Endings-Chalking

           I think it was last year when Betsy Hubbard began her end-of-the-month CHALK-A-BRATIONS on her blog, Teaching Young Writers.  It's been lots of fun seeing what and how people chalk.  Since I moved, I've been 'chalking' on my IPad with an app titled ChalkDraw.   Don't forget to go to Betsy's blog to see all the other links to Chalk-a-bration!  

       

One Moment

               

             Tara Smith at A Teaching Life is our host for Poetry Friday.  Come visit all the links today! Thanks Tara!  Tweet at #PoetryFriday.  Have a nice holiday weekend everyone!

              David L. Harrison hosts several ideas for writing poetry on his website, including the Word of the Month. This month the W.O.M is 'train'.  When I sat to write, I thought I would write about my husband's father who was a Union Pacific engineer and told many stories about his travels.  However, the pencil traveled to a different story/memory.  Then, for last week's Poetry Friday, Jeannine Atkins wrote a beautifully inspiring post she termed "deepening", about revising one's poems.  It helped me do a little more with the poem.  If you missed Jeannine's post, return to read!  I'm not sure it's finished yet, but it is a poem I enjoyed writing, will enjoy sharing it.

About Students - Different Looks

Ruth and Stacey host this Tuesday Slice of Life on their blog, Two Writing Teachers, creating a wonderful writing community.  Hope you can join us, or at least come visit to read.  

       At my school, the core teachers have conferences with parents and students before school begins.  Before that, they’ve written letters to both, and received replies.  Both these things help teachers begin to understand their students, or to re-connect with those they’ve already had the previous year, well ahead of the first day of school.  I did this for years and by the end of Monday (students come Wednesday) my mind was swirling with information.  After all that, there is one more day and then WEDNESDAY.

       Although I already knew so much about my students, after Wednesday, there would be more added, important details filed away for contemplation, at least those that will help me plan for activities, certain social conversations, kinds of challenges, etc.  I realize that first impressions are not always correct, but teachers intuit certain things about their students, they are able to build upon that in order to enhance or to divert from it.

Good Reading-From Your Recommendations!

Thanks to Lee Ann Spillane at Portable Teacher for this nifty Monday Reading badge!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS.  And shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS that offers more reviews of all kinds of books, adult and children. 

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

Thanks to Ricki, Kellee, Jen and Sheila for hosting so we can find great books to read! And to everyone who joins in for the terrific recommendations!

My Name Is Parvana – written by Deborah Ellis

         This is book four in the Breadwinner series, just out last year. It mostly finishes the story of Parvana, yet there will be a part of me that wishes for more about this courageous young woman whose life has been filled with danger almost always.  Ellis used flashbacks to keep any new readers informed of the past events of Parvana’s life, although I wonder if it was helpful?  When Ellis referred to some happening or other, I kept thinking there were so many other details to the event.  The book captures the months of the school started by Parvana’s mother after their reunion. We read about this controversial school for girls along with the flashbacks and then parallel with Parvana in a jail cell being interrogated. The story is filled with one tense moment after another.  And the surprise is that this time the “jailers” are American.  The “bad guys” through all the books have changed identities, yet to have them become my own fellow countrymen is shocking.  Deborah Ellis has written still one more part of an intriguing story, one that students can discuss in comparison to their own lives, hopes and dreams.  I imagine quite a lot of “what if” questions during discussions of this book. 

New Year-New Reading

            Poetry Friday is hosted today by Betsy at her wonderful new poetry site, I Think In Poems.  Thanks to Betsy, we'll be sharing our thoughts today, one of the last days before our students arrive.  

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Frank Douwes on Wikimedia Commons

            Back in April for Poetry Month, Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading began sharing photos from Wikimedia Commons, offering some lessons in respecting artists' property rights and property infringement, along with writing poems each day in response to the photo or other media.  I was hooked by the photos and sounds she shared, and with Mary Lee as a terrific mentor, I found I could write "something" most of the time and share in the comments.  There are a few poems I kept, but the images seem to have faded away, except for this one.  

             Here at the beginning of school as we talk about our reading goals and plans for students, and I observe the boxes of new books in the library, and many more in classrooms, I remember this photo, wondering how many children around the world wait for a book, and consider that a book, any book, is a treasure.  I think I will share this with students, and we will wonder together about this child in Tanzania reading a book! A former student has started a school in Kenya for girls, and has told me that many of the youngest students' "work" was combing the trash dumps for anything to sell at market. Perhaps we will explore ways to help others obtain books to love?

Here is what I wrote in April:

Gold-digging

It’s market day.

I needed to find

a treasure to sell,

a piece of metal,

a toy to mend.

Instead I found

my own kind of gold,

and sat down

right then

to look.

                                                                   Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved