Teaching | Reflections on the Teche

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The Nonreader

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged reading, reluctant readers on December 9, 2014| 30 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

I’m sure there must be one in every classroom, right? The nonreader. The one who pretends he has it all together. The one who keeps the same book for weeks traveling to and from home.

I am having a hard time writing about this. I’ve already gotten up twice to make tea, to eat a cookie. My heart wants to talk to you, but my head is not sure how.

I made a student cry last week. I don’t like to make students cry. This one came about unexpectedly. I asked Mitch (name changed), a 6th grader, about his reader response post. He explained that his post about “The Elf on the Shelf” was his reader response. I thought it was his Slice of Life story. I said, “We need to talk about your book selections.” His face turned red. His eyes welled up. We moved out to the hallway.

I want to honor free choice. A few weeks ago, I allowed him to read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” But even then I said, “OK, but next time you need to pick a book on your level.”

“I’m just not much of a reader,” Mitch told me, “I’d rather play outside.” We talked about ways he could work reading into his nighttime routine. When we returned to the classroom, my other students rallied around him with book choices.

Most of my gifted students are avid readers. I gave up the nightly log last year when it became burdensome for both me and my students. Every day we have discussions around books we are reading. This student, however, has not caught the wild reader fever. Quite the opposite. He is a closet nonreader. Now we all know, and he felt the chastisement. I’m not sure if things will change very quickly. Mitch has to find the right book. He will flourish only when he is understood and accepted. So how do I make him excited about reading, honor his choices, and advance his reading skills? Please give me your advice in the comments.

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NCTE14 Revisited

Posted in Blogging, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Animoto, children authors, NCTE, Two Writing Teachers on November 25, 2014| 17 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Georgia Heard and Ralph Fletcher congratulate me!

I am having a hard time coming down from the high of NCTE14 in Washington, DC. To begin the weekend, I was honored at the Elementary Get Together for the Donald H. Graves Award for teaching writing. My acceptance speech is here. I was surrounded by notable writers Lester Laminack, Ralph Fletcher, and Georgia Heard. All three of them were kind and easy to talk to.

Selfie with Lester Laminack and Ralph Fletcher.

On Friday, I presented with my colleagues from the National Writing Project Professional Writing Retreat (2004). This was our 10 year reunion, and we talked about what keeps us writing. We created an acronym, STAMP, for Social Media, Time, Audience, Mentors, and Peers. Here is a link to our Emaze presentation.

Another highlight of my weekend was meeting so many authors. I passed Augusta Scattergood standing alone in the lobby, so I stopped and talked to her. She used to attend these events as a librarian and now she is an author. Her second book, The Way to Stay in Destiny, was available as a galley copy. I stood in line and was the last one to receive one. The guards at Scholastic did not want me to get it signed, but when we started waving to each other like silly school girls, they let me through.

Augusta Scattergood

Meeting fellow bloggers as long lost friends was a joy. We connected immediately and sought each other out at different sessions. We had dinner together with the Two Writing Teachers team on Saturday night and had a difficult time saying good night. We all wanted to continue the time together. Being in the company of kind, thoughtful teachers who think like I think and struggle like I struggle and love their students like I love mine was inspiring and heart warming. I feel like we have begun a long friendship as well as a strong professional connection.

Professional Book Exchange organized by Chris Lehman.

I made an Animoto video of all my pictures. I took along Jack, the lemur, for some of them. Jack is our class pet that Emily snuck into my school cart. He enjoyed NCTE as much as I did.

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Donald Graves Award Gratitude

Posted in Gratitude, Teaching, Writing, tagged Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Donald Graves Award, gratitude, National Harbor, NCTE, Two Writing Teachers on November 20, 2014| 19 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

Every week Holly posts a theme on Twitter for our #spiritualjourney posts. Every week it seems to be the most appropriate theme. This week is gratitude. I am posting my acceptance speech for the Donald H. Graves Award. I will give this speech this afternoon at the NCTE Elementary Section Get Together. Reading it aloud makes me cry. I am praying I will be able to get through it without croaking up.

Emily snuck our class lemur, Jack, into my bag. He is helping me write my speech.

Thank you, Detra Price-Dennis, and the Elementary Section Steering Committee for this honor. I am overwhelmed and humbled. Writing drives my work with students and my interactions with the world.

Kate DiCamillo, our National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and one of my favorite children’s authors, says that stories connect us. “When we learn someone else’s story, it shifts the fabric of our being. We are more open. And when we are open, we connect.”

My One Little Word for 2014 is Open, so when I saw the call for submissions to the Donald H. Graves Award, I thought, never in a million years, and why not?

I was encouraged when I saw that Julie Johnson was the 2010 winner. I know her! I read her blog! That is how I have connected to so many wonderful authors and educators. These connections, their stories, have given me courage to be open to new adventures. My fellow blogging teachers have also given me confidence in my own voice through their comments. My small world has grown.

These wider connections have not only enriched my life, but they have affected my students’ lives. Earlier this fall, my 4th grader Emily lost her mother. This should not happen to anyone, let alone to a nine-year-old girl. Of course, I wrote about this profound experience on my blog. Amy Ludwig Vanderwater read it and wrote a poem for Emily. She didn’t say that the poem was for Emily but I knew that she had read my blog.

Amy became that someone for Emily. When Emily wrote a poem about clouds, she made an Animoto video, so I said to her, “Would you like to dedicate this poem to someone?” Her eyes lowered. I know she thought I meant her mother. But when I said, “Amy Vanderwater,” her eyes danced. We tweeted the poem-movie to Amy. For Poetry Friday the next week, Amy posted it on her blog along with some writing tips from my 4th grader. These connections, these stories, strengthen us when we need it most. Emily feels like a real poet. She will always have that gift, and Amy recognized her and honored her.

I began this journey when I attended the summer institute of the National Writing Project of Acadiana. There, Ann Dobie, director at the time and an important mentor ever since, introduced me to the work of Donald Graves. His philosophy that a teacher of writing must be a writer has entered my heart and soul.

I am grateful to the National Writing Project for supporting my desire to be a writer. I am grateful to the works of mentors like Ralph Fletcher and Aimee Buckner. I am grateful to the Two Writing Teachers, all 6 of them, who support the Slice of Life challenge and hold each teacher/writer in their gentle and wise hands. My family and my colleagues back home in New Iberia give me love, confidence, and the freedom to write and teach in way I believe is right and true.

Our stories connect us and make us partners on this journey of life. I encourage you to be Open, open to the lives of your students and to the lives of others. Write your life and, as Amy Vanderwater reminds us, Be the someone.

My view of the National Harbor from my hotel room at NCTE. What a beautiful day!

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When it comes to technology, balance.

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged Cambodia, digital literacy, Nanci Atwell, Travel, Vietnam on November 16, 2014| 4 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Last week there were posts in response to a well-known and respected educator, Nanci Atwell, about the question of using technology in the lower grades. I have long admired Nanci Atwell as the author of In the Middle. Her theories and ideas have guided my teaching for many years. The comment that garnered so much attention was this:

I do think classrooms in grades four or five and up should have computers, so kids can experience and experiment with word processing, but I have concerns about them in the younger grades. In fact, I think the trend of iPads in the primary classroom is a mistake. –Nancie Atwell

I understand her thinking. When children are young, their brains are still growing and developing. I tell my students often that video games are OK in moderation, but hours can harm their brains. I offer them choices in the classroom for writing and composing. Personally, I do not want to take time from actual writing to teach handwriting, so I would rather their final drafts be typed. I think this is real world application. My students have balance. The right balance is important in many aspects of life, eating, exercise, and technology use.

Cutting a papaya, fruit from Vietnam.

This week, my mother-in-law visited my classes to teach about Vietnam. She recently went on a trip there and brought back many pictures and ideas for teaching my young students. She was worried about what they would and would not understand. I put together an Emaze presentation with some of her pictures. She did not think it included enough. I told her the Emaze was background to her presence. The kids would pay more attention to her. And I was right about that! She brought in fruits and vegetables from the Asian market. She bought them all bamboo hats. They each had a taste of peanut candy. And they touched an actual silk worm cocoon. There is nothing better than the real thing.

Technology, however, allowed some of my students to process her visit even further as they wrote a Slice of Life story. You can read Tyler’s, Vannisa’s , and Kielan’s. As she wrote, I watched Kielan refer back to the Emaze presentation. It helped her remember everything that she saw.

I believe this process is the best for teaching. I will continually advocate for hands on experience through guest speakers and field trips. The technology serves as a means for processing and communicating that is here to stay and is a necessary part of the balance in education.

Children are fascinated by money from other countries.

**Note: Due to NCTE and Thanksgiving holiday, there will be a two week break from DigiLit Sunday posts.

Link up your Digital Literacy posts.

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Finding Fall

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Carol Varsalona, fall poetry, zeno poems on November 14, 2014| 14 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Keri Recommends.

A few weeks into fall Carol Varsalona put out a call for submissions to her Finding Fall Gallery. I wanted my students to try some fall poetry writing. I pulled up an image gallery from NBC news. I think images make for richer, image-filled poetry. Many of the images were striking, and we had a hard time choosing just one to write to. So I allowed some students to keep their favorite frozen on the Promethean while others found the gallery on other computers. Kielan captured a list poem from different images and made a poem movie on Animoto. Emily remains the Zeno master with her Fall Zeno.

Sergei Grits / AP

yellow,orange,peach,red,and brown

leaves are falling

this fall

bound

rainy weather

scares the

ground

because it melts

in fear

drowned
–Emily

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Making a Difference

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Teaching, tagged Kaylie, Mother Theresa, Scholastic Mockingjay Change the World writing contest, teaching on November 13, 2014| 4 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
–Mary Oliver

Can we really make a difference? Can one person plant a seed?
Will it grow? How will we know?

I got a phone call today from a former student. She felt brave enough to enter a writing contest, the Scholastic Mockingjay Change the World Contest. She called to tell me she placed in the top ten and will receive prizes. I was thrilled! Her essay speaks of world hunger as the biggest problem we face today. Her experience volunteering at Solomon House with me and some of her classmates influenced her greatly.

An excerpt from her essay:

Though super powers are the quickest way to saving the hungry, there are still things you and I can do to help. During the Hunger Games, gracious sponsors donate food to dying tributes. This often saves them. Think of Katniss! She wouldn’t be alive if not for the kind-hearted people that gave her a chance. We should be the sponsors of this world…the ones that say, “I made a difference.” We can be those people. Today.
–Kaylie B. Read the entire essay here.

I do what I do in order to make a difference, to mean something to someone. But the tree does not bear fruit quickly, usually after years of growth. Even so, I should do the best I can with each precious life I hold. This is my responsibility. This is my vocation. Congratulations to Kaylie! I am so proud to be a part of her life as a writer and as a person who makes a difference.

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Write. Draw. Poetry

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Ava Leavell Haymon, Louisiana Book Festival, poetry exercise on November 4, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

View of the state capitol from the top floor of the state library.

The weekend was absolutely beautiful for a trip to the capital city of Baton Rouge for the annual Louisiana Book Festival. The sky was clear, the air was cool, and the sun was bright. A great time to celebrate literary works.

I treated myself to a day off and attended a poetry workshop with our state poet laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon. Ava is brilliant and funny and an out-of-the-box thinker. She gave us each a large sheet of drawing paper and had us begin on each edge by writing different sensory words, i.e. sounds, smells, colors. Then we drew a large circle with a gold marker. In this circle, we were asked to free write. She said something about drawing other shapes to put your over-the-shoulder-negative voice into, but I didn’t do this part. After free-writing, we circled concrete words from our writing to use in a poem. Then to complete the task, we folded the large paper so that it made a book. (I found online instructions for the book form here.) After all this, I ended up with this poem.

Rose-colored Glasses

In-box flashes
“Teacher evaluations”
Her plate spills.
All she wants is to be
invited outside
to the trampoline.
–Margaret Simon

Completed poem book

As crazy as this whole exercise seemed, I like the idea of using a free write to compress ideas into a small poem. I want to try this with my students. I have not done free writing yet this year. I usually have a theme or prompt for writing. I wonder if students will be able to work with the randomness. Or maybe that’s the idea, random writing leads to poetry.

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PowToon has Power

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged lemurs, PowToon, World Wildlife Fund on November 2, 2014| 5 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Last week I read Holly Mueller’s Digital Literacy post about her students’ social justice PSA’s. Some of her students used an app called PowToon. I introduced it to my students on Monday while discussing presentation options. I wanted them to further research an area of interest sparked by our field trip to a science museum. After they watched the short PowToon introduction video, I could hear an echo in the classroom, “I’m using PowToon!”

My students are familiar with PowerPoint. PowToon uses a similar interface with an add slide button and graphics that are easily added with a drag and drop motion. My students were able to use this app independently. I watched over their heads as they created fun animated slides. Tyler ran into trouble when he tried to add music. He lost the whole presentation he had created, so we started the mantra of “Hit Save” after every added slide. Tyler was able to quickly recreate what he had done and even enjoyed trying new things, so it was not a huge loss.

After I viewed Tyler’s PowToon, I discussed ways he could raise money for lemurs. We found the World Wildlife Fund that has a lemur adoption kit. The cost is $55. I told him if he presents his PowToon to all the 5th and 6th grade classes and asks them to donate $1 for the cause, he is likely to raise the money. He agreed. I’m excited to watch this 6th grader move from an interest sparked to a social action.

Add your digital literacy posts in Mr. Linky. Follow on Twitter with #k6digilit.

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Prayer Shawl Ministry

Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, Teaching, tagged faith, grace, gratitude, prayer ministry on October 30, 2014| 11 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

One of my close choir friends has been bringing her crochet projects to the loft for a while now. We all love to touch the yarn and watch her quick hands craft beautiful shawls. She decided to begin a prayer shawl ministry at our church. I had not crocheted or knitted in years, but I was interested in the idea, so I joined.

Baby Vivian is one month old and weighs 2 pounds. Please pray for her.

Before our first meeting, a friend in my Berry Queen community, Holly, had a pre-mature baby. Vivian weighed 1.7 lbs, but she has proven to be a fighter. She is growing and developing. I keep up with her through Facebook. I decided I would make a prayer blanket for the baby. I bought some pink and white thread, a crochet hook, and an instruction book. As I crocheted, I said her name. My mantra became “Vivian Victory.”

Completed baby prayer blanket

We took a field trip last Friday. My student Emily sat next to me on the long bus ride. She watched me work on the prayer blanket. Today, she presented me with a pillow she had sewn for me. She wrote about it for her Slice of Life story on our kidblog. You can read her post here. She wrote, “And, if Mrs. Simon is making a blanket for a premature baby that is only two pounds, she must love it. So, I made this pillow. I made this pillow for someone I love.”

Faith pillow made by Emily.

Emily’s heart has been broken with her mother’s untimely death six weeks ago. The power of grace from God has placed her heart in my hands. And what a gracious heart it is!

I am truly blessed to be a part of many faithful communities, the concentric circles of love from church, friends, family, students, and this blogging community.

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Sci-Port Field Trip

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Creativity, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged #celebratelu, 21st Century Learning, candy chemistry, Sci-Port on October 26, 2014| 3 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

There is a tiredness that comes when you know you have done something good, even if it made you terribly tired. That’s what my Friday and Saturday were like. So I am making a combination post for Celebration Saturday and DigiLit Sunday.

On Friday, my colleagues and I woke up really early to board a chartered bus at 5:30 AM with about 40 young gifted students to drive four hours north to Shreveport, LA. We visited Sci-Port. This field trip is a long tradition in our gifted program and happens every two years. I honestly don’t look forward to the long ride. But after it is all said and done, I feel good. It is worth it. The kids not only have a blast, but they also participate in 21st Century skills of Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. You just can’t do this much in a classroom or with digital learning. I am a believer in field trips. My students may find a way to express their learning this week digitally, through blogging and perhaps a presentation of ideas. I’ll let them decide how they want to process their experience.

Today I celebrate a successful field trip.