#sol17 Not Alone

I wrote every day
          Although I  didn't think I could
I remembered the power of writing
          Although I didn't think I had much to say
I learned that my words still matter
          Although I did not think they did
Thanks to my students

          Who think outside all the boxes

Thanks to my children
          Who send me precious slices of their lives
Thanks to my baby and toddlers

          Who are reshaping my perspective

Thanks to my nieces
          Who slither into my heart  
Thanks to my fellow slicers
          Who encourage and spur my thinking 
Thanks to this Daily Slice of Life Challenge
          Which has helped me to reflect
          Which has forced me to notice
          Which has spurred my own thinking
          Which has encouraged me to see what I was overlooking
          Which has reminded me: I am not alone
My words matter
          Although I had forgotten
I am a writer

#sol17 Day 30 To feel HOPE

It's been dark, gloomy 

In the evenings

When I get home

It's been dark. cloudy

In the morning,

As I head to work

For months

Then, yesterday

The light in my driveway

From the sky above

Called me to come out

To walk for a bit

To smell spring
To feel HOPE

Late in the day
I did.

Then today

I saw a peppermint pink sky

Wispy purple clouds

The golden sun
Calling me to notice
Spring
To feel HOPE
Early in the day
I did. 

#sol17 Day 29 City Mouse Country Mouse

I'm sure you  know the classic tale of City Mouse and Country Mouse.  My second graders are have been working on determining "central messages," and their take-aways from this Aesop fable made me smile!

"I think it's about how you should not say mean things to people.  Like in our morning message we promise to be nice to each other.  You shouldn't say you don't​ like someone's bed and you shouldn't say their bed is too hard or too soft or just right and fall asleep on it"

"You should be nice to people in the city and in the country, too.  You should be nice to people everywhere!!"

"I think the author means you should not try to sleep in places like barns because it might hurt.  And you should not sleep in the city where there are too many people and it's noisy. You should sleep in your own bed."  

"I think you should be happy.. You shouldn't want to live anywhere else but where you live."

I offered another perspective about how how a peaceful and happy life might be best based on how the City Mouse had to live in fear, paraphrasing, second grade style, Aesop's moral: Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.  But I must admit their ideas are good messages too. 

#sol17 Day 28 Lost in my book

After a long day

of learning and play

After my bath

with boats and bubbles

After brushing my teeth

for a good 3 minutes

Snuggled into my chair

just my size

Under my blanket

just my size

Lost in my book

Bob the Builder

That's where I'll be

#sol17 Day 27 Our Last Match

I realized I could win in the middle of our last match.  He gritted his teeth again and again. When it was my turn, he didn't chide about how long I was taking; instead, he leaned back and shut his eyes. We'd been playing as distraction from pain and treatments for a few years as he battled a relentless foe and I had yet to win even though I had kept my long ago promise. That night, however, it was clear he was getting thinner and weaker and sicker.  I knew that someday soon, my Scrabble partner would be gone.

I watched him shut his eyes and the memories of lying on our tummies on the family room floor playing "no mercy" Scrabble came flooding back.  He made me promise to try to win even though he was a tween and I was in college. For a few years, I could win; but as the advantage of age disappeared, he would consistently whoop everyone!  He certainly had no mercy for anyone, even his big sister.  In time, I became the only person willing to play against a man who played Scrabble relentlessly against the computer!

Until that last night, I had not been in a position to win for decades. Yet as the tiles dwindled and my own victory was possible, I did not keep that promise.  I'm not sure if he knew that I had "given him the game," but neither of us said a word about it. He slowly headed off to bed and I headed home, wondering, but not sure this was our last game.

I'm sure he has been honing his skills since that last match with me; someday, we'll have a rematch or two or three and I will keep my promise.

Leah Jaques wrote a post on the Two Writing Teachers Challenge about playing board games that stirred all kinds of memories and changed my planned post for today!  She's MY mentor text for today. 

#sol17 Day 26 Signs of Hope

It was quiet, dreary

Clouds hanging low

Dampness filling the air

When I headed out to walk

Not sure if it was me

Or the weather

Hoping to clear my head 

Hoping to settle my heart

Hoping to remember

Hoping to forget.

So glad I went

In spite of the mist

The park was full 

Of people, pets, and

Good Mornings

Of birds chirping passionately

Of trees with a red aura

Of crocuses trying to come out

Of signs of hope.

#sol17 Day 25 The

We had re-read familiar books and practiced this week's "featured" sounds (c,g,d,a) when my administrator pulled up a chair for my "unannounced" observation  "Hi," one of my readers, waved cheerfully, announcing her arrival
.

Inside, I sighed. Images of those third graders, earlier, who had spurred each other's thinking about words with multiple meanings ran through my head.  A glimpse of those second graders who had determined the central message in The Ugly Duckling tied to our building motto about "Kindness" flew across my mind. "Why not stop by for the story of Lizzy," I thought, "to see my first graders challenge whether or not chameleons really eat strawberries in real life"  

But, in real life, my lesson plan for this group, this day, was the word, the.  You can't make slices of real life up.  It was the.  For a moment, I did think about scrapping that plan and going with next week's story; however, the word the had been a stumbling block for these kindergarten students.

So I went on with the real life lesson of a high-frequency word you just need to remember.  We wrote the big.  We wrote the small.  We said the letters as we wrote it.  We found the in books.  We wrote the cat and the dog, the pig and we illustrated our writing.

At the end, My students might have been empowered to find the word again!  I'll follow up with some assessing, reteaching as needed, more writing to strengthen memory, and more word finding, and if need be, some sandpaper writing  to solidify the word the.

At the end, I realized I had to reflect deeply on my teaching of the word the!

Let me begin:  The is an essential building block of early reading and writing.  For most children, many exposures of shared reading at home and in kindergarten contribute to this word becoming an image, almost like an icon.  However, for a handful of children, there is a need for more direct teaching, and perhaps repeated direct teaching, using a multisensory approach ....................

#sol17 Day 24 Ugly or Uggly

Oh yes, my student-fashionista had me in stitches the other day as we talked about ugly, as in the Ugly Duckling.

First, we attacked the word.  "It's got a suffix," she said excitedly, "and a base word, too!  So, it says ug.ly!"

"Well, it does say ugly," I volunteered, "but in this word, ly is not a suffix because ug is not a word."

"Oh yes it is," she said assertively, "like in my boots!"
  
"Let's see your boots," I suggested, and we lo and behold Ugg boots, not Ug boots do exist!

"Oooh," she said, "I get it.  They are spelled differently.  And, Ugg boots are not Ugggly!" she laughed recognizing her joke.

"Well," she jumped into another thought as she is prone to do, "that is not a very nice thing to call the duckling just because he is gray and different because he is nice and friendly too!  And, I can prove it,"she offered," going back into the text and finding the proof she needed for each describing word.

We crafted sticky notes to hide the now offensive (perhaps even bully-like word) in the old title and continued with our guided reading of the text using some chunking, some finding base words, and some thinking about the meaning of words as we went along.

"We should rewrite this story," she offered as a suggestion to my planned teaching for the week as she skipped back to class.

Perhaps we will, I thought, my mind wandering just like hers to the teacher-accountability rubric that highly values student-led learning!  

#SOL17 Day 23 Turning 94

Spending this birthday in rehab,

That quagmire of post-hospital life

For those whose recovery may be prolonged

For those who need 10 days to recover

For each 1 day in the hospital

Been there for 9 weeks

There is no end is sight

Been strengthening her leg

Physical therapy twice a day

Been letting the femur heal

Waiting, hoping, praying

Been dealing with pain
Shingles, muscles, bones,

Been dealing with,
"I can't shift myself
In the wheelchair,"

Been missing her home

Her Hershey Kisses

Her breakfasts at noon,

Been missing her TV

Been missing her soap opera

Today she will be

Up early
Working out (PT, OT)
Drinking power shakes (Ensure)

Doing what she has to do
Turning 94

#sol17 Day 22 Free @ DQ?

Did you know that DQ and Rita's Soft Serve offer free ice cream cones to anyone on the first day of spring? They do!  It's too late for this year, but put it on your radar for next year!

The sun was warm and it felt springy even though the lingering snow piles and dangling icicles made one question going for ice cream!  We headed to Dairy Queen because everyone was home and everyone was still awake! The line really wasn't that bad!

My little guy was perched on his dad's shoulders for a birds' eye view of the happenings. There were smiles and giggles and wiggles as we mingled and waited in a wide and scraggly line.  He had NO idea what lay ahead!  We found a tiny table and set his cone down.  He took both hands and batted it away as if it were an alien spacecraft! His father was in disbelief!  His mother wondered if he were switched at birth!  His father put the squirming toddler on his lap and modeled eating an ice cream cone. The little guy batted that now melting vanilla goodness away again. He put his fingers into the liquefying substance and instinctively went to his mouth. Then, as quickly as they went in, the fingers came out and the sticky whiteness went flying.  Swinging his head from side to side, the toddler told us all, he was not eating that foreign and perhaps dangerous substance.

Then, his mom deftly took a tiny ice cream spoon from her cup and placed a large spoonful inside his mouth, much like she had done about a year earlier with a glob of not-so-sweet rice cereal.  He swirled this new substance around, cement mixer style, and his face lit up with excitement.  Perhaps, he was realizing this was ICE cream not that old RICE stuff of his baby-days! He grabbed the spoon and you can imagine the rest of the story.

I'd personally like to thank Dairy Queen (and Rita's Soft Serve) for their free cones. I hope they met their goals of raising funds for worthy causes, like the Children's Miracle Network. I can assure them that this Grammy will be back and it is just possible that a new family tradition was born on the first day of spring.