Since I know August is the calm before the Back-to-School storm, I thought I’d select some of my favorite Maine photographs and write Mindful 8 poems to accompany them. As I wrote them, I was struck by how peaceful I became. I concentrated on nature and tried to distill the essence of its beauty with spare words. This is becoming an important practice for me, and it also helps to alleviate writer’s block.
Category: reading
Empowering Girls Through Poetry
This week, the girls and I return to poetry for a respite. We are still revising our fantasy stories, but needed a little spark of energy. Since the school where I teach is a school for girls, in fact it is the oldest girls’ school in New Jersey, I am keenly aware of the need for raising confident and resilient girls.
Something Magical: Three Elements of Fantasy Writing With Children
Children love fantasy. Their minds are young and open to outrageous ideas and imaginative wonderings. Fantasy also helps them deal with stressful situations and allows them to feel empowered. This week with my summer students, I focused on three core elements of writing fantasy stories: portal transitions, living statues, and magic rules.
Visual Prompts to Teach Plot Structure: Ocean Bubble
This week’s teacher-student collaborative writing went to the beach. I shared an image of a giant translucent bubble sitting on the edge of the shoreline. The photo serves as launchpad for another creative writing journey designed by my third and fourth-grade students. I was hoping to engage these reluctant writers with a magical image that they could use as a blueprint for storytelling. My intention was for students to learn to see narrative structure not as a rigid set of rules, but as an expanding world of possibilities.
Revolutionary Spirit: Poet, Phillis Wheatley
This week, as we look forward to the 250th birthday of America, I want to reflect on an unlikely Revolutionary heroine, Phillis Wheatley. Her history is remarkable. Born in West Africa in 1753, she was brought on a slave ship, The Phillis, for which she was named. She was sold to the Wheatley family of Boston, who raised and educated her. Phillis learned English, Latin, and Greek and wrote her first poem at the age of fourteen. She published a collection of poetry called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773, making her the first enslaved person to publish a book.
Creative Vocabulary Strategies to Engage Students
Some words feel wonderful in your mouth: benevolent, pashmina, Constantinople. They roll right off one’s tongue and into one’s imagination. Words hold meaning and are the building blocks of all human thought. I marvel at students’ curiosity about words and how they often understand and use words far above their age and grade level. One of my students was so enamored with geology and dinosaurs that his vocabulary in these areas far surpassed mine, allowing him to be my teacher, and I, his attentive student! I believe that spark of curiosity and imagination in learning vocabulary ignites the power to explore a universe of ideas and concepts. I've taken this first week of my summer vacation to reflect on the techniques I've used to support students' vocabulary development.
Unlocking Creativity: Building Book Spine Poetry
This month, my dear friend, colleague, and school librarian, Deborah, invited me into her 4th and 5th-grade classes to mix library and poetry skills. I thought Book Spine Poetry would be the best vehicle for this foray into found poetry. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term, book spine poetry is a form of found poetry where the poet takes another person's words (in this case, book titles) and forms their own poem. The beauty of book spine poetry is that it is a low-stakes way to introduce poetry writing. The poet becomes an editor of sorts, a connoisseur of the best titles that fit together to form a clever poetic message.
Three Pillars of Teaching: Heart, Creativity, and Connection
This week, I was reminded that sometimes good things come in 3’s, and that connecting with students remains my main joy in life. There are three quotations at the end of each email I send. They sum up my philosophy of teaching perfectly: Educating the mind without educating the heart, is no education at all – Aristotle, Creativity is intelligence having fun – often attributed to Einstein but is not confirmed, and Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations – Zig Ziglar, a motivational speaker. I realize that these three pillars have been the foundation of how and why I continue to teach.
Book. Memory. Promise: Never Forget
I am encouraged and so thankful that Lois Lowry has written Tree. Table. Book. The octogenarian author of Number the Stars and The Giver, Ms. Lowry is an expert storyteller and isn’t afraid to take on controversial subjects. She is a master at presenting hard situations and ethical problems to a young audience. This most recent book spans generations and shows how stories can connect rather than tear people apart. With story and memory, we can build bonds and begin to understand each other. This connection between the old and young is crucial; it is the sticky hope that will ensure “never forget” leads to the promise of “never again.”
Making the Broken, Beautiful
When I read "Broken" by X. Fang and thought about a memory of something broken, I immediately thought about a glass jar that held cigars tightly packed in concentric circles. This jar was not something that I broke. No. But I can see it vividly even though this memory is close to 60 years old. I thought the glass container was so beautiful, encircled by a red satin ribbon, holding something my father enjoyed – cigars. When I saw it in the store, I knew I had to buy it for him for Father’s Day. I was so pleased with myself and knew he would be proud of me.
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 