Bayou Teche | Reflections on the Teche

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DigiLit Sunday: Inspiration

Posted in Digital Learning, Photography, Writing, tagged #sdawpphotovoices, Bayou Teche, digital literacy, Digital photography, inspiration, Kim Douillard, quiet on January 24, 2016| 4 Comments »

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As an educator and as a writer, I am always on the look-out for inspiration. It can come in the form of a blog post, a quote, a video, or an image.

This school year I decided to start a new posting on my kidblog site. I called it Snippet of the Sea to go along with my blog title, Mrs. Simon’s Sea. Each week I post something and ask the students to respond. I started out using quotes. I’ve used videos. And since the new year began, I’ve posted poems.

At first my goal was to promote kindness. The quotes had to do with kindness. But now I see that my purpose is more about inspiring real thinking. I want to expose my students to good, strong words and inspire them to be good stewards of their own words.

To view last week’s poem post by Irene Latham and my students’ thoughtful responses, click here.

I was this close to choosing Inspire as my one little word. I still feel attached to it. The meaning connecting breath and creativity appeals to the core of who I want to be. However, the root meaning spirit tells me that this word belongs to the Creator.

in·spire inˈspī(ə)r/ verb
1. fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
“his passion for romantic literature inspired him to begin writing”
synonyms: stimulate, motivate, encourage, influence, rouse, move, stir, energize, galvanize, incite
2. breathe in (air); inhale.

Kim Douillard of Thinking through my Lens inspires me. This week her photo challenge is Quiet. Works well with the quiet, restful week I’ve had. Living on the bayou, I am witness to the quiet calm of nature. On Saturday morning, a blue heron was perched on the water in the rising sunlight. He was there again this morning in the fog. I captured these images.

Bayou heron, Margaret Simon.

Blue heron wings, Margaret Simon

What inspires you? Inspires your students? Share your digital literacy posts below.

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Bayou Visitors

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged alligator, Bayou Teche, Korean visitors, waltz on October 21, 2014| 7 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Our Korean guests brought us delicious nut bars as a thank you gift.

This weekend was a glorious weekend on the bayou! My neighbors had a wedding. Their son and his bride met in Korea where they were both teaching English. They came home in early September, but my friend has been preparing for this event for a year or more. Our backyards meet at a line of live oaks and is a beautiful setting for a wedding, especially on a clear day in October.

We were asked to house the photographer and his son, both of Korean descent. Soomin, Saeho’s son, visited my first class on Friday. We had a delightful time learning about Korea. Soomin is ten (11 in Korea), so he fit in well with my group of 5th and 6th graders. I was amazed at his knowledge of English. I put a chart on the board and wrote Hello on one side. Soomin drew beautiful Korean characters on the other side. But how does one read that word? We eventually resorted to Google translator. There is a speaker who helped us hear the pronunciation. I gave up after the second word we tried, “Thank you.” And here was Soomin who could read, write, and speak both languages. Amazing!

A view from our yard to the wedding.

Saeho and Soomin spent the weekend with us. On Sunday, my husband took them out on the bayou in a canoe. They even saw a real alligator sunning on a log. We never see alligators. What a treat for our visitors! (I secretly hope the gator works his way farther down the bayou.)

I am enjoying making videos in Imovie. I took two videos, one of a scan of the bayou, and one of the boys in the canoe. If you look hard, you can see Soomin waving. The alligator did not make it into the video. The music is a honeymoon waltz performed by David Greely. Relax and enjoy a few seconds on the Bayou Teche. I wish I could send you the sweet smelling air, too. (It’s sugarcane harvest time.)

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Walking together, alone

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Bay St. Louis, Bayou Teche, Grandmother Oak, writing muse on March 9, 2013| 14 Comments »

Sunrise at Bay St. Louis

The Slice of Life Challenge is just that…a challenge. We must pay attention every day to our lives. We have to listen and think. We have to compose in our heads. We even dream about what we will write next. I use the proverbial we here because I’m sure all of the Slicers are experiencing this. Today is Day 9, and I was running low on the muse. I have been keeping up a day ahead, but yesterday was Friday, which translates to “I’m fried day.” I had just enough energy to take on the commenting challenge, but I wasn’t up to writing.

This morning early I texted a friend to check in. We haven’t been able to work out a get together in a while. She was, low and behold, on the beach. She sent me the picture above. She also sent me a recording of the sounds she heard, the swishing of waves and the calls of the gulls. Here is our conversation. Walking together, alone.

I’m on the beach
walking with the laughing gulls
calls and caws.

Tell them hello in gull speak.

Thanks for lighting up my cell this morning.

Missing my friend!

Missing you, yet happy to be in touch again.

What beauty you walk in. I will hold
this gift for those days when
I need a calm friend.

Sweet.

I walked outside to the sounds of mockingbirds, woodpeckers, and robins. This is my scenery, our grandmother oak standing tall and proud over the bayou. Not bad for a quiet Saturday morning.

Grandmother oak on Bayou Teche

Slice of Life Challenge Day 9

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Stained Glass

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Bayou Teche, Clare Martin, collaborative poem, nature poem on March 4, 2013| 5 Comments »

Every week I get an email from Poets & Writers called “The Time is Now.” You can sign up, too. They send out prompts for writing. A few weeks ago, the poetry prompt suggested collaborating by email or text on a poem with each person adding a line until the poem felt complete. I invited my new poet friend, Clare Martin, to participate with me. We composed it using Facebook messenger. We each revised to create our own poem. I am posting my version.

Stained Glass

Reflection of bare trees
stripe the still bayou.
See into the reflection.
Clouds become water.

Water holds a dark harm–
dangerous depth,
deceiving beauty.
The surface holds the whole sky.

A single tear
breaks the glass.
Slip within the sky.
See your self in the depths.

Slice of Life Challenge Day 4

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On Becoming an Author

Posted in Blessen, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Slice, young readers on April 24, 2012| 6 Comments »

Read other Slice of Life writers at The Two Writing Teachers

For a long time, I have wanted to be a writer. I recently found my teenage diary and in it I had written some really bad rhyming poetry. But at the bottom of the page I found this.

"I would love to be a writer if only someone would give me confidence!"

When do we let go of our dreams? The summer following this diary entry, I volunteered for a program called “Operation Life Enrichment.” The program was designed to enrich the lives of underprivileged children who had difficulty with reading. That experience led me to a path of becoming a teacher. The writer in me did not go away, but she was buried deep within.

In 1995, I had the privilege of being selected for the National Writing Project’s Summer Institute. We were a group of fellow teachers writing about our lives and learning from each other. The motto of the NWP, “A teacher of writing is a writer,” went straight to my heart.

One of my favorite writing project events has been an annual “writing marathon” in New Orleans led by the Southeastern Writing Project. For three days, teacher-writers gather to be practicing writers. In the summer of 2009, the focus was on fiction. I spent the days with two other women. We wrote, read, revised, and each created a fiction short story. I began to feel like a fiction writer.

Not long after the New Orleans writing marathon, I attended a fiction workshop with Sharon Arms Doucet, author of Fiddle Fever and Alligator Sue. The workshop took place an hour away. As I drove Highway 31 along the Bayou Teche, the story of Blessen began in my mind. I passed True Friend Road. I saw a row of crape myrtle trees.

From where I stand next to the chicken coop, I can see Pawpee’s old house and the two rows of crape myrtles in full bloom lining the gravel driveway. Pawpee still trims those trees every fall with a cherry picker from his wheelchair. He says he’s topping the trees to make the blossoms fan out like a fiery bouquet.

While at the workshop, I wrote the first chapter. On our lunch break, the owner of the restaurant retold a story that became the Piggly Wiggly scene for Chapter 2.

Fiction is born of real life, the stories we hear and the ones we imagine. Over the years, I grew to know and love Blessen. When I listened, she told me about her life. I believe in her story. I am so proud to have her come alive in my first young readers novel. I hope one day you will come to know and love her, too.

Link to Blessen’s Facebook page.

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