Writing --- a Joyful Experience

I have taught for thirty eight years.  I have writings from my students that date back to 1976.  Why did I keep them?  It is simple those pieces were pieces of the children I worked with, encouraged, and yes, loved.

I shared my writing with my students.  I found it easy to read what I wrote...but if I posted it --- I felt shy and nervous.  Each year, of course, I wrote a welcome letter...doesn't everybody?  But at the end of the year, I wrote them a letter sharing what I hope they received and what I received from them.

Now I am teaching future teachers!  I find that to be a rewarding, challenging, and weighty responsibility.  I wish each student that earns his or her degree and certification will teach well and in caring ways. So at the end of each semester, I write them a letter.  I stand up in front of the class and read it out loud and then hand each one a copy that includes a personal note.  This is what I say:

It is the end of the semester and ahead of you is a well deserved break from the educational grind.  It amazes me how quickly time has flown.  Looking back on this semester and the course, Writing in Education, it seems that we accomplished a great deal.   To be honest, there is a lot more I would like to share with you about writing.  Each of you has an opinion about your personal writing; and I hope that from this class you feel better about your own writing and more committed to helping your students become confident writers.  Each of you will be someone who will impact your students’ feelings about their written expression.  Please encourage, support, and prod them to do their best!!!  Developing individuals who feel at ease with sharing their thoughts in writing is a goal I feel each educator should have.

During my teaching career at the end of the school year, I would write a letter to my students letting them know what I hoped they had gained from being in my classroom.  This letter is my way of sharing what I hope you have gained from this class. I realize the reason you took this class was to work on your portfolio, and I wish you continued success in your endeavor.  I trust that the task of completing a professional portfolio seems attainable even though the work has truly just begun.  I would urge you to review and work on it often.  To me that wasn’t the most important aspect of the class.  Being confident and willing to share your ideas in writing is imperative and I hope each of you has grown in these areas.  I also shared ideas that I hope you can develop and use one day with your class.  It would be wonderful if you have gained a desire to make writing important to your students.  That would make a positive impact on your students.         

I hope, though more than anything, that I expressed to each of you what an important task that you have ahead of you.  You will teach… a career that is of utmost importance.  Enjoy it!!  Motivate your students to inquire and explore the world around them.  Please encourage their writing skills so they can learn more about themselves and that they are able to communicate effectively their ideas to others. 

I love teaching!!  I hope you will too.  Remember work hard, be consistent, laugh often, and embrace the energy of the children you will meet.    

And so I end day 31 of slicing...

Dear Slicers,

Thank you Stacey and Ruth and all fellow slicers for allowing me to share my thoughts and ideas through writing.  I am a better person and teacher for participating in this opportunity.   Thank  you all for the inspiration and desire to write!  Something I have "preached" for thirty-eight years and celebrated in others but didn't always do (except all that writing that was required).  This has been writing for me! 

This isn't goodbye though...I will continue slicing on Tuesdays.  

March...it is marching.

This month has marched by.
Is it because I have been slicing?
Is it because there have been two family members with birthdays?
Is it because they are getting older and then so am I?
Is it because my youngest son got a job with benefits and so his wings are spreading?
Is it because I had spring break?
Is it because my work LOAD has gotten to be really heavy?
Is it because the March work is spilling over to April?
Is it because the weather is beautiful?
Is it because my allergies are acting up?
Is it because of our St. Patrick's Day celebration?
Is it because I have tried to spend as much time as I can with my grandkids (only when invited though)?
Is it because KU is in the Final Four and I love basketball and soon it will be over for another season?
Is it because my husband and I have been running and walking every chance we can get?
I don't know but I can say...
This month has marched by...and it is good to have met some slicers along the way!

A Book and A Signature

A textbook...a textbook that my grandmother used in 1899 (copyright 1889 - a year after her birth).  I remember as a small child looking at the cover and running my fingers over the rivers and the mountains that were indented and raised on the map.

This had been my grandmother's book in 6th grade.  I would look at the pictures and read the text inside.  On. pages 86 and 87 at the top of the pages she wrote in pencil "Hurrah! for McKinley.  Bryan is an old cabbage head."   I would always laugh at the term "cabbage head" and be amazed that she thought about politics because as my grandmother, I never saw her as having an interest in politics.  She always seemed interested in me!   I would imagine her as a sixth grader and wonder would we have been friends.

And then I would look at the front cover page and notice her beautiful signature and my attempt to write like she did.   And then I smile once more...because when I look at that signature I remember that my grandmother was the sixth of six children.  She was given the name Avo without a middle name.  She told me that she felt her name was too short and so added Mildred for length.

And I smile again because children of a certain age (12 or so) need to exert their independence and this is a glimpse of my grandmother's individuality that I loved.

A Rock

This rock sits in my house as part of the decor.  Strange maybe to those visiting but then I have found that the items in our house are memories.  To be honest when looking at the books this rock rests on memories come back to me.  The two top books are from family members and the one on the bottom is one I bought when I first began teaching.

But back to the rock.  It was found on a beach in Wales on the Irish Sea.  My son and I were traveling with his soccer team.  We were spending two weeks in Wales and England as he had played soccer.  On the day we found this rock, we were on the beach.  We were with two other soccer players and their parents and the boys were having so much fun.  Running into the cold water, chasing each other, and of course, burying each other in the sand.  Their energy was boundless.   When hunger finally set in and we were ready to go, my son brought me this rock.  It was very dark from the moisture it held and cold.  We both agreed it was a find that we must take home.  To be honest, I loved it more than he did.  When we got home I took it to school and set it on the edge of my desk.  My students loved it.  I had several that would go and touch it, rub it and comment and it.

When sharing Mem Fox's Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge with my students, I always used that as an example of "something precious" to me.  When I retired and began teaching in college, the rock always makes a visit when I share Fox's book.  The lesson is similar...we must share our stories...but now I want my college students to know that to teach writing well you must write and share along with the students.  To me if  teachers ask students to write they must be willing to write and share their stories.   This seems scary to them....why share their stories?  Aren't they suppose to "just' teach?  And I remind them to teach well, you must practice what you teach.

And so my rock that was found on the beach of the Irish Sea lives on to tell its tale through my eyes.  (I feel a little guilty maybe I should have left it their for others).

A Day in a College Classroom

Today in the Writing in Education course I teach students had to share their ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. about a journal article.  The article discusses ways to validate students lived realities in schools.  The article reminds the readers that many students' lives do not mirror their teachers' lives.  When a student writes, draws, or talks about a subject that isn't part of the teacher's lived reality there a student may be faced with silence.  Silence, not to be cruel, but because the teacher is not sure or prepared on a way to respond.  When my students have read this article in the past, they are always horrified that the teacher doesn't acknowledge a child's response.  I know that each student in my class would meet the student's response with silence since he or she would not know how to respond.  This article has always produced rich discussion but I wanted them to get more out of it.  

Then last semester I asked them to express their thoughts, impressions, connections in any form they wish.  I do give them a list of possible ways but encourage them to do the "expression" in any way they wish.  We spent the whole class sharing what they did.  Every student did the activity and everyone willingly shared.  And after every presentation there was applause.  There were even those times during the sharing that you saw heads nods or comments of agreements.

Some of their expressions were in:

Original Art
A comparison with The Great Gabsy and The Hunger Games
A Poster
A letter to the author
A letter to a school librarian requesting this journal article be shared with all teachers
A paper about how this article was nothing like her life and yet, it was ok to be different but there should be understanding
A paper about a girl that related to the broken relationships in the article
A poem from the teacher and from the child met with silence
A prediction before reading - a reflection during reading - an analysis after reading
Pictures draw on a legal size envelope during the reading of the article
A Mobile
A book jacket
A song to the tune "House of the Rising Sun" sung to us as he was playing guitar

Afterwards we discussed how their learning was deeper and richer.  We talked about how some of the ways they expressed themselves were not expected.  One woman shook visibly when she read her poem and her personality usually is very self-assured.  The guy that sung was the last to volunteer and is always the quietest participant in the class.  And yet after he sang the applause was loud and someone asked if he would sing it again so they could record it.   He quietly began his song again.

And then I reminded them one day they would teach and they MUST look for ways to make the learning richer, deeper, more engaging.  And of course, when a student says, writes, draws, etc. something that is not part of their lived realities do not meet him or her with silence.

Appreciation of Spring

This year spring has arrived early it seems all over the United States.  To me, each spring leaves me amazed.  I am amazed because spring is a wonder to me.  I always pause and am amazed how spring appears.

My childhood was plagued with allergies.  The type of allergies that restricted my eating, my playing outside, my health.  During the spring I was indoor all the times.  During my kindergarten through second grade years, I rarely made it through a full day of school and many spring weekends my parents found themselves taking me to the hospital.  I know at the time it would have been rough on me but to be honest it is all a faded memory except when the leaves begin to appear on the trees.

When the buds come out on the trees and the leaves begin to grow and unfold, I stop and pause.  I am thrilled to see this happen.  It amazes me that not all trees bloom the same way and that so many have color first before the leaves come out.  During my childhood springs, I was too ill to see the unfolding in front of me.  Once everything had bloomed, I would feel better and be allowed to play outside once again.  I have told friends about how the blossoming of spring amazes me and I can tell it is hard for them to understand.

Do I feel sad because I missed this part of my childhood or do I feel special because it is one thing I still meet with childhood wonder?  I must admit I feel special because I am filled with awe at the splendor of a new season!   (And yes, the allergies still are a nuisance but are controllable)

A Gorgeous Day in More than One Way!

Today has been about family.  

My daughter called and asked if we wanted to meet her and the kids at the pond.  

How could we say no?  Even if our list of things to do seems to get longer and longer.  After all tomorrow is another work day.

And so what did we do?  

We fed the ducks and shooed the geese.  We crawled and walked around the green grass.  We smelled flowers.  We looked for frogs and found one hiding.  We saw millions of tadpoles.  We discovered a snake that we just quickly peered at.  We sat on rocks. We threw rocks. We dangled our feet. 

We ate peanut and jelly sandwiches. We drank water.  

We wandered and wandered and wandered.  We sat and hugged.  We sat and talked.

We savored the outdoors and each others' company.

We each went to our own homes --- richer, happier...and yes, with the list that will be waiting for another day.