Spring Haiku

After reading yesterday's slices from all the folks that were having a snow day, I began to think about how lucky I am to live where the flowers and birds are out already and the days are not too chilly any more. I would also like to thank Christy Rush-Levine for the inspiration she gave with her haiku featuring her sweet puppies playing in the snow yesterday. These thoughts inspired the two haiku that follow.

Buttercups

Lemony yellows
Slightly nodding in the breeze
Bowing to their friends

Source:  http://chesterfieldpagans.org/2010/03/25/cumbria-in-the-spring/

Robin

Genial sign of spring
Symbol of new life to come
Usher in the warmth








Source:  http://blog.duncraft.com/2010/06/09/the-american-robin/

Snowflake the Writer

With the 1:1 laptop initiative our school system started last year, our middle school has been working to incorporate the new technology into our classrooms in meaningful ways.  I started using Google Docs last year as a place for my students to write about their reading and for me to comment on and ask questions about what they were reading.  It has been a wonderful experience for the kids and for me and serves as a great launching pad for conferring.

The teachers at my school have adopted taking a "baby step" approach to using our laptops.   The students and I are comfortable with using Google Docs now so it was time to move forward digitally.  We chose to explore the world of writing through blogging!

Since my students have had no experience with blogging and we live in such a small rural part of our county, I knew their parents might be hesitant to allow their children to blog publicly.  To ease my students and parents into the blogging world, I choose to go with Kidblog because we can blog privately between my classes first to get use to the format and then open our blogs to the public as parents and students become more comfortable.  We are learning about what makes good posts and what constructive feedback looks like.  We are learning about how important language is. We are trying to make sure our conventions make our writing clear and meaningful to our readers.

At a time of year where the weeks seem to creep by, starting our blog writing has come to the rescue.  Students have written with more excitement than I have seen in a long time.  Sharing their words with an authentic audience has made such a difference in motivation and in the care they put into their work.  The writers in my classroom have started to awaken again!

Today, I talked to this student.  I talked to her about how proud I was of her and her growth as a writer.  Two months ago, she didn't worry about the impact of her writing or the "flow" of her words.  I listened to her talk about the meaning she wanted her readers to get from her poem.  We talked about how as writers we are always looking for ways to make our writing better and how to use word choice and punctuation purposefully.  We looked at the comments that other students have made in response and celebrated her success.

The significance of audience has helped her see herself as a writer--the writer that I knew was there waiting to spread her wings and fly!

Mother's Two

Two eagles
the elder,
Fearless,
Confident, ready to fly from the start

The other,
more  h  e  s  i  t  a  n  t
developing slowly,
fretting,
struggling to fly

the younger,
once committed
built bridges for others
helping them cross the path

Two eagles together
courageous,
accomplished.
Mother's Joy
Each in his own way

Fun with Odes

We have not finished our school year yet.  I know that many of you have completed another year and I am a little jealous.  My students' last day is June 8 with teachers working until June 12.  This is the time of year that testing is almost over (we have re-tests the rest of this week), but I want to make their last days a meaningful learning experience.  Writing always comes to the rescue!

We have been studying odes in poetry.  We have looked at several and discussed what we notice about how the author puts the poems together.  Students have done a bit of brainstorming in their notebooks and we are now at the drafting phase for most but with some ready to begin revision.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from the Slice of Life Challenge in March is that I must write with my students.  They must see me as I struggle through my own writing process.  I have written an ode which is on draft number 5!   They thought it was "good enough" back on draft number 3.  I wasn't satisfied with it.  Over the course of drafting, they have seen my poem evolve into this :

Ode to a Book

A rectangle that seems ordinary

Opens onto a new adventure, 

a new place, a new friend,

a new enemy

A book

Endless letters,

those sticks and circles and zigzags

Help me capture ideas

Escape my troubles

A book

When I slow down

get comfy with my fuzzy red blanket

and peek between the covers

the World opens its arms

makes me Feel

Calms me, Angers me, Humanizes me

Offers me laughter

and healing tears

I am not alone

A book

I'm still working on it.  There are a few more changes that I am playing around with as I continue to draft.  We will complete these by Friday and then celebrate!

I have learned so much from participating in this community!  Thank you.