Fanschool | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘Fanschool’

Slice of Life Day 31: Endings and Beginnings

Posted in Blogging, Books, Progressive poem, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged 2025 Kidlit Progressive Poem, Fanschool, Were You There? A Biography of Emma Wakefield Paillet on April 1, 2025| 6 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

Today is the last day of March which means I have finished my 12th year of writing a slice of life for 31 days. It’s easy to think this is some great accomplishment. But who matters more to me are the bloggers I do this with. Through the Two Writing Teachers blog, we have connected over time and space and supported each other. I always end with the wish that I had read more and commented more. What a wonderful community of teacher-writers! Thank you!

I also want to express my pride over my students who stuck with the daily slicing challenge. Julian wrote “This is the final day for writing and I cannot believe I actually did it. Before I ever did this challenge I was having trouble with writing 1 SOL a week. I never would have thought I would be able to write one continuously for a month straight. But I did and I’m very proud of myself.” You can view their posts at Fanschool/ GT Allstars

Tomorrow begins another writing adventure: National Poetry Month. Many of my poet blogger friends are doing projects. I will be writing with Ethical ELA VerseLove as I have done since 2020. At Ethical ELA, there is another great community of teacher writers who support each other.

I coordinate a gathering of children’s poets to write the 2025 Kidlit Progressive Poem. Linda Mitchell has bravely agreed to start us off. You will find her post at A Word Edgewise. We have three slots left at the end of the month if you want to play along. Kidlit Progressive Poem 2025 Sign Up.

Tomorrow is a big day for me. Release day for Were You There? A Biography of Emma Wakefield Paillet that I co-authored with Phebe Hayes. I will be presenting this weekend at the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival at the Shadows on the Teche Visitors Center at 11:15 AM on Saturday. My co-author Phebe Hayes and I are excited to launch this important book about the history of New Iberia, LA. If you are local, please join us for this long awaited release.

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Slice of Life Day 28: Poetry Friday: Revision

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Progressive poem, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Fanschool, revision, student poems, triolet on March 28, 2025| 15 Comments »

If you are a blogger and would like to add a line during National Poetry Month to our Kidlit Progressive Poem, please make a comment or send me an email with a date choice and a link to your blog. Everyone is welcome to play!

The early morning school playground was covered in a sheet of fog. Avalyn and I went outside to write. This is something she often requests. There is an old oak with a picnic table in a just right spot for writing in our notebooks. I wrote about my surroundings, observations of the morning.

The fog hovers over the playground.
I hear echoes of a church bell chime.
Traffic moves beyond
carrying the day-workers.
Birds call to mates
as spring slowly wakes
sprouting on this weary morning.

Form can give us a container for our words. I looked up the triolet form. I labeled my paper with the number of lines and the rhyme scheme. The poem changed shape while still holding the mood.

Fog hovers on soft spring air,
tip-toes as a church bell chimes.
Work day traffic moves on everywhere.
Fog hovers on soft spring air.
Breeze tickles my face with hair.
Morning wakes right on time.
Fog hovers on soft spring air,
tip-toes as a church bell chimes.

(Margaret Simon, draft)

I used these two drafts to discuss revision with my students at the next school in the afternoon. I suggested they go back to a poem and revise it.

Max who is a humble poet will rarely share his poems out loud, so I asked his permission to share his revision here. He wrote it on Fanschool, and you can leave comments specifically for him there.

“Insects buzzing all around,

Bugs are feeding on the ground,

For there is no need for them to hurry,

So why should they need to worry?”

March 25th, 2025: I absolutely despise the quality of this poem. REVISE!

Insects hover in the air,

Gracefully, glide without care.

Spot a flower, beautifully white.

Harvesting energy, basking in the sunlight.

Insects, bugs, air and the ground.

Moving, flying, all around.

To hurry is not a worry, for them.

Unless by something, they’re found.

Then Scurry!

I would add something else, but this is just about it.
(Max, 6th grade)

How do you approach revision? Is it hard for you? I think students don’t usually like to revise. They like to write and move on to the next thing. Honestly until I read Max’s post, I thought the class didn’t think much of my little revision lesson. Modeling our own writing process with our students makes us vulnerable, but in the long run, shares how we all are in this together, writing side by side.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Marcie.

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Slice of Life: #WriteOut

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #writeout, Fanschool, Nature poems, student writing on October 10, 2023| 11 Comments »

My students and I have been looking forward to the National Writing Project’s Write Out, a writing event that takes place in October. NWP partners with the National Parks to create videos and writing prompts designed to get kids outside to write. Last Friday, I handed each student a 5×7 blank book and told them it would be their Write-Out notebook. What is it about having a new clean colorful book that makes you want to write?

After watching a short video from Ranger Chris from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, we went outside to the playground to observe nature and write haiku poems. I wrote alongside them. I shared how I sketch in my notebook. Sketching is low-stakes art. Sketching helps to motivate and enhance writing while making their notebooks a safe place to explore.

Back inside, students were enthusiastic about sharing their poems. Because I teach multiple groups at two different schools, we use Fanschool for sharing our writing.

If you have a minute, it would be exciting to my students if you wrote comments on their first ever haiku poems:

Max wrote “The Daytime”

Kailyn wrote about a butterfly in the grass.

We found moth caterpillars near the trees. Adelyn and Sadie wrote about them.

Carson wrote about the sugarcane field.

John-Robert’s poem.

Give yourself some time today to be outside and observe nature. Share your haiku with us.

I am sharing my poems on Instagram.

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More Deeper Wisdom Poems

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged Deep Wisdom Poems, Fanschool, hurricane, student poetry on August 28, 2021| 9 Comments »

What the Hurricane Knows

Hot August oceans churn.
Tornadoes internally spurn
a meteorologist’s concern.

This is what the hurricane knows.
With strength beyond a whale’s tail,
swallow waves into booming gale,
loosen nature’s grip and WAIL!
Margaret Simon, draft

On Friday, I wrote wisdom poems with my students. I couldn’t focus on much except Hurricane Ida heading our way. They also wrote some wonderful wisdom poems linked below.