Slice of Life | Reflections on the Teche

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Sharon Creech was Here!

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Bloomability, book characters, Sharon Creech on March 16, 2013| 10 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 16

I have been doing the Slice of Life Challenge with my students for the last two weeks. It has been so heartwarming to watch them rush in to class and beg to be able to use the computer to write their slices. This is what writing class should be like every day.

This week we had a special visitor to our blog, Sharon Creech. If you don’t know who Sharon Creech is, then you don’t spend any time reading middle grade fiction: Walk Two Moons, Heartbeat, Bloomability, Love that Dog, Love that Cat, and more. In my classroom, I have a Sharon Creech bucket of books. My 5th grade student, Brooklyn, chose to read Bloomability.

When Brooklyn was reading Bloomability, she was writing reader responses. It was fun to read about Dinnie’s adventures and Brooklyn’s thinking about the book. She finished it over the weekend. She told me she wouldn’t put it down until she finished. She almost walked into a wall reading the book. Here is part of her Slice of Life post when she finished the book.

No, no, no it has not ended. I have not just finished the book. This was an amazing book titled Bloomability by Sharon Creech. It gave you a feeling that no matter how shy, scared, worried, or nervous you are, you can bloom. As I was reading the last few words my words were “No, stop, another page will appear, and this is not over.” I felt as if as soon as I read them, I would depart all of the characters, or as if they were stranded there in the story, in that intense moment, or as if the rest of their lives are mysteries, and they are going on and living it without us knowing.

Have you ever felt this way when you finished a book, as if the character lives on?

Then this quote appeared on the Two Writing Teachers blog: “I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go. You are changed in some way, large or small, by having traveled with those characters.”
― Sharon Creech

So I posted this prompt for my students, “Has a character ever stayed with you even after you finished the book?”

This week, Brooklyn responded to that prompt. “My favorite character in a book was probably Dinnie. She was the main character in the book Bloomability by Sharon Creech. Dinnie helped me notice that to be able to have an adventure and opportunities I had to expand my bubble or maybe even pop it. I had to open up to the world and adapt to changes.”

I read Brooklyn’s post the same evening I got an email from Sharon Creech’s blog, Words We Say. So I took a chance and made a comment on her blog post directing her to Brooklyn’s Slice of Life post. Guess what? Sharon Creech responded! I couldn’t wait to tell Brooklyn. I even got teary-eyed when I told her.

She was so excited that her next blog post was this:

OMG!!! Sharon Creech had commented on my post about my favorite character. I owe it all to Mrs. Simon. She is my favorite author. I recommend all of Sharon Creech’s books, especially Bloomability.

To see Brooklyn’s Slice of Life blog, click here. If you comment, I cannot guarantee you will get the reaction that Sharon Creech did, but Brooklyn will appreciate it nonetheless.

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Jump Start a Poem

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life on March 15, 2013| 12 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 15

Sometimes when I need a little inspiration for writing, I read some of my favorite poets. Sometimes I use one of their lines to jump start a poem. I shared this with my students. I said they could find any line from a book they were reading or from a poetry book. I explained if they used the actual line, they should give credit to the author. But sometimes the borrowed line goes away and leaves an original poem behind.

Nikki Giovanni helped me write the following poem. From her book Acolytes, I read a line from her poem I am Now my Own Grandmother. The line read “Old lace handkerchiefs as delicate as a spider web.” Once I jump started into the writing, this line no longer fit.

Evening Ritual

A screen door creaks.
The earth moves.
The sun drops down and tops
the trees with vanilla ice cream.
The dog delivers his ball.
The cat rubs against a wooden post.
Tires make tracks in the gravel driveway.
A refrigerator hums.
Ice clanks into the tray.
Women move in their kitchens
alone, making miracles
out of vegetable scraps
and a stone, the ending
of a busy day
standing still,
bone-tired,
still
standing.

Visit Check it Out for more Poetry Friday posts

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Ways of Seeing

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged 10 ways poem, crystal, glass apple on March 14, 2013| 5 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 14

At the wordlab this weekend, our leader used a poetry prompt called “Object Lesson.” I wrote about it here. Today, I tried the prompt with my students. I collected objects from around the classroom. I was amazed at the range of things I had to choose from; a crystal, a sunflower frame, a glass apple paperweight to name a few. The instructions were to write 10 stanzas, three lines each, with each stanza acting as a small picture of your object from a different point of view.
Due to the comment challenge for classroom slices, you may have already read some of these. My class is blogging at kidblogs.

This was such a successful prompt I wanted to share it with you along with a few of the resulting poems.

Ten Ways to Look into a Glass Apple
by Kaylie (6th grade)

Formed in the hottest fires
cooled down in the Nile River
an Egyptian artifact.

Bubbles trapped inside of it
waiting to be belched
into the world.

A paperweight
slightly dusty, from 10 years
sitting on an old scholar’s shelf.

A glass snack
waiting
for a glass automaton.

Slightly nicked
on one side
by the paws of a curious cat.

A fortune teller
looking into the orb
full of voodoo magic.

A gift,
wrapped nicely
in pink tissue paper.

A game of hide-and-seek antique
started by a grandmother
ended by a toddler.

A secret
curled up and hiding
for you to decipher.

A writing prompt
held in a young girl’s hand
who just finished sharing her poem.

10 Ways of Looking at a Crystal
by Emily (2nd grade)

1. Shining
So
Brightly

2. Pointing
Up into
The sky

3. Sparkling
Like a star
At night

4. The prettiest
I’ve ever
Seen

5. Your beautiful
Pointed
Shape

6. So nice
And
Smooth

7.The Beautiful
Marks inside
Of you

8. When you’re
In Light you
Shine like the sun

9.You have
the perfect
Former glory

10.Clear as
Water white
As snow

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Puppy Watching

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged explore puppy cam, great danes, service dogs on March 13, 2013| 9 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 13

I am a sucker for a cute puppy. It runs in my family. We are all dog and cat lovers. So when a fellow blogger (I can’t remember who) turned me on to the webcam at explore.org, I was hooked. After Christmas, there were new golden lab puppies to watch. I’ve watched them go from squirmy little squids to full-of-energy-and-puppy-badness pups. There are only a few left. I now follow the Warrior Canine Connection on Facebook. I get updates daily about Misty’s pups.

One of Misty’s pups from the Warrior Canine Connection

A few weeks ago, while I was watching Misty’s puppies destroy their puppy lair, I switched over to see what was going on with the Great Dane Service Project and was excited to watch a Great Dane having puppies. That Saturday night I watched a few appear. Then when I got up the next morning, she was still giving birth, so I saw a couple more come into this world. Over the weekend, Olive had 11 puppies. One was stillborn. I knew something wasn’t right when they whisked that one away quickly and the attendants had sad faces. But then she had one more lively puppy. Ten healthy puppies. Wow! That’s a bunch of mouths to feed. I check on Olive’s puppies, lovingly nicknamed Pimentos, daily. Today, their eyes are opening and they can stand on all fours for a few seconds. Mostly they just sleep, but even that is meditative and calming to watch. Be careful, it’s addictive. I put the puppycam on on my Ipad and prop it next to my computer while I write. Obsessive, right?

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Azaleas Popping

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged azaleas, haiku on March 12, 2013| 5 Comments »

Azaleas in my front yard

Sunday night it rained all night. And I slept poorly between the gutters clanking and my storm-scared dog barking. But when I drove home from school on Monday afteroon, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and the azaleas were bright all over town. I think this calls for a spring haiku.

Azaleas popping
sun-drenched pinkness bounces on
green bushy balloons.

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Inner Faces

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged butterfly, Cathy Mills, ekphrasis, poetry on March 11, 2013| 11 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 11

A few weeks ago I ran in to an old friend at an art show. She was showing a new body of work. We talked, and I told her of my love of writing ekphrastic poetry. On Saturday, she sent me by email a number of her paintings. Here is my experiment with the first.

Inner Faces by Cathy Mills

Inner Faces

If only I could see you in double,
inside and out,
transformed
like the wings of a butterfly
opening, welcoming,
letting me in.

If only you could know my desire
to be your only mother,
the one who loves you most,
maybe you would honor me
with your presence
and let me in.

If only our lives were connected
by a strong abdomen
we could share more than a name,
a recognition of two faces
mirrored and aware,
letting me in.

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Ten Ways of Looking at a Candle

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Acadiana Wordlab, candle, pysanky making on March 10, 2013| 12 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 10

The candle

At the Acadiana Wordlab yesterday, Kelly Clayton put ordinary objects on the table. Actually, some of the objects were quite weird, like the two orange plastic Neanderthal men. She called this prompt “Object Lesson.” I think she got it from Writing Alone and with Others by Pat Schneider. We had to select an object and write 10 stanzas of three lines each. It reminded me of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens. My photo above is not the greatest, but you can see some of the other objects in the background.

I. Candle on a string
once you were two
and dipped.

II. White wax
nondescript
unscented
waiting to be lit.

III. Standing in a circle
side by side
sisters pass you around,
an ancient ritual.

IV. Set in a wreath,
counting the days
until a Savior’s birth.

V. Darkness is not dark
unless the light
knows it.

VI. Melted and scripted
with a kistka* and a steady hand,
dying reveals patterns.

VII. I will tuck you away
in my purse
in case the lights go out.

VIII. Tasting with a lick,
smooth and waxy,
reminds me of waxed lips.

IX. Wedged in a bottle
adorned with drippings,
you light our Italian meal.

X. The slight wind
created by your flame
can lift a whole balloon.

Pysanky making

*After the wordlab, I attended Art Walk and met a Slavic woman who had a show of her Pysanky eggs. Her husband was demonstrating the process using a stylus called a kistka. I had to add that to my poem. Pysanky is the ancient Eastern European art of egg decorating. The name comes from the verb to write, as you use a stylus (called a kistka) to write with wax on the egg shell. The process is similar to batik.

Pysanky egg by Nicole Holcombe

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Walking together, alone

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Bay St. Louis, Bayou Teche, Grandmother Oak, writing muse on March 9, 2013| 14 Comments »

Sunrise at Bay St. Louis

The Slice of Life Challenge is just that…a challenge. We must pay attention every day to our lives. We have to listen and think. We have to compose in our heads. We even dream about what we will write next. I use the proverbial we here because I’m sure all of the Slicers are experiencing this. Today is Day 9, and I was running low on the muse. I have been keeping up a day ahead, but yesterday was Friday, which translates to “I’m fried day.” I had just enough energy to take on the commenting challenge, but I wasn’t up to writing.

This morning early I texted a friend to check in. We haven’t been able to work out a get together in a while. She was, low and behold, on the beach. She sent me the picture above. She also sent me a recording of the sounds she heard, the swishing of waves and the calls of the gulls. Here is our conversation. Walking together, alone.

I’m on the beach
walking with the laughing gulls
calls and caws.

Tell them hello in gull speak.

Thanks for lighting up my cell this morning.

Missing my friend!

Missing you, yet happy to be in touch again.

What beauty you walk in. I will hold
this gift for those days when
I need a calm friend.

Sweet.

I walked outside to the sounds of mockingbirds, woodpeckers, and robins. This is my scenery, our grandmother oak standing tall and proud over the bayou. Not bad for a quiet Saturday morning.

Grandmother oak on Bayou Teche

Slice of Life Challenge Day 9

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Butterfly Haiku

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, tagged haiku on March 8, 2013| 15 Comments »

Hop on over to My Juicy Little Universe for more Poetry Friday delights.

My students are participating in the Classroom Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers. They are writing like crazy. It makes this writing teacher so happy.

For 6 years, I have been teaching gifted elementary students. To be able to teach them all in a day, I have to mix grade levels. I have always enjoyed the richness this adds to my class. Sometimes I feel like a juggler when I have 3 different spelling tests to give, but, for the most part, the students mix well and learn a lot from each other. The class is fluid, too, because as the year goes on, I may get new students as they are identified. This year, Vannisa joined one of my groups. She is in third grade and had never written a haiku. What better time to try than in the SOLC. This week she wrote her first haiku. A few weeks ago my students did name research, and Vannisa discovered her name means “flighty.” I told her that was perfect because she flits like a butterfly all over the classroom. Not surprising her haiku is a butterfly haiku.

I have also included a group of questions Mrs. Heinisch’s class asked her in a comment on her blog. I especially love her response. Notice she mentions I Haiku You, a book I learned about on Two Writing Teachers.

Little Butterfly

Fluttering past a flower

Too small to be seen
–Vannisa

Thoughts from Mrs. Heinisch’s 6th grade class:

Why did you pick to write about butterflies?

Why did you chose to write it as a Haiku?

Do you think the word butterfly comes from flies sitting on butter?

How big was the butterfly?

Who made up the word butterfly?

Thank you for posting your Haiku today! We all enjoyed it!

Vannisa’s response:

Well it is nice to know that sixth graders are reading one of my post because I’m only in third grade.

First and second question:
I read a book called “I Haiku You” by Betsy Snyder and I decided to write a haiku. I thought it was going to be hard because a haiku is five syllables and then seven then five. It turns out it wasn’t that hard because my gifted teacher said haikus usually are making the reader put a picture in their head and that they’re usually about nature.

question three:
Actually sometimes, but my name means flighty. Like I’ll do something and then another thing.

question four:
I would say… as big an average human palm.
number five:
I don’t know, and like I said I’m only in third grade.

Slice of Life Challenge Day 8

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An Author Visits

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Diane Moore, Flood on the Rio Teche, project based learning on March 7, 2013| 4 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 7

Yesterday our sixth grade gifted students met the author of a book they have been reading for our enrichment Wednesdays. We’ve been using project based learning while meeting monthly focusing on the theme of water. We selected the book Flood on the Rio Teche by Diane Marquart Moore for a number of reasons. One, this historical fiction novel would help the students learn about the history of New Iberia’s discovery and settlement, and Two, water is important to the story. Also, the author lives locally part of the year. We were lucky to catch her before she moves back to Sewanee, TN for the spring and summer.

Our students were interested in how she came to write the book, her inspiration and her research. But I saw the lights go on when she talked about being an author. She didn’t candy-coat it, either. Being an author is hard work. She gave advice that she had gotten from Ernest Gaines when she had the privilege of taking a class with him. He said, “Revise, revise, revise,” and “The first sentence is the most important one of the whole novel.” She talked about how once she figured out that the rain on a palmetto roof would hiss like the snake for which the Teche was named, her book was ready to be written.

Opening sentence for Flood on the Rio Teche: Rain hissed on the palmetto roof, and Antonio felt like hissing back at the downpour.

Diane writes a blog at A Word’s Worth.

The Slice of Life Challenge has been revealing to me as I participate with my students. There is an immediacy about it. They rush to the computer and often compose right there. Then they hit the publish button. I am amazed how fresh and fun some of the writing is. However, the teacher in me wants them to be conscious of their reader and use correct grammar. I want to think about how I can continue the momentum while showing them the value of revision and editing.

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