Reflections on the Teche

Slice of Life: Two Conversations

March 18, 2020 by margaretsmn

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

“Martha?”

“I’m Margaret. My daughter is Martha.”

“Martha went to Nanna when she was little?”

“Oh, yes. How is Nanna?”

“She’s at Garden View. She’s with it some days and not on others, but she remembers all her babies.”

I put my hand on my heart. “I wish I could visit her, but…”

“You’re a religious person, aren’t you?” asks G. “I think this virus is like the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert. He’s telling us something.”

I tear up. “That makes me want to cry.” I move my cart farther down the aisle and fight off the tears my body wants to shed.

II.

At the garden store, I talk with the clerk who has children at our school. He says, “I just wish they hadn’t closed the schools.”

I respond, “I understand that kids don’t get it but are prime carriers. They had to close them.”

“But my son is special ed, and he can’t read. I can’t give him the help he needs.”

I preach my teacher-talk, “Just read to him. Read with him. Read.”

“That’s just it. I can’t read. I have dyslexia.”

Hand back on my heart.

Photo by **Anna Urlapova** from **Pexels**

Posted in Writing | 12 Comments »

Slice of Life: Poem Video

March 17, 2020 by margaretsmn

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

With an open schedule on Monday, I decided to try to make my own instructional video from my book Bayou Song. I recorded it on my back deck with the Bayou Teche in the background. It wasn’t terrible, so I posted it. (I need to figure out where to look.)

My students are set up on Kidblogs, so I posted the video there and had a few poetic responses. With so many students out of school, I hope more will join in and write poems. Feel free to share.

Fun-loving,
Game-playing,
Glasses-wearing,
Youtube-watching,
Me.
by A.J.

I see
I see
kind-loving
warm-snuggling
happy-smiling
PERSON
by Karson

Best-soccer-defending,
Award-winning,
Newspaper-mentioning,
me-being.
Not-caring,
free-going,
not-quite-all-knowing,
random-fact-blurting.
Book-writing,
comic-drawing,
manga-reading,
creativity-and-craft-showing.
This is me,
even if you dislike it,
then that’s you-
and I’ll tell you what.
That’s that.
by Madison

Posted in Bayou Song, Poetry, Teaching, Writing | Tagged poetry instruction video | 23 Comments »

Slice of Life: A Walk in the Park

March 16, 2020 by margaretsmn

In the midst of the COVID-19 quarantine, there are some beautiful moments. My daughters had come into town for the weekend. Directives from CDC advised that my mother-in-law, who is elderly and immune compromised, should not be in closed quarters with anyone, so we all met at City Park for a Sunday morning stroll.

The ducks were busy in the pond. Lots of fluffy yellow ducklings to watch.

The weather was sunny and warm, close to 80 degrees. The shade was gloriously pleasant.

Baby Thomas, 6 months, took a little snooze in the sun. Then we sat under a grove of oak trees where Thomas learned about grass and leaves, his first experience with nature.

Nature consoles us. Walking with family is something we rarely do. I hope you are finding ways to spend more time outside.

Take a walk.

Crumple leaves in your hand.

Listen to the birds.

Keep calm.

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged nature, outside, walking | 18 Comments »

Slice of Life: Joining the Challenge

March 15, 2020 by margaretsmn

The Two Writing Teachers blog opens up a writing challenge each year in March, the Slice of Life Challenge. I’ve participated for 8 years, but decided this year to opt out and focus on other writing projects. Alas, the coronavirus has changed so much of our lives and our thinking. Our Louisiana schools are closed for 4 weeks. I’ve been reading other Slicers’ writing and feel it’s time for me to jump in.

Life has changed so rapidly. On Wednesday of last week, I traveled to our state capital to attend the BESE board meeting where I was honored with about 50 others for National Boards Certification renewal. It was nice to be recognized. Everyone was being cautious about shaking hands, yet we were passing around a common pen and trading phones around to take pictures. No one was really taking coronavirus very seriously.

And then by Friday, our governor had closed all public schools for 4 weeks.

The announcement was so sudden that few of us had time to process what this would mean for us and for our students.

Last night my husband had a long talk with his brother who is a medical doctor in Seattle. He is not the type to panic or overreact to anything medical. However, he is serious about the spread of COVID-19. It’s an exponential growth pattern, and I’m sure most of you have read about this.

The feeling is like the days prior to a major hurricane. We are watching the news expectantly. The stores are running out of essentials. But when will the hurricane come and will it ever pass? The weather is actually beautiful which is what it strangely does before a hurricane when all the bad clouds are being pulled into the storm. I feel the ominous calm.

At this point my plan is to post on our class blog daily. I sent my students home with extra books to read. I’m in touch with parents. We will meet as a faculty on Tuesday. This is a weird time. I’m trying to stay calm and stay close to home.

How are you faring?

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged Coronavirus 2020 | 18 Comments »

Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem Sign Up

March 13, 2020 by margaretsmn

April is coming faster than I realized, and I had forgotten that I promised Irene Latham that I would take over organizing the 2020 Progressive Poem. Irene started the tradition of a progressive poem in 2012. Click here to see past poems.

There are few rules. The poem will be passing from blog to blog with each poet-blogger adding a line. The poem is for children. Other than that, anything goes. Usually the poem takes on a life of its own, so don’t be intimidated to sign up. Just do it and wait for your turn. Then let the creative muse do what she must.

Copy and paste the poem up to your date and add your line. Simple. Some poets like to write about the process which is always interesting for the rest of us to read, but it isn’t necessary.

When you sign up, state which date you would like and leave a link to your blog. I will update the list as comments come in.

Please email me with any questions. (margaretsmn at gmail)

1 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at A Journey through the Pages
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28 Jessica Bigi
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

Posted in Poetry Friday | 35 Comments »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem

March 12, 2020 by margaretsmn

Welcome to This Photo Wants to be a Poem, a way to wake up your poetry brain. Please write a short poem (15 words or fewer) in the comments. Try to comment on other poems as well. Spread the word through sharing the link on social media.

Supermoon by Paula Bourque, used by permission.

This week’s full moon was known as the Full Worm Moon. Other names for March’s full moon are the Crow Moon, the Crust Moon, the Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon.

This week’s moon was also a supermoon, meaning the fullness coincided with the moon at its closest point to Earth making it appear larger.

Moon, moon,
as you draw closer
I feel safer
knowing you’re
watching over me.
Margaret Simon, draft

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing | Tagged 15 Words or Less, moon poems, This Photo Wants to be a Poem | 32 Comments »

Poetry Friday: Questions

March 6, 2020 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday round-up is Rebecca at Sloth Reads

It’s another month, so that means a new challenge for the Sunday Night Poetry Swaggers. This month I posed the challenge of writing a question poem.

I had some pretty feeble starts at this one, but one day last week I was inspired by the very thing happening in our wood duck house. Last year we put up a wood duck house around this time of year, but the first clutch never hatched. We are watching through a Ring doorbell camera attached to the roof of the nest box.

We have another hen. She’s been sitting since February 24th, so projected hatch date is somewhere between March 16th and 18th. I have a good feeling about this hen. Even though we’ve had some cool nights, she sits all night and leaves once in the morning and once in the evening to feed. When she leaves, she completely covers the clutch with down, so we really have no idea how many eggs she is sitting on. We learned our lesson last year, so we will Not be going out there to check.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, my question poem.

Will She Come Again?
It’s February and we wonder
will she come again,
this wood duck mother hen?
Will she find the house we’ve built?
a box, like a cypress quilt,
waiting to be a home.
In the morning we look and see.
Papa wood duck, where is she?
Where’s your mate? Is she about?
Connected to our house WiFi,
we keep a daily eye,
a camera on the nestbox roof.
She’s in, then out, then in again,
this mother wood duck hen.
Will she lay a clutch?
How many eggs? It’s hard to tell.
She covers them all so well.
Plucks her down, soft and warm.
How does she know how?
Waiting, watching, wondering now
for twenty-eight more days.

Will wood duck chicks hatch from this downy haze?
Margaret Simon, (c) 2020

Read more question poems from my writing pals:

Heidi Mordhorst
Catherine Flynn
Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing | Tagged question poem, wood duck house | 17 Comments »

Spiritual Thursday: Balance

March 5, 2020 by margaretsmn

graphic created by Carol Varsalona
Round up of Spiritual Thursday posts are with Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces.

Fran Haley is hosting today, and she proposed the theme of Balance.

Balance is something I search for in my daily life. Being an introvert, I crave alone time. I think that’s why I enjoy writing so much. Writing is a quiet alone-time activity, like walking my dog or meditating or taking a long bath. ( My husband jokingly said I would love a quarantine.)

One of my students gave me this beautiful journal for Christmas. I had it in my car until on Ash Wednesday, I had an idea to carry it with me into the service. I wrote during the sermon. I wrote again this past Sunday and will try to keep this going during Lent. The writing helped me listen in a different way. Kind of like taking notes, but I also allowed my own thoughts to enter in.

I also achieve balance through yoga and meditation. There are so many ways life can get in the way of living. Taking time for myself and clearing my busy brain helps me be a better me.

This weekend we were babysitting my 14-month-old grandson. By 5 in the afternoon, he was so tired that he could no longer keep his balance when walking. At first it was funny to him to walk quickly and fall, but it happened one time too many, and he ended up in tears. In a similar way, when I am exhausted, overstretched, and too busy, I get out of balance.

What ways do you use to keep your life in balance?

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing | Tagged spiritual journey | 6 Comments »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem

March 5, 2020 by margaretsmn

If you were in or close to any school on Monday, March 2nd, you may have seen kids dressed like Dr. Seuss characters. I had on a red t-shirt that said “Teacher One” and a bright blue feather hat. March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The celebration has been turned into Read Across America Day.

With Dr. Seuss on my mind, I saw this image on Facebook, but I had no idea there was a connection. Katherine Conley, otherwise known as “Other Katherine” when she was roommates with my daughter Katherine, was vacationing in La Jolla, California. She told me that there are signs of Dr. Seuss everywhere as Theodor Geisel lived there for a time and was inspired by the landscape to create The Lorax. I won’t continue the rabbit hole I fell down, but if you care to, I found some information here.

Please leave a 15 word or less poem in the comments and leave comments for other writers. This is a low stress writing prompt. Just go with your gut. Whatever comes is worthy.

Sometimes I wear flowers.
Sometimes I sing.
Sometimes I just pause.
Margaret Simon, draft

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged Dr. Seuss, La Jolla, This Photo Wants to be a Poem | 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday: Gratitude

February 28, 2020 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday round-up is with Karen Edmisten.

Linda Baie shared a video on Facebook that I immediately took up as a writing prompt. It’s a beautiful short film by Louie Schwartzberg. (See link below to watch the video)

I took a quote from the young girl at the beginning and made a golden shovel. “The path could lead to a beach or something.”

Cultivate a response to the
day; open your eyes and a path
could be there, weather could
change, and lead
to water, to
a new way to see, a
gift as joyful as a beach,
waves blessing you or
moving you to touch something.
Margaret Simon, draft response

Photo by Margaret Simon, Santa Rosa Beach Florida

Kathy Mazurowski is the winner of the book giveaway for After Dark: Poems About Nocturnal Animals by David L. Harrison, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis. Click the link to read how I used the book with my students and wrote nonfiction poems.

Take a minute to write a quick 15 word poem to this week’s This Photo Wants to be a Poem. This week is a beautiful photo by Molly Hogan.

Posted in Gratitude, Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing | Tagged beach, Golden Shovel | 10 Comments »

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