Writing | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Famous Again

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Writing, tagged Acadiana Lifestyle, celebration, Gumbo, roux, Teaching Authors, thanku on November 8, 2014| 6 Comments »

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

In our household, if you make it into our local paper, you are famous. I made it into a local free magazine, Acadiana Lifestyle. The writer Anne Minvielle called me about 6 weeks ago asking me about my hero. She was doing a feature on local heroes’ heroes. I didn’t have to think long. My hero is my mother-in-law, Anne Simon. I’ve written about her a few times on this blog.

When I married at the young age of 21, I moved with my husband to his home town, away from my family in Mississippi. So his parents became very important to me. Following his father’s death (ten years ago on Nov. 14th), his mother Anne and I got closer and closer. We affectionately call her Minga. That’s the grandma name my oldest daughter gave her. It was a baby’s version of grandma. We loved it and kept it. What a coincidence that the greeting in Burma is “Minga La Bal.” Yes, a few years ago, Minga traveled to Burma and came to my classes dressed in traditional Burmese clothes, bowing her head and saying, “Minga La Bal.” I wrote about it here.

Acadiana Lifestyle, November 2014

From the article: “Margaret speaks of her mother-in-law as if she were truly a hero. ‘She is like a mother to me, but more than that, she is a best friend, a writing partner, and a confidante. I can talk to her about anything and trust that she will love me no matter what,’ she says. What a blessing!”

While I write this celebration post, my wonderful husband is making a roux for a gumbo. That is the smell of cool weather and of home. However, the scent gets into all your clothes and your pores. We will carry that southern home smell with us all day.

Teaching Authors posted a challenge yesterday on Poetry Friday. Three Weeks of Gratitude. Writing thanksgiving haikus, otherwise known as Thankus. I did this activity with my students a few years ago and here is one from a student. I keep it pinned to the bulletin board in my kitchen.

The seed of a rose
You sprout your knowledge like roots
We share our petals.
by Kylon

Keep your hand moving: Roux in the pot.

Thanku to Roux

Heat tempered with love
Strong scent of flour and oil
Come home for gumbo.
–Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

Free Write leads to Poetry

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Ava Leavell Haymon, free writing, NCTE, poetry exercise on November 7, 2014| 15 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Random Noodling with Diane.

Even purple lemurs named Violet can write.

My students make really good guinea pigs when it comes to trying out new writing activities. This week I showed them a free writing activity I did with our state poet laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon, at the Book Festival Wordshop last Friday. I was not sure how this rather random exercise would work for producing a poem.

We started with a clean piece of drawing paper. Each edge of the paper, we filled with sense words (colors, sounds, tastes, smells, and physical feelings.) Then I asked them to draw a large circle in the middle of the paper. When Ava gave us this exercise to do, she talked about the negative voice that often invades our minds when we are trying to write, saying terrible things like, “You are stupid,” and “Why do you think you have anything to say?” Each student selected a bad color to use to make a shape around their negative voices. Some students had no shapes and others had multiple ones filled with ugly words. I think this helped those who feel intimidated by writing.

Inside the circle, I told my students to free write for 7 minutes. Free writing is anything that comes into your mind. Just keep the hand moving. I even gave them ink pens to use, a treat.

Select six concrete words from your writing. Then write a six-lined poem. The poems were as varied as the students themselves. I enjoyed hearing how the free writing influenced the final poem. I think they were richer somehow. We then created a folded book from the art paper and wrote the six lines on the six pages of the book.

Fall weather warmth

A caramel taste
an amber color
chilly nights
candle lights
a honeysuckle scent–
Fall weather warmth.

by Vannisa

I remember

I remember
sucking on an orange butterscotch,
being embarrassed about something I said
(what a thing to feel).
I remember it all happened
on Thanksgiving.

by Matthew

Night Warrior

Be a warrior.
Ride on your unicorn.
To battle the bullies,
be a sweet, kind hero.
Climb into the sunset.
You become a pink image.

by Erin

Folded book poem

NCTE is around the corner. I am getting nervous and excited. If you plan to be there, please try to attend the Elementary Get Together to support me as I receive the 2014 Donald H. Graves Award. I am also presenting with colleagues from the National Writing Project on Friday.

Link to my presentation at NCTE: Friday, Nov. 21st at 12:30 PM.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

Chill-a-bration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, choka, Emaze, Halloween poems, zeno poems on October 31, 2014| 11 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Teacher Dance with Linda.

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

It’s Chill-a-bration Time! That’s Halloween language for Chalk-a-bration. Halloween language for Poetry Friday is “Poetry Freakday!” I hope you enjoy our Freaky chalk poems. My students chalked up the sidewalks and chilled up an Emaze presentation. It was a sunny day, so we added some spooky shadows to our chalk poems.

http://app.emaze.com/1012993/chill-a-bration

A chilling chalk zeno by Emily

Candy chalk choka by Nigel and Tobie.

Shadow poem by Reed.

Read Full Post »

Llama in a Black Pot

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Acadian Village, Black Pot Festival, Llama sauce picante on October 28, 2014| 4 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Maggie and her sauce picante.

My daughter Maggie is adventurous, and she loves a good challenge. When she cooked for her friend’s birthday recently, the friend’s mother challenged Maggie to make a sauce piquant for the upcoming Black Pot Festival using some llama necks she had in her freezer. What? Llama neck sauce piquant? Why not?

My husband and I love local music, so we didn’t need much urging to attend the Black Pot Festival. Music, dancing, beer, food, a wonderful combination! If you have followed my blog for the last month, you know we aren’t lacking in the festival department, but we had never attended the Black Pot Festival. As usual for South Louisiana, the crowd was mixed, but we noticed quite a few hippies in this crowd, kids in their 20s sporting long beards and tattoos. Someone commented that they were nouveau hippies.

While in line for a taste, (That was the name of the game: Go where the line is longest to get a taste of whatever was cooking.) I overheard 4 bearded ~~dudes~~ ~~nouveau hippies~~ guys talking about my daughter’s sauce piquant.

Dude 1: Llama is the best, dude.

Dude 2: You got a neck, man! That’s vertebrae, like bone marrow is good for you.

Dude 3: Straight up neck! You should make a necklace out of it.

Maggie and her team did not win the competition in the gravy category, but I would guess that it was the most talked about dish at the festival.

Acadian Village, a preserved historic site, was the setting for the Black Pot Festival.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

What’s Inside?

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Laura Purdie Salas, What's Inside poems on October 24, 2014| 6 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Merely Day by Day with Cathy.

One of my Poetry Friday poet heroes is Laura Purdie Salas. She is the author of Bookspeak and Water Can Be, both of which I recommend for any classroom. She recently published an e-book What’s Inside: Poems to Explore the Park It’s a great resource for teaching young poets.

There was a solar eclipse happening on Thursday. I decided to combine teaching about this phenomenon with a new poem form, “What’s Inside?” We read a few model Laura Purdie Salas poems and discussed the elements in her poems, rhyme, rhythm, along with factual information. I am posting some student poems and my own. To make comments to the students, click on their name.

What’s inside a solar eclipse?
A moon hatching out of its cocoon
“Now is my time to rule the day”
The sun is secret
Hidden away
Coming back soon
“Once again I will rule over moon”
–-Kielan

Above the cosmos,
The moon still glows.
Blocking the light,
It’s a time of fright.
In the position of the sun,
It’s no fun.
When it goes away,
No more for today.
Like a Clash of Clans war,
It’s done for.
–Nigel

Tobie wrote his poem in three voices: the solar eclipse, the sun, and the moon. (I love how he marked each one.)

The sun will be covered by the moon. <———————Solar Eclipse
I just wish it would come again soon.

What's inside this ball of fire? <————————Sun
It's like life, ton of desire.

What's inside this big rock? <—————-Moon
Too bad, there's only one in stock.
–Tobie</blockquote>

Mrs. Simon tries rhyme once again. I was pleased by the unexpected rhyme of sun and phenomenon.

What’s Inside a Solar Eclipse?
Make a pinprick hole in a paper plate.
Sunset horizon, stop and wait.
A new moon crosses the path of the sun,
eclipsing our vision,
a sky-born phenomenon.
–Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

Grace Comes

Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged God's love, grace, nature, spiritual journey on October 24, 2014| 3 Comments »

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

We know from Alexander that some days are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, even in Australia. And I’ve had those days. I’ve had the days where nothing seems to go right. The days where the ice cream falls off the ice cream cone, and the plate crashes to the floor, flying out of your hand like someone else is in control. But I have learned that even on those days, there is Grace. Grace comes when we least expect it. The grace in the eyes of the veterinarian who says your dog is fine. The grace in an email from a friend who says you’re a blessing in her life. The grace from the chattering birds on a wire. The grace in the clear sky. The grace in the sunrise over the sugarcane. The grace in the abundant fruit on the tree. The grace in the reflection of the sun on the bayou. God’s grace, God’s loving embrace holds me every day.

Read Full Post »

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:

Read Full Post »

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.