Monthly Archives: October 2019
Reflections on Writing: #whyiwrite
Each year on October 20th people from all over are invited to write, to share their writing, and to consider the prompt: #whyiwrite. I appreciate a National Day on Writing, a day to celebrate this often unexamined practice that most of us engage in daily. Sometimes we are confused by the word writing, considering only the writing that appears in bookstores, in magazines, or in prestigious online spaces as “real” writing.
Whatever writing we do is real. But fear can keep us from getting those words out of our heads and onto a page. I often find myself writing as I walk, starting a narrative or poem in my head, sparked by something I noticed, overheard, observed. These words are easily lost, blown into the sea breeze if I don’t make a conscious effort to remember long enough to get them written or somehow recorded for later writing and elaboration.
I find that my words take flight when I turn off that internal censor. When I stop worrying about writing the perfect essay, saying the “just right” thing that will dazzle and impress someone else.
But why do I write? I started blogging to hold myself accountable to regular writing. But all I write isn’t reflected in this public space. This space, though, offers me the opportunity to connect, to reflect on my writing, teaching, photography, and life in general. It lets me start small as I wonder and wander through the ideas in my mind.
A writing project meeting yesterday led us to a new room on campus, where this quote was prominent on the walls. I don’t know that it is perfectly true for me, but I like the sentiment. That risk-taking matters. Sometimes we have to approach an old problem in a new way to figure out a solution. I’ve been thinking about that a lot when it comes to teaching. There’s so much talk about how kids are different these days, how they struggle to pay attention (often blamed on our screen-centered society), and how we need to prepare them for jobs that don’t yet exist. Most of these comments are posed as problems, difficulties to overcome instead of aspirations to reach for. Why would we teach students today the same content in the same ways as we taught that class ten years ago? Why is curriculum more similar to than different from what it was when I was a child oh-so-many year ago? Is this student problem really a teaching problem (or a structures around teaching problem)? It might just be an assessment problem, since the content that is tested is certainly prioritized in our schools!
That ever-moving target can sometimes make us all feel like failures. We keep reaching for THE solution, instead of enjoying each wave as we ride it. Watching surfers from the San Clemente pier yesterday reminds me of the importance of patience, playfulness, and persistence. (And those same traits might just apply to the photographer as well!) I’m sure each surfer out there in the cool, salty water in the slant of light on a late fall afternoon was in search of the perfect wave, the great ride, the most fun… What I loved as I watched was noticing the surfers spot potential waves, start and stop–sometimes bailing out of a waves at the last possible moment; lining themselves up to catch the upcoming wave–paddling, turning, jockeying with other surfers for position; playing with waves that turned out to be less than–swan-diving backwards out of the ride. I’m reminded that there is learning and joy in the process, not just the end product. How do we help students (and teachers and parents and the public) see the learning that happens in the trying rather than in the exam or “final product?”
So why do I write? I write to play with words and ideas. I write to problem-solve, to follow a line of thinking to a place where I can grapple with it. I write to pay attention to the world around me, to inhale the joy and exhale the heaviness. And I persist in writing even when it feels too hard, too time consuming, too frustrating, too messy. Writing matters, each one of us has to find all the reasons why for ourselves (we just may need a little nudge from our friends, teachers, lovers, mentors). Thanks for the nudge National Day on Writing!
Now it’s your turn, why do you write?
Change in View: #writeout
I walked out of school with the sun shining brightly on my shoulders. I peeled my lightweight jacket off before getting into the car to head down the hill toward the beach for my after school walk.
In the less than two miles from school to the beach, the sun dimmed, shuttered by a thick veil of fog. Palm trees became shadowy pillars as I steered toward the beach parking lot. As I walked down the long steep ramp to the sandy beach, it was like walking into another world. Colors were swallowed by the damp blanket, the view disappeared, I could see only 20 or 30 yards in front of me.
My mind filled with stories, the stuff of Halloween and horror movies. What was around the corner? What evil might that shadowy figure in front of me bring? What about the sea itself, was the tide actually as low as I expected?
Luckily, my feet know this beach. They followed the path worn by my frequent walks, recognizing the curve of the beach, the squish of the sand under my soles. Familiar birds whistled hello, giant kelp caressed my toes and a huge piece of bull kelp appeared from the shadows.
As I neared the end of my walk, a crowd of children appeared from the mist. And with them, the bubble man, the pied piper of the beach, casting a spell with his magic wand. The thick mist didn’t dampen their spirits, instead the dampness of the air helped them catch bubbles–holding them in their hands and allowing them to slip into the bubble tunnels the bubble man created.
Stories continue to swirl, wrapping me in their damp, shadowy chapters. My imagination is already hard at work, making connections, creating movies in my mind. I can only hope they don’t become the stuff of nightmares as I drift off to sleep.
Inanimate Objects: Students #writeout
Some days in the classroom are just right. Students are productive, interesting learning is visible, and it seems that we all grow closer as a result. Today was one of those days.
As promised in a previous post, my students used the poem Pencils by Barbara Esbensen to inspire their writing about an inanimate object. They picked topics as varied as ropes/knots, french toast and pancakes. (There are also poems about gravestones, oil pastels, basketballs, and erasers…they are just not quite all the way finished yet!) And then, to take the writing just another step further, we explored the Adobe Spark Video app to make a video to amplify their voices and extend their ideas. Spark video is friendly for my students, offering a number of high quality photos for them to use in their videos.
So…here’s a few of the videos. (I’ve included a screen shot of the video with a link to view/listen to the poem.)
As always, my students would love comments. And I’d love to know what you are doing to celebrate writing this month with your students! #writeout
What Students Love: #writeout
As promised, here are some of my students’ poetry inspired by Lee Bennett Hopkins’ City I Love. (For more details, check out this previous post.)
Even before pulling out City I Love, I launched the idea of writing about place by reading All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan and Where Am I From by Yamile Saied Mendez. Students then created heart maps of the places they love (ala Georgia Heard). By this time students were excited about the places they love, eager to tell each other and me all about them. But instead of diving right into the writing, I asked students to “map” themselves. I tried to keep this direction pretty broad, letting students take it in any direction they wanted. These watercolor and black sharpie marker masterpieces are the result!
This map is a wonderful map creature by H.
And his poem:
Morro Rock I love
Looking at the dormant volcano
The fish swarm in the water
The sound of the sea gulls
The smell of the salty sea.
Casting a line
Getting the bait
catching the fish.
It’s just sitting in place
Day after day
Year after year
For hundred of years.
Walking on the beach
looking at the fish and crabs
and looking at the ocean scenery
Sitting on a dock waiting for a fish
like waiting for a train.
And a pineapple map by I.
And her poem about a very special bench that honors her grandmother:
The Bench I Love
On the bench I sit at
Bench I love
I watch the flowers flowers flow
As the birds glide slow as they pass by their home
Through the palm tree garden I go
Past the great sun’s glow
On the bench I sit at
Bench I love
I sit down and watch the tide curl
Up & down it will go
On the bench I sit at
bench I love
The breeze flies past my hair
And chases the ocean’s salty waves
On the bench I sit at
bench I love
I sit down and inhale
Look up and exhale
And a horse map by S.
Accompanied by a barn poem:
Barn I Love
Barn I go to
barn I love.
Horse smelling wonder beyond city.
Gallops of emotion. Races of hearts.
Barn I go to
barn I love.
Each morning a sweet smell of hay .
Each night a thankful nay.
Barn I go to
barn I love.
Morning wet covers the arena.
Full of playful horses running.
Barn I go to
barn I love.
Stardust black mares galloping in the cold moon.
Sunset colored butterflies leave at the end of the day.
I told my students that I would use my blog to amplify their voices (our vocabulary word from last week!). I know they will appreciate your comments. And know that these are just a glimpse of what my students created as they thought about the places and activities that matter to them.
How are you celebrating writing in your classroom, in your home, in your life? #writeout
Things and Places: #writeout
An email subscription led me to a podcast called Everything is Alive, where inanimate objects are interviewed. (Full disclosure, I only listened to a few minutes of one podcast–but did read the transcript linked above.) But, this idea of the personality and alive-ness of inanimate objects got me thinking about inspiration for writing. And, in the serendipity sort of way I often experience when thinking and writing and lesson planning, I came across an old favorite poem I have used with students called Pencils by Barbara Esbensen. (You can read Esbensen’s poem linked above.)
I have this idea that students will pick an object that matters to them and create their own inanimate object poetry inspired by Pencils. Should I have them write about pencils? No…let them choose something that matters to each of them. What would I pick? My camera, of course. So, here’s my try:
Cameras
The rooms in a camera
are a tight fit
but forests seascapes classrooms
crowd right in
In a camera
nature’s colors riot, drawing your eye
and dim light shifts the world
to black and white
From a photographer (experienced or not)
an unexplained photo may emerge
framed by the untold story
living in the stillness, frozen in time
Every image in your camera
is ready to
dance on rays of light
ready
to focus and expose
ready to come right out
and save that moment
so that you can explore
and experience it again and again
®Douillard
Will my third graders be able to animate their inanimate objects? I think so…and I also think that the objects will connect them to places they love and spend time at…so #writeout it is! I’ll share the results later in the week!
Here are some of my favorite places that crowd right into the rooms in my camera!
A Place I Love: #writeout
When I learned that the National Day on Writing, the National Park Service, and the National Writing Project would join forces to celebrate writing through #writeout in October, I was all in. #writeout is meant to help writers focus on stories of place…particularly if there is a national park nearby. I don’t happen to live near a national park, but I do live by spectacular outdoor spaces where I spend lots of time walking…and that inspire my writing.
As October began, students read and studied the poem, City I Love by Lee Bennett Hopkins. The rhythms and patterns of the poem were friendly to students, they were able to notice many techniques Hopkins employed. And better yet, they were eager and ready to write their own versions using this poem as their mentor text.
City I Love by Lee Bennett Hopkins
In the city
I live in—
city I love—
mornings wake
to swishes, swashes,
sputters
of sweepers
swooshing litter
from gutters.
In the city
I live in—
city I love—
afternoons pulse
with people hurrying,
scurrying—
races of faces
pacing to
must-get-there
places.
In the city
I live in—
city I love—
nights shimmer
with lights
competing
with stars
above
unknown heights.
In the city
I live in—
city I love—
as dreams
start to creep
my city
of senses
lulls
me
to
sleep.
With this poem as a mentor text, I wrote my own version, focusing on a favorite place of mine. Of course, I had to write about walking on the beach!
Beach I Love
At the beach
I walk on
The beach I love
Seagulls hover
Squawking and flapping
Searching for treats
In unattended
Beach bags.
At the beach
I walk on
The beach I love
Salty waves
Curl and break
Tossing swimmers
And tempting surfers
Into the cool, refreshing
Depths.
At the beach
I walk on
The beach I love
Squishy sand
Sucks at my toes
Tiny grains sanding
My soles smooth
And sheltering
Tiny frisky crabs and
Multitudes of bean clams.
At the beach
I walk on
The beach I love
Rhythmic seas
Slow my breath
Warm my heart
And clear my mind.
Kim Douillard
So in honor of the National Day on Writing and #writeout, I let the outdoors inspire my writing. I will include my students’ writing in days to come!