Table Rock

I love that George Singleton didn't feel angry when everyone quit staring at him to watch a deer walk by. I looked at him, wondering if he would feel miffed to be upstaged. He didn't. He wanted to see too. I think that personifies the essensce of a purposeful writer: one who wants to experience the world and share it with others. I could tell, listening to George, that he lives his whole life like a writer. He steals from every day events and puts them on paper. He is thinking about all of it at once, it seems. After listening to him speak, I began to think of every experience waiting in line as a potential moment for inspiration.

I will miss coming to class. I do miss it. I wonder if I will find the time when school begins again to really write or even to be the kind of writing teacher I want to be. I'm so thankful for the summers to regain my idealistic thoughts, motivation, and ideas, so each year gets better and better.

Table Rock was a lovely way to end this class, as we saw the power of writing...the power of an adjective to make someone feel special... the power of writing down thouts as a way to understand them...the power of sharing stories to create empathy, trust, and community.

Planning,Planning,Planning

I am so excited about learning to pod cast, maybe the Tanglewood Website won't be the crappies one in the county next year. How cool.

Tonight I have plans to read George Singletton and write a little. Today I felt so inspired. It's nice to end inspired and not exhausted. Today I thought Kevin and Kim's presentations were such great endings to the class. I can invision how all these lessons can enhanve my units. I am going to begin with the unit: What ingredients make you who you are? I'm going to use the picture memoir lesson, children's book study, and the maping your favorite place all together to write memoirs/personal essays to start the year. Then, I'm going to use the Kevin idea/raft/read a book in an hour/ share allowd from that Beers book for writing a more in depth essay in the inquiry unit: What makes a survivor.

I'm so thankful for all the stuff I've learned! Next week, I'm going to sit by the pool and plan.

After the Institute

Whew. This was a busy day. I was so interested today to see how inspired classmates are about writing, particulalry ones that were hesitant just three weeks ago. In the midst of all this business, the supportive community built is carrying everyone along. I want my classroom to be that way. It makes so much learning possible.


Continuing to be involved in the writing project...
I don't know what I want to do exactly, but I would be happy for Sarah to do some of her research on my class.
I think there needs to be a UWP Wiki where people can upload their teaching ideas so we can have easy access. I could set that up.
I could help with media or the website.
I think I would like helping with YWC
I would like to study ways to use discussion with writing on my classes and present that.
I also want to start getting my masters.

Making a dent

After coming to Summer Institute, I feel like I have tons of ideas to take back to my classroom, but more importantly, I begin to see connections with all of the best practice in writing and I can evaluate my current lessons to make them better. I like the emphasis on teaching intentionally (not just standards based). I feel more confident. I will look for lessons that are worth being demonstrations, and I will aim for that quality of teaching. I will look for the common threads of: giving experience, inspiring writing, focusing on genre conventions, and writing with purpose. I will judge my students writing differently: as now I have been in their shoes.

As a writer, I have learned that I need time to write and revise if I want to seriously publish. It seems more like a will power than a talent issue. That is empowering. I have plans to publish in SCCTE and Skirt. I’d like to publish about my pen pal program in the SCIRA journal. I will make small goals and work towards them. I will make writing a priority (I hope) and let my school lessons grow from that.

I feel more confident about submitting proposals to present now that I have seen such an effective format demonstrated over and over. I also have learned about so many new avenues to see out opportunities to publish, etc. I hope to be more of a leader in the areas that really matter to me.

Today has been a blur of technology. I'm excited about what I learned about the Master's program and all the opportunities we will have in the fall. I am trying to figure out how much I can do and not be overwhelmed. I think this kind of learning is addictive. It is so motivating to continue to get new ideas. It gives me hope and confidence as a teacher, and makes me feel like maybe the challenges we face in the classroom are surmountable, or at least that we can make a dent.

Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart...

I am itching to write today. I have fun plans tonight. I'm going to A bar-b-que, and I would rather stay home and type. That seems both inspired and pathetic. I've been reading Cohlo's book "Eleven Minutes" a rather scandalous read about love and feminine sexuality, and I was inspired to write about my own (quite different) experiences with romance. I need a title: I keep coming up with cheesy 80's songs: Your love is like a roller coaster baby baby etc. It needs work.

Today I published some stuff and kept revising. That is such a tedious part of the writing process. I wish I was smart enough just to write something good the first time. But I'm glad people are willing to help me make stuff better.

I saw again the power of writing and sharing today as my writing group shared work and stories. We find, as we go deeper, beyond our surface level differences, that underneath it all we are much the same. And where it really counts, we can understand one another.

Young writer's camp was fun today. Sarah and I were talking to the 3 girls in our group, enjoying their writing. As we left, I said, "Wow, that is different." And Sarah replied, "It seems just the same." These little girls struck me as much like I remember being in middle school. They lit up when I asked about their brothers and sisters, their favorite field trips, and their summer plans. The students I teach are just as sweet, interesting, and fun. They just would have written completely differnt types of writing. They would talk about life in a very different way. I'm not explaining the differences well, I know, because I'm not sure of them. But I want to think on that. I think the difference is that upon meeting my students for the first time, they have very little to say. They don't have summer plans, their brother and sister situation is usually too confusing to tell a stranger. They would talk about TV. I need to find ways to expose my students to more ideas and experiences that make them light up like the kids at camp.

The Lights are Brighter There...

Today we went downtown. We sat in the park. We went to the Art museum, coffe underground, walked on main street. Inspiration is everywhere. I'm working on an article about how a city refelcts the personality/or affects the personalities of the people in it. How has Greenville made me who I am, I wondered as we listened to the lawnmower hum across the too perfect looking park this morning.

The most valuable part of the day: spending time with my writing group.

String around my finger

I love Socratic seminar. One of my goals for my classroom is to have professional conversation amongst my students every day and formal discussion once a week. I think this is a key part of inquiry and so much fun! I like the sticky notes idea. There are common themes in each demo, reading, and strategy we learn: activate the arts, respect the writing process, activate the varying learning styles, give kids experiences to write about, and form motivation by scaffolding and imagining to create authenticity. It does begin to feel like everything echoes everything else. While at moments that makes everything seem recycled, it is refreshing that these common themes support one another. It makes best practice seem less overwhelming. So I don't forget, here are some of the ideas for my classroom I'm going to use next year, that I might forget... - Make a cheat sheet of activation strategies, idea/prewriting strategies to pull from throughout the year -Discuss with socratic circles, town meetings, discussion in character..scaffold with jazz the text, found nonfiction poems, highlighting, and journaling, also with Wilhelm like activities
-Create experiences
-Create a book wiki, a class document blog, and link to my website


So I don't forget, here are some of the ideas for my classroom I'm going to use next year, that I might forget...
- Make a cheat sheet of activation strategies, idea/prewriting strategies to pull from throughout the year
-Make