Aha...now that we have those lovely journals let's begin the process of getting them filled up. Remember, this is a place to play, experiment and have fun with words. It can also be a place where you store ideas that might inform your teaching, things you notice, things you are wondering about.
Find a line from your notebook, post it and then write to it. Here is my attempt at doing this!
"Your choices will change the world."
These were the words that came to me on my tea tag one day. As I sat sipping, reading the book, The Alchemist, I realized how connected these words were to the ones I was reading. And so I wrote them in my Writer's Notebook. I love this idea. I love that the idea that choice, something I believe in so strongly, has the power to "change the world" and yet I see this in action all of the time, especially when it comes to the teaching of writing. I was working with a teacher and she was so excited one day because her students, when given the choice, had discovered these incredible writing voices from within. These particular kids, see her for remedial (if you will) help and her days are filled with helping them identify words and well...you know the drill. But, one day she was just so tired of teaching this way that she chose to do something completely different with them. She found a picture of the desert, put it up on the chart and asked her kids to describe it. She listed everything they said on the chart next to the picture. Next, she noticed that all of their descriptions were visual, so she asked them to imagine what this place would sound like, feel like and even taste like. The list grew. After this group brainstorming she asked them to write about the picture. What came out of one of the boys was truly profound. I will get a copy of it and share it with you at our next class.
This teacher was so excited. The energy in her voice was infectious. And so, there it was, with one small choice that teacher made on that given day she did change the world. The world as she knew it, as her students knew it and as the energy around her knew it. She was energized by her choice and all that came with it! She reconnected to the reason she went into teaching and in the process, she helped four students begin to find their authentic writing voices. Now THAT is powerful!!
You see...I had no idea where I was going when I sat down to write this. In fact, I am very surprised that this is where I ended up! As Don Murray would say, writing is about the surprises you find along the way!! What surprises will you find today? Don't judge yourself, just let whatever happens happen! And then you can copy your entry into a word document, print it out and even add this to your writer's notebook. The possibilities are endless!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Twas the day before vacation, when all through the school, elementary teachers were trying to keep their cool.
The children were all excited as they each filed in, they couldn’t wait to see if teacher or student would win.
Please take your seats children as we must begin our day, oh wait, is that Ms. Ray bringing yet another junk food tray?
Ms. Ray it’s time that we are clear, you must take that tray far, far away from here.
The noise got louder; it was coming from down the hall. Ms. Thompson’s class was having a ball.
To be continued….
Please add your favorite part or story of the day before vacation and see what we can come up with. You all inspire me! Have a wonderful vacation and await my arrival back at GBS with a nice tan! Ronnie I do expect to hear about some dust!!!
"We always inspect the flowers before the dirt underneath."
(Ps. How on earth do you make it bold? I tried everything!)
This is one of those quotes I heard on the radio just the other day. It inspired the birth of my writer's notebook....or at least the use of my writer's notebook. I was driving home from school and listening to a book commentary on NPR (yes....I listen to NPR). I was really enjoying the author's craft as she surprised me with the humor and unusual wording. I was amazed to find that the book she was heralding was The Secret Garden. Long story short, she enjoyed the levels of mystique and bitterness and the disjointed family communication held true in this story. She concluded (very poetically) that we often approach books just like life itself...seeing the good before the hidden secrets are revealed.
So, I am inspired by this maestro of words and pull over into Griffin Park's parking lot. Leaving the engine running, I jump out to scrounge through my school bag. After much digging, I pull out my notebook and cram myself back into the front seat. Using the steering wheel as my desk, I hastily scribble to try and catch the critic's clever phrases. It's almost like the words are liquid gold, slipping through my fingers. I am awed at the power of suggestion she holds by putting certain words together.
For whatever reason, I thought I could be later inspired if I captured her words in my notebook. After furiously scribbling for several minutes, I felt safe enough to venture on home. Those words will peculate in my mind (nothing amazing in there yet) for a while. Someday I'll write to them again. Not the story of their origin in my notebook, but how they inspired new word combinations authored by me.
This week has been some painful. Not the sharp, intense pain. But rather the dull, nagging pain. I was committed to attacking my packrat habits. Although I realize that having all this stuff around me continues to add clutter to my life, it is still hard to part with. I mean 19 sweatshirts. Really? How did I get 19 sweatshirts? Do I really need 19 sweatshirts? Which ones can I part with. Some hold special memories of places once visited, some are worn looking but terrible comforting. Eeny, meeny miny, mo!
My collecting habits remind of me of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” You see, my special objects have virtues I have yet to discover. That’s why it is so hard to part with my treasures. That one red rose patterned plate from Staffordshire, England is waiting to do something incredibly awesome. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet. I have over two hundred books spilling out of my bookshelves. All of which are waiting for their turn to occupy a space on the table near my bed. I put them in, on, or around the bookshelf because I once thought they had potential. How could I possible send some out to the street with so little respect?
One step in achieving my goal was to say goodbye to the dozens of magazines that have been towering in the corner of my living room. I could not part with the magazines until I had at the very least given each one a fair walk through. Even then it seemed wasteful to throw them away. With just a little nudging, however, my sister has agreed to take them. She will now hold on to them, waiting to see what virtues they have yet to unfold.
Jen spoke of how just listening to a book commentary had inspired her to write. My inspiration came in the form of a book jacket! I very seldom have time to read for pleasure and when I do have time I am very picky about what I read. I'll admit I don't go for the deep and meaningful...I reach for the bloody, high body count, check to make sure the basement door is locked book. I think it's because it's so far from my reality, my very safe reality.
So I'm at the library on the second day of vacation visiting the newly refurbished children's room. We pick out a bit of I Spy, some Dr. Seuss, and a Pollacco or two and head upstairs to the "grown-up section" of the library. I spend about ten minutes searching the new arrivals for just that perfect book to become my vacation companion. I know it needs to be something I can pick up at naptime and put down until bedtime without loosing momentum or cohesion. But which book will treat me so kindly? Ahhh, a familiar name, Greg Iles. I'd helped him solve many gruesome mysteries. Could he be the one? I open to the synopsis on the inside of the jacket..."probe beneath the surface of the modern American marriage-where the appearance of perfection conceals a soul-searing conflict of unnerving intensity and violent possibility"...I almost giggle out loud. This might be the one, but I should read on just to be sure…“perceptively laced with the tacit deceptions and psychological cracks found in nearly all marriages." 'Ole Greg had never let me down before and this seemed like a giant leap from my reality. It just might work.
And just like that with something as simple as a book jacket I was sold. It's amazing the power words have on us. Even the ones we don't consider powerful. They intrigue, inspire, engross.
By the way, I’m on page 237 and it is perceptively laced with tacit deceptions!
My inspiration came from my XM radio one night. Ryan and I were on our way home from our annual sleigh ride, Valentine's Day tradition, when he decided to change the station from my predictable Fox News or Oprah and Friends choice to the 80's channel...and that's when the game began. Ryan would cover the radio display every time a new song would come on and ask me who the artist was or what the title of the song was. Let me tell you that there were a lot of one hit wonders in the eighties with names no one would remember. But then there were those like R.E.M., Prince, and who could forget Bel Biv Divo? As soon as I recognized the song it seemed like I could recite the whole thing, word for word and then it hit me. Why can I remember useless sh*t like "move to the jacuzzi, yeah, smack it up, flip it, rub it down, oh no!" and I can't seem to remember important things like appointments, if I don't write them down? Is my brain too saturated with all that junk and has little room left for substance? It was fun thinking back and what grade I was in when those songs were popular. It's actually a game we play regularly now on the weekends and I'm way better than Ryan at it!
Food is actually what got me motivated to write in my journal. I thought it was funny when we were asked to write about food at the writing workshop because I had already done that a week prior and still had lots more I was able to write. The week I started writing in my journal was a week that I was so much hungrier than other weeks and I really did not think that was possible. I have been teased all my life about how much I love food and how much I love to hear it described or decribe it to others. I remember in college if my roommates went out to dinner that it became almost natural for them to come home and explain in detail what they had because I would love hearing about it all! Luckily, one of my roommates shared my love of food. Eating food has never been about filling my belly or satifying my hunger. In fact I truly believe that I am always hungry and if I ever have a full feeling it seems to last only a few minutes and then subside. Food has always been about what I am craving, what is healthy and tasty and when I am eating next. I have begun to wonder if these feelings will ever go away and if this constant looking foward to food will ever go away. With all that said it was so great to have my writer's notebook to write all of food thoughts down! Since then I have written a few more entries and I am excited to write more in the near future!
hi
okay, have you ever heard a saying or made one up that sticks with you and when others hear it-they think of you? Well, when I got my writer's notebook I just had to doodle,write, and include this famous line (u all know the author it's the curly haired princess:))everywhere in my journal. It used to have a very special spot on my fridge too until my family forced me to shrink it down to a scribble on a plain magnet with a sharpie. Okay, here it is... "Nothing gets done when later sleeps over!" The first time I used it was about 5 or 6 years ago. I was driving home about 6 girls from dance class. (3 were mine) I loved being in this carpool even though the hectedness (is that a wod?) in my life was even more crazy than now! The girls were all chatting and this gave me the opportunity to hear things that I normally wouldn't have heard. Who likes who- who was hanging out with who- who did what? who said what? omg! Well, we were talking about chores or something and how we always say okay, i'll do it later and all of a sudden I said "nothing gets done when later sleeps over and you will do it when you get home" There was a long pause in the van- and then... laughter! Not just chuckles but I mean the kind that you do not care what you sound like! They all kept saying "I get it!" "I get it!" Well, the more I thought about it- the more I laughed at how true it was and I almost p'd myself I was crying and laughing so bad! It became my motto for years. Even now, like this vacation, all I have to say is "nothing gets done... and everyone answers "When later sleeps over!" I worked them this vacation. I am the one who makes them do a chore right then and there or I will get them out of bed. So I spent this vacation week cleaning, exercising, and not waiting for tomorrow to enjoy every second that I have with my girls. Because... no matter when you do something- time still ticks on and on and ... later is too long to wait.
Post a Comment