Join the roundup with Laura Shovan at Author Amok.
Bayou morning photo by Margaret Simon
I love touring the slicing community and finding ideas. Greg Armamentos has inspired me once again. He posted about writing dueling poems with opposite words. He and his student teacher wrote about old and young here.
I spoke with Tyler, a 6th grader, about his slice for the day. He didn’t know what to write. I challenged him to a duel. He suggested sun and moon. He took moon, and I took sun (which, btw, we have not seen in days.)
I’ve been missing you lately
hidden behind sheets
of stratonimbus clouds.
Where have you gone?
When I wake up each morning,
you wave to me
along the bayou waters
touching tree limbs
with gentle, warm kisses.
I look for you
send your glowing rays
out from the clouds
to light up a rainbow.
I find you
in the wild flowers blooming
golden in the grass
sending scents
of glory and love
like honeysuckle– the taste
of sweetness on my tongue.
My pale peach skin
longs for your tanning rays,
bringing health back to my cheeks
and energy to my walk.
Won’t you come home, bright star?
I miss you.
–Margaret Simon
Tyler’s response: The Moon (Click here to leave comments for Tyler)
On the ocean
your light shines.
Lighting the way
during the night.
Controlling tides
as you please.
You are a guardian, the
Man on the Moon.
I see you in the day,
but better at night.
You watch us
sleep and protect
us as you do so.
Stay the same
no matter what
they say.
On Thursdays I join Holly Mueller’s round up of Spiritual Journey posts. We are all writing around a theme. This week we explore Jaana’s one little word, Discover.
I have an offering of a beautiful photograph taken by my friend, journalist, Chere’ Coen and a small poem based on these words of wisdom from Eknath Easwaran:
This prayer (Seek ye first the kingdom of God) is not addressed to someone outside us, but to our deepest Self, the Lord of Love, who dwells in the hearts of us all. When we repeat it, we are not asking for anything in particular, like good health or solutions to our problems or richer personal relationships. We are simply asking to get closer to the source of all strength and all joy and all love. Eknath Easwaran
My students are doing the classroom Slice of Life Challenge. They are impressing me with their commitment to writing every day. This school year I have required three blog posts a week, so they are used to a rigorous posting schedule. The other day I mentioned how many words a first grader had written (178!), and they set off on a self-made word count competition. But it is not the word count or their writing commitment that is impressing me. It is the voice.
Voice is a very difficult concept to teach. Here is a post-it from Writing Fix, a great resource for teaching writing. As one of the six traits of writing, voice should be taught.
From Writing Fix
I have come to believe that voice is something to be discovered rather than taught. All children come with a voice. Enter any school cafeteria and you can hear them roar. Through blogging every day, my students have become more comfortable expressing themselves, and their voices are coming through each piece of writing. Here are some samples of strong voice:
My mom has one of those smart car things or whatever.The kind where you hit a button and use it like siri. Well in my moms phone my dad is labeled as B T.in case you were wondering it means Boo Thing.So nevertheless when she says call b t it says calling Mrs.Simon mobile.So ya Mrs.Simon if you have any missed calls from her that’s why. Reed
So, today I went to the book fair. I got a calculator,pencils,2 books and a pencil sharpener.
I can’t wait to read my books tonight, and I will get a sticker for our chart for reading books.
But, I know what you are thinking ” wow those sound really boring!” They are actually not boring.The calculator is a chocolate scented calculator. The pencils were drumstick pencils. And, the pencil sharpener is …wait for it…wait for it…A MUSHROOM, and the top is an eraser {TALK ABOUT 2in1.} Emily
After, we walked on Bourbon Street. It was so crazy!!! There was this little boy dancing like Michael Jackson, and he was so good. I gave him $5, because that is all I had on me. After, Bourbon we went back to the hotel. My friend and I were doing flips on the bed. It was extra fun, but I almost broke my ne… nevermind that!! In the morning, we went down stairs to eat breakfast. It was free!! Kielan
Now I need to do a lesson on how so is a conjunction. I never realized how many of my students start their sentences with so. I have time for that because obviously, I do not have to teach voice.
This week’s photo challenge on Kim Douillard’s site is Overlooked. I had this word in mind as I drove to exercise on Friday morning. The full moon was still out while the sun was rising. The road to the gym was blocked. I was already late, so I decided to take some photos instead. I made them into an Animoto video.
Then I read Michelle Hendrick Barnes’ post on Poetry Friday. An interview with one of my favorite authors, Margarita Engle. Margarita’s ditty challenge was tied to her new book Orangutanka, a story of orangutans in tanka poems. The challenge: write a tanka, a form with a syllable count of 5,7,5,7,7. Then I looked at Heidi Mordhorst’s March poetry project and today’s word is preaCH. Could I work the two challenges together?
Sun overlooks
blessing a lonely smoke stack.
Coulee wildflowers
preach yellow sonnets
while moon graces morning clouds.
–Margaret Simon
I sent my tanka to Michelle and Heidi, so they are posting it today. Three times lucky!
In addition to joining the Slice of Life Challenge at the Two Writing Teachers blog, I have committed to hosting a DigiLit Sunday round up each week. If this is your first time here, consider joining us on Sundays. I love reading about all the new tools available for students and how teachers are using them. Use the button below on your site.
Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts
This week was the last of our third nine weeks. How this year is flying! My students do a book talk presentation each quarter, so this was the week to get them done. I love how the room buzzes with computer activity and how talk revolves around books. I added a new requirement this quarter: found poems. These were their instructions:
1. Find a section of 50-100 words. This may be your favorite part or the climax or a part with a good description.
2. Copy words or phrases from the section.
3. Rewrite or type as a poem. Notice line breaks. You may change the order or add words only if necessary to add meaning.
4. Check your poem for tone. Does it reflect the tone of the book?
My students choose the technology they wanted to use for their presentations. Some used Emaze, Powtoon, Animoto, or PowerPoint. Some used the technology to guide their talks. Other used it as a hook or to enhance the presentation.
I want to share some of the found poems, a Powtoon, and an Animoto trailer.
Vannisa used chapter quotes from Counting by 7’s. Each phrase connects to the character in some way.
Tobie wrote this poem from the Halloween chapter in Wonder. He could relate to the black hole August wanted to go into.
Matthew’s Animoto book trailer for Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.
Mission Impossible is a favorite background. Tobie used it to create this Powtoon presentation about Wonder.
Digital Learning Day is on March 13th. My plan is a Crazy Comment Challenge in which my students will try to write as many comments as possible on other SOL posts. Please consider joining us. More about Digital Learning Day can be found here. Use the hashtag #DLDay, #sol15, and #crazycomments in your Tweets.
If you have written a Digital Literacy post, please add your link in the comments. I will add them to this post. I am having some trouble with link up apps lately, so I’m just using the old fashioned way.
Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
SOL #7
March has come in like a lion, and I have made it through the first week of the Slice of Life Challenge. Time to celebrate!
Some of my students missed Chalkabration last week. So we made winter acrostics. Lani, 3rd grade, says she’s not a poet and yet, she used the word metamorphosized!
Metamorphosized butterfly Arrives vividly Rising Caterpillar High flying. by Lani
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! This is our brave librarian who dressed up every day this week as one of Dr. Seuss’s characters. We had special days to celebrate, crazy socks, crazy hair, and mismatched.
Jacob’s mother teaches across the hall from me. She occasionally texts me things he says. This text is an all time winner! My heart swells!
World Read Aloud Day was March 4, 2015. Sponsored by LitWorld.
On Facebook my poet/friend Amy Ludwig VanDerwater posted that she had some slots left for World Read Aloud Day Skype visits. I responded, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Not long before an email came. I will not go into all that it took me logistically and technically to make this happen, but on March 4th after a few test runs, Amy called my classroom. Squeals!
Amy was incredible. She even made a snowman for us. We are in South Louisiana, and we never have snow. At first we thought it was made with cotton balls like the ones we make. No, this one was real snow complete with a mini-carrot for a nose. Amy read a snowman poem to go with her snowman gift.
My students had prepared what they wanted to share with Amy–their own poems and poetry forms. Erin shared her staircase poetry form. Here are the rules:
1. Each line has to be longer than the other.
2. Make it as long as you want.
3. Make it unique.
4. Just have fun!
Reed and Nigel shared their PsyKu form. They challenged Amy to take the plunge and write one. The rules are here, and if you follow the link, be sure to read all the poetic contributions in the comments. Some crazy Psyku going on. The phenomenon spreads.
And Emily read some of her poems aloud. Amy invited her to send some poems for her to post in her Spotlight on a Student section of her blog, The Poem Farm. (Note: Amy’s site is a wonderful resource for poetry in the classroom.)
Kielan didn’t want to talk, but immediately after the visit, she created a PowerPoint tribute to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.
Today is Day 5 of the Slice of Life Challenge at the Two Writing Teachers blog. I am cross posting this for Holly Mueller’s Spiritual Thursday round up. There we are writing each week about another blogger’s one little word. This week is Libby’s word Adventure.
My OLW is Reach. Much like the word Adventure, it leads to something new, coming out of your comfort zone, and being open to what may lie ahead.
My husband and I are workaholics. It’s part of our DNA. Together we raised three daughters. This took up a lot of time, and so did our jobs. When we became empty nesters, I took on National Boards. The process was one of growth and reflection; however, it did nothing to build a stronger relationship with my husband.
In 2010, at his suggestion, I gave Jeff dancing lessons for Christmas. He wanted us to have something special together. Together we wanted to enjoy the Cajun/Creole culture more. After that first round of lessons, we signed on for group lessons. We’ve been going every Wednesday night since (except one period of time when I was recovering from an ankle injury.)Even though we’ve been dancing for 4 years now, we still learn something new every week.
We are more open to new musical adventures. We recently discovered some fun local music. On the first Sunday of every month, a Western swing band plays at the Feed-n-Seed. This band is made up of ten musicians, most of whom are in other bands. They are the best musicians around. They do this just for the love of it. No one is making any money. You can feel the love in the room.
We haven’t learned any swing moves, so we just dance the jitterbug and two-step. Energy is high. Everyone wears smiles. Reaching for adventure is taking a step away from the usual, embracing your partner, and two-stepping through life.
I have met many wonderful and creative people through blogging. A few years ago I joined the Poetry Friday round up. Poetry is a passion of mine. I use poetry often in my classroom, and I enjoy writing it. And who doesn’t love a good challenge? So when Laura Shovan posted her February Birthday Challenge, I took part. She posted sounds as poetry prompts. Turns out 14 of us wrote 177 poems to 28 sounds. Pretty impressive.
One of the sounds we wrote about was an electric guitar which reminded me of playing Guitar Hero with my nephew and getting beaten badly. Apparently, Jack has impeccable rhythm. Last summer, he started taking drumming lessons. He got a djembe for Christmas. I didn’t really know about his djembe playing until my sister posted a video of him from their California vacation. (My talented trumpet playing niece was marching with her band in the Rose Bowl parade.)
Musical talent runs in my family. In the dining room of my parents’ home is a life-sized portrait of my grandmother with her violin. My mother has her masters in piano and taught lessons in our home for many years. My brother has the gene, too. (We say it’s in the left hand as they are all left-handed.) Hunter is a professional musician. He plays keyboard and sings solo or with a band most nights of the week. So it was inevitable that someone would inherit the talent.
My sister says Jack’s rhythm is innate. He danced to the beat of her tapping a cinnamon container at 18 months. She remembers Mom telling a similar story about our brother who danced to the rhythm of her stirring cake batter.
Laura’s challenge pushed me to add a poem to the video. Here is Jack playing the djembe wowing the crowds at Santa Monica pier. My poem runs in the ticker tape at the bottom.
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She is a retired elementary gifted teacher who writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
