When it's stuck ... just look around...

Yesterday, when we read Sir Francis Bacon’s piece with Sally, I tried to get one of my thoughts out and did such a poor job.  I just wanted to stop talking and throw out a blaahhh...  My thoughts made sense in my brain but they just weren't getting to my mouth.  

“If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases; so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.”  

This morning, I was mulling it over again I was I driving into “college” today.  I was still visualizing in my brain what I wanted to say; but just couldn't get the words together.   

 As I was waiting at a red light, I looked up at a billboard for Turkey Hill Iced Tea and it said “Everyone is #1 at something.”  I said out loud (although no one was in the car with me) “THAT’S what it is saying!”

Does that make any more sense than what I was saying?  Do they connect for anyone else? To be honest, it makes sense to me...so I’m happy!

Oh, I do revision in my class

Over the past few days, I've enjoyed the activities on revision.  It's made me think about, as a writer, how I do my revising.  I like to revise and tweak my writing and know it's part of my writing process. 

As we've been going through these activities, I can see the other teachers wrestling with how to get revision into their classroom, make is easier for their students, and in general just get their students to do it.  I didn't give much thought to revising in my classroom, because I thought "we don't do it."  We "just" celebrate the fact that they wrote something.  Then as I was reading Kendra's blog this morning, it hit me...I do help the kids with revising.  What was I thinking earlier?  How did I not see this?

After the child writes a phonetic story, he shares it with me.  This is when I help with the revision, but in my mind I call it a discussion.  I use it as a time to make conventional spelling corrections (if he is at the point of understanding that), I help add punctuation...some of those mechanical revisions.  But then, I also help with moving the story along.  I may ask open ended questions to have him write further, or add to the story myself if he is stuck.  (SIers don't look too closely yet at this story, as it's part of my demo tomorrow!)



All of these thoughts for today...and it's not even 8:00...help me!

Catching Connections

I'm considering changing the name of my blog to "Connections".  They really jump out everywhere during the Institute and even on my weekends! 

Connections made today (and just before lunchtime alone):

• Writing Into the Day..."We can revise our life. We can revise our teaching....Think about revision in the largest sense, of imagining things as if they could be otherwise, as Maxine Greene says."  (Katherine Bomer) ----> Walking into UNCC this morning, finished a conversation with my mom about my 25 year old cousin who needs to revise his life!

• Mary Ellen's Demo ...soooo many

-----> my writing process, the exact part of my writing history I focused on for my digital project.
-----> revision bit mirrored last week's sessions.
-----> creativity parts zoned in on my Institute piece, in a way, about sewing.
-----> creativity also made me think of making connections, making things better or different, adapting to make things fit...basically everything I am trying to do in the Institute.
-----> creativity is also what I'm thinking about for my inquiry.  Repurposing the object activity is one that I'll try with the kids in my class.
-----> repurposing the object activity made me think of the Improv of naming something that it's not.

• Steve's blib about revision...add.  -----> I had been wanting to add more to my Institute piece, the perfect time to do so.

• Cindy -----> I had been wondering if I'd see her, as she's the one who "got me into this!"

Sometimes I wonder how I see all of these connections and are there times that I miss some of them?  And is it okay if connections aren't there at times?

A Break....nah

On Wednesday as we were wrapping up for the day, I was glad for the 4 day break.  Not because I am not enjoying myself at Summer Institute; but rather, I needed time to process everything that's been going on.  Monday and Tuesday nights, I was up way past my "bedtime", thinking about all the things that had happened during the institute.  I was constantly making connections, even when I wasn't trying to. (Connections)

Obviously, I am not that type of person that can just take a break! 

As I was cruising Facebook this morning, I came across this post from a fellow Montessori friend... Papa Don't Text.  It stuck a cord with me, as I've been having a hard time figuring out how to get some of the digital ideas presented this week into my classroom.  There have been some neat digital tools that I've enjoyed playing around with.  But, I keep going back to the thought that I don't want to bring technology into my 3-6 year old classroom.  I want to expose them to real materials, real conversations.  This article was centered around parents talking to their children while out of on a walk instead of talking on the phone.  It didn't get into classroom practices.  This quote, however, jumped out at me: "How ironic is it, that, in this era when child-rearing is the focus of unprecedented imagination, invention, sophistication, and expense, something as simple and pleasurable as conversing with our children can be overlooked."

While reading the article above, it made me think back to the activity we did with Lacy.  We read various quotes and then jotted down a few of our thoughts about the quotes.  The one that stuck with me was about transmedia play.  I focused on the fact that kids that are exposed to so much electronic play lose certain key developmental skills. The may not have the opportunity to build with legos, scribble with markers, therefor, they lack fine motor skills or hand eye coordination.  I hadn't even made the connection earlier in the week about delaying language exposure and skills with too much electronic play. 

I guess I just see so many kids who are put in front of ipads, movie players, computers that I'm a little jaded to exposing them in the classroom.  I see parents take the easy road and rely on this technology to entertain and educate their children.   Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely against technology, I just appreciate the "old fashion" play and learning more. 

Now, I'm going to go and enjoy the last day and a half of my break...or maybe I'll find some other connection...

Connections

Yesterday, I read Steve's blog about making connections to things we've done before, things we'll do in the future, just things in general.  It resonated with me that I am constantly doing that.  Not just in education, learning, school but in my everyday life too.  My brain is just always in motion...thinking, connecting thoughts, ideas, actions, etc. (So much so that sometimes I can't sleep because my brain isn't ready to "turn off")

Case in point....this morning for our Writing Into the Day, we watched a video of Chimamanda Adichie.  Her talk was about looking beyond the "one story" of individuals, cultures, groups as a whole, writers, etc.  Afterwards, we were to write into the day about our thoughts.  I found myself thinking about my classroom and how we are always trying to add diversity into the classroom.  We use books using people from different cultures, disabilities, etc.  We provide pictures throughout the room, works about other cultures, and stories of other cultures to promote this diversity.  Yes, Chimamanda, we are doing what we can to help distill that "one story" per culture, that stereotyping.

But then my thoughts kept moving and  kept connecting...We, as teachers, can do this in our classroom to get rid of those negative cultural biases; but what about when the children hear otherwise from outside of the school.  How do we offset some of the stereotypes that parents feed to their children?  Now, I keep thinking, keep connecting....Hey, this is exactly what my group talked about yesterday during Lacy's presentation.  We were exploring other people's inquiry and ours to explore was "I'm interested in the literacy underlives of young children an their teachers: the literacies they bring to the classroom that are expressing informal in formal spaces."

Connections, connections, connections....

Circle and Art Projects

Day one of the Summer Institute brought back a few of those recurring questions about fitting in from the orientation as I drove onto the UNCC campus.  From my previous post though, I was really enjoying the book I got at orientation, thinking a lot about my inquiry and gathering more ideas for my demo.  I already had several ideas that I was ready to bring back into my classroom and also help implement into my school.  So, I was feeling good with only a tiny doubt as I began my morning.

We started off first with the directions of walking down the hallway to the common area for our first activity.  How strange it was to walk down the hallway with a group of people and to NOT remind them to keep their hands to theirselves, use walking feet.  Ah..this is nice.  We gather for a circle, yes, a circle for this activity.  Again, everyone gathers easily with no prompting from me to move away from friends, stop talking, allow space for other friends.  We do an improv piece where everyone follows directions, waits for turns, listens quietly to others.  Next, we play a game with movements.  Now, I'm really thinking, hey, I can do this, I feel right at home here...but it's easier even. 

The first "real" session involves us thinking about our writing timeline and how we've evolve as writers.  Hmm...now we're into a bit heavier things and activities...but wait.  Steve tells us about the tools that we will use to produce the timeline: glue, construction paper, scissors, magazines pictures, markers. 

 Is this really happening?  I feel totally at home surrounded by all of these supplies.  But this time instead of watching and helping the kids with their work, I'm the one creating it! 

And to boot, I really like the people I'm interacting with.  They have great stories to share, interesting ideas to mull over, they are curious about what I have to say...and they don't wipe their boogers on me!  I feel right at home.

Discovering myself in my inquiry

Back in May at our orientation for the Summer Institute, we each came up with our inquiry...what we wanted to learn more about this summer.  I decided I wanted to learn more about helping kids be more creative with their writing.  Lil quickly pulled a book for me out of their resource library to get me started on the research: About The Authors by Katie Wood Ray. 

I'll admit that I skimmed through the book on the first weekend, then set it to the side.  By mid June though, I was ready to dig into it a little deeper.  I had planned on reading just the chapters that I felt would benefit me; but not reading the whole thing.  After having been in the classroom for almost 18 years, I consider myself as having a pretty big vault of activities; but am always looking for new ideas.  Sometimes those new ideas are hard to find though. So, I thought just flipping through this book would give me one or two new things to try in the classroom.

I underestimated this book and myself.  What I discovered about this book is that I'm on chapter 5 and have read every word so far.  I only wish that I owned this book so that I could highlight the parts that I like...and their are many.  My daybook is full of pages with quotes, ideas, questions, suggestions, not only for myself and my classroom; but for my fellow Summer Instituters.  What I'm finding out about myself is that I can take a simple section on a classroom practice and use my creativity to adapt it to my classroom but also expand it for our school as a whole or to incoming parents or current parents.  I find ways to be creative in what I read, learn and write. 

Maybe the reason helping kids be more creative in their writing and thinking jumped out at me for my inquiry is because it's something that I enjoy doing also.