Reflections on the Teche

Celebrating the Blog Community

October 18, 2014 by margaretsmn

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

Today I am glowing a little brighter. My students and I enjoyed a few blog shout-outs this week.

My Spider zeno poem, along with a link to my Zeno Emaze was featured on Today’s Little Ditty.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater featured my student Emily’s Cloud Acrostic on The Poem Farm.
Donna Smith was inspired by my Emaze presentation to create her own fall poetry Emaze.

Hedwig’s story: A few years ago one of my students, who was a huge Harry Potter reader, was struggling with writing. He just wouldn’t. I was shopping at Barnes and Noble and decided on a whim to buy a stuffed owl, Hedwig from the Harry Potter series. Matthew became totally attached to the owl. Hedwig stood on his shoulder whenever he was writing.

This year, after Emily’s mother died, I decided to take Hedwig to my second school. Hedwig has been a comforter to Emily and has become a part of our classroom family. So much so that Emily made him a bed out of an empty tissue box. (Emily finished off the box after crying over her dog’s death this week. How much can one little girl take?) I celebrate today that this small little impulse purchase has brought comfort and meaning to my students.

Posted in Blogging, Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing | Tagged Emaze, Hedwig, Kitlitoshpere | 6 Comments »

Murmuration Mysteries

October 17, 2014 by margaretsmn

Find more Poetry Friday at Today’s Little Ditty with Michelle H Barnes.

Migrating starlings, over the southern Israeli village of Tidhar, on February 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

My students were mesmerized this week by the Wonder of the Week, Starling Murmurations. As I often do with these Wonder lessons, I asked them to choose 4 of the Wonder Words. Then we watched the video, looked at The Atlantic site, and selected a picture to write to. The above image was selected by Erin. Erin is a third grader. She has a confidence about her that I wish I had. She sat writing her poem and told me, “I am writing a staircase poem.”

“What is a staircase poem?”

“Look at the lines. They look like the steps on a staircase.”

I think Erin just created her own form.

Ready, set, fly,
One bird takes flight,
another one and another one
until there’s a million in the sky
making an illusion of love as one goes by
washing over me.
Come along and see.
To believe is the key.
The key is to believe.
So graceful and startling,
a routine with meaning. Just
believe and you will see that anything
can be beautiful if you just put love into it.

–Erin, 3rd grade

I showed my students my poem movie from Spiritual Thursday. (You can see the post here.) I made the suggestion that they make a poem movie with their starling zenos. Some of my students are loving J. Patrick Lewis’s new form. A zeno is a great form for writing nonfiction poems. Enjoy these poem movies made using Animoto.

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing | Tagged starling murmurations, student poetry, zeno poems | 11 Comments »

This Peace

October 16, 2014 by margaretsmn

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of His son Jesus Christ our Lord.

This peace
cannot be understood,
creeps in my heart
when the sun rises
throwing a beam upon the oak,
her arms spread wide to welcome the light.

This peace comes from knowing
a creator who makes the heron fly
on wings breaking dawn
with stealth and strength.

This peace is a chant I sing,
your name over and over
while the yarn draws over and under
this golden G hook.

This peace transforms holy spirit
into sprays of fresh water
as close to me
as tears.

This peace as fragile as the hug of a child,
egg in a robin’s nest,
sweet scent of your clean skin.

This peace eases my breath
like child’s pose
letting go
letting out
letting in.

This peace
centered in words
prayerfully spoken,
I am here.

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing | Tagged nature poem, spiritual journey | 5 Comments »

Gumbo, Family, and Fun!

October 14, 2014 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

A selfie with my friend Sarah as we eat beignets at Festival Acadiens.

This was a weekend to embrace the culture of South Louisiana, along with the crazy heat. I’m not sure if we set records, but the temperatures were blazing while my husband and I introduced friends from Houston to the music and food of our home town. Two festivals complete with Cajun and Zydeco music, gumbo, beignets, and shrimp po-boys. We danced (and ate) all weekend. Our favorite bands are BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet and Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie. Family was part of the fun, two daughters, a sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and a niece.

I have been going to these festivals for years, but dancing has only been part of them for the last three and a half. Dancing makes all the difference. I feel like I am part of the music, not just a by-stander listener. I am sore and tired, but the kind of sore and tired when you have done something vigorous, life-giving, like hiking or completing a marathon. The music is still playing in my mind.

Maggie, Katherine, and niece Claire pose at the Gumbo Cookoff.

I made a video about dancing this weekend. My husband is the handsome dancer. Be warned: there is one clip where the music comes on suddenly loud.

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged BeauSoliel, Festival Acadiens, Geno Delafose, Michael Doucet, World Championship Gumbo Festival and Cookoff | 10 Comments »

Digilit Sunday

October 12, 2014 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

I am entertaining guests this weekend. I may post later. I do want to share that I had a special visitor to my blog on Friday, J. Patrick Lewis, 2012-2013 Children’s Poet Laureate. He watched the Emaze presentation I made about him and the zeno poems my students and I wrote. This was his email.

Dear Margaret,

A swashbuckler of a bow to you for featuring the zeno on your blog and for encouraging your students to try their hand at it. I’m honored and humbled, and I must say, extremely impressed by their efforts. Please extend to them my warm wishes for a blootitootiful school year.

Be good, be well.

Cheers,
Pat

So I did a happy dance.

Add your digital literacy post with Mr. Linky

Posted in Digital Learning, Poetry | Tagged J. Patrick Lewis | 3 Comments »

Zeno-mania

October 10, 2014 by margaretsmn

Find more Poetry Friday at Miss Rumphius Effect.

As one of my students called out,”You love to connect us with authors.” They know me well, and they know that when I tell them we are going to learn a new poetry form, writing will happen, they will be supported, and it will be challenging. Last Friday, Michelle Heindenrich Barnes featured J. Patrick Lewis on her site. Pat put forth a challenge with a new form that he created called a zeno. The zeno is based on the hailstone sequence. This is the kind of math I enjoy. Math poetry: repeated syllable counts. My students were fascinated. They couldn’t wait to share with their math teachers. Matthew said, “I think I can use this in a magic trick.”

I have been playing with Emaze for presentations. I was so taken with the poems my students created in the morning group that I made an Emaze to teach my afternoon group. Later, I added some of their poems to the presentation. I encourage you to try this with your students. If you want to use the Emaze presentation, let me know.

Click the link below to go directly to the presentation.

http://app.emaze.com/882076/zeno-poetry

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing | Tagged Emaze, J. Patrick Lewis, zeno poems | 16 Comments »

Dreams. Hope.

October 9, 2014 by margaretsmn

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
–W.B. Yeats

We teachers have dreams laid at our feet. We should be careful. We need to remember to step with a light foot, like a feather brushing by, a slight wind to give direction, an uplifting to the wings of our tiny birds.

Ann Voskamp

Hope holds us together.

Hope is the thing, the one with feathers,

the thing we all wish for

in the darkest night of despair

when our hearts are breaking.

Hope holds on

to the thin line of your mouth when you smile,

to the circles under your eyes,

the sparkle of tears on your cheek; Hope paints a rainbow there.

Plant hope in the hole in your heart.

Open to the sound of His song–

the hoot of the owl, the cry of the hawk.

His voice carries

across wild fields

over storm clouds

into your hands.

Get ready.

Open your palms when you pray.

Original photo (iPhonography) by Margaret Simon taken at Sugar Mill Pond, Youngsville, LA.

Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth | Tagged hope, spiritual journey | 8 Comments »

Writing is Hard

October 7, 2014 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

As students become writers, they learn that it can be hard work. In my classes, we have been discussing what makes a good blog post. What are the qualities of good writing? During one of these discussions, Matthew was playing with paperclips, making a paperclip chain. He then started talking about how the chain related to staying on topic in a Slice of Life story. I stopped him and said, “Could I video you saying that?” Here he is:

Kylon has been posting chapters each week of his story, “Something in the Mist.” He posted it over the summer, but since few students were reading, I encouraged him to post once school started. He told me that when he posts new chapters, he revises. He also told me that he printed the whole story out and found that it needed a lot of editing. My response was a laugh because, if you write at all, you know this. I did not prompt Kylon to write about writing, but I am so glad he did. His advice is wise and comes from hard work.

Let me start by saying, “It was pretty hard to write Something in the Mist.” I started writing in March, and finished on one of the last days of school. One of the hardest things about writing it was writing the dates and times. I had to go to the last chapter, calculate about how much time since the beginning of the last chapter, and put it down at the beginning of the new chapter. I also have to think about what would be going on at that time. I wouldn’t be eating lunch at 3:45 PM. I wouldn’t be at home at noon on a weekday. I tried to make the setting as realistic as possible. (SPOILER: When the settings are constantly changing towards the end of the story, it’s really hard to write.)

Another hard thing about writing: making sense. Your character can’t be getting out of bed, and 20 seconds later, he’s running from the police with a weapon and a thousand dollars in his pocket. I know it’s a bit of exaggeration, but it’s true. When I started recording the explosions earlier in the story, my iPod had to be in the car, still recording, after the action.

Next, you don’t want your reader to be falling asleep. You need to keep the action, but not too much action. Example: don’t blow up a building, get hit by a car, run from the police, and steal a car in one chapter. That’s TOO much action.

Also, add extra detail. Don’t say, ‘The car blew up and I covered my head.’ Instead, say, ‘I dived for cover just as the car erupted into a violent fireball. Glass and metal rained down, and I put my hands over my head.’ That’s cool.

One more thing: Writing a long story. Something in the Mist has 6,713 words. That’s a long story!

–Kylon (aka Twinfish)
To read Something in the Mist, click here.

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life | 13 Comments »

Digital Choices

October 5, 2014 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

This week we are nearing the end of the nine weeks grading period. My students are working on their book talks. I require one each quarter. I also require some form of technology. I am pleased that I have discovered new presentation apps to give them multiple choices in technology. The choices range from Powerpoint, Emaze, Prezi, and Animoto. I am excited about the variety of presentations that will be done. These will not only inspire my students to read different books, but they will also want to try different digital platforms.

Today I am posting an example of Prezi, Animoto, and Emaze.

This is Reed’s Emaze on Troublemaker by Andrew Clements.
http://app.emaze.com/849503/trouble-maker

Nigel did a Prezi about The Whipping Boy.
http://prezi.com/bygmaqkv9vqw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Erin used Animoto to present The Red Pyramid.

Having choices creates a richer experience in my classroom and allows each student to explore and be themselves. As with most digital media, I simply allow the students to access them. They learn how to use them very quickly with little help from me. The only trouble we had this week was with slow computers. Not all of our computers are new. What other presentation media have you used?

Please link up your digital literacy posts with Mr. Linky.

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Writing | Tagged Animoto, book talks, Emaze, Prezi | 4 Comments »

Celebrating October

October 4, 2014 by margaretsmn

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

October bulletin board

Have you ever played Boo with your school or neighborhood? It’s become a thing at our school every year, but as an itinerate teacher, I sometimes get left out. Not this year. We have an awesome secretary who wants everyone to be included, so this year she is organized. On only the third day of October, I was Booed! I got a bucket of fun things: a Halloween plastic cup with a straw, a pair of Jack-O-Lantern socks, some snacks, candy for the kids, and decorations for my bulletin board. (Notice the plastic spiders in the web.) It made my Friday happy. This weekend I will stop at the store to make my own basket of goodies for some secret teacher. Games like these boost morale and make a school a fun community.

While I was digging in the cabinet for fall decorations, I found a poem I wrote a few years ago. It expresses well my feelings of celebration today, with cooler air, tall sugarcane, leaves falling, and sastumas soon to ripen. I do love this time of year.

October

On my morning walk,
sun reflects on the path.
Leaves crackle as I step.
Scent of a far off fire–
a sure sign of fall.
Sugarcane sways,
Satsumas ripen,
Cypress needles litter the lawn.
Rain showers blow in and blow out,
softening and cooling the air.

I’m falling in love with October.
I open my doors to the chilly wind,
welcome the sound of scavenging squirrels,
and celebrate this new season.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved