Fidget to Think - I wanted to honor students' need to move. I also wanted to create a space for them to really think about why they fidget and what strategies they could use to both keep moving while also actively listen
Tag: Poetry
Add. Change. Remove.
Add. Change. Remove. This is a strategy we use in our 2nd grade writing workshop to explain the revision process. In the lesson, which I think originally was an idea from a Six Traits lesson, the students create with Play-Doh and then at various intervals are asked to add something to their creation.
Room to Read
I love having the opportunity to read and write with children and figure out why they are having trouble. I calm my monkey mind and I focus in on the student reader.
Song of the Sky: Some Thoughts on Clouds
Songs of the Sky: Looking out towards the horizon, the sky and sea seemed infinite. Maybe that’s what intrigued Alfred Stieglitz about clouds: their ever-changing shape above Lake George and reflected on its surface. For over a decade Stieglitz photographed clouds. He first called his cloud work, Songs of the Sky, after the music he could surely hear as they drifted.
Someday Soon
I definitely need more happy anticipation in my life right now, so I created my own Someday Soon Jar and will start to write my ideas down. Of course, my jar is an empty tissue box instead of a beautiful glass jar, but I don’t think that matters. What matters is hope and the joy of happy expectation.
Remember
I have been writing this blog every week since April 11th. That is three months and that is a record for me. I love to write, but I have always written in fits and starts. I have hundreds of beautiful notebooks with 3, 5, or 20 pages written in them, but I have rarely filled … Continue reading Remember
A Pause for Celebration
“Sorrow comes in great waves...but rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us, it leaves us. And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain.” - Henry James After the events of the past weeks: the COVID pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, rioting and … Continue reading A Pause for Celebration
Simple Joy
Music, Poetry, Dance, Art, Nature, Food, Friends, Travel - all of these things have given me joy. When Nature, Friends, and Travel were curtailed by COVID-19, I turned to music, poetry, dance and art to keep me joyful in these past bleary months. And so spring came, flowers blossomed, the sky returned to its blissful … Continue reading Simple Joy
Ascent: Sharing Our Stories
This week's Sharing Our Stories prompt from Ruth Ayres was "spreading your wings wider." I thought about her words for a little while. Lately, I've been spreading my wings a little wider each day even though we remain in quarantine. It's funny how being physically inside has made me become more open and wandering within my mind and heart...
Magic in the Middle
I am in love with words. I don’t know when it happened. It might have started with “Mama.” Words held meaning, and I was eager from the beginning to express myself. Writing is like breathing to me – I cannot differentiate one from the other. When I go long period without writing, it’s like … Continue reading Magic in the Middle