If we are learning about nature, why can't we go outside?

My seven year old is wise as a seventy year old sage. I asked her how school was going. She jumped back, "The teacher is teaching us about nature, and we haven't even gone outside." I didn't have a  response.  My daughters attend a school in which the students attain high standardized scores yet the day to day learning is rote and dull. I am bored by the work they bring home. Would anyone want to do the same form of vocabulary work week after week?  As a teacher I know why it is assigned, it is easy to grade. One of my peers had the same concern about his child's school which is otherwise held in high esteem by the community. He found his son had a pre-test on famous Americans and the actual test was identical. The questions asked the students to feed back from memory.  Why can't children relate, explore and evaluate?  My daughter can spit back who is Susan B Anthony, but why not consider if Ms. Anthony would be a hero today?  What qualities do MLK Jr and your teacher have in common?  Would you be friends with Ruby Bridges today?

In considering ELLs, if we are teaching about writing, why aren't they writing?  When was the last time you read an article and thought, 'Well that had great organization.  What strong topic sentences."  While these are effective writing tools of a few genres, they are not why the reader keeps reading.

I don't want my daughter to say who was famous. I want her to understand the context and relevance of events as they relate to her life. I want my ELL's to write to communicate their opinions, ideas and perspectives. 

Craft lesson in a launching strategy

Techno Bling but no Know How

Well another class when the middle aged mom got to share what a podcast is to teens/young adults.  I just think its funny and desperate at the same time. (Well I need a sense of humor.)  A third of my students raised their hands when I asked if they had an  ipod. Then a quarter indicated they had an mp3 player.  Then some students mocked those with mp3 players as being "cheap", even though they didn't own either device. . That was an interesting perception about technology that is ripe for researching.  Some told me they just get pirated music off the web. So many have the techno bling but not the know how.  Well anyhow, the reason I was asking about podcasts, was that my students indicated they wanted more listening exercises in our ESOL class.  It is a new semester, and I asked them to brainstorm activities that would support their writing goals.  This was a great lead in for podcasts.  I was able to show them the podcasts a few students made last year in Blackboard that linked to itunes (finally a cool tool in Blackboard.)  In past years, my classes made a CD anthology of radio stories, but now we are transitioning to podcasts. Although since more students have CD players in their cars, I think we need to do both this spring.  Learning how to write in a second language via new applications is really double the work for the students and me.  I don't see how I can justify doing one without the other.  Access to technology is an issue of equity for my ELLs.  Here is podcast from one my students.
Student Podcast

Mees, I have a computer but no internet

After missing school for 8 days and 2 weekends, my ELLs have largely been unplugged.  Yes they worked in the restaurants within walking distance to upscale developments. Yes, they earned money for shoveling driveways (one earn $600!).  Yes, they watch a lot of televion and some video games.  They were connected by cell phones and texting.  Some of my students told me that they couldn't pay the internet bill so it was cut off.  Another student has a new laptop but needs tech support at home to get the internet working. Our tech guy at school has been helping him.

Out of 38 students, only 1 responded to our class blog over the time out school and she is new to the class.  That tells me something.  My 17-24 year old ELLs don't know what a blog, podcast or wiki are!!! I am their gateway to technology.  That is frightening. My writing class is more infused with technology so they aren't lagging behind their peers.  The digital divide is a cultural divide of the haves and have nots.  While a cell phone and ipod are accesories that everyone sees on you as techno bling, they don't see your writing and cognitive skills.  My ELLs have some techno bling but  they need a middle aged white mother to learn how to own it.

Ten blogs

Now I am wondering if its really knowing that someone is will read your writing that motivates the writer to begin drafting but then workshop is the means for shaping it.  I mean going public with writing is a motivator, a reason to write because it's communication. My kids were home for the 7th snow day in  row from school (not including 2 weekends in there too.)  I reminded Ten about the blog we created in the summer. I told her she should do some writing for it. "Oh yeah, I forgot about it. Yeah, I want to do that. What will I write....?"  Then she walked away talking herself through brainstorming a topic.  She moved from poetry to reflection.  Then what does she do, but pull out the anthology from the Maine Writers' Camp of 2008!  I wrote about the camp yesterday. Ten identities her writing life as that one week in a little cottage on the ocean with her writing "teacher".  She read aloud her reader's autobiography to me from the anthology. I responded that she had really changed in the last two years as a reader (moving from Junie B Jones to the Chronicles of Narnia, although Junie still lingers in her bathroom reading basket.)  She pondered, "Hmm, I think I have some work to do here. Can I use your laptop?"  The girl drafted and revised all at the same time with the old version in front of her and reading her words aloud for sound and sense.  Seven asked her, "Are you a writer?".  Ten answered, "Yes, I'm writing. Now be quiet."  That was enough for Seven to put her nose back into Rules by Cynthia Lord.  About 40 minutes later Ten had her blog post updated and her profile as well.  Then she asked where the other blogs were and was disappointed to find out my students hadn't done anything yet because of the blizzards.  Now she is waiting to read and get feedback for my high school ELLs. This will be interesting.

why aren't my daughters workshopping?

After 6 days without school and another one on the way, my 10 year old (call her Ten) and 7 year old (call her Seven for now) have practiced piano for 30 minutes, read at least 30 minutes, and completed a math activity.  Yet here I am, a self professed writing teacher, and my little girls decided to take writing into their own gripped little fists (My ELL class would really help any writer so I don't know what makes my class just for ELLs.)  Here it was Valentine's morning, and I received a hand crafted love poem, not from my husband of 11 years, but from Ten.  She loves to write poetry.  How did we discover this 2 years ago?  Not from her classroom experience, there isn't a workshop teacher in that school.  No it was at the Maine Writing Project's Summer Writers' Camp in Bar Harbor.  God bless that teacher who showed my daughter how writing can be fun. Until then it was just something, "Mommy does at school with her students."  Since that writers' camp Ten asks, "Why don't my teachers do writer's workshop?"  I ask myself, why don't I "do" writers' workshop with her?-Ugh-more guilt.  Do we really "do writing?"  That sounds so task driven. Exactly the reason I put it off.  (Update-I did read and respond to my students' portfolios today. What a joy!...still don't know why I put it off. I love reading my students, "going meta"!)  My daughter needs to workshop her writing like my students do. That means she needs a sense of audience and purpose with peer feedback.  She has also asked about updating a blog from last August-oops forgot about that one.  Will a blog give her a workshop experience?  I have opened an account on 21Classes for my 2 ELL alternative HS students. If nothing else, she will get an education in the lifestyles of the disenfranchised young immigrants.  Seven has to wait. She is too much of a critic to be kind to my ELLs.

too much of a good thing

I think one can have too much dark chocolate and heart cookies in the name of love. I have eaten 2 of everything for the sake of balance ( on my hips).  Maybe having a week off of school has been too much of a good thing also.  I have realized that I work under pressure rather than eeking out parts each day.   Have I read the 7 portfolios that my students worked so hard on and I promised a letter in response/feedback? Ugh-guilt-no.  So does that make me flexible and understanding when the students still in my class miss deadlines. Although I can't say I have set- in-stone-deadlines.  Life happens.  Can they still turn in an article a day late?  Sure because in every single case it is better than what they would have whipped up quickly.  So it saves me from reading dribble.  I work under deadlines and so do my classroom-mother-waiters-driver- writers. Maybe we are thinking, tell me when it counts, when it matters, and when I really have to take it seriously.  Too many deadlines or rich fudgey treats in the name of doing what's right for is really a dull man's trickery.

night air

We have been out of school over a week. The snow is inspiring. I miss Maine. Have you smelled snow at 10 pm? That is now my cherished smell. It is the smell of laying in a field, a yard or the middle of the street and feeling the rest of my life is as wide as that bright black sky, as brilliant as the belt of Orion and as serpentine as the asphalt my head rests upon. I shared my secret with my 10 year. Yes she stretched out in the middle of a suburban lane with me and pointed out Orion's belt. Our senses opened to cars on the adjacent street, to the snow embracing underneath us and the smell that cleansed our souls. That's it. The smell of snow cleanses my soul, I don't know about you or anyone else but for a girl from the North, it has filled a place I didn't now needed filling. Is that why I have been ice skating for the last year and pulling my daughter into it? The smell of clean ice wipes my slate clean, the tragedies of the day dissipate with each blade slicing my ice. It is my ice just as the snow on my lane is mine. My home comes to me with low temperatures and precipitation. What is home to my Central American students? What smells and sensations revive their souls so they can challenge another day in vinyl sided cells?