Where She Went

It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be.  I do not think I would.

~Edna St. Vincent Milay

This exerpt from "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink," is the introduction to Gayle Forman's new release Where She Went. With an introduction like that, what promise for what lies ahead! I cannot wait to turn the page.

A Day in Richmond

We spent a fabulous day soaking in new knowledge from Debbie Diller at her spring institute in Richmond, Virginia.  The day was focused on Adding Rigor to Middle Grade Workstations, and was held at the beautiful Jefferson Hotel. 

We learned and relearned so many valuable things from building classrooms to the five R's: routines, relationships, relevance, rigor, & reflection. She emphasized that building a classroom with high expectations first is key to establishing opportunities for small group instruction. We can do this by being clear about our schedule and objectives, nurturing independence, and "inspect what you expect" (following up on what your want to happen).

Today I re-learned that my "business is to meet the needs of my kids" and to keep standardized testing in perspective by "knowing my enemy." I also need to re-examine...who is doing all the work? I also re-learned that reflection is a step I cannot leave out. With the pressure of getting all the standards in before state testing, this seems to be the area that I struggle with most. I need to make time to ask: How did it go? What did I learn? Next time I will...

Lunch at Comfort: Cheryl ordered pimento chesse sandwich with fried green tomato and homemade chips & Mandy ordered roasted turkey sandwhich with apple mustard and mac and cheese. The restaurant was located close to VCU and completely adorable.

Supper at The Cheesecake Factory! Enough said...total calories for the day? They don't count on road trips, do they?

 

Our favorite quotes of the day:

"Think.  That's my curriculum for teaching reading."

"Do I need a level on every book?  Save your time & read a professional book."

"Assume nothing.  Model everything."

"You're always modeling, even if you don't know you are.  You're always modeling."

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

~William Carlos Williams

This week I received a gift from my dear friend Mandy & was introduced to a collection of poems from Joyce Sidman's This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. This anthology was written mostly by students inspired by Williams' poem. I was deeply moved by the honesty and genuiness of the apologies and responses. I was immediately hooked on the first poem by Thomas and his apology to Mrs. Garcia in the office for stealing the jelly doughnuts. I'm inspired!

f-r-e-n-z-y.

Choice Literacy featured an article a few weeks ago on open book clubs.  It didn't take long before Cheryl said she thought we should do one.  It didn't take me long (i.e. immediately) to agree.  We first considered inviting anyone who had read The Hunger Games, but thought that might limit the participation.  We wanted as many kids as possible to participate and began thinking of other books that a broader grade span of people had read.  Immediately the Skeleton Creek books came to mind.  These books have hooked in countless numbers of readers... our students, their friends, their younger siblings, other teachers.  We planned the blitz.
First, a mysterious poster appeared in the hallway inviting brave readers to a meeting.  Cheryl put the poster up almost two weeks ago, so we've endured lots of questions/harassment as to our involvement.  We tried to play it off like it wasn't us.  I'm not sure they believed that.

Next, "Joe Bush" began sending letters to our principal.  I wish I'd taken a picture of their faces!  It was great!
Finally, a special visitor pointed them to the real room for our meeting this morning...

We had 86 (!!!!!) kids show up!  We talked about our favorites parts & videos, gave away a copy of The Raven, & had them suggest names for our newly formed open book club.  We also introduced them to the new 3:15 stories.  Patrick, you are a genius.

We can't wait to do it again!  Who wouldn't love starting the day in a room filled to overflowing with kids excited to talk about books?

Swagger

Walking through the hallways this morning I was noticing how my students have grown since the beginning of the year. Middle school students are in constant flux, always changing. Seventh grade boys remind me of this poem:

Swagger

Swagger
thinks he's better,
turns his cap toward the back,
curls his lip, refuses to skip
or act like a kid.
Ever.
He's self-assured when he walks in,
full of nerve with a hint of sin,
with one hand in his pocket,
and shoulders square,
and if you don't like it, he doesn't care.
Somewhere between a strut and a stroll,
he's on a roll, his step in time
to a silent beat that says, "Bring it on,"
'cause he's all that
from his crown to his feet.

~Sara Holbrook

The poet says, "In a world of action and reaction, it seems as if words are an endangered species. More than ever we must, with relentless defiance continue to nurture our words, respect them as individuals, and handle them with care."

Sara Holbrook!

Our poetry project began this year by purchasing a copy of the anthology Seeing the Blue Between by Paul B. Janeczko for all of our 7th grade language arts students. Every week we've been focusing on a specific poet/writer's advice and selected poem. Our students have been soaking in poems everyday. Last week we were honored to host visiting poet, author, performer, and educator Sara Holbrook!

Sara worked with 7th graders on Tuesday crafting poems using extended metaphor, personification, and similes. She guided them through the art of performance poetry and prepared them for performing their poetry for family night. It was refreshing to see Sara not only share her poems, but also help students craft their own. She worked alongside them and helped them understand the "why" of poetry. We also selected 10 students to eat lunch with Sara. The students were hesistant to talk at first, but it didn't take them long to warm up and chat away! Our art teacher spent time over the past couple of weeks helping our students make paper and use it to make covers of handcrafted books. Students used these books to create collections of poems they've written all year. We were able to disply these at the family night event. We loved watching students share these special collections with their family and friends.

Wednesday morning, Sara presented vocabulary instruction to middle school teachers using her newest book High Definition. The rest of the day, she worked with 6th & 8th graders in their content area. Sixth graders used their upcoming social studies vocabulary words to write and present poems to reinforce learning in an authentic, meaningful way. Eighth graders wrote poems in their science class and presented them in class.

Favorite quotes of Sara's visit:

"words don't just lay down on the paper and behave themselves"

"the more you write, the more ideas will come up off the page"
"hear what others write... build a community of writers"
"as the boss of your own poem you get to decide how it is said"
"poetry gets us thinking about bigger ideas"
"ideas bubble up off the page as your pen flies across it"

Sara backed up everything we teach our students about writing everyday. It was a joy & honor to have her in our school for two days.

Dublin

Mandy and I were excited to have the opportunity to share some things that are going on in own classrooms at the Dublin Literacy Conference in Dublin, OH. "Literacy Stations in Middle Grades" was not only fun to create & present, but it was also encouraging to hear such positive responses from the participants. During this session, we shared how literacy stations run in our classrooms with our students. We were able to share sample stations, ideas for managing the stations, and correlation with curriculum standards.
We both use workstations in our classrooms. We believe strongly in them and their ability to provide students with additional independent practice with skills and strategies, provide time for reading/writing conferences, and provide opportunites to work with small groups. Inspired by Debbie Diller's, Practice with Purpose, we used the interests and needs of our students to develop additional stations to our classrooms.

COMIC STATION: gives students an oppotunity to explore another genre for reading and writing. Students can create their own comic online, read graphic novels, use inferring skills to make meaning of comics, or locate comics in newspapers. Many curriculum standards can be addressed using the activities in this station.
FAIRY TALE STATION: gives students an opportunity to explore a fun genre on a regular basis. Students can compare and contrast fractured fairy tales, write their own fairy tale, write a poem about a charater or theme, or create a wanted posted for one of the villians in their favorite tale. We toted several examples from one of our favorite collections to offer examples of books and activities in this station.
BOOK MAKING STATION: allows students another format for publishing their writing. Several online sites describe different styles of bookmaking that students can choose. One great site can be viewed at the following link: book making. We shared examples of supplies included in our book making stations, as well as, examples of student work.
TRAVEL STATION: allows students to explore different areas of interest in the world. This is a favorite! In this station, students can plan a trip, learn about a new place, explore atlases/maps, or use math skills by choosing items from restaurant menus. The best thing about creating this station is that 99% of the items in this station can be gathered for free! Take-out menus, brochures from welcome centers, maps, informational articles from museums/national parks, etc.

We were able to soak in an almost overwhelming amount of information in other sessions we attended yesterday! We are still letting it all soak in & are working on sharing that information. The conference was amazing! Thanks for all the hard work from the organizers and fellow presenters! We are already looking forward to next year.