Reflections on the Teche

Celebrating Field Trip Fun

October 24, 2015 by margaretsmn

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

The Aquarium of the Americas, New Orleans, Louisiana

My students started a count down 6 weeks ago when they first heard we were going on a field trip. The day finally arrived. We boarded a charter bus at 7 AM and headed toward New Orleans.

First stop, the aquarium. They wandered among sharks and jellyfish and even touched a stingray. We watched the feeding of the penguins. We decided to buy a new class pet, a penguin named Ernie after the oldest penguin at the Aquarium.

While we were having lunch, the best daughter in the world walked from her office and brought me an iced latte. A double treat, a chance to give her a kiss and the caffeine that is much needed to sustain a day long field trip.

It’s right about here that one of my students decided to run through the water fountain. I really did not think ahead on this one. I didn’t think I needed to explain to gifted students that water makes you wet. He had to sit in his wet clothes in the Imax theater. A colleague,who was trying her best to calm my anger, told me this would be a logical consequence. (I am now able to see the humor of it all.)

The Imax movie told us the story of Hurricane Katrina. I did end up with one student clinging to me. It was intense. We must tune in the loss of wetlands in our state. This movie was visual proof.

Our last stop was the Insectarium. Here we enjoyed eating bugs. Yes! They were full of protein and covered in flavors.

The butterfly garden was magical. Two butterflies landed on Emily. Now Emily’s usual mode of transportation is running, hopping, skipping, but here in the warm garden, she slowed down and held out her arm. One of these friendly butterflies stayed on her hand for a while. A little miracle.

This morning I am celebrating a full day of adventure, fun, and learning. On the bus trip home, I announced a quiz bowl competition. The Audubon Nature Institute provided resources for educators. We printed out a scavenger hunt for the kids. On the bus, we awarded points for answers. My team didn’t win, but I plan to reward them anyway. All in all it was a great day!

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Writing | Tagged Aquarium of the Americas, field trip | 5 Comments »

Poetry on a Postcard

October 23, 2015 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday round-up with Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Margaret,
Have you ever dipped your toes
into the ocean,
only to feel the sting of the
past?

Some memory–some history–
Some love or loss that
floats beneath the surface.

And while we marvel at its beauty,
we wince in the pain
of that which had once been
forgotten.

–Kevin

Kevin,
Sometimes a postcard comes
in the mailbox, the rusty squeaky
hinge of it wakes you up.

This card holds a gift
and a piece of your heart
you didn’t even know was there.

You cry. Then smile,
marveling at the power of
words to totally change
your mood.

Thanks,
Margaret

Kevin’s post about this postcard project is here.

Posted in Poetry Friday | Tagged poetry, postcard | 10 Comments »

Heartbeat

October 22, 2015 by margaretsmn

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

Today is Spiritual Journey Thursday. Each week Holly Mueller invites us to reflect on our journey. This week the theme is doubt. I have no doubt of the existence of God because 30 years ago I was witness to it.

On July 3, 1985 I dropped off my four month old baby girl at day care. It was summer, and I wasn’t teaching, but I needed to run some errands, and she needed to get accustomed to the day care. However at noon while I ate lunch with my husband, I had an uneasy feeling. I needed to go check on my baby.

I dropped by and took Maggie in my arms to nurse her. Something wasn’t right. Her breathing was quick, almost like a dog’s panting. After she nursed, she spit up. Not unusual, but the liquid was tinted with reddish brown. That sent me into panic mode. I asked the day care worker to call the doctor. They told her to have me come in immediately.

Usually at the pediatrician’s office, you sit in the waiting room for hours waiting to see the doctor. Not this time. They whisked me to the back. The doctor came in quickly and listened to Maggie’s heart. He had a grave expression on his face. Her heart rate was too fast. She needed to go to the hospital.

This was pre-cell phone era, so I used the doctor’s office phone to call my husband. His secretary sent me to hold, and I was cut off. I called back and cried into the phone. “This is an emergency!”

The hospital was near the doctor’s office. Again, there was no waiting. No long form filling. The nurses grabbed my baby and within minutes had an IV in her tiny little head pumping in medicine. The diagnosis was tachycardia, an abnormal fast heart rate.

Hours passed, and Maggie’s heart rate did not slow down. It was racing at 200+ beats per minute. Our priest came by and prayed with us. He, too, was grave and sad. Was I going to lose my first child?

Around midnight, the doctors decided to send us to Ochsner in New Orleans by helicopter. I would fly with Maggie and Jeff would drive with friends.

I was laid on the stretcher first. Then they handed me the baby. We lay together chest to chest. Heartbeat to heartbeat.

Helicopters are loud. There was no talking to anyone. As we lifted off, we ascended straight up into the sky. No build up to take off as in an airplane. One minute on the ground, the next in the air.

While we flew, I prayed fiercely. I don’t remember the words, but they were like those of Jesus on the cross. “Take this cup away from me.” I didn’t pray for healing. I prayed for presence.

In the sky high above, I felt the physical presence of God, a warmth of hands wrapped around my shoulders. I felt calm, peaceful. I knew everything would be okay. Maggie’s heart slowed to the rhythm of my own.

The equipment at Ochsner was more sophisticated, so the doctors could tell that her fast heart rate was a sinus rhythm. It was not tachycardia. There was an infection somewhere in her system that caused the fast rate.

After many pricks and prods, Maggie was diagnosed with pneumonia. Remember the blood in her spittle? All was well, and we returned home by July 5th with a hoarse and tired baby girl.

When faced with tragedy, I am completely confident in God’s presence. Whether or not God physically healed Maggie doesn’t matter. I know that a strong and holy spirit was with me. We were both healed.

Posted in Spiritual Growth | Tagged emergency, healing, prayer, spiritual presence, tachycardia | 4 Comments »

Text to Self Connections

October 20, 2015 by margaretsmn

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

I largely believe that my blog audience is fellow teachers, but sometimes I meet readers on Main Street, and sometimes they call me on the phone. Both happened to me this weekend. I saw Mac at a local art gallery for Art Walk on Saturday evening. He started up a conversation about reading aloud and how he was happy I was doing that with my students. He told me about how his family read aloud, and he passed it on to his kids and grandchildren, and now even great grandchildren.

I got a phone call from a friend who wanted to tell me that she appreciated the work I was doing with kids to connect reading to their own lives. She shared that she is going through something very difficult, and my posts help her. What? Really? I was moved to tears.

Receiving praise for writing reaches farther and deeper than any other kind of praise because writing is so personal. I want to bring this type of understanding to my students along with the joy and pride of knowing their writing touched someone else. I work to build connections for them. On our kidblog site, we have connected to other classes. I encourage them to find a student from another class to connect with.

We teachers talk with our readers about making text to self connections. Usually these connections seem false. When we make those connections together around a shared text and then share them globally, this writing holds more meaning. The stakes are higher. The voice is authentic.

On Padlet, I posted this question for students to write about in connection to the Global Read Aloud, Fish in a Tree: “In Fish in a Tree, Ally doesn’t tell anyone about her trouble with reading. She has an opportunity in Mrs. Silver’s office and even with her mom, but she resists out of fear. Have you ever had something so troublesome that you just didn’t know how to or were afraid to tell the truth?”

To get them started, I posted my own story.

When I was very young, maybe around 6, I was playing with matches outside with the neighbors. Before we really knew what was happening, the yard was in flames. The blanket for our “campout”, my favorite doll, the pillows from my brother’s bed…in flames. Fear sent me inside. I climbed in my mother’s lap and cried and cried. She got very angry because she was on the telephone. Finally I squeezed out the word “Fire!” and she went running. I don’t remember much after that moment, but to this day I feel very guilty about that accident.

When my students read it, they immediately gasped, “Matches? You played with matches?” My mother now knows the whole story, but I still cannot shake the guilt and trauma of burning the front yard. That spot in the grass seemed to stay black forever.

I sent out a Voxer message to colleagues in California, Ohio, and Illinois. They responded by writing their own stories. So my students had 4 adult models to read Monday morning before writing their own. Thanks Julianne, Julie, and Phyllis.

Click on the image to see the Padlet.

I am excited our writing is becoming richer and holding more meaning. Making connections with text, then having someone else connect to our own writing is a powerful way to communicate and spread kindness and understanding.

Posted in Blogging, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing | Tagged Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, Padlet, text to self connections, Voxer | 15 Comments »

DigiLit Sunday: Student Mentors

October 18, 2015 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

This week I joined a Voxer book club organized by Kathleen Sokowolski from the Two Writing Teachers around Lise Eickholdt’s book Learning from Classmates. The conversation is inspiring and thoughtful. I am getting many ideas about supporting the writing in my classroom. I am also able to share in a safe place about my own triumphs and failures.

(We’re only one chapter in, so if you want to join, contact Kathleen.)

In the book, Lisa encourages us to use student work to notice, name, and note a craft move within a student’s writing. Her book features real images of real writing done by kids with all the flaws and the filled in bubble exclamation points. Most of the writing my students do is on their blogs, so this is typed. I actually love this because when I am looking for text to use to mentor a writing move or to teach a grammar skill, it’s there at my finger tips. When I want to feature student writing here on my own blog, I can copy and paste it straight on over.

My students write a Slice of Life story each week. I am trying to push them to elaborate more and one of my students just point blank asked me for a lesson on how to do that. I have not been a huge fan of Prezi as a tool for presentations in the past. The other day I opened it up just to give it another shot. I chose a pre-formatted background, so the rest was easy.

Feel free to share and use this presentation. You may even be able to edit and add in your own student mentor text.

Click on this image to go to the Prezi.

If you want to join this week’s round up of Digital Literacy posts, please leave a link.

Posted in Digital Learning, Writing | Tagged book club, Kathleen Sokowolski, Lisa Eickholdt, Prezi, student mentor texts, Voxer | 1 Comment »

Celebration Saturday

October 17, 2015 by margaretsmn

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

“Give yourself the kind of care you would insist on for someone you love.” My Enneathought of the Day. I needed to hear this. I have taken a few naps this week and feeling guilty about it, my body insisted on it. With this advice from the masters, I feel better knowing that I listened and obeyed my body’s needs.

I am celebrating Global Read Aloud! I celebrate the power of reading aloud in the classroom. It does so much to build a community of readers. We are reading Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s Fish in a Tree. My students are gifted. Many of them read early and quickly advanced to a higher reading level. Ally, the main character, is dyslexic. She cannot read. My students have a hard time understanding this. All the more reason we should be reading about it as a community.

Jacob, 2nd grade, said, “If she can talk, why can’t she read?” Ah! He is slowly understanding that his ability is a gift.

We are joining a larger community of readers on Voxer. We are listening to responses from classes in Illinois, California, and Ohio. How fun is that!

And because my students want the chance to Vox, they are being better listeners and writing their notices and wonders. If they write and share, then they get to record their message for others to hear. Powerful learning going on!

Emily sketched her idea of Ally’s head.

My students are also sharing on Padlet. This week they read embarrassing moments and shared their own. Click here to see the padlet.

I am loving these connections and look forward to our reading together over the next weeks. Send me a message if you would like to join in.

My satsuma tree

Celebrate fall: The satsumas are ripe, juicy, and yummy. I love free fruit!

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing | Tagged #GRAFIAT, Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, Padlet, Voxer | 5 Comments »

Writer’s Block

October 16, 2015 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday round-up with my dear friend, Amy, at The Poem Farm.

Mrs. Simon, I don’t know what to write.
Oh, no! I don’t have anything to write about!
I have writer’s block today, Mrs. Simon.

These words echo in my classroom regularly. Why? Because we are all writers. And we all know that writing is hard.

I asked my students to write long about a book we are reading. (Global Read Aloud: Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly HUnt.) You could hear the sighs. For some reason, that bad word…long…sent them into total fear. So I saddled up to the computer connected to the board. After stumbling over the necessary technology to get them to see what I was writing, I set about modeling a long writing.

I actually surprised myself that I could do this on-demand-in-front-of-everybody writing from nothing. But I realized that it all comes from practice. I just started typing and the words came. My students laughed at my typos as I was trying to type quickly. They noticed that my long writing was only 140 words. The assignment became less intimidating.

Yet, one of my best writers sat in front of her computer not typing. And it seemed the longer she stared at the blank page, the harder it got for her to start. I didn’t have a very good answer for her. It happens. We’re writers. We are going to have those days when nothing comes to mind. So I let her leave class with this instruction, “Think about what you may want to write about and we’ll start again tomorrow.” Some writers need time to think.

I know this is Poetry Friday, and you are asking yourself, “Where’s the poem?” Sometimes with writing, you need to write about what you need to write about.

Kielan is a writer. She is in 6th grade, and I’ve taught her since she was in second grade. She’s had her share of writer’s block, but she is connecting with Ally in Fish in a Tree. This is her long writing about how she was bullied like Ally.

In Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s book Fish In A Tree, Ally’s at the restaurant where her mother works. Her mother is a waitress there. While Ally is at the restaurant suddenly her “friends” walk in. Shay and Jessica walk in the restaurant and start talking to Ally.

Ally tries to resist them, but her mother thinks she should talk with them. Her mother doesn’t know what Shay and Jessica do to Ally. They talk to her about the sympathy card Ally gave to their teacher. Something similar like this happened to me too.

I was in 4th grade when it happened. A girl named Emily was in my class. Every time a teacher was near she was nice to me, but when there was no teacher near she was mean to me. When she was nice to me I would reject her and then I would get in trouble.

She sat right in front of me in class and we were kind of enemies. I had to read aloud in class and answer the question. I read the passage right, but I got the answer wrong. Then she got called on and she got the question right. She looked at me, gave me a mean look, and then rolled her eyes. After school she saw me in Mcdonald’s at Walmart. She called me smart, her friend, pretty, and nice, only because my mother was around, but then the next day at school, she called me dumb, mean, her enemy, and ugly. She made me think I was dumb. Just like Ally felt in the story.

I made my own quote. “Trust no one” and “Never trust a phony with anything”.–Kielan

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing | Tagged Fish in a Tree, Global Read Aloud, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, reader response | 11 Comments »

Redemption

October 15, 2015 by margaretsmn

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing | Tagged mustard seed, redemption | 7 Comments »

Authors are my Heroes

October 13, 2015 by margaretsmn

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

Last week I wrote a Slice of Life post about the injustice of reading levels and my dear student Emily. Cynthia Lord, author of A Handful of Stars, saw my post and commented that she wanted to send Emily a signed copy of her book. I was overjoyed, but I kept it a secret. The package arrived Friday with a few added trinkets Cynthia sent straight from her desk. She sent a small rock bearing the words “A little extra brave.” Cynthia wrote to me that she carried this rock around as she worked on the book. So personal. So special. She also added a little star hanging on a string to symbolize “star friends” like the characters in her book. Another personal touch.

I brought the care package with me to school on Monday. Emily is an early arriver. She was walking down the hall when I got there, so I took her aside to share the package with her. To say she was thrilled is almost an understatement. She just kept repeating, “I feel so special.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to share this with the class. I didn’t want any of them to feel jealous or left out. I talked to Emily about it. I told her my concerns and asked her to decide if she wanted to share or keep this to herself.

When her art teacher arrived, Emily took the package with her to show her. When she went to library, she took the book with her to show the librarian. Then we had read aloud time. Emily whispered to me that she wanted to share it with the class. I started off by explaining that Emily lost her mother last year. Then I explained how the character in A Handful of Stars also lost her mother. After I told the students about my blog post and tweet out to Cynthia Lord, Emily showed her prizes. No one spoke. No one was jealous or bitter. They were respectful and happy for Emily.

These gifts cannot replace such a huge loss, but I believe that Emily’s heart is full. She has a rock to carry with her every day that will give her strength and bravery and will always remind her that authors are heroes and that one day, she may be a hero, too.

A gift of love and bravery

Posted in Slice of Life | Tagged A Handful of Stars, authors, Cynthia Lord, reading connections | 16 Comments »

DigiLit Sunday: Choice

October 11, 2015 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Choice is very important in my classroom. By giving gifted students choice, I honor them as learners. When they make their own choices, they are more apt to move through the process willingly and motivated to create a good product.

This week was the final week of our first nine week grading period. Each quarter I require a book talk. My students are avid readers and enjoy the opportunity to share with their classmates about their reading. The rubric includes use of technology as well as basic book talk points, such as plot, characters, setting, and theme. Within the rubric is choice about the technology used.

Powtoon was the favorite this week. It’s not mine, but my students love all the animated characters. They even sing along with the ending, “Created using Powtoon!” I cannot tell you much about how to use Powtoon. My students figure it out, though. It is kid-friendly, especially those kids who spend a lot of time playing computer games.

Tobie’s Powtoon about The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan.

Emily presents A Handful of Stars on Powtoon. Notice the hand with blueberries.

Powtoon is free. There is a premium version that I don’t pay for. My students adapt well. When Emily couldn’t find two girl figures for her characters, she used a boy and labeled his head with the character’s name. She also figured out how to layer images to create an image she wanted, a hand full of blueberries. I love how Powtoon allows for creativity of design and makes the students feel like animators. They were all proud of their Powtoons.

If you are writing about Digital Literacy, link up your post below.

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education | Tagged book talks, PowToon, presentation apps | 2 Comments »

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