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Archive for the ‘Slice of Life’ Category

SOL #5 DigiLitSunday Slicing

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Kidblog, Slice of Life Classroom Challenge, Two Writing Teachers on March 5, 2017| 19 Comments »

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Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

I was just informed that March is SOL challenge month. It’s a cruel, cruel world. We have to make SOL every single day. I don’t know if I will survive this deadly month. Okay, that was a little ( lot ) over the top of the ice cream cone. Yeah, that was a metaphor.

That’s kind of like saying over the mountain but in your mind picture a mountain sized ice cream cone with a ton of chocolate going right on the top and turning it into a chocolate avalanche. Did you do that? Good for you. Now I will grant you as many wishes as you want. NOT!! I am not a genie. But if I had one wish it would be not doing any Slice of Life challenge posts ever again. That is how bad I don’t want to do the Slice of Life challenge.

by Andrew, Feb. 21, 2017

“Andrew, the Slice of Life Challenge is voluntary. Are you saying you don’t want to try it this year? Should I make you a sticker chart?”

“I’m not making any promises. Yeah, go ahead, make me a chart.”

I teach my gifted students year to year throughout their elementary schooling. This is a blessing and a curse. I am blessed to know my students really well. I don’t have to pretest to find their reading levels. I don’t have to do writing prompts to see how well they write. I know all this. They also know that when March rolls around it’s torture time. Time to write a Slice of Life every day!

Every year I try something new to motivate my students. Last year it was these buttons designed by Stacey Shubitz of the Two Writing Teachers. My students proudly collected badges until about March 15th when the newness wore off.

I also use incentives. One day of the month I hold a commenting challenge. The reward, one Skittle a comment. I soon ran out of Skittles. I buy a book for each child who completes the challenge. I usually buy 3-5 books.

Another thing we’ve done is connected with other classes doing the challenge. I’d like to do that again this year. If your class is using Kidblogs, please request to follow by signing in to Kidblog and posting my URL, http://kidblog.org/class/mrs-simons-sea/. Click on the Follow button. Once I approve, I can follow you back. It’s fun and motivating to connect kids across the globe.

After seeing Holly Mueller’s students’ long slices, I implemented a word count rule. This has been both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is found when my students elaborate and expand their thoughts like you see in Andrew’s post above. The curse happens when they ramble on and type things like, “I’m up to 198 words, just 2 more to go!”

This is the nature of the beast that is SOLC! Blessings and curses! We are going to jump in despite the deep waters. Tomorrow we return from a break. Our challenge will begin. I wonder where this journey will take us.

I wrote a blog post for Kidblogs about the Slice of Life Classroom Challenge here.
If you wrote a DigiLit post, please link up with this button.

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SOL #4: Celebrating Time to Look out the Window

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Elsie, nature poetry on March 4, 2017| 11 Comments »

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Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

From my window, I see a stately oak
and the bayou beyond
flanked by cypress knees
sticking up like toy soldiers.

Sometimes, a heron happens by
stealthily stalking a wayward minnow.

Sometimes, the sun beams down
in a spotlight directing my gaze
to the intricate design of trees.

And some days, I don’t have time
to look, watch, or listen,
But I know my bayou
is always near
keeping me grounded,
showing me faithfulness,
bringing me solace.

–Margaret Simon

This Slice/ Celebration idea came from Elsie. She wrote “Outside my Window” for her Day 2 Slice of Life.

I’ve been on break all week. Such a gift to be able to look outside, take walks with Charlie, and lunch with friends. I celebrate this time to look out the window.

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SOLC #3 After Billy Collins

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, tagged Billy Collins on March 3, 2017| 25 Comments »

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Poetry Friday is with Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe

This week I received an email from Heidi Mordhorst promoting a celebration of Billy Collins for this Poetry Friday roundup. Billy Collins’ birthday is March 22. He will be 76.

I’ve actually had the privilege to meet Billy Collins at the Dodge Poetry Festival in the fall of 2008. I took a picture with him that I cannot find. I remember his humor most of all. The tone of his voice, almost monotone, enhances the hilarity of his poems.

I’m not sure how many books I have of Billy Collins’ poetry, at least 5. At Christmas, I had a Barnes and Noble gift card, so I bought the latest The Rain in Portugal. I read about half of it and put it down after I heard an interview with him that made me mad.

I imagine all poets to be gentle, loving souls. If Billy Collins is being himself in interviews, and I would assume he is, he is quite arrogant. He insulted us amateur poets as if we shouldn’t even try to write. I decided to reject his opinion and continue to write poetry. In fact I’ve written a few poems “after Billy Collins.” So to appease my injured pride and to reject his lofty opinion, I am not posting his poetry, but my own.

Our Ship

after Billy Collins, Litany

We are all on this ship together
whether or not it sails.
We are side by side
like the freckles on your mother’s face.
We are closer
than the love bugs on the windshield.

You, and I, and he, and she.
We are not like the blown away balloons
at the 3 year old’s birthday party.
We are not the shavings of wood mulching the flower bed.

No, we are this way, that way,
you know what I mean,
intertwined like the vines of wisteria,
joined and connected, tumbling and reaching.

Give me your hand.
I will give you mine.
Let’s go on this voyage together.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

Burst into Spring

after Billy Collins, Today

If ever there was a spring day so perfect,
so stirred up by a cool crisp wind

that you wanted to breathe more often
to taste the wisteria blossoms,

and throw open all the doors,
lift them clear off the hinges,

a day so bright the pink azaleas
pop open like a birthday balloon bouquet,

seemed so delightful that you felt like
running naked among them,

released from all inhibitions taking flight
outstretched arms playing airplane,

so you could fly on steady wings
balanced for lift and drinking nectar,

yes, you can imagine it,
today is just that kind of day.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

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March Slice of Life Challenge #1

Posted in Blogging, Photography, Slice of Life, tagged graffiti, New Orleans City Park on March 1, 2017| 13 Comments »

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Today is the first day of March, and I decided I would take the plunge once again into the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge. This will be my 6th year doing this daily writing challenge. My purpose is completely selfish. I want to continue my connection with the wonderful, kind, and intelligent community of Slice of Life. After 6 years, I’ve made friends. And we stay in touch with each other through our blog posts.

I have been writing long enough to know that writing every day is a discipline that builds my writing muscles. I will be writing for myself. I’m not saying that I am not aware of my audience. I am. But I rarely look at stats. I have to say I do get a charge when WordPress sends me a notification “Your stats are soaring!” Who wouldn’t?

I begin today with a photo essay of a walk in New Orleans City Park on Monday with my daughter and her dogs, Abby and Mabel. In this section of the park, there is an old concession stand. Who knows why it was built! There are no ball fields nearby, only walking trails. A sign in the stand told this tale:

The Coven Bar
Built by hand in 1854 by honorable member of L. Clamput Vitus, Mary Jones Thicklebrush. This bar was erected after she and her Bernese mountain dog, Helmut, rescued a drowning man from an alligator attack in the river behind it. May her bravery and her thick callused hands be remembered for all of time.

The Coven Bar, New Orleans City Park

A Google search turned up nothing about this “bar” or any of the names mentioned. It seems The Coven Bar is a gay bar in Berlin. But that’s all I got.

Graffiti covers the structure. A green Grinch-like hand holds a pink telephone with the quote, “You Go Girl!”

In my opinion, this graffiti is both ugly and beautiful. While set in the midst of nature, grassy fields, draping oaks, bouquets of palms, this structure turns my attention away from nature to the irony of artistic expression.

What is the message here?

Is there any meaning in the artwork or the bogus tale of its origins?

I don’t believe the purpose here is political, but I may be missing something. The painting is quite clever. I wonder if it has any connection to the tale about Mary Jones Thicklebush.

We continued on our walk. Abby and Mabel both enjoyed off leash time sniffing, running, and meeting other dogs. (Abby is in the photo below. Mabel is much larger and still young so she was too fast to capture.)

This Slice of Life challenge makes me pay more attention. I look at the day to day and ask questions, wonder, write randomly. Some days I may come to some wisdom, but today is not one of them. Some days there are no answers, only questions.

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Slice of Mardi Gras

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Mardi Gras on February 28, 2017| 7 Comments »

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Happy Mardi Gras, y’all! I know that many of you have heard the news about the tragedy at the Endymion parade on Saturday night. My girls and my sister’s family were just blocks away. They didn’t hear anything until they started getting frantic texts from friends and family. When I spoke to my cousin’s wife who is an emergency room doctor, she said the system they have set up for dealing with these types of emergencies worked. She received texts. Hospitals around the city were prepared and let emergency responders know which ones could take patients. She said it was handled smoothly.

Accidents are scary, but they are accidents. There is no predicting when something awful could happen. So I didn’t hesitate to travel to New Orleans on Sunday to meet up with my family to celebrate.

My sister has a friend who lives near St. Charles and the parade route. Perfect jumping off place complete with clean bathrooms, food, drink, and the sweetest yellow lab you have ever seen. Our corner on St. Charles was crowded, about 5 people deep. We were surrounded by families. When my sister caught a little container of Playdough, she handed it to some little girls nearby. They played with it for hours making beads, fake purple noses, and whatever else their creative minds could conjure up. I enjoyed watching them.

Throws are a huge part of Mardi Gras. These include beads, of course, but there are also unusual throws like feather boas, cups, footballs, stuffed animals, and more. I don’t work too hard for throws. But I do hold my hands over my head. It’s all part of protecting your head from the wayward bead. Once I was looking at a guy on a float holding an ugly stuffed rat. He must’ve read my mind, “Who would want that ugly rat!?”, and he threw it right to me. Yes, it’s going to the classroom as a new class pet.

Mardi Gras crowd. You see it all!

The best story of the day was when my nephew and his dad were throwing the football across the street between parades. The football flew over my nephew and landed near some horse poop. Earlier, the people around that very horse poop had covered it with a box top and warned marching bands, “Watch out!” But when the football landed near it, Jack turned right around and said, “No way.” My brother-in-law retrieved the football and minutes later, a man in a dragon suit crossed the road to offer wipes to clean it. My sister posted this picture on Instagram with this caption, “Why did the dragon cross the road? To bring us a wipe for our football that landed in horse poop.”

To me, this is the spirit of Mardi Gras. It’s a community event with a community pride. Yes, there are rowdies and drunks and accidents, but there is also a spirit of fun and celebration. I’ll be back next year!

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Slice of Seuss

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged criticyles, Dr. Seuss, The Lorax, writing workshop on February 21, 2017| 8 Comments »

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It’s Dr. Seuss week at one of my schools, so each day is a different dress-up day. Last week I was sick for a few days and then there was the Beta convention, so I missed out on seeing some of my students all week. I wanted to plan better. I got so far as to order yellow mustaches and a used copy of The Lorax. I didn’t put together a full costume, but I let each student choose a mustache style. The rule was you had to wear your mustache while we read The Lorax. Little did I know the thing would tickle every time I spoke. But it made for a festive way to celebrate, nevertheless.

Mrs. Simon’s Loraxes

Following this selfie, we got down to the real business of criticycles. I want my students to be ready for the March Slice of Life Challenge. They’ve been writing a slice each week, but their writing lacks elaboration and interest. I pulled out the sticky notes. I projected a student’s recent post and asked that student to read aloud his/her writing. On the sticky notes, we made symbols for critiquing (+ for something positive, ^ for something to change, and ? for further questions). Following the criticycle session, my students were motivated to return to their posts and edit.

I had forgotten how powerful peer review can be. For whatever reason, we hadn’t done it in a while. My students were receptive to their classmates’ ideas and were motivated to make their writing stronger. I just stood by and watched as they discussed their writing in a meaningful way. I need to remember that sometimes all it takes is a yellow mustache and blue sticky note to turn readers into writers.

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#TenFoundWords: A February Poetry Project

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged #tenfoundwords, Laura Shovan on February 7, 2017| 11 Comments »

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Today marks post #1000 on my blog. Wow! This has happened one word at a time, one post at a time. When I started this blog nearly 5 years ago, I had no idea where this writing journey would lead. I have a wonderful community of friends through my connections with various weekly memes. Slice of Life was one of the first communities I joined. I appreciate all of you who read my musings. Here’s to the next thousand!

Through Poetry Friday, I connected with Laura Shovan. This year marks her 5th annual poem-a-day writing challenge for February, her birthday month. This year she’s hosting it on Facebook in a closed group. The theme is ten found words from current news articles. I check the morning post, copy the ten chosen words into a Google doc, and work on my poem whenever I have a chance throughout the day. At first, I didn’t want to have this much interaction with the daily news, but each article has been different. Not only am I reading poems, practicing writing, building community, I am also learning some amazing stuff.

On February 4th, the article was from earthsky.org, and I learned about the change in the moon’s orbit. Fascinating and certainly not an article I would normally have read. Sometimes the article informs the poetry, but more often the poems come from that inner poet, the one who surprises me constantly.

The axis turns
one rotation at a time
keeping in balance
this ancient path
tilting toward unity.

The gods knew this truth
when they painted pictures
in the night sky.

Our bodies want to return
to balance and knowing
and wandering; we look for a leader,
a shaman, a yogi master.

Analyze the words
of Langston, or Maya,
or Martin, and you’ll
see a common axis,
a dream that crept into each heart.

Spin around.
Face the stars.
Reach out.
Dream on.

–Margaret Simon

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Slice of Life: Finding Solace

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Laura Shovan, Ten Found Words, Women's March on January 31, 2017| 11 Comments »

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j-magnolia-dew

The Hallmark channel is on again. I pour a glass of wine. I search for something positive to say. I’ve always thought of myself as an optimist, but these days are dark. Winter is an apt metaphor for the state of our country. I am carrying a weight of pessimism that I find too heavy and hard.

So I turn to my passion, poetry. Poetry is like prayer for me. I go inside my thoughts and work to make some sense of them.

Laura Shovan is getting ready for her annual February poetry project. She has built a Facebook group. It’s a closed group, but if you ask, you can join. We are a bunch of liberals looking for ways to make sense of the news by taking 10 words from a current news report and writing poetry.

On Saturday, I found an empty journal on my shelf. It is quite beautiful, a gift from someone, I’m sure. The title reads, “Personal Journal with Quotes & Art by Women.” I decided to use this book to pen the poems I am writing for Laura’s challenge. On this page I share below is a sculpture called “Invocation” by Edith Schaller. I wrote a poem for the January 25th warm-up using ten words from Janet Mock’s Women’s March speech. I am not accustomed to being outspoken, political, or radical. I am uncomfortable in this position, but I find solace in poetry, in writing, in words.

invocation

I am my sister’s keeper.
I hold her body.
I am committed to this work
of loving and comforting,
feeling safe and sensitive.

I refuse to crawl deeper into poverty,
refuse to give up all that we have fought for.
I will not be invisible or neglected.

But his words tear at a core
I fear is weak. My liberation
is linked to my resolve
to not be moved, to hold fast.

Why must I turn into a revolutionary?
I once was a peaceful woman,
teaching, learning, writing,
minding my own business.

Why must I be confrontational?
Someone who has written herself
into this story of marches,
signs and petitions?

Sister, help me be this new me.

–Margaret Simon

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Slice of Life: Bookstore Magic

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Blue Cypress Books, Little Free Library, Rumi on January 17, 2017| 16 Comments »

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New Orleans Little Free Library

I took the opportunity of an extra day this weekend to visit my daughters in New Orleans. My cousin and his family met me for lunch on Monday. Then we headed over to Blue Cypress Books, an uptown used book store. I listened while my cousin’s wife read aloud to her second grader. I pulled favorite books off the shelf to suggest to the 5th grader. We made our book stacks.

“Mom, how many books can we get?”

“When it comes to books, we don’t set a limit. We look at which ones we really want to read.”

I wandered over to the poetry section. Have you ever had a book call out to you? Say, “Here I am waiting for you!”

I picked up “A Year with Rumi” and opened to January 17th. How did Rumi know that this was the poem I needed today? Book magic happens in used bookstores.

rumi

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I also bought two quote magnets. Bookstore magic.

bookstore-finds

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One Little Word 2017

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged One Little Word, Peace poem on January 3, 2017| 28 Comments »

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Out of your whole life give but a moment!

All of your life that has gone before,

All to come after it,—so you ignore,

So you make perfect the present

from Now by Robert Browning.

My friend, Julieanne, sent me the above poem. She said it made her think of me. My One Little Word for 2016 was Present. She knew I didn’t want to leave this word behind. Being present served me well this year, especially when I was laid up by an injury. Present was perfect for a trip to Africa in July and for enjoying every moment of my daughter’s wedding in October. I have loved my daily walks because of presence. And the word turned up again and again in my daily messages from the Enneagram Institute. I needed the word. I needed the feeling. I needed the attitude.

I’ve struggled for days over what my new word should be. I read other friends’ posts and found their words fit them just right. Ruth is being steadfast. Tara wants to believe in herself and in hope. Kimberley is releasing to try to be more open and less controlling. Melanie chose brave. I think she’s already brave, but it helps to choose a word that you want to embrace.

Where was my word hiding?

I wrote a poem in my journal about Peace. Peace is a beautiful word; peace is something I can recognize, but I can’t control it.

Peace–happy ending of a Hallmark movie.

Peace– origami cranes on an evergreen tree.

Peace– wood crackling on an open fire.

Peace– breathing new air.

Peace– making perfect the present.

I made a list of possible words: