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Summer Creative Connections

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life, tagged #clmooc, gifted education, Tapestry, Wonderopolis on July 22, 2014| 13 Comments »

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I continue to try my hand at creative endeavors. #CLMOOC Challenge for this week is fairly easy, a 5 image story. I got the Tapestry app on my phone (free), so it was easy to upload 5 silly shots of my cat hiding in a grocery bag. It was as though she thought she was invisible. We are a little nutty about our animals. I took some shots of this cat trick and made a 5 image Tapestry story. Unfortunately, wordpress does not embed Tapestry. Click on the link. I promise it’ll only take a second. Can you add the words?

https://readtapestry.com/s/ZDImIgGiA/

Last week I got my brain fried in pre-AP training. I finally had some time to process and work with a frame that my colleague Beth and I came up with. We want to use the theme of Wonder for our year. I tried Wonderopolis with my students a few times last year and they loved it. In my thinking/planning journal we brainstormed what each letter could stand for and began planning to use this format for our daily language lesson. I’m thinking it can guide my whole week.

I am such a ~~teacher-geek~~ passionate teacher that I spent hours planning out Wonder frames for the school year.

First I selected an interesting Wonder from Wonderopolis, such as Fireflies. Each Wonder includes a video, a nonfiction text passage, vocabulary, links, and interactive quizes. A teacher’s dream website! I mean who doesn’t get excited about learning about bioluminescence?

On Monday, students will read and paraphrase a quote: “All that I know about us is that beautiful things never last, that’s why fireflies flash.”

On Tuesday, they will analyze a Robert Frost poem about fireflies: (Underline the word(s) that fireflies are compared to in the poem and explain how they are similar to fireflies.)
“Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.” Robert Frost

On Wednesday, they will define bioluminescence and use it in a short paragraph.

On Thursday, they will edit this sentence, “Fireflies may be none for there glow power but their knot alone. ”
On Friday, they will read another passage from Mental Floss and make an inference.

I can only imagine how my classroom will be buzzing about fireflies. In the meantime, my students will be able to read their own choices (I am determined to channel Donalyn Miller this year) and will be writing their own pieces during writing workshop. I’m excited to find a way to feel like I am incorporating valuable lessons without sacrificing student choice. Here is a pdf file of the Wonder template for ELA (2).

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Teachers Write

Posted in Slice of Life, Teachers Write, tagged fiction, Nora Raleigh Baskin on July 8, 2014| 11 Comments »

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Kate Messner leads teacher writers in a writing camp this month.

For the third year, I signed up to participate in Kate Messner’s Teachers Write Camp. Kate gathers a wealth of children’s writers to coach a growing group of teachers in writing. I believe that a teacher of writing must be a writer.

I will not be able to write for every prompt, but I am trying to start strong. My method for starting strong is to read the prompt for the day. Then get out my journal and write. I do not read anyone else’s writing until I write first. This works for me for two reasons; I don’t get caught up in reading and avoid writing, and I don’t prejudge myself by comparing my writing to others.

So today I am going to share my draft response on my blog. The prompt can be found here.

Playground Danger

The playground merry-go-round was a big round wooden platform. Jutting out of the center were four sets of painted metal bars. Standing or sitting, this was my second-to-last least favorite playground equipment. The worst was the see-saw. (Once my brother let me drop from the highest position, and my butt was sore for days.) On the merry-go-round, I always got dizzy and disoriented, especially when Dave would spin me real fast.

On this day, the merry-go-round was the gathering place for the Girl Scouts as we waiting for our moms to pick us up after the meeting. Jacy was the leader. She was always the leader. I could not avoid her condescending look.

“Come on, Valerie, don’t be such a baby. Come play Catch me, if you can! I get first spin.”

Jacy’s chest puffed out a little higher as she grabbed the edge of the platform to begin spinning us. Around, around, faster, faster. My stomach spun with every turn. I closed my eyes. Then a sudden stop.

“Gotcha!” yelled Jacy. She had both hands on Francis’s dangling legs. Francis was it.

I took a moment to breathe and gather my senses. Jacy jumped on right next to me, sitting with her legs stretched out straight, daring Francis to catch her. I scooted toward the center.

“No fair, Valerie!” Jacy’s voice whined. She grabbed my arm. “You have to stick your feet out.”

Maybe if I stuck my feet out and down, I could slow the spinning, get caught, and get this over with.

Spin, spin! Caught!

Francis grabbed my feet, and I slid off the merry-go-round to the dusty dirt below. Bam! I could feel the bruise forming. The bottom of my jeans shorts were brown with dust. I stood up, dusted off, and didn’t let on that both my bottom and my pride throbbed in shame.

My turn to spin. Like my brother would do to get us going faster and faster, I grabbed a metal bar and took off in a trot, then a run. Letting go, I watched legs blur past me. I grabbed the longest ones and held on tight. Snap! A snap of bone.

Jacy let out a scream to break cathedral glass. Everyone stared. Then a flurry of mothers.

Jacy’s mother picked her up while my mom held her dangling leg. Her leg was in an awkward position. I looked away. Jacy passed out. What had I done?

Our Teachers Write hostess for today, Nora Raleigh Baskin says that to write for children, we have to get into the mind of a child. This was a true incident that I fictionalized. I actually don’t think I was the one who broke her leg. But the incident has stuck with me all these years.

Thanks, Nora, for inspiring my writing today.

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A Slice of Nothing Much

Posted in Blogging, Gratitude, Slice of Life, tagged A More Beautiful Question, Holly Mueller, Julie Johnson on July 1, 2014| 9 Comments »

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I almost didn’t write a slice this morning. See, there’s just not much happening here. As I sit in front of my computer with Charlie on my lap and listen to the cicadas buzzing their summer heat tune, I have very little on my brain. But this is good, right?

Mom’s mandevilla reworked in painteresque.

Julie Johnson at Raising Readers and Writers wrote her post today about weeding her garden, but it’s not really about weeding her garden. It’s really about finding your joy inspired by a book A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. I don’t have the book yet, but I was struck by this section on Julie’s blog.

In A More Beautiful Question, Berger pushes his reader when he asks, “Why are you climbing the mountain?” He describes those “who are trying to do everything – attend every conference, take every call, answer every message, read every tweet, seize every opportunity – not so much because we want to, but because we feel we must, just to keep up.” (Had he been peeking into my life too?)

He prods his reader further by asking:

What is waiting for me at the top?

What am I going to do once I get there?

Am I enjoying the climb itself? Should I slow down, speed up?

What am I leaving behind, down below?

Yes, Julie, he is peeking into my life, too. Are we all like this? Overscheduling and overdoing? Keeping busy every minute of every day?

Last week I traveled home to my parents’. I traveled alone, no children or husband, just me. I did this last summer, too, and loved my week with Mom and Dad. I now believe that this time is a beautiful thing. I didn’t do much. I read, walked, blogged, painted, took pictures, and I talked with my parents. Nothing memorable happened. I relaxed and did exactly what brings me joy. I didn’t climb a mountain or make any grand decision.

We all need to remind ourselves that it is OK not to climb the mountain every day. And to choose our mountains carefully.

Follow this link to read more spiritual journey posts.

I’d like to invite those of you who ponder these big questions and write about your spiritual journey to join Holly Mueller’s new roundup on Thursdays. We are writing and connecting in many ways.

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The Fault in our Stars

Posted in Books, Slice of Life, tagged crying, John Green, movie themes, The Fault in our Stars on June 24, 2014| 10 Comments »

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The theater was practically empty on a Tuesday afternoon during a storm. But Carolyn and I didn’t mind. We both forgot our Kleenex, so she slipped out just when Augustus and Hazel got to Amsterdam knowing full well we would both need napkins. Why do we do this to ourselves? Yet we were both gloriously sobbing. Cleansing or stupid?

I warn my students when they have to read Where the Red Fern Grows in the summer between 5th and 6th grade, “Do not read the end in public. Close yourself into your room and get under the sheets.”

Carolyn and I both read the book. We knew what was coming, but we watched anyway. And loved it. I don’t really understand why, except that humans are like this. We want to love, and we want to watch others fall in love. I was right there with Hazel and Augustus. I don’t even know the actors’ real names.

Literature and good movies move us. They reveal to us the faults, the beauty, and the sadness of life in a way that is safe. We can crawl under the covers and read the book, wipe away the tears, and move on. Move on in a better way, more full, heart attuned to life. The leaves look greener somehow.

I don’t know if you should go see The Fault in our Stars, but if you do, your heart will swell and you will cry, but as Augustus says to Hazel, “Oh, I don’t mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.” It is a privilege to have your heart broken by The Fault in our Stars.

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Wide Open Summer

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Kaylie, storm poem, Thinglink on June 10, 2014| 7 Comments »

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Summer is a wide open blank canvas. I have been painting things onto this summer canvas. So many things. Too many things? One of these things is the Thinglink Teacher Challenge. I wanted to learn more about this new online platform, so I signed up for the challenge. The first week wasn’t too difficult. A How-to assignment. I used an image from blueberry picking last week and added links to my blog post, an article about the farm, and a recipe for blueberry cobbler. I enjoy being able to actively do what I will ask my students to do.

Click here to see the image in Thinglink with embedded links.

Kaylie has been keeping up summer writing. I think it may be time for her to get her own blog. Here is a link to her Slice today. It was a crazy stormy morning here. There were tornado watches and heavy rain. Kaylie captures the scary feeling in her poem,”Slicing through the Storm.”

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Blood (or Rain) in the Cane Field

Posted in Books, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Anne L. Simon, author, Blood in the Cane Field on June 3, 2014| 10 Comments »

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On Sunday in the middle of a downpour, my husband, my hero, was outside digging a trench to re-route water away from the front walk. He ended up in the last few minutes placing a piece of plywood over the growing puddle and covering it with industrial rugs from his office. He saved the day. People began arriving.

They came to greet the newest author in our family, Anne L. Simon, my mother-in-law. Following a degree from Wellesley, law school at Yale, a move to Louisiana, a law degree from LSU, practicing law with her husband, raising three smart children, running a successful campaign for judge, acting as a district judge, teaching at LSU law school, and serving as an ad-hoc judge for the Louisiana Supreme Court, Anne decided she wanted to be an author. Through grit and determination, not to mention high intelligence and a gift for writing, she published her first crime novel, Blood in the Cane Field.

Anne Simon signs copies of Blood in the Cane Field

Those of you from Louisiana will love this book for its fine attention to the Louisiana landscape. You may even recognize a few of the characters. Others will enjoy the details of the process of law. And others will enjoy the relationship between John Clark, the protagonist and public defender for a mixed race boy in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Medley Butterfield, a Mississippi girl down on her luck. Whatever your reason for reading, you will not be disappointed.

The book release party was a success. Minga, our grandmother name for Anne, sold and signed over 40 books. Of course, as she says, “These were my nears and dears. They had to buy it.” My prediction is that word will spread beyond the nears and dears, beyond the bayou, and even beyond the Mississippi River. The best part of this success is that she has nearly completed book 2, Blood in the Lake. So if you get hooked on Anne Simon’s writing, there will be more. In her 80th decade, this lawyer/mother/judge/author is not close to stopping.

I was proud to greet soggy people at my door and say, “Food is to your left. The author is to your right.”

Click the image to find the book on Amazon.

Judge Lori Landry says Blood in the Cane Field is a great beach read!

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Flow

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged altered books, Creativity, flow on May 27, 2014| 10 Comments »

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“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back.” (Rainer Maria Rilke)

For the last two years, I have made an altered book using poems I have written beside my students. An altered book is a hardback book that has outlived its time, been discarded from the library, or left behind at Goodwill. I usually try to find ones with fairly large pages that are sewn, not glued, to the binding. I take out some of the pages and glue a few together to thicken each page and create space. Then I use Gesso and paint to cover the pages. My students have the option to make an altered book for their poetry project.

Here are a few of my favorite pages from my book this year. Vannisa found the sign, “Keep Calm and Write Poetry” that became my front cover. The marbleized paper was made using a technique with chalk and water. I covered some of my pages with gelli-printed papers. When I work on my altered book, I enter Flow, a term Csikszentmihalyi used to describe that zone of creativity one enters when something is at the right level of challenge. Flow is energizing and motivating.

Altered book cover

Page one begins with A for anaphora

Making a collage of printed paper makes an interesting background.

Images fuel my writing.

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Make Good Art

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Acadiana Wordlab, magnolia, Neil Gaiman, One Little Word, watercolor on May 20, 2014| 10 Comments »

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Open
My one little word
finds me;
open your eyes
to your own heart;
listen
to what she loves.

I painted a magnolia
in cadmium blue and crimson red.
Do you see the red and blue?
To make good art,
first you must see.

I saw the perfect magnolia
hanging in my neighbor’s tree,
the one ravaged by a hurricane,
yet today,this tree sings
its magnolia hymn to heaven.

Now I see, magnolia to magnolia,
critical eye turned off,
yes, beauty, art.
Make this art.
Who cares about appreciation,
glorification, success (whatever that means),
just create.

I see magnolia to magnolia–happiness.
This is all I need.

–Margaret Simon, written at Acadiana Wordlab May 17, 2014

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Poetry in the News

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Acadiana Wordlab, Clare L. Martin, Hydra, hydrilla, monster, swamp on May 6, 2014| 5 Comments »

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Hydrilla

Acadiana Wordlab keeps me in touch with my creative side. This weekend Clare Martin led us in a mysterious exercise. Well, she touted it as a mysterious exercise. In truth, she led us in open-ended prompts.

For our first round of writing, she had us each choose a page of the newspaper. I grabbed an article about Hydrilla, a plant that is invading local marshes. I was fascinated by the article and learned about this intrusive species as well as about the mythical creature for which it is named. My poem is more of a found poem, reworking words from the article. I can see this activity working in the classroom, finding poetry in the news.

Hydrilla

Hydra, that nine-headed creature,
kept growing heads—two
for every one cut off.

This monster invaded the lake years ago
choking waterways, native plants,
and your boat’s propeller.

Beware! it grows over
and under the swamp, a nuisance,
a bother, a downright sore oppressor.

There is a plan from the parish president
to lower the level of water
dry out the hellacious suckers.

“Time to nurture kindness
to our natural ecosystem, to restore
the old cycle of flood to dry-bed.”

Don’t let your heart bleed
for this monstrous water weed.
Just allow the soft earth to learn

from her mistakes,
To chop off its head and wait
with a hatchet in hand to catch
the two growing back.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

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A Portrait Mask Poem

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged elementary art, elementary poetry, forms, gifted education, mask poem on April 29, 2014| 6 Comments »

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Recently, we took our youngest gifted students (grades 1-3) on a field trip to the Acadiana Center for the Arts. There they viewed an exhibit of portraits called FaceTime. We planned an art and poetry activity to enrich the experience. The gallery allowed us to use a workshop room for this activity. We had gathered magazine cut outs of facial features, different colors and textures of paper, and fabric samples. We used cardboard circles for their portraits and encouraged the students to fill the space.

For young students to write a successful poem, a fill-in-the-blank form works well. I adapted a mask poem form. You can download and use the form here. A Portrait Mask Poem

This was a fun learning experience for all of us. Unfortunately, art and creativity are taking a backseat these days in most classrooms. I am happy we were able to provide this experience for our students.

I am a girl.
I am as yellow as a daffodil.
I am curved like a cheerleader.
I dance.
I am feeling cheery.
I wonder if I could join cheerleading.
I can sing.
I am a girl. by Emily

I am big foot.
I am as brown as mud.
I am round like an apple.
I scare people.
I am happy.
I wonder if I will be found.
I scare people.
I am big foot.
By Tobie

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