Reflections on the Teche

Celebrating Organic October

November 5, 2016 by margaretsmn

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

October came to an end this week. Why does this make me sentimental? Maybe it’s the smell of sugarcane fields burning, or the taste of satsumas, or kids in costumes, but this time of year makes me think about the past, about time, about celebrations.

The sun rises as I drive to school each day. I took this picture out of my car window. Next week the time will change and I won’t see the sun rise this way for a while. Stopping to capture beauty…

My students worked all week on their podcasts. What fun! We were challenged by technology and with cooperation. I celebrate that they came together to support each other. When I figure out how to make the podcasts public, I will post them. They wrote about everything from Halloween to mythological creatures and homework. I celebrate the strength of their writing. They were motivated to write for an authentic audience.

On my morning walk, I came to this overgrown shrub (or is it a tree?). I don’t know what it is, but the bright yellow flowers attracted my focus.

A weird organic fall phenomenon is webs in the grass. They were dotting a field and sparkling with dew. Who made this? How tiny a creature?

All of these photos were taken this week on my iPhone. I never tire of photographing grandmother oak. Here the fog is rising from the bayou silhouetting her expansive girth. Nature nurtures the fall air, and I celebrate her gifts.

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing | Tagged fall, nature, student podcasting | 10 Comments »

Poetry Friday: Contests

November 4, 2016 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday is with Laura at Writing the World for Kids

Do you enter contests? I don’t. But I pretty much insist that my kids do. I even will go so far as to write it as a goal on their IEP. At the end of the school year last year, most of my students entered a piece of writing into our state writing contest, LA Writes. I was pleased to hear in September that three of them had placed. The awards ceremony was last Saturday at the Louisiana Book Festival at the State Museum in Baton Rouge. When Madison came to the microphone to read her poem, she introduced herself as “the author.” What a thrill for this writing teacher to hear her describe herself as an author.

Madison shows off her first place medal.

Madison wrote her first place poem after Irene Latham’s “Tree for All.” In May, we had a Skype visit with Irene. She wrote about my students’ poems here.

I secretly wished that Irene was there to hear Madison read. Sometime wishes do come true. Irene was at the Book Festival. We met up later in the day. She presented in the Children’s Storytelling Tent and guess who walked by?

Madison meets her author hero, Irene Latham.

Reef for All

after Irene Latham’s “Tree for All”

Sharks feast on my citizens;
my restaurant never closes.

Eels hide in my caves;
my shelters provide homes.

Sea worms play peek-a-boo in my tubes;
my tubes allow all ages.

Fish hide in my caves;
my cradle caves are cozy for new fins.

No sea animal can resist my charm:
I am a coral reef.

Madison

Tree for All (in Dear Wandering Wildebeests)

Giraffes feast on my leafy crown;

my buffet never closes.

Rhinos doze beneath my broad branches;

my umbrella selters and shades.

Baboons scramble up and down my trunk;

my playground delights all ages.

Owls nest in my hidden knothole;

my cradle cozies brand-new wings.

Skinks sleep in my thick, spotted bark;

my camouflage keeps them safe.

Safari ants trail along my roots;

my roadways help build a city.

No grassland beast can resist my charms;

I am a wild bush willow tree.

– Irene Latham

Contests make us feel famous. They give students an opportunity to shine. Thanks to Irene for being such a beautiful role model to budding author, Madison.

I will be presenting with Irene and some other awesome poets at NCTE 2016 in Atlanta:Sat., 9:30 G.12 Writing for a Better World: Poetry Response to World Events B210

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing | Tagged Irene Latham, LA Writes, Louisiana Book Festival, NCTE | 11 Comments »

Familiarity

November 1, 2016 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

Kim Douillard is a fine photographer. She blogs here at Thinking through my Lens. She posts a weekly photo challenge with a single word. I don’t often take the challenge, but this time the word familiar interested me. I started thinking about the root of this word. I was surprised to find an odd connection to Halloween:

familiar
A low-ranking demon given to a witch by the Devil for the purpose of strengthening the witch’s power. In medieval times familiars were commonly thought to be animals such as cats, dogs, rabbits and toads. In shamanism, a familiar is a spirit who protects a shaman from illness and unfriendly forces and is also known as a totemic animal, guardian spirit, power animal, or tutelary spirit.

Bill, our male outside cat, often whines at the back door. And what he wants isn’t food. He wants Charlie, my dog and his familiar, to come outside. Bill rubs and rubs on Charlie. Charlie, in turn, humps Bill. These are signs of animal affection. Bill is our familiar, our guardian cat, ready to fight the evil spirits of birds and squirrels and raccoons who wander into the protective area.

The first definition in the online dictionary for familiar is “1. Often encountered or seen: a familiar landmark. See Synonyms at common.”

This gas pump was a familiar site of my youth. Gulf was the well-known service station. My mother would pull up in our Oldsmobile station wagon with the fake wood on the sides and wait. The attendant would pump the gas, wash her windows, check the tires, and give us a piece of candy. Those were the days…

These days the presidential election campaign is heating up (or gone off the deep end, rather), but in our small town of New Iberia, politics happens on Main Street. My husband will not discuss national politics, but he can talk all day with his friend Dan who is running for Mayor Pro-Tem. Here they are at a political rally complete with signs, beer, jambalaya, and a brass band.

Thanks, Kim, for giving me a word to focus on for this Slice. What does familiar mean to you? Join the conversation with #familiar and @nwpianthology.

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged #familiar, #nwpianthology, Kim Douillard | 14 Comments »

DigiLitSunday: Flexibility

October 30, 2016 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

The past week I have been coaching my students on a new project, podcasting.

Noah said, “But, Mrs. Simon, I don’t know how to write a podcast.”

“Neither do I,” I replied, “We’re figuring this out together. I’ve shown you two mentor texts for nonfiction, and we’ve listened to a sample podcast. Let’s see if we can figure this out.”

This is a precarious situation to put myself into, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

According to an analogy from Jenn Hayhurst @hayhurst3 (Good2Great Voxer), I am daring to get on the roller-coaster of teaching rather than the Merry-go-Round. Her comparison resonated with me and my work with gifted kids. I think they would refuse to ride the Merry-go-Round with me, but they will hop on the roller coaster and not ask questions until the ride gets rough. Then it’s scary, and they’re not sure why they got on. Where are we going? When will the ride get easier? When will we know it’s over?

Flexibility is the name of the game in my classroom. When the ride gets scary, I step next to them and ask questions. Would you like to interview a classmate? Are you interested in including the sound an owl makes?

My students are finding their own nonfiction topics. The best resource for kid-friendly nonfiction topics is Wonderopolis with almost 2000 topics, easy to read articles including videos and vocabulary. That is a starting point.

Andrew started his podcast idea at Wonderopolis reading the article, “Why do People Keep Pets?” He then read articles about bonding with cats and dogs. He decided to survey his class about their pets. Then he selected one student from his class to interview.

I downloaded Audacity, but I’m on an uphill climb trying to figure it out. Experiment. Mess up. Back up. Try again. Flexibility.

Writing the scripts themselves are a challenge because my students want to make their podcasts interesting to listen to. They want to include humor. They want to balance fun with facts. Flexible, flexible, flexible. When do I step in? When do I step back?

I want to thank my friend, Kimberley Moran, for giving me the courage to give this roller-coaster ride a chance. We’re still on board, but I think the ride will soon get thrilling, and all the hard work will be worth it.

Please add your DigiLit blog posts below:

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education | Tagged podcasts, Wonderopolis | 5 Comments »

October on the Bayou

October 25, 2016 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

Living on the bayou is a gift I don’t always remember to appreciate, but on Saturday, I announced to my husband, “It’s a gorgeous day. We have to go canoeing.”

For the first Saturday this month we had little to do. I sat outside on my deck, clean and inviting from the wedding we had a few short weeks ago, and watched my neighbors prepare for their daughter’s wedding reception. Tents and lights and tables and chairs were going up, and all I needed to do was watch. The lack of responsibility felt freeing.

Peeking through the grandmother oak to the wedding prep next door.

Jeff quickly grabbed the paddles, life jackets, and a lunchbox of two beers, and launched the canoe. This canoe has a long history, close to 50 years. The Grumman. He and his brother bought it together when they were Boy Scouts competing in canoe races.

Jeff paddles the stern, the steering part.

The bayou was slow and still, offering endless reflections. The air was a perfect 70+ degrees. I know that happiness is fleeting, but on this day in October, we grabbed hold of it, and spent some time savoring and celebrating the goodness.

Cypress tree reflection

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged Bayou Teche, canoeing, cypress trees, October | 10 Comments »

DigiLitSunday: Patience, Practice, and Persistence

October 23, 2016 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

On Thursday, NCTE hosted a Twitter frenzy on #WhyIWrite to celebrate National Day on Writing. I gave myself an assignment spurred on by the many posts I read about Why I Write. I collected quotes and added them to images. I posted a few here. I also tweeted them out throughout the day on Thursday.

I asked my students to write on this topic and tweeted out their responses using Word Swag, an iPhone app.

Jacob’s #WhyIWrite quote on Word Swag

Any time you use a new application, you have to commit yourself to patience, practice, and persistence. Even my mother is learning about the three Ps as she switches my dad to Mac from PC.

Kids are so much more adept at this than we are as adults. They know right off that anything new will take patience. Two of my 6th grade boys have decided to do a project that uses animation. I was amazed at the concentrated time they spent to get a stick figure to move his arm up and down.

Digital literacies motivate us to put in the practice it takes to learn something new. We all know this, so we seem to have more patience when it comes to learning a new app. Don’t you hate it when your phone updates and something you have become accustomed to changes? I still swipe when I want to access my iPhone, but some genius thought it would be easier to hit the Home button. Persistence. I keep missing it, and by the time it becomes a habit, something else will change.

Face it, we are stuck with a constantly evolving universe of technology. But thanks to Word Swag, my iPhone, and a beautiful sunrise on the bayou today, I can create this quote from Mary Oliver.

Link your digital literacy posts below. Click to read more posts.

Posted in Creativity, Digital Learning | Tagged #WhyIWrite, Mary Oliver, Word Swag | 5 Comments »

Heart to Heart

October 21, 2016 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday is with Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

https://twitter.com/MargaretGSimon/status/789264438255820801

What a joy to join Georgia Heard on the Good to Great (#G2Great) chat Thursday night! Georgia sent me a copy of her latest book a few weeks ago. I was so excited to see that three of my students’ heart maps were included.

I questioned how Georgia could write a whole book about heart maps. But this book is a gem. In each section, not only do we get another idea for another type of heart map, twenty in all, but we also get a list of writing ideas and mentor texts. A side bar on each template asks questions to lead the student to his own heart.

I used the wish heart map this week with 6th graders. These students are embarking on a yearlong project. As we begin this journey, my colleagues and I wanted them to explore deeply a problem they see in the world. The heart maps were a way to visually get them to the “heart” of the matter. Some students went straight to writing. This student’s wish map became a list poem of wishes.

I usually write with my students, so why not make heart maps? The students rotated to me 4 times, so I have 4 hearts. Each one is different. Some are completely visual, but two of them became poems.

My wish heart maps

I Wish

I wish I could draw love
into the world.
Blow it freely
like a dandelion seed
to fertilize lives
with empathy.

We wish on falling stars,
on rainbows,
pennies thrown in the fountain.
There’s the obligatory pull
of wishbone, a tug between my brother and me.
If I win this time,
can I send this wish to you?
Will it come true?

–Margaret Simon

Thank you, Georgia Heard, for leading me, as well as countless children, to our hearts.

https://twitter.com/MargaretGSimon/status/789263683641802752

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing | Tagged Georgia Heard, Good to Great, heart maps | 6 Comments »

Why I Write: Collection of Quotes

October 20, 2016 by margaretsmn

Today is the National Day on Writing! On Sunday, I wrote my top ten list and collected posts from bloggers on this topic here.

As I read blog posts, I was inspired to collect quotes and make them into images. You can use these images for Twitter posts or on your own blog posts. Spread the love of writing today!

Image by Margaret Simon. Quote by Ruth Ayres.

Image and quote by Catherine Flynn

Image by Pixabay
Quote by Michelle Haseltine

Image enhanced by Picmonkey. Photo and quote by Kim Douillard

Image by Pixabay. Quote by Julieanne Harmatz.

Posted in Photography, Writing | Tagged #WhyIWrite, National Day on Writing, NCTE | 4 Comments »

The Three of Me

October 18, 2016 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

The Oprah Magazine for November arrived. And in it, an article by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert. The tag line “How to be the real you? Teach your various sides to live harmoniously.” She identifies her three selves, Lizzy, Elizabeth, and Ms. Gilbert. I started thinking about my selves. Do I have three different people living inside of me?

There’s Margarita: fun-loving, outgoing dancer. She laughs and talks freely. She really doesn’t care what others think of her. She’s confident and carefree.

There’s Margaret: practical, hard-working, dedicated wife and mother. She will do anything that needs doing to help someone she loves. She feels less than if she is not doing her best.

There’s Mrs. Simon: serious, disciplined teacher. She respects her students and wants only the best for them. She doesn’t like slackers or disrespectful comments about anyone. She has high expectations and infallible values.

I know all three of these Margarets live inside of me. I love and nurture them all, but sometimes their goals conflict. Sometimes Margarita’s fun makes Mrs. Simon’s Mondays tired and tough, and leaves piles of dirty clothes for Margaret to wash. But I think I’ll keep her because she makes me happy.

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged Elizabeth Gilbert, Oprah Magazine | 12 Comments »

DigiLitSunday: #WhyIWrite

October 16, 2016 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Excitement is building in cyberspace for the National Day on Writing scheduled for this Thursday, Oct. 20th. This is a day when everyone is asked to think about why we write. NCTE created the hashtag #WhyIWrite for Twitter. The day is a collaboration among NCTE, National Writing Project, The New York Times Learning Network, and Teaching Channel.

Here are my top ten JOYS for writing: