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Archive for the ‘Slice of Life’ Category

Give up/ Take on

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged Episcopal, Lent, Michelle Haseltine, nerdlution, One Little Word on March 5, 2014| 13 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 5. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. I am an Episcopalian. We do Lent. I will go to church later and have ashes put on my forehead and hear the familiar words, “You are from dust and to dust you will return.” If you think about it too much, it’s kind of scary. But I like the humility of it.

I have been reading a number of blog posts by teachers and by students. Yesterday, I read a student’s post about being yourself. Even as a grown-up this is hard to remember. I want to compare myself to all those other blogging teachers out there. I want to look at myself and wonder what I could be if I just made a decision and stuck with it.

Sometimes, though, it comes down to just being the best of the you you were made to be. I think that is the purpose of Lent. Lent’s not so much about the brow beating, guilt wrenching suffering of giving up. It’s more about sitting with God and adsorbing all the love he has to give and then living your own life. Not the life that you think you should be living, but the one you have. To the fullest.

Before I get too preachy, let me set my goals for my Lent. I did New Year’s resolutions that lasted a few weeks. I signed on for Nerdlution at the end of January and pledged to exercise, write, and be Open (my one little word for 2014). Now Lent. I’ve decided to give up sweets and not for the usual reasons. I want to loose a few pounds and I don’t want to diet, so practically speaking, giving up sweets may be all I need to do. (And exercise more, #nerdlution continues…)

Photo by Jennifer, Creative Commons, Flickr

The real practice for Lent will be my “take on.” I want to take on random acts of kindness. I have been inspired by Michelle Haseltine at One Grateful Teacher. Michelle set this goal for her Nerdlution. I have enjoyed reading about all her kind acts and amazed at how really easy it can be.

Now I am committed. I’ve made the pledge publicly. And I threw away a not quite empty bag of mint chocolate M&M’s! Tragic.

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Stormy Weather

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Author Amok, color poems, Laura Shovan, metaphor, Pantone colors, weather on March 4, 2014| 7 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 4. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Today must be “Opposite Day.” While yesterday I posted a joyful Mardi Gras celebration video, today I am sitting in bed with a glass of tea, a decongestant that hasn’t started working yet, watching the cold rain mixed with sleet come down. If we didn’t already have the day off for Mardi Gras, I would have called in sick or the superintendant would have cancelled school due to icy bridges. The bayou is steaming. The flowers are drooping and saying, “Hey, what gives?”

While I was driving to New Orleans on Sunday, the clouds were billowing, a warning of this day to come, I suppose. As I watched the clouds, I was struck by a metaphor of a bridal gown. Who knows why. I looked up some bridal gown terms and wrote a poem. Laura Shovan has been doing a poetry writing challenge at her blog, Author Amok. She posts Pantone colors every day, and we are invited to write a poem and submit it to her. This has been great practice for me. Her colors for today include Stormy Weather, how appropriate.

http://pixabay.com/en/clouds-sky-storm-rain-thunderstorm-56788/

Partly Cloudy

The bride was dressed in billowing waves,
blue-grey Chantilly lace layered
over a white-topped empire waist.
Her scalloped neckline accented by rays
of sunlight peering through a cathedral train.
Her attendants, those high Mississippi kites,
flew with utmost grace
announcing her imminent arrival.

–Margaret Simon

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Mardi Gras Time

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged family, Mardi Gras on March 3, 2014| 9 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 3. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

I am spending time with my sister and her family in New Orleans. Happy Mardi Gras! Yesterday we spent the day on St. Charles watching the crowds, catching beads, and dancing with the passing bands. Two of my daughters met us. I love coming when Beth is here because we stay at her mother-in-law’s home in Kenner, eat her fabulous Indian food, and my brother-in-law drives us to parades. The best way to do Mardi Gras, in my opinion. I made an Animoto video of our day. Hope you enjoy!

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Digital Learning or Digital Fun!

Posted in Digital Learning, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged chalkabration, digital literacy, Moviemaker, Paint, Slice of Life on March 2, 2014| 15 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 2. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

My students worked hard all week and finished the week’s assignments, so on Friday we had some free time. We usually celebrate with Game Day. And some students did play games, but I worked with Vannisa on a different project.

For Chalk-a-bration Day, Vannisa wrote a poem using a series of color words. When you look at the poem, it really just looks like a list of words, but when I talked to Vannisa about it, she said, “Close your eyes and imagine each color as it changes to the next one.”

Her comment made me think. What about using Paint on the Promethian board and creating a video of a single flower changing color? Vannisa liked the idea and set to work.

This whole process took an hour for her to do. Most teachers don’t have this kind of time to allow a student to “play.” I have the luxury of working with small groups of gifted students. Putting the images into a Moviemaker movie was fairly quick. One thing, for sure, Vannisa had a good time putting it all together. My question is this: Was this experience just fun or was there learning involved? And what learning may lead to further learning? Will my other students want to illustrate a poem and make a movie? Is this a valuable use of class time?

If you have written a blog post about Digital Literacy, please post a link. And consider following the Digital Literacy group on Facebook.

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Celebrate Slice of Life

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged books, Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss, reading, Scholastic Book Fair, teaching on March 1, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

Celebrate #1: Happy March! Welcome to Slice of Life, a challenge to write every day in March sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers. This will be my third year to join in. My students are also slicing in March. We have a special class blog at kidblog for the Slice of Life Challenge. Since we will be out of school Monday through Wednesday of next week due to Mardi Gras, I encouraged them to get a jumpstart. Some did. Please stop by our site and make a comment. They love comments!

The Cat in the Hat visited the Book Fair! Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Celebrate #2: This week was the Scholastic Book Fair at my school. We also celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday. I added to my class library and enjoyed visiting with our librarian, Mrs. Armentor, otherwise known as “The Cat in the Hat.”

Have you read any of these books?

Celebrate #3: My students created a skit for Family Night. It was cute and clever, and they were terribly nervous. The skit was on the theme of bullying. They encouraged everyone to THINK before they speak.

Printable Poster Available:

Before You Speak Think

Celebrate #4: My oldest daughter had her 29th birthday. She went to San Francisco for the weekend to visit a close friend from high school. I wrote a poem for her from Laura Shovan’s color prompt at Author Amok.

29 year old
For Maggie, 2/24/14

Ballerina pink is not your color
as you take to the streets in an obsidian Lexus,
Independent,
daring,
bold
You fly to San Francisco. Run by the Golden Gate;
International orange looks good on you!
Undaunted, throw your hair to the wind—
Quick like silver, don’t look back.

–Margaret Simon

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Lift a Line

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged lift a line, Nikki Grimes, poetry, reader response on February 25, 2014| 13 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

My students write reader responses each week to whatever book they are reading. At the beginning of the year, I placed some questions in their binders to prompt these responses. I find that week after week, they select the same questions to answer.

A few weeks ago, I read Dana Murphy’s post on Two Writing Teachers about reader responses. She wrote about three different strategies she teaches her students, lifting a line, character maps, and visual note-taking. I posted these ideas on our class blog and have discussed each strategy with my students.

I love the connections I can make with authors online. I follow Nikki Grimes on Facebook, so I saw a post about her talk on Booktalk Nation (which, sadly, I had to miss) along with the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of Words with Wings. The book arrived last week. Vannisa is a fan of verse novels and picked it up immediately. She decided to lift a line to write her own poem about the main character. When I talked to Vannisa about her poem, she told me she was interested in how the character herself was also just words on the page.

I know a girl
who waits and listens.

For her daydreams,
she awaits.

Who comes from
a family
that doesn’t
daydream.

Waiting
for words
to take her
high into the sky
or her mind.

Tell her to stop,
she won’t

Who comes from
words

Locked
in her mind.

No one even knocks
on the door
for a visit.

Who comes from
a book.

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Slice of Life Challenge in the Classroom

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Slice of Life, tagged classroom blogging, parent support, Slice of Life Challenge, Two Writing Teachers on February 18, 2014| 5 Comments »

A new button for the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

Believe it or not, March is almost here. Today, I announced in my classroom, “Guess what? It’s almost March. Slice of Life time!” Over the next two weeks we will talk about it a little each day. What is a Slice of Life story? What are some things you could write about? We have been blogging all year long, but the SOLC steps it up a notch. Rather than expecting at least one post per week, I will challenge my students to write every day and post at least 3 times a week.

Linda Baie and I are sharing the responsibility for supporting the classroom challenge. I will be available to answer questions for teachers whose last name begins with N-Z. If you have questions now, just write a comment. At other times, you can email me at margaretsmn at gmail dot com.

There are two documents that I want to share with you. First, I created a parent letter. I will copy and paste the body of the letter here. Of course, you will want to personalize it for your own use.

February 18, 2014
Dear Parents,
In March, my gifted students will be participating in the Slice of Life Challenge. This challenge is lead by the Two Writing Teachers at http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com.
My students will be asked to write every day in March. This writing should be a “slice” of life. We will discuss ideas and have time for writing every day in class. The students will be graded by a rubric requiring at least 3 posts each week and comments on at least two classmates’ writing. If they write for the full month, I will provide prizes. If a student writes 16 or more slices, he or she will get a prize.

The students have been using kidblog.org all year long. This is a familiar format to them. I have set up a kidblog specifically for the Slice of Life Challenge, http://kidblog.org/SliceofLifeChallenge.

This is a public blog; however, I will get an email for every comment and post and will have to approve it before it is posted. I will only allow the students to use their first names, and we will not post any pictures of them. You and family members will be able to access the blog and write comments. Also, I will be posting to the Two Writing Teachers blog so that other teachers and their students can read and comment. This can be a wonderful experience for the students. They will develop good writing skills as they work to make their slices interesting to other readers.
I am asking parents to support this project in the following ways:
• Read your child’s posts and make positive, encouraging comments.
• Allow your child to use the internet to post if they have not been able to at school or on weekends.
• Give permission for your child to post on a public blog.
Please sign the permission form below and return to school.
Thanks,
Margaret Simon

My child, _____________________________, has permission to write posts to the public kidblog, Slice of Life Challenge. I understand that only his/her first name will be used and his/her picture will not be posted.

The second document is a chart the students use to track their slices. Because we will have a Mardi Gras break in the month, I will reduce the number of days required for a prize. You can decide for yourself how many entries are needed to get a prize.

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Centering Prayer

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged Centering Prayer, Contemplative Outreach, journaling, meditation on February 11, 2014| 16 Comments »

A new button for the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

My journal “visual note-taking” at the workshop.

You will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
–John 14:20

As I continue to try to practice Openness (my OLW) in 2014, I signed up to attend a Centering Prayer workshop on Saturday at my church, The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany. I have heard of meditation and the benefits of such a practice, and Centering Prayer is much like this, with a Christian emphasis. The above image shows my journal page as I listened to the presenter, Alan Prater, from Contemplative Outreach.

Alan spoke about friendship and the levels of relationship from acquaintance to intimacy. He said that our relationship with God is like those stages of relationship with others. I realized that my relationship with God has been at the friendliness level. I am comfortable in reflective prayer. I’ve tried to move to the friend level where responsiveness happens- opening my heart, feelings, and emotions fully. At this level, prayer is real and spontaneous, not rote. I asked myself if I was ready for(or even capable of) contemplative prayer, a level of intimacy. Could I open myself up to a pure gift of God’s presence, rest with God, and be totally comfortable in the beloved’s presence?

I was reminded that God does not want a wave on the street from me. God wants more. So I am committing myself to try 30 days of Centering Prayer, sitting in total silence for 20 minutes. I’ve chosen my place, a chair in the loft upstairs away from the household traffic flow. I downloaded the app “Insight Timer.” I’ve chosen a sacred word, “Abba.” One of the best gifts of the app is a journal button that comes up after the bell rings. This way I write immediately after my meditation. The words flow.

Here is my first journal entry:

Open
Abba
Sometimes
Flying
Angel lights
twinkle
sparkle
waves of purple
water
Abba
Father
Here
I
am…

Gian Lorenzo Bernini – Dove of the Holy Spirit (ca. 1660, alabaster, Throne of St. Peter, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican) Wikimedia Commons

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Wordle Magic

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged autism, dual exceptionality, gifted education, twice exceptional, Wordle on January 28, 2014| 16 Comments »

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life!

A few weeks into October I got the word that I would be getting a new student. This happens during the year as students complete the evaluation for gifted. But this new student was unique. She is labeled in the Special Ed. world as “twice exceptional” or as having “dual exceptionalities.” Sara’s (not her real name) first classification is autism. I have been teaching for nearly 30 years, and yet, I had never had an autistic student. I was totally unprepared.

I will not share the trials here, but there were a few. Adjusting to a new schedule and a mixed-grade class was a struggle for Sara. It was an adjustment for me and for my other students. We walked on thin ice for the first few months. Then after Christmas, I took a workshop offered by our Special Ed department on autism. My eyes were opened. I understood.

In short, the autistic brain is up to 10% larger than the average brain. While as children our brains weed out unnecessary parts, the autistic brain just adds more in. The most enlightening thing the instructor said was this: “At any given time, the autistic child is giving you the best he can.” I believe in this statement. So I must give Sara my best.

I got some great ideas from the workshop for using visual cues to calm Sara when she has a meltdown. The visuals should include the student’s interests. Autistic children tend to have intense interest areas. I wanted to prepare by implementing a visual while she was calm. I talked to her about making a Wordle. A Wordle is a word cloud. On the website, wordle.net, you can create a word cloud like the one I made above. I told Sara she was going to make a Wordle of words she liked to help her calm down. She immediately responded, “I don’t want to do it.” She did not want to do something that would make her different, make her stand out. But when T. walked into class, I said, “Tell Sara about the Wordle you made last year.” I showed her the site and did a sample one.

Sara enjoyed making her Wordle and as other students joined the class that day, she became the expert for teaching others how to make one. She printed out her Wordle. I asked her if she wanted to print out a picture to go with one of her words. She chose Hershey’s chocolate. We placed the illustrated Wordle in the front of her binder in the clear sleeve. The binder stays under her desk.

A few days later, Sara became upset about something. She was just beginning to show signs of losing control. Her eyes teared up. Her voice changed tone. So I reached under her desk and pulled out her binder. She pointed to the Wordle and said, “Look! Hershey’s!” That was it. I said nothing. Her temper was dissipated. Just like that.

I believe in my students. I believe that miracles can happen. I believe that when we are open to differences and willing to work with them, our students’ and our own lives are enriched.

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Meditation on Empty

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged meditation, poetry, words, writing groups on January 21, 2014| 10 Comments »

Meditation on Empty

In that gentle space above his left eyebrow,
I focus on the emptiness,
how emptiness is not empty.

I fill my empty cup with ginger-mint tea.
Cut yellow roses for the empty vase.
Invite friends to fill the empty table.

My hand opens, then closes slightly
holding your pinky finger, tiny and delicate.
I’ll rock you until this pain subsides.

We sit together like lotus, open hands
to the Abba Father, breathe the warm
body scents that fill the empty room.
–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

I brought yellow roses to the writing retreat because I looked up colors of roses and their meanings, and yellow roses are for friendship and new beginnings. Then among writing friends, I polished this poem and read it for our sharing time. I’m not sure if you need to know what the poem means. It will mean what you need at the moment. For me, it’s about friends and opening myself up to being filled every day.