happy Place Jar.” Her instructions were for everyone to draw one thing from their jar onto our shared jar. (I love it when kids respond to the lesson with such leadership and participation.)

My students drew a variety of jars. Some were filled with specific things from our class, Slice of Life, read aloud, computer (blogging), friends. Others find joy in nature or family or funny memes. Whatever their choices, they engaged with the idea and filled their jars.

Near the end of the week, Chloe announced, “Even if I have to throw away this journal, I will tear out this page and save it forever!” That’s what I call Joy!

Mrs. Simon’s Sea

We are fish,
fish swimming through a treacherous sea,

a book,
open and full,

a nest,
a place of warmth,

a pencil and paper
for expression,

and a poem.

by Lynzee, 3rd grade