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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.

We lucked into Chemistry week. Our students learned about the chemistry of candy through hands-on experiments.

Marble mania is a challenge for small groups to create and collaborate.

Add your Digital Literacy posts with Mr. Linky.

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DigiLit Sunday: Poem Movies

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Animoto, autumn leaves, Nature poems, student writing on October 19, 2014| 8 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Autumn is a wonderful season for writing poems. Donna Smith shared her Fall Poetry Zeno on her blog, Mainly Write, for Poetry Friday. Holly Mueller shared an autumn poem by Bliss Carmen along with her original poem and students’ poems.

On Thursday, I presented the poem Autumn Grasses by Margaret Gibson. My students paraphrased it and talked about the imagery and metaphor. Then they wrote their own poems about autumn. Tyler went back to a picture postcard of Georgia O’Keefe’s Autumn Leaves that he had written about before. I love that he knew where the picture was and felt comfortable enough to grab it again for inspiration.

Autumn Leaves by Georgia O’Keefe

On Friday, I showed my students how I had made a poem movie with my poem This Peace. I suggested they might want to try to make their own poem movie using Animoto. I think this was Tyler’s first time to use Animoto. He found the perfect background, and after he finished putting in his images and words and the movie was produced, I overheard a gasp. He was totally enthralled and impressed with his own creation. This is what creativity in the classroom is all about, that Wow feeling.

I encourage you to teach an autumn poem and make poem movies in Animoto. You may use Tyler’s as a model. Please let me know if you do. I love to know when I have inspired creativity in others.

Add in your own Digital Literacy links here:

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Celebrating the Blog Community

Posted in Blogging, Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged Emaze, Hedwig, Kitlitoshpere on October 18, 2014| 6 Comments »

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

Today I am glowing a little brighter. My students and I enjoyed a few blog shout-outs this week.

My Spider zeno poem, along with a link to my Zeno Emaze was featured on Today’s Little Ditty.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater featured my student Emily’s Cloud Acrostic on The Poem Farm.
Donna Smith was inspired by my Emaze presentation to create her own fall poetry Emaze.

Hedwig’s story: A few years ago one of my students, who was a huge Harry Potter reader, was struggling with writing. He just wouldn’t. I was shopping at Barnes and Noble and decided on a whim to buy a stuffed owl, Hedwig from the Harry Potter series. Matthew became totally attached to the owl. Hedwig stood on his shoulder whenever he was writing.

This year, after Emily’s mother died, I decided to take Hedwig to my second school. Hedwig has been a comforter to Emily and has become a part of our classroom family. So much so that Emily made him a bed out of an empty tissue box. (Emily finished off the box after crying over her dog’s death this week. How much can one little girl take?) I celebrate today that this small little impulse purchase has brought comfort and meaning to my students.

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Murmuration Mysteries

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged starling murmurations, student poetry, zeno poems on October 17, 2014| 11 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Today’s Little Ditty with Michelle H Barnes.

Migrating starlings, over the southern Israeli village of Tidhar, on February 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

My students were mesmerized this week by the Wonder of the Week, Starling Murmurations. As I often do with these Wonder lessons, I asked them to choose 4 of the Wonder Words. Then we watched the video, looked at The Atlantic site, and selected a picture to write to. The above image was selected by Erin. Erin is a third grader. She has a confidence about her that I wish I had. She sat writing her poem and told me, “I am writing a staircase poem.”

“What is a staircase poem?”

“Look at the lines. They look like the steps on a staircase.”

I think Erin just created her own form.

Ready, set, fly,
One bird takes flight,
another one and another one
until there’s a million in the sky
making an illusion of love as one goes by
washing over me.
Come along and see.
To believe is the key.
The key is to believe.
So graceful and startling,
a routine with meaning. Just
believe and you will see that anything
can be beautiful if you just put love into it.

–Erin, 3rd grade

I showed my students my poem movie from Spiritual Thursday. (You can see the post here.) I made the suggestion that they make a poem movie with their starling zenos. Some of my students are loving J. Patrick Lewis’s new form. A zeno is a great form for writing nonfiction poems. Enjoy these poem movies made using Animoto.

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Zeno-mania

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Emaze, J. Patrick Lewis, zeno poems on October 10, 2014| 16 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Miss Rumphius Effect.

As one of my students called out,”You love to connect us with authors.” They know me well, and they know that when I tell them we are going to learn a new poetry form, writing will happen, they will be supported, and it will be challenging. Last Friday, Michelle Heindenrich Barnes featured J. Patrick Lewis on her site. Pat put forth a challenge with a new form that he created called a zeno. The zeno is based on the hailstone sequence. This is the kind of math I enjoy. Math poetry: repeated syllable counts. My students were fascinated. They couldn’t wait to share with their math teachers. Matthew said, “I think I can use this in a magic trick.”

I have been playing with Emaze for presentations. I was so taken with the poems my students created in the morning group that I made an Emaze to teach my afternoon group. Later, I added some of their poems to the presentation. I encourage you to try this with your students. If you want to use the Emaze presentation, let me know.

Click the link below to go directly to the presentation.

http://app.emaze.com/882076/zeno-poetry

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Cloud Watching

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged acrostic poetry, cloud poems, Poetry Friday Anthologies on October 3, 2014| 16 Comments »

Join Jama for Poetry Friday at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

This week my students and I were wondering about Aerodynamics. I love framing my weeks with so many wonders at Wonderopolis. We learned about jet streams and lift. We watched some cool time-lapsed videos.

Since we were wondering and wandering around in the clouds, I found some cloud poems to share. From The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, I read Racing the Clouds by Jacqueline Jules (p. 45) and Biking Along White Rim Road by Irene Latham (p. 109). From The Poetry Friday Anthology For Science, I read Clouds by Kate Coombs (p. 85) and Tropical Rain Forest Sky Ponds by Margarita Engle. (On a side note, I am thrilled that my students are learning the names of wonderful Poetry Friday poets.)

My students noticed metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, rhyming, and more. The Poetry Friday anthologies suggested the website Clouds Appreciation Society. (Is there a website for everything?) I pulled up a cloud picture on the board to inspire writing. Even though some of my young students go back to the acrostic form, their writing was richer, emoting more sense of tone, and embedded with metaphor. Models, models, models, teachers. They work!

Coming together
Like a school
Of fish
Under the big blue sky
Disaster, waiting to strike

Couldn’t be better
Laying under the sun
Once it was peaceful, no clouds
Underneath, we are the unsuspecting victims, of the next
Deadly hurricane
–Tobie
(To leave comments for this poet, go to his post.)

In Vannisa’s poem, you will see words and phrases borrowed from the poems we read, mixed together with her words to create a new poem.

Over Afganistan
sunlight is hidden,
for it is somewhat forbidden.
Because this is the clouds,
the round, puffy, white clouds.
The cloud of wish,
the cloud that is as flat as a dish.
They are all lakes in the sky.
Whether it is a flat, small pond,
or a fat navy ocean,
there are no
empty spaces.
–Vannisa (To leave comments for this poet, go to this post.)

Dear Emily was moved to make her poem into an Animoto video. Prepare for tears. Her poem is dedicated to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Amy knows why.