Category Archives: photography

Playing with Constraints: Twitter Memoir

There is something about constraints that create conditions for creativity…especially when I’m just getting started with something. Jeremy, a colleague over at the NWP iAnthology last week offered as a writing prompt an invitation to write a memoir in 140 characters…a tweet! Here’s his directions:

One of the activities that I have my students do is something called a Twitter Memoir. It is a way for me to scaffold with my students on writing memoirs. We slowly build from 140 characters to 25 word memoirs, then 50 word memoirs. Finally they write their full blown memoir about a personal experience in their life. Many of my students are not on Twitter, but as I am introducing this exercise, I get a few to sign-up. I don’t require my students to be on Twitter because I have a Tweet board in my classroom where they can post their Twitter Memoirs.

So, I challenge you this week to write a short 140 character memoir. It does not have to be on Twitter. For the sake of simplicity let’s just write them here at the iAnthology. Also, if you want to know more about this process you can check out the book Troy Hicks and I co-authored titled Create, Compose, Connect. Have a blast doing this, my students do!

I was intrigued by the idea of a memoir in 140 characters and spent some time composing. I was able to whittle down to 140 characters…but realized that I wouldn’t have room for hashtags if I used all the allowed characters. So I trimmed some more hoping to get down to a point where I could include a hashtag like #ce14 (for connected educator month) or #digiwrimo (for digital writing month). I finally posted this Twitter memoir in the iAnthology prompt space, I wasn’t able to get the characters quite small enough for the hashtags I wanted to include.

Here it is. It includes 138 characters (spaces, punctuation, and letters)…and it happens to be exactly 25 words, so it fits two of the criteria Jeremy set out.

With phone in hand I explore my world, snapping photos, collecting thoughts & ideas, searching for new vantages. Through images I connect.

And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a photo! (This one is from an urban hike on Sunday…just beyond my neighborhood.)

What will your Twitter memoir say about you? Can you craft it to include a mere 140 characters? I’d love to see yours…on your blog or on Twitter! (You can find me @kd0602) I’m going to tweet this post that includes my Twitter memoir…and include some of my hashtags along with the link. I hope you’ll share yours with me too!

As the Sun Descends

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The days are shorter and finally cooler. The crisp of fall rides the air currents and shoes and socks are beginning to replace weekend flip flops. Rain (finally!) pelted the parched ground overnight and clouds still gather, hunched over the horizon, adding texture to our often cloudless, pure blue skies.

As the sun continued its descent, the seabirds played on the breeze, cruising the currents, darting and dancing with seeming delight at the change in the weather.

Dipping into the sea, the sun takes the day away and lets night in. The smell of bonfires mixes with the briny sea air, the glow of the fires becomes visible as the cloak of darkness wraps the sky.

I pull my sweatshirt hood up, zip to my chin, and snuggle close to my honey. It’s cold…at least by San Diego standards. Finishing its descent, the sun leaves a glow on the horizon and signals time to head home to its watchers. And tonight will also mark our time change, falling back from daylight savings time to standard time. We’ll have short days and long nights to look forward to for the next couple of months. Welcome fall…and daylight’s descent toward winter.

Once Upon a Time…Photos That Tell Stories: November’s Photo-a-Day Challenge

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Stories are a way of understanding the world, making sense of our experience, and connecting with the experiences of others.

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” – Joan Didion

And even when we experience an event in common, our story of it varies. (I notice that my sister and I have very different stories of our childhood, even though we grew up in the same house, in the same neighborhood, with the same parents!)

“It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.” – Native American saying

We often think of stories as made of words…but images tell stories too. There are the fairy stories of life among the mushrooms and delicate petals of flowers.

Stories are elaborated by the teller, based on their own experiences and background knowledge. A single image can result in innumerable stories…this image could be an innocent flower bud, a ravenous man-eating plant, or even a robot designed to grab intruders as they enter the grounds.

In some photos we recognize the heroine and anticipate the plot twists. At other times the story shifts and the unexpected happens.

Does this image depict the narrative of professional development, teachers working together to solve problems and provide support to students?

Sometimes a setting alone can create mood and tone for the story about to unfold like this sunshine through the fall foliage.

Action can be shown in subtle ways…in hands to the face, tools strewn around, even the position of the feet.

And light and reflection can also add to the action, foreshadowing events yet to come…

Sometimes the image suggests the music you can hear in the background, in this case a happy, upbeat song of youthful energy.

Others bring tension, that sense that something is coming. Will the doctor diagnose a terminal illness or is this a skeleton that will reach out and grab someone?

What photos have you taken that tell stories? Here’s a list of prompts to help you think about stories and consider as you take photos this month.

1. Character

2. Plot

3. Setting

4. Foreshadowing

5. Suspense

6. Words

7. Narrative

8. Point of view

9. Fantasy

10. Fairy tale

11. Mystery

12. Science Fiction

13. Music

14. Symbolism

15. Narrator

16. Action

17. Humor

18. Hyperbole

19. Happy Ending

20. Heroine or Hero

21. Fable

22. Drama

23. Mood

24. Memoir

25. Fiction

26. Nonfiction

27. Journalism

28. Moral

29. Tension

30. Villain

So go out and take photos that tell a story and then post a photo each day with the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices to Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Google+ and/or Facebook (the more the better!), so that we can all enjoy the posts. If you are game for some more playfulness, write the story that the photo tells, compose a blog post about a photo, a week’s worth of photos, write a photo essay, or make a video or slideshow. You are invited to create a pingback by linking to this url or post your blog address in the comment section. It’s fun for me to see what others are doing with the same prompts I am using!

Be on the lookout for stories this month…in a single photo or in a series. (You might even try a 5-image story.) You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. You can play this game by posting your pictures in the order of the prompts or post the one you find on the day you find it. You get to make your own rules! Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them! So go out and use you lens as a story telling tool. I can’t wait for you to share the stories you find through your lens!

Surfing Madonna 5K

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When I first saw the Daily Post photo prompt for this week–cover art–I felt a bit out of my element. I love taking photos and using them to prompt my thinking and writing, but haven’t really thought about images as covers up to this point. But with cover art in my head, I continued to take photos this weekend.

Saturday was the Surfing Madonna 5K, a local run/walk that would take place on the beach where we walk regularly. With a nice low tide, the 5K would take place right on the sand along the shoreline in the late afternoon. Geoff had signed up to participate in this event some time ago…and although I had to work in the morning, I headed to the beach afterward to connect with Geoff and walk with him.

And of course, I couldn’t just walk. With my phone in hand, I snapped photos as we walked. And when I looked through my images later, this one struck me as a cover photo. I love the way the runner is silhouetted against the surf in full stride, the clouds reflected on the sand, and the light illuminating the waves in the background. This was one of the more serious runners, heading for the finish as we still headed toward the turn-around point.

And we sure weren’t alone on the beach (although this runner looks to be running mostly alone). Here’s a glimpse of the crowd near the start…there are lots of people you can see ahead and even more yet to start behind.

And I’m not sure if the costumes were a nod to Halloween coming up…or just a feature of quirky beach culture. I did snap a photo of these bananas on the beach…

There were also lots of women (and a few men) in tutus…

And many, many more costumes including all forms of super heroes, mermaids, King Tut (in full gold painted face), sharks, squids, crabs…all out running and walking on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October and the proceeds benefit ocean-related education programs in our area. Definitely a win-win!

Looking for Signs…

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Six weeks into the school year with unseasonably warm temperatures…I find myself looking for signs of fall. Southern California is not known for spectacular fall colors: the changing leaves, colorful gourds, and orange pumpkins decorating doorsteps. Instead, I notice things like the orange and red kelp washed up by hurricane Simon off the coast of Mexico,

the orange beach umbrella near the lifeguard tower,

and the golden sun highlighting the surfer atop the bigger than usual waves.

And I’m starting to see some even more exciting signs of fall…and of the writing community growing in my classroom. Some signs are subtle, like students settling into writing without any urging from us and sticking with the writing for longer and longer periods of time. There’s a willingness to share writing with one another and with the class as a whole…even from our shyer students. And then there’s the risk-taking…trying out new strategies for revision and composition with independence and confidence.

This third grader uses her reflection notebook to write about a tool we use in class to help with revision. It’s clear that she sees the value of revision for improving her writing…knowing writers, even good writers, have to work at improving their craft.

It’s also fun to see students bring their voice to informal, reflective writing. They are writers whenever they put words to a page…like this student describing something learned from reading a Scholastic News magazine,

and the student who began her reflection on a writing and art project with, “It all started when Ms Boyesen read us a book called Flashlight.”

Like the more obvious brilliant crimson leaves, sweet apple cider, and crisp autumn evenings that signal fall, these subtle signs in the classroom represent our growth as a community of learners and writers. We are ready to dig in, to stretch ourselves as learners, and to learn from and with each other throughout the school year.

I have to look carefully for signs of fall in my place…they aren’t easily recognized by those looking for the gorgeous iconic images we see represented in the media. The same is true in my classroom, looking carefully uncovers signs that might be overlooked otherwise. The signs are there and I’m looking forward to the journey with these young writers.

What signs of a developing learning community are you seeing in your place?