Educator Collaborative

I've been SO VERY DEEP in my own writing project, I have barely been able to notice what is happening in the rest of the world.

I did log in to find out about Chris Lehman's big news!

The Educator Collaborative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3HuwTpMFNs

What can you do the help shape the future of literacy education?

PS
I suspect Donald Graves would be proud :) even though collaborating is not a new idea! 

Summer Reading Suggestions

Ramona, one of my blogoshephere writing friends posted this GREAT list of book suggestions today.

I was talking to someone about book suggestions just the other day.....

Here are some great lists...

http://sweetsummerreads.blogspot.com/2014/07/looking-for-your-next-great-book.html?showComment=1405455320593#c1471722781192113512

Some days, your writerly life merges with your real one!

I have been deep into my own sort of historical fiction writing project for the past few days (thanks in large part to TWT and Betsy's writing group idea)  and I really wouldn't have minded a few hours on the computer during what I suspected was to be a humid-thunder stormy Sunday afternoon. I didn't totally "poo-poo" the idea because a little part of me really wanted to go.....but I did mention the pending rain more than once! 

Anyway, 11 miles or so into our journey, we were crossing the Walkway Over the Hudson when the wind began to blow across the bridge in earnest.  Even the Ferreris, who watch very few movies, have seen the historical fiction movie version of the Titanic's's sinking where Kate Winslet stands of the bow of the boat as the wind whips as her dress.  She was distraught and Leonardo DiCaprio saves her from falling into the ocean.  

"You should take a picture of this for your Slice of Life,"  he said as he stood there on the bridge with his hands extended.  So, in our not so correct, but safer version, here are our reenactments of that scene from the movie.  

PS We had to take each other's pictures because asking someone else to recreate the actual image would have been just plain weird! 

PPS We did realize that the railing was in front of us and you can be sure no risks were taken in the remaking of this scene!  

PPPS  Sweaty in the near 100% humidity, it actually felt pretty good.  Perhaps Kate was just hot and sweaty that night on the ship?

What did women wear in the 1920's?

I am sure you really wanted to know!

http://glamourdaze.com/2010/05/1920s-fashion-womens-dress-and-style.html

Two Flappers -Photo – 1928 

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In th

Teachers Write: Mary, Anna, Laura and Jo are right here with me

I'm writing this summer.
In fact, in the last week I think I might have written more than ever before in my life!
I'm also thinking, a lot, about what Judy Blume wrote in some autobiographical text I use almost every year, She said that when she is in the middle of a book, the characters are really at the dinner table with her! Pieces of the setting would start to appear in her window or perhaps in her mind.   I never really "got" what she meant until the end of last week, when fresh off some curriculum writing and full of the vim and vigor you feel when you accomplish something in spite of the odds, I really started to take my TWO summer writing groups seriously!
Rather than rewrite the same old stories again this summer, I took Kate Messinger's words to heart and started writing the story that really was churning inside me.  I decided not to worry about the parts of the story I did not know the answers to and decided to just put fingers to the keyboard.
Now, Mary, Anna, Lora and Jo are sitting right here in the office with me.  They are wearing house dresses and peeling potatoes but pretty soon Lora will head off to Normal School.  Pretty soon, they will all leave the farm.
Truth be told, some characters in this story are true, but others are figments of my mind.
Truth be told, some events are true and others are realistic, historical fiction.
Truth be told, the setting, the 1920's were a pretty interesting time and I've spent quite a bit of energy thinking about them due to another project that will launch this winter! (It's pretty neat when the pieces of you life fit together, even if only for a moment in time!)
So when the link below popped into my browser this morning, I gasped softly and then went right back to writing.  


When some day (in my dreams) I am writing my own story about my own writing for kids, I will have to share with them that it really is pretty neat when the project you are working on pops into your browser.  

Balanced Literacy is a Lot of Work

If you live near NYC, you've heard of Carmen Farina, the head of NYC Public schools.  She is a proponent of Balanced Literacy and is insisting that teachers focus on teaching kids to be readers and writers rather than just literacy as a test prep genre! 

I share Farina's passion for teaching that balances skills and practice.  I share her passion for preparing students to be life-long readers and writers who find reading comforting, empowering and informative.  

Yet, I worry that Balanced Literacy is a LOT of work and takes a LOT of prep during every single one of the 180 days of school.  The secret is right in the name: balance: shared reading, shared writing, interactive writing, word study, interactive read-aloud, working independently, working in whole-class settings, thoughtful mini-lessons, conferring, and small groups are part of every single week - all year through. 

Like many other teachers, I believe balanced literacy is best - even for the kids who have limited literacy experience, smaller vocabularies, and less focus. I know that balanced literacy is also more work than any scripted unit of study could imagine.  I worry that we might end up doing scripted programs rather than empowering learners.  

CCSS Humor: What are you reading this summer?

Common Core Humor!  

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SOL 2014 Finding Joy In Summer

Do you remember back in the winter when we were all talking about the cold, ice and snow?  Some of us (perhaps even me) promised to embrace the wonders of summer (including the heat) and not complain even if we became uncomfortable!  SO, I am not complaining; however, I'm working to find joy (my OLW for 2014) in our recent weather!

• This week, alone, I found myself awake in the middle of the night as the humidity climbed towards a perfect score!  I must admit, however, that an Italian ice at 3 AM is a guilty pleasure I could learn to love!
• We've had storms so strong they ripped the flag and made short shift of the old porch chairs.  Yet, when they passed, we were able to dry off the table and eat outside basking in incredible sunsets.  
• We've had drenching rains, the kind that causes rooms to flood and carpets to be ruined.  My Aunt has had to vacate her bedroom and move to higher ground; however, we did get her carpet cleaned so something good came out of it all!
• We've had temps that have climbed towards the century mark; yet, my new car has one powerful air conditioner!   
• The mosquitoes are hatching and the bugs multiplying; however, the Citronella candles have already been marked down to half off.  So, it's hard to complain! 
• The snow peas, lettuce and garlic scapes are taking over the fridge; however, the joy of picking and eating them never gets old.  
• The lawn is growing like the weed it is; yet, the exercise is good for us!
• Last, but not least, for teachers and kids at least, there is less work and more fun than is possible when you are awaiting that early morning alarm or message!
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Matt Renwick and Reading Assessments

Matt Renwick posted on the Nerdy Book Club this morning and it's a post you should read and think about because HE is questioning what I do for a living, yet I totally agree!  
http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/should-we-be-quantifying-our-students-reading-abilities-by-matt-renwick/

Matt proposes READING REALLY SHOULDN'T be quantified!  He says, "reading is not a skill that finds its foundation in numeracy," and I can imagine Marie Clay nodding in agreement.  Her running records were created to describe not quantify readers! Yet he acknowledges that assessment of learning, including its quantification, is not, and should not be going away!  So, what we need to do is to consider how we can collect powerful PERFORMANCE data to describe our readers beyond the numbers.  Matt suggests surveys, discussions, images, videos and audios will complete the picture.   I agree.  Those numbers or letters we get are just guidelines that do not tell us how to make readers stronger and motivated.  That data does exist, however, in lives the connections we make to our readers not in their numbers.   
                                                                                        

During the toughest of times, just breathe

I was folding laundry late in the day when the clear sound of something awry,"THWAP," urged me to check it out.  "I bet its that screen door," I thought as I went to investigate, my arms laden with laundry.   Yet the screen door was shut, so I continued with chores until during one trip up and down the stairs, I realized that my husband was holding a shovel and staring at what appeared to be a small, gray-deader-than-a-doorknob bird on our patio! "He must have flown into the house," my husband said quietly, "but he is not dead!!  I looked closely, through the screen and indeed he was breathing. slowly. I must admit I found myself thinking of my father who loved to watch the birds tease the squirrels from his kitchen window.

Assuming nature would take her course, we ate dinner and did a few more chores before checking on our guest, who was was still lying there, breathing slowly but regularly.  I must admit I found myself remembering those long summer evenings, not so long ago, watching my father lying on his side breathing slowly and wondering if each one would be his last.

In the morning, the first thing we both checked was Birdie who amazingly had survived the perils of the night and was sitting up!  "He must have had the wind knocked out of his sails," my husband muttered, "but I'm guessing he'll be breakfast for the cats if he sits there long!"  We watched him slowly hop short distances and occasionally attempt to flutter his wings.  We left slid water through the screen door and left bread crumbs nearby.  He seemed unconcerned with our presence and phone-photos.  He appeared rather consumed with his recovery as he hopped around the patio, slowly but surely defying nature. We watched him, from afar, and cheered his progress still wondering how he would ever defy the forces of nature stacked against him.  Yet in due time, he quietly flapped his wings, slowly, and like a tiny 747, without looking back, he flew away. I smiled and celebrated his miraculous recovery. I must admit I found myself thinking of my father's perseverance through adversity, even when others had "thrown in the shovel" as I watched him fly into the woods. I wonder if the Central Message is this: During the really tough days, just breathe?