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Poetry Friday Round-up is Here!

Poetry Friday Round-up is Here!

Slice of Life Day 7.  Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Slice of Life Day 6. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Watch out! There is a line lifter lurking in the cybersphere. He goes by the odd name of Dogtrax. He’s been reading poems and stealing lines and writing poems of his own. He also went so far as to make a Prezi for his class, as if this is a practice they may want to emulate.

I have to say, in all honesty, that this practice is the highest form of praise for a beginning student writer. My student, Vannesa wrote a poem posted on my blog here. Kevin, aka Dogtrax, wrote this poem in response.

Who comes from words
I come from words
and you come from the punctuation
at the end of my words
where we can both pause for a second
to think about what I meant to say
when I was writing words
and you were reading them.

-Kevin

Just a few days ago, my former student, Kaylie, joined our class Slice Of Life Challenge blog and posted this fabulous poem inspired by my mother-in-law’s visit last year. Kevin strikes again.

The sun climbs the earth again
feet dragging along the hillsides of my youth
and I wave farewell to the moon and the stars
and the constellations that were stories of my dreams
in order to embrace the warmth of the sun
and welcome the day.

–Mr. Hodgson
Sixth Grade Teacher
Southampton, Massachusetts USA

I find Kevin’s practices on the Internet inspiring. He posted a Haiku Deck poem recently, so I tried my hand at it also. WordPress is not supporting the embed code, so I made the slides into images to post here. This is a haiku version of a poem I wrote for Laura Shovan’s Pantone Poetry Project on Author Amok. (Today is her last day, so sad. It’s been a fun month.)
Slide1
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Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

Today is Poetry Friday and I am celebrating my 300th post! (Throws confetti!) The round-up will be gathered my Mr. Linky. Please come back often to read and comment. As one of my students said today, “Comments are fluffy!”

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Slice of Life Day 6.  Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Slice of Life Day 6. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Click here to view the roundup at One Grateful Teacher.

Click here to view the roundup at One Grateful Teacher.

It is day 6 of the Slice of Life Challenge and Day 38 of Nerdlution. Time to reflect a bit. I am sitting on what we call “the boyfriend bed” in the study writing while my dog, Charlie, and cat, Mimi, nap nearby. This is how I spent most of the last two days, taking it easy on a break from school and nursing my cold.

writing with Charlie and Mimi

My nerdlution to exercise did not happen. I used my cold inside and the cold outside as my excuse.

However, my nerdlution to write happened in the form of Slice of Life blog posts and poems for Laura Shovan’s Pantone poetry project. Take a moment to read the wonderful poems about Jewel Blue and Peacock Green. We all did research before writing. I used the ghazal form for my poem. This project has kept me focused and creative.

The last nerdlution goal was to be more responsive to my One Little Word Open.

open tulips

I reflected on my week to see how I was Open. Then I remembered my Saturday walk (before the cold front came in.) I walked with a friend who lives a few blocks away. I took a chance that she would be home. Not only was she home, but her husband had gone hunting, so she was free to take a walk with our dogs. We had a great time sharing experiences of grown daughters. I took pictures of blooming flowers and blooming trees thinking spring was on its way. I Open myself to creativity, spirituality, and also to friendship.

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Slice of Life Day 4.  Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Slice of Life Day 4. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Today must be “Opposite Day.” While yesterday I posted a joyful Mardi Gras celebration video, today I am sitting in bed with a glass of tea, a decongestant that hasn’t started working yet, watching the cold rain mixed with sleet come down. If we didn’t already have the day off for Mardi Gras, I would have called in sick or the superintendant would have cancelled school due to icy bridges. The bayou is steaming. The flowers are drooping and saying, “Hey, what gives?”

While I was driving to New Orleans on Sunday, the clouds were billowing, a warning of this day to come, I suppose. As I watched the clouds, I was struck by a metaphor of a bridal gown. Who knows why. I looked up some bridal gown terms and wrote a poem. Laura Shovan has been doing a poetry writing challenge at her blog, Author Amok. She posts Pantone colors every day, and we are invited to write a poem and submit it to her. This has been great practice for me. Her colors for today include Stormy Weather, how appropriate.

Partly Cloudy

The bride was dressed in billowing waves,
blue-grey Chantilly lace layered
over a white-topped empire waist.
Her scalloped neckline accented by rays
of sunlight peering through a cathedral train.
Her attendants, those high Mississippi kites,
flew with utmost grace
announcing her imminent arrival.

–Margaret Simon

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Slice of Life Day 2.  Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Slice of Life Day 2. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

My students worked hard all week and finished the week’s assignments, so on Friday we had some free time. We usually celebrate with Game Day. And some students did play games, but I worked with Vannisa on a different project.

For Chalk-a-bration Day, Vannisa wrote a poem using a series of color words. When you look at the poem, it really just looks like a list of words, but when I talked to Vannisa about it, she said, “Close your eyes and imagine each color as it changes to the next one.”

Vannisa's colors

Her comment made me think. What about using Paint on the Promethian board and creating a video of a single flower changing color? Vannisa liked the idea and set to work.

digital vannisa

This whole process took an hour for her to do. Most teachers don’t have this kind of time to allow a student to “play.” I have the luxury of working with small groups of gifted students. Putting the images into a Moviemaker movie was fairly quick. One thing, for sure, Vannisa had a good time putting it all together. My question is this: Was this experience just fun or was there learning involved? And what learning may lead to further learning? Will my other students want to illustrate a poem and make a movie? Is this a valuable use of class time?

If you have written a blog post about Digital Literacy, please post a link. And consider following the Digital Literacy group on Facebook.

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Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

Discover. Play. Build.

Celebrate #1: Happy March! Welcome to Slice of Life, a challenge to write every day in March sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers. This will be my third year to join in. My students are also slicing in March. We have a special class blog at kidblog for the Slice of Life Challenge. Since we will be out of school Monday through Wednesday of next week due to Mardi Gras, I encouraged them to get a jumpstart. Some did. Please stop by our site and make a comment. They love comments!

The Cat in the Hat visited the Book Fair!  Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

The Cat in the Hat visited the Book Fair! Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Celebrate #2: This week was the Scholastic Book Fair at my school. We also celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday. I added to my class library and enjoyed visiting with our librarian, Mrs. Armentor, otherwise known as “The Cat in the Hat.”

Have you read any of these books?

Have you read any of these books?

Celebrate #3: My students created a skit for Family Night. It was cute and clever, and they were terribly nervous. The skit was on the theme of bullying. They encouraged everyone to THINK before they speak.

Think before you speak

Printable Poster Available:

Before You Speak Think

Celebrate #4: My oldest daughter had her 29th birthday. She went to San Francisco for the weekend to visit a close friend from high school. I wrote a poem for her from Laura Shovan’s color prompt at Author Amok.

29 year old
For Maggie, 2/24/14

Ballerina pink is not your color
as you take to the streets in an obsidian Lexus,
Independent,
daring,
bold
You fly to San Francisco. Run by the Golden Gate;
International orange looks good on you!
Undaunted, throw your hair to the wind—
Quick like silver, don’t look back.

–Margaret Simon

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Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Anastasia.

Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Anastasia.

Join the Chalk-a-bration over at Teaching Young Writers

Join the Chalk-a-bration over at Teaching Young Writers

For February, my students and I braved the cold temperatures to chalk some poetry on the sidewalks. The prompt came from Laura Shovan’s month long birthday project with Pantone colors. I have been participating along with my poet friends Linda Baie and Diane Mayr. Head over to Laura’s site, Author Amok, to read some great poetry.

I bought a new box of chalk and the pieces were labeled with interesting color names. Brooklyn picked out Sky Blue:

Brooklyn sky poem

The sky shines sky blue
The way the summer pool invites me
The way blueberries taste
The way hydrangeas take your breath away
The sky shines sky blue

–Brooklyn.

Vannisa wants you to imagine the colors and how one becomes another in her list.

vannisa colors

Vannisa's colors

I selected the colors sunflower and golden glow to add a little sunshine to the day.

spring chalk poem

We will be on break for the Mardi Gras holiday next week, so my students got a jumpstart on the Slice of Life Challenge. Consider stopping in and leaving a comment on our public blog site: http://kidblog.org/SliceofLifeChallenge/

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Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Karen Edmisten.

Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Karen Edmisten.

Creative Commons, flickr, by photosteve101

Creative Commons, flickr, by photosteve101


Toady is my husband’s birthday. Exactly one week from Valentine’s Day. Last week I posted a love poem. This week I am contemplating the table he made for our family meals. This poem is after Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “The Comfort of Wood.”

Wishes on Wood
For Jeff

after Naomi Shihab Nye
The Comfort of Wood

I come to this table hungry
I come empty as a vase
waiting for the scent of blossoms.

I come with no plan;
time stops.
I listen for the birds to return.

He built this table
of soft blonde maple.
If you ask, he’ll show you the joints.

The table centers the room,
colored chairs I painted with spray;
the green one could use a fresh coat.

Now I am learning the strength
of this wood, like a family,
holds all our whispered wishes.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

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Nerdlution Week 4

Click here to view the roundup at One Grateful Teacher.

Click here to view the roundup at One Grateful Teacher.

My nerdlution goals: 1. Exercise 2. Write 3. Open

Discipline is a good thing. My body now knows when the alarm clock will ring. I usually wake up about 4:45 and look. Ah, 15 more minutes. Then I start my day. Coffee, then Centering Prayer.

Two weeks ago I opened myself to Centering Prayer, a practice of meditation for 20 minutes. I am loving this special time alone, in silence. Yet, I find I am so comfortable here that I don’t want to get up. I am avoiding things that I used to spend time doing, like reading blogs and Facebook. I am avoiding tasks that need me to plan and be organized. I am happy to be random and free, not pinned down to ideas and plans. Is this good? A friend, who is also trying the Centering Prayer practice, told me just to go with it and see where it takes me. Open, Ok.

Madame_du_barry

My writing is also not taking me where I think it should. I am feeling lost and like I can’t find the right words, or the words I am “supposed” to say. I was participating in Laura Shovan’s Pantone color prompts at her site Author Amok. I got stuck on the color Dubarry. I spent quite a while researching and found out about Madame duBarry. I wrote notes and tried them out in three different poems, even a limerick, with dismal results. Discouraging, but I know it’s all part of the process, right?

So I power on for 25 more days.

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Erato_The_Muse_Of_Love_Poetry_by_François_Boucher

It’s Poetry Friday and Love Poetry Night. Tonight at A&E Gallery in New Iberia, we will gather and love poets and poetry. The event begins at 6:00 PM with open mic. The featured poets are Clare Martin and Bonny McDonald.

I’ll be reading this poem during Open Mic, dedicated to my one true love.

The Kiss

I can remember where I put my keys,
How many eggs are left in the refrigerator.
I can remember the dance step
we practiced over and over.

I cannot remember the line in the poem
The one after the knees in the desert.
I can’t remember what you said
before you went to sleep.

I do remember the kiss,
not that particular kiss but every kiss,
gentle on my cheek,
telling me you are near. You are here,
We are here—remember.

Margaret Simon

Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.

Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.

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nerdlution-button-tiny-01

Michelle Haseltine is gathering the Nerdlution round-up at her site, One Grateful Teacher.

I am a total nerd and am embracing this nerdlution for 50 days. So how many days has it been? Eighteen, I think. I’ve had to cut my goal of exercise every day to exercise 5 days a week and I’m counting dancing as exercise. My husband and I invited some friends out for Zydeco dancing to Chubby Carrier on Sunday afternoon at Vermilionville. We love these Sunday afternoon gigs. One hour of jitterbug, waltz, and Whiskey River, and I checked off exercise for the weekend.

flickr image by Wally Gobetz

flickr image by Wally Gobetz


My second goal, writing every day, has gone OK, too, if I don’t worry about word counts. I have been journaling more and not really writing anything that anyone else will read, but practice is the important thing, right?

Staying Open, my One Little Word, is easier than I thought it would be. New things are available and happening all the time. On Saturday, I learned the art of Centering Prayer. I wrote about it on Tuesday for Slice of Life. I have kept up the practice every morning. The only downfall is that I resist the gotta-get-something-done mode. I get so calm and zoned-out that I want to stay in that moment. How many of you would love to live on a yoga mat? I know, it’s not very practical.

I got an appropriate fortune in my fortune cookie last night. “Don’t ask. Don’t say. Everything lies in silence.”

Laura Purdie Salas posts a 15 Words or Less poetry prompt every Thursday. This morning I wrote “Snow Cloud.” To see other poems in response to her picture prompt, visit her site.

Snow Cloud

Each time you
open yourself
to the world,
miracles happen
like snow from
boiling water.

My 15 word journal, a gift from my husband.

My 15 word journal, a gift from my husband.

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