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Archive for the ‘#TeachWrite’ Category

Poetry Friday: Definito Challenge

Posted in #TeachWrite, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on August 2, 2019| 15 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe.

Today my Sunday Poetry Swagger writing group is celebrating a new form invented by our colleague Heidi Mordhorst, who is hosting the PF link up.

Heidi’s definition of a definito is “a free verse poem of 8-12 lines (aimed at readers 8-12 years old) that highlights wordplay as it demonstrates the meaning of a less common word, which always ends the poem.” A few weeks ago during one of our Sunday night critique meetings, she asked us each to try writing our own definito.

I’ve been following Teach Write on Facebook and each day they post a word to jump start writing. In the month of July, they posted “voracious vocabulary”. One day the word was “zephyr.” This was a new to me word that I thoroughly enjoyed learning about. A definito is a great way to explore a word’s meaning through writing. I will be using this activity with my students this year.

Zephyr

Zero in.
Feel the wind
blow oh, so, slow,
lightly feathering
the sleepy moss,
slightly rippling the shore.
Not a gale or hefty gust,
blustery bora or frigid buster.
This Greek god is a gentle one
waving from the western sky…
easy-breezy  zephyr.
(draft) Margaret Simon

Melanie Wupperman, Pexels.com

Read more definitos at these Poetry Swaggers’ sites:
Catherine Flynn: Reading to the Core
Molly Hogan: Nix the Comfort Zone
Heidi Mordhorst: My Juicy Little Universe
Linda Mitchell: A Word Edgewise

And playing along:
Mary Lee Hahn: A Year of Reading
Laura Purdie Salas: Writing the World for Children

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Let’s Write 2019

Posted in #TeachWrite, Writing, tagged , on January 5, 2019| 3 Comments »

Click to follow Let’s Write 2019.

Leigh Anne Eck is inviting bloggers to join a new community of writers.  The purpose is for us writers to share and celebrate our writing goals. Click the image above to read more about Leigh Anne’s invitation.

Somehow writing down a plan for writing makes it more real.  WordPress sent me a notification that I have made 1,337 posts.  I’m not sure why that number is significant to WordPress, but it made me realize that I write an average of about 200 posts per year.  I don’t plan to make that a goal, but I do plan to continue to participate in these writing challenges and blogging round ups:

  • March Slice of Life Challenge (and weekly during the other months)
  • April Poem-a-Day
  • December Haiku-a-Day
  • Poetry Friday
  • Laura Shovan’s poem-a-day in February (her birthday month)

I work with two writing groups.  These monthly and bi-monthly meetings keep me writing and working toward publishing goals. In 2018, I celebrated the publishing of my first poetry book for children, Bayou Song.  I am currently working on Swamp Song.  I hope to finish this manuscript in 2019.

Hitting the Send button on submissions takes courage and vulnerability.  I’m trying to get better at it and take rejections in stride.  After all, don’t we read over and over about famous writers getting multiple rejections.  It’s all part of the process.  I hope to be more brave in 2019 and submit more often.

The third goal for my writing life is to write a poem a day.  I do this as part of challenges like the December #haikuforhope and in April as part of National Poetry Month.  Why not do this every day? Using my scrap paper art journal, I am invited to just write without judgement.

I have found a writing home in poetry.  Poetry fits me and is comfortable.  Maybe too comfortable?  One of my writing goals for 2019 is to try a different genre.  I’ve written fiction, but I’ve shied away from memoir.  Two of my writing group partners are writing memoir, so I’m intrigued and inspired.

Writing in a community of writers both strengthens my writing and urges me on to write more, submit more, and to be more.  Would you like to be a part of Let’s Write 2019?  There’s always room for one more at the table.

 

 

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Poetry Friday: Heron Watching

Posted in #TeachWrite, Blogging, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on January 19, 2018| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Kay at A Journey Through the Pages.

 

I’ve had a lot of time lately to look out the window.  A hard freeze blew through the deep south, and gifted me with time alone at home on the bayou.  The winter bitter winds do not scare away the water wading birds.  They must be covered in some powerful down.  I’ve watched a particular blue heron, an occasional great white egret, and this morning, a family of wood ducks.

Watching the bayou inspires me to write poetry.  If you come by my blog often, you know this is my ongoing topic.  My blog title, Reflections on the Teche, is informed by the Bayou Teche (pronounced “Tesh”)

Taking a picture of a blue heron is nearly impossible.  They respond to any human activity with flight.  I painted a portrait of one a few years ago after a photo by Ralph Fletcher.  This painting now hangs in my parents’ dining room.

Blue heron painting by Margaret Simon

 

Heron Watching

I stand still
at the window
watching.

Take in slow breath.
No need to pray
when seeing this heron.

He perches,
head down,
beak pointed to

water’s surface
where the sun glimmers
like waves in old glass.

Is it a minnow,
mosquito, moth?
I focus on the horizon,

wonder
what his patience
invites me to see?

Margaret Simon, 2018

My One Little Word for my writing life is Present.  I want to show up to the page every day.  I wrote a post for TeachWrite Chat Blog here. I made a Canva image of my goals for being present thinking of the heron in my backyard and his lessons of patience.

 

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DigiLitSunday: Time

Posted in #TeachWrite, Blogging, Digital Learning on August 20, 2017| 3 Comments »

I believe there is a time for everything, like the song, “To every thing, turn…” Even for the best of ideas, the time for its purpose runs out.  I have been struggling with this idea about DigiLitSunday for a while.  It’s hard to let it go, but I feel it’s time to move on.

This school year has new challenges for me.  But the greatest challenge is time.  Some things have to go.  I’ve decided to let this blog link-up go.  I will continue to try to post on Tuesdays for Slice of Life and Fridays for Poetry Friday and the occasional Saturday Celebrate. I love my blog space and my blogging community.

Recently I joined the team for a new Twitter chat, #TeachWrite.  Join us for our September chat on Monday evening, Sept. 4th at 7:30 EST.  Ironically, our September topic is “Finding Time for Writing.”

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#DigiLitSunday: Making Impossible Possible

Posted in #TeachWrite, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged , , on July 30, 2017| 2 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Saturday morning yoga, my instructor, Susan, says “You should not tell yourself that your body can’t do something. Challenge yourself to try, and your body may just surprise you.” So when she said we were going to do head stands, I stopped the “No way,” and said, “Ok. I’ll try.” I opened myself to her knowledgeable instruction. She guided me step by step. And when I was upside down, I felt powerful, giddy, invincible.

I want to take this learning into my classroom and into my teacher-self. Our school year begins on Wednesday. Scheduling is a nightmare for anyone who has to look at a master schedule and plan for all the various pull-outs and special classes. I am one of those teachers that messes up the master schedule. This year I will be servicing three schools. Three different schools with three different schedules pulling out gifted students in 5 different grade levels. I know you must be saying by now, impossible.

Teachers, isn’t that how we roll? Turning impossible into possible. Whatever it may be, a move to a new classroom, grade level, or position, a new administrator to get to know, a crazy schedule to make work, we put on our super hero capes and take off, letting the winds of self-doubt fly past us. Flexibility is in our stride.

 

If I can do a hand stand, I can go confidently into this school year. But just in case I need a guiding mantra, I made a Canva poster out of Cornelius’s charge and my friend, Dani Burtsfield’s photo from Glacier Park in Montana.

 

 

Be sure to join me in the new #TeachWrite chat on Monday, August 7th at 7:30 EST.  For more information and a list of questions, go to #TeachWrite Chat.

 

Link up your DigiLitSunday posts below:

 

 

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#TeachWrite: Invitation to a New Twitter Chat

Posted in #TeachWrite, Teaching, Writing, tagged on July 20, 2017| 8 Comments »

 

I am so excited to announce a new collaboration.  I have joined Leigh Anne Eck, Michelle Haseltine, and Jennifer Laffin in the debut of a new Twitter chat.  Last week I led a Twitter chat with the purpose of introducing teachers in my writing institute to Twitter.  While only 3 teachers from my workshop joined, lots of other teachers who want to nurture their writer selves joined in.  The chat was a success and spurred on an interest that was already brewing with Jennifer, Leigh Anne, and Michelle.  They contacted me to join them.  I am honored.

I met these three powerhouse teachers through blogging with the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.  There is a magic that works in cyberspace connecting people of like minds and shared passion.  We all share a passion for teaching writing.  We’ve supported each other for years by commenting on each other’s blogs and connecting on Twitter and Facebook.  With the amazing power of technology, I feel we know each other.

We want to invite you into the circle.

Do you….

Believe that teaching writing is easier when teachers are writers themselves?

Believe that our own writing lives deserve to be nurtured?

Believe that all writers grow through dedicated writing time?

Believe that all writers need support and encouragement?

Believe that writing is a messy process and the best way to learn this is through our own practice?

Believe that when teachers write, they make writing a priority in their classrooms?

Our chat will support teachers not only in their quest to become better teachers of writers, but to become better writers ourselves.

Join us the first Monday of every month for #TeachWrite, a new Twitter chat dedicated to growing teachers as writers and teachers of writers.

Our first chat is Monday, August 7th at 8PM EST with the topic of  “Writing for the JOY of It!”

Sign up for Remind on your Remind app at #Teachwrite Twitter Chat.

 

 

 

 

 

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