Our taste of summer is leaving us. For the better part of a week we have had 60-80 degree weather. The sun has been warm and the blue skies have been bright.
The grass is greening, shrubs are leaving, and flowers are in bloom. It looks like late April instead of late March.
Tomorrow a cool down will bring everyone back to reality. Temps will return to 40-50. Rain will move in. The sun and blue sky will disappear behind a thick layer of gray clouds.
Some people will lament, "Our wonderful weather is gone!" I will tuck the week away in my memory bank to savor for another day.

A Free Ticket To...

A second cup of coffee, a walk to the water, a sit in my swing, my ears were treated to...

chickadees calling, "dee, dee, dee" to their mates,

gaggles of geese honking as they gather in the bay to rest from their long flight home,

cardinals singing their familiar songs as they flit from tree to tree

pileated, downy, and hairy woodpeckers hammering into the tall pines,

run off water washing over moss covered rocks and dancing to the river...

Nature's Symphony!

My Young Writers

My young writers are six and seven years old. They amaze me every day. We begin our writing workshop with a story. We pause to talk about what the author did to make us want to turn the pages. I tell them, you can write like this too if you enjoy this author's style. You can use any author style, craft, technique or you can develp your own.
The writers are then sent off into our classroom to find a favorite place to work. Some are at tables, easels, on the floor, in our classroom library. They all reread their piece and then decide what is next. Some continue to write, some ask a friend for a conference, some conference with me, some grab editing pens to clean up a piece, and some think.
I don't have one child who says "I can't"...ever. I hear other teachers say their first graders can't come up with ideas. That is never the case in my room but...here is how we handle idea collections:

Students are encouraged...

to keep a list of topics they know a lot about in their folders
to go to the library to read for a bit to get ideas from other authors
to talk to a friend about ideas
to brainstorm with me
to look out the window for inspiration
to use their morning journal entry for further development
to return to a previous unfinished text that was put away for another day 
to rewrite a story using that story structure for support
to try poetry, non-fiction, fiction

I think there are many ways to teach children how to become writers. The key is to give them as many options as possible.The more empowered they become the less likely we are to hear..."I can't". In our classroom, my students know what they can do to help themselves.

Digging Deep

I joined a technology book club last month. The book I am reading is, The Shallows (What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains) by Nicholas Carr. If you have not read this book and have interest in brain research, history, and how technology is changing our society, then I highly recommend the book.

It is interesting and perhaps a bit scary to realize we, as a society, are rewiring our brains. Carr talks extensively about how this fast-paced information overload keeps us moving at high speeds skimming the surface of a lot of information. He opens the readers eyes to lack of depth in our search for information. He says we have less ability to stay focused on one topic and find ourselves going off on side trips.

Perhaps this is why, as an “old teacher” I am appalled at the surface teaching I have been witnessing. I have been having a difficult time understanding why so many people are teaching to the test. I thought it was out of fear but perhaps it is because they don’t know how to dig deep with their kids and get great results. I did not grow up in an information highway. I was well into my career by the time the Internet hit our schools.

Don’t get me wrong. I love all the techie tools. I use them at home and in my classroom. My classroom has four computers, five ipads, an lcd projector, and a document camera. I use my iphone for all sorts of things such as taking photos, recording kid’s reading, and previewing apps.

I try to never limit my teaching to test results, curriculum, “I Can” statements, or the baseline of what is expected. The sky is the limit. We start with what is expected and open our minds to even more. I don’t want kids memorizing, I want them to understand and then take that concept they understand and apply it across the curriculum and throughout their life. The unit of study never ends…there is no finale.

Date Night

On Saturday night my husband and I went to our local independent theatre to see The Iron Lady. I love this little theatre with its old seats, couches, and easy chairs. It is so small the ticket seller is also popping corn, pouring coffee, selling candy bars, and soda…a one-man operation.

This theatre is for adults not children. The movie selections are foreign films, independent films, and award winning films. Only one movie plays at a time because there is only one theatre.

Half way through the film, there was no doubt in my mind, why Meryl Streep won the Best Actress award. She was phenomenal. There were times I had to remind myself the real Margaret Thatcher was not on the screen.
It was a lovely date night with my hubby ...cozy theatre good film, and great acting.

What a Saturday!

There we were, with old shoes on, slogging through the puddles and mud. We pulled and pushed the carts to the driest terrain we could find. We groaned as we strained to find muscles we put away last fall. We shaded our eyes as we looked to the sky for that familiar little white sphere. We laughed with John who asked if he could join us. We breathed in the fresh air and marveled at the warmth of the sunshine on our faces. Thwack, thud, plop, thunk, swoosh, clunk, clunk, clunk were the sounds we injected into nature’s beautiful pre-spring day. Oh…twas only March 17^th…St. Paddy’s Day and there we were playing our first round of golf!

Changes

Change comes upon me
Like the wind off the water
It sweeps to my left...right...
Enveloping my body
"Time to go..."
It whispers.

I try to ignore it
I turn, look the other way
I am comfortable
I know what to expect
"Time to go..." 
It encourages.

I stroll away
Attempting to leave behind
The louder voice
It will be too much work
Change is daunting at first
"Time to go..." 
It demands.

The voice is hounding me
It follows me everywhere
It makes me uneasy
And yet it excites me
"Time to go..." 
I whisper.