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?

Advice to Chit Chatters

One evening I was lamenting on the chit chat in my class, the kind that goes well beyond brainstorming and setting a mindset for writing. Well this 3rd grader is recalling a time, way back in Kindergarten, when she was one of those chit chatters. Her problem wasn't finishing her work but rather she distracted her tablemates. You know the kind. Maybe we do learn evertyhthing we need to in kindergarten. Since almost none of my students went to kindergarten, they are catching up for lost time. Oh the memories!

Electric Feedback

Blackboard isn't so sleek and stylish as many options for electronic communication via the internet. I am always looking for new options that will engage my HS ELLs. I think I found one. They were writing about place and identify in the class' discussion board. Usually I ask the students to respond to the ideas so they have a conversation over a period of time. That way irregular attendance won't hold up the conversation. They can pick it back up when they return that week. This way of using the DB has been about the topic rather than the writing. That changed when I gave them an electronic writing conference guide. I had 2 classes using the BB site so this was a great chance for them to see each other's writing. Here is what they used as a guide:
Tell them your overall impression* of the piece.
What is the best part?
What did they show you?
NOT -My grandfather was nice.
Yes - My grandfather took me to the ice cream shop and bought me a chocolate cone every Saturday. Then he took me to the park to play baseball.
*syn. feeling, idea, sense
This morning, when a student in read the feedback from the other class, she was buzzing. "Wow, R wants to try the meatballs." She read the comments on show not tell writing and began revising her story. I was thrilled to see she was excited to get feedback from other students. Maybe the students get bored of the sames responders and this is a change of pace. Maybe electronic writing conferences can cross classrooms and build writing communities.

Slide away the winter chill