Tag Archives: writing

The Eyes Have It! NPM 2019 Day 4

When Life Becomes Poetry: NPM 2019 Day 3

It’s hard to top a day like yesterday…at least when it comes to poetry. Today’s schedule was crunched, another minimum day and my last classroom day until after Spring Break. But we still made space for a bit of poetry inspiration. Today I read a few poems from When Green Becomes Tomatoes by Julie Fogliano. Interestingly, she titles each poem in this lovely book by the date she wrote it, taking us through the seasons of the year. We read April 3 (which was eerily a description of a day very much like the one we experienced today…I love this first line: “today the sky was too busy sulking to rain…”), June 15 (a piece about tasting sunshine), and July 10 (the title piece with the refrain “when green becomes tomatoes”). And in a typical 8 and 9 year old fashion, my students, when they turned to their own writing, wrote about their birthdays!

Isla (who happens to share my birthday) was determined that her June 2nd birthday falls in the summer. She wrote this piece inspired by when green becomes tomatoes:

June 2

When summer turns into my birthday

The sky is happy!

life is happy

it is the time to get…

everything I want

(more than sad)

(more than happy)

The best

When leaves are green and light is here

no thunder, no lightening

just…

wind blowing and birds chirping

when summer turns into my birthday

And Leah, who’s birthday falls a bit later in the month, gives a more tentative prediction using “I believe” to frame her poem:

June 23

On June 23rd

I believe it will be cloudy

with a hint of sun.

On June 23rd

I believe it will be hot.

On June 23rd

I believe flowers will bloom.

On June 23rd

I believe it will be my birthday.

I took my poem in a little different direction, thinking about how my three precious grandsons have grown from babies to active, sturdy three year old toddlers in what seems like a blink of an eye. Just where does the time go?

April 3

When babies become toddlers

tiny fingers that used to grab mine

build towers as tall as they are

then topple them with belly laughs

When babies become toddlers

goos and gaas turn into words

that turn into stories

of wonder and adventure

When babies become toddlers

reading becomes play

finding objects, chiming in

anticipating

devouring each word, each page

with minds instead of mouths

When babies become toddlers

those once tiny feet patter

running faster than seems possible

running towards childhood

leaving babyhood behind.

©Douillard

This is Just to Say: NPM 2019 Day 2

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Today we turned to William Carlos Williams for inspiration. Using the book A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant, I introduced my students to William Carlos Williams. I wanted to continue the focus on the ordinary as well as show a poet who continued his writing while working as a doctor. I’ve been working to dispel the myth that poetry has to rhyme…and this book definitely helped make that point!

Once we learned a bit about Williams, we studied two of his poems to use as mentor texts for our own poems. The Red Wheelbarrow surprised my students. It seemed so short and so simple at first glance…and then they started to notice. The word glazed really caught their attention…and made them think of doughnuts rather than rain coated wheelbarrows. Then we started to play around with how to put our own content into a poem like The Red Wheelbarrow. My third grade students could hardly contain themselves…they were so excited about writing! Here’s a couple of their efforts:

With Caleb’s you can see the influence of living by the sea

The Colorful Afterglow

So much depends

upon

a colorful

afterglow

swarming with

bright colors

beside the turquoise

ocean

Luca captured the beauty of the ordinary

The Tree Full of Leaves

So much depends

on

a tree full of

leaves

being a home to

animals big and

small

standing tall over

the dirt path.

And Sloane turned her attention to a rock and strayed from a “so much depends” first line to create her own version of a poem inspired by WCW.

The Rock

So much pressure

is on

the rock by the river

feathered in river water

beside the ringing sound

of the river

We then turned our attention to Williams’ This is Just to Say. They noticed right away that it seemed like a conversation–that the poet was talking to someone in this poem. And that he seemed sorry…but not really sorry. This poem seemed to give them permission to be playful…and even try out teasing their teacher!

Sagan knew I would appreciate this one (can you tell what conversation we have over and over again?):

Oops…

I forgot to show my thinking

in my math homework

again

even though it said to

show your thinking

I’m sorry

but at the same time

it’s way faster

and way more efficient

And Piper stretched to see use how far she could take a bit of teasing, making me the subject of her poem

This is Just to Say

Mrs. Douillard

I have destroyed

your classroom

which you were probably

going to use

to teach kids in

Forgive me

I was just trying

to have a good time

Some students played around with different foods, inspired by WCW’s refreshing sounding plums

Nathalie tried cherries

This is Just to Say

I have eaten

the cherries that

were in the bowl

and which you

were saving for dessert

tomorrow

Forgive me

they were so sweet

and delicious

While Aspen imagined ice cream

This is Just to Say

I ate your ice cream

that was in your lunch

which you were probably

saving for after your

chicken

please forgive me

it just tasted so creamy

and so refreshing

We had so much fun on this second day of National Poetry Month! Here’s my poem for the day:

Feeding Time

So much depends

upon the sea pulling back

revealing shallow

pools

teeming with tiny fish

and crustaceans

beside the hungry white

egret

©Douillard

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Fooling around with Poetry! NPM 2019 Day 1

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It’s April 1st, the first day of National Poetry Month and a perfect day to “fool” around with some poetry! Since my students are I are taking a poem-a-day challenge, we needed to generate some inspiration today to get us in the poetry frame of mind.

We started by reading Tiny Perfect Things by M.H. Clark, a book that focuses on the wonder and beauty of the ordinary. Then we headed outside (it was an almost-summer day, 75 and sunny) with our iPads in search of tiny perfect things to photograph as inspiration for our poetry. My students found lizards, beetles, and roly polys. They found apple blossoms shaped like stars, California poppies peeking through the chain link fence, and cotton floating down from the cotton plant in the school garden. They chased the monarch butterfly across the field in hopes of a viable photo. And when we returned to the classroom, they wrote.

It’s conference week, so the days are short. But I’m already loving their first drafts…and their willingness to share. The variety was impressive…and the playfulness so satisfying! Here’s a couple to give you a taste.

Luke’s first draft poem played around with a repeated refrain:

Rose

You catch my eye

how white you are,

with yellow in the middle

and your pod red.

You catch my eye

on a pointy bush

and a soft flower.

You catch my eye,

you stand out.

Of all the flowers,

you are as white as snow.

You catch my eye.

And Alice couldn’t resist playing around with the idea of April Fool’s Day, inspired by her brother’s prank on another student:

Red Rug of Sap

It can be red,

it can be black,

my little red rug of sap.

It lays upon a tree

resting

til it is the day.

Check the calendar!

What is today?

April first! April first!

April Fool’s Day!

Time to stain my finger

red or black

with my little red rug of sap.

My own first draft poem was inspired by the rusty chain and lock around the gate on the side of the school.

Looped and Locked

Metal

weathered, rusted, oxidized

days, years, decades

outside

exposed

to fog

to rain

to sun

to briny sea air

still strong

linked like children holding hands

safety in numbers

comfort in connection

looped around the gate

and snapped shut

with a tiny, perfect

Master lock.

©Douillard

I’m looking forward to reading others’ first day of National Poetry Month entries today!

Reflections on SOLC 2019: Day 31

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Thirty out of thirty one days in March I wrote a blog post and made it public. (I missed a day somewhere along the way because I was sick.) Today is the day to think about just what writing a slice of life each day has meant.

I know that writing every day makes writing every day just a bit easier. Early in the month it felt hard to come up with topics, each day felt like a stretch. And then, just like I tell my students, I started to live more like a writer. Each and every experience I have during the day becomes fodder for thinking and writing. I like that writing makes me pay more attention. I notice details, make word associations, connect seemingly disparate parts of my life as I write and reflect.

I know that photography helps me generate writing. It is yet another tool for paying attention to the world around me. With my camera around my neck, the world slows down allowing me to notice what I might otherwise overlook. When I go back later to view the images I captured, new thinking floods my brain, filling in the stories between the shots. I re-view the things I noticed that I wasn’t able to capture through my lens and I see my experiences anew.

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I know that the Slice of Life Challenge community is a gift to me as a writer. As I posted my permalink each day, I knew someone would read and comment on my writing. This community is accepting and generous. Encouraging words keep a writer moving forward. As I read slices from others, I shared my thinking with them and learned from their words too. I posted because I said I would, and because I knew that a community was there to listen. That encouraged me to write, to revise, to push myself to continue to grow as a writer and as a responder.

And I love that writing each day creates a record of my thinking and my experiences. I can return to my thinking later, reconsider those thoughts in light of new insights and experiences. And as someone who tends to be an introvert, it invites others into my life in ways I don’t often make space for verbally or in casual in-person interactions.

March and my daily slices end today, but tomorrow I am taking on a new challenge. My students and I will be taking a 30 day poem-a-day challenge for National Poetry Month. So look for a poem from me…and if things go well, poems from some of my students as well, each day of April!

Magnitude: SOLC 2019 Day 28

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As I walked down the beach this afternoon my eye caught the juxtaposition of the massive cliff walls and a small stack of beach pebbles. I found myself thinking about magnitude–the contrast of big and small.

I chatted on the phone earlier today with someone from an organization not directly related to education. She was describing the struggles they have in their organization with clear, concise communication of complicated ideas. The same struggles we are always talking to teachers about…from kindergarten to college. Add the equity piece, the fact that some people have tremendous access and opportunity–often based on financial status and skin color–and the dilemma goes from a stack of small stones to an enormous cliff that crumbles and slips at unexpected moments.

Those cliffs keep me up at night, my efforts dwarfed by their magnitude, overwhelming me with the impossibility of the lift. I find myself drawn to the pebbles. They fit perfectly in my hand as I rub my fingers over their surface, smoothing and soothing as I follow the path nature left before me. I pick one up, adding it my carefully balanced stack, wondering how many I can carry before they topple.

Luckily, I’ve come to the place in my career where I don’t have to decide between the cliffs and the pebbles. I try my best to exert influence where I have the agency to do things that matter…even if they only matter to a few. But my eye remains on the issues of magnitude…maybe if I keep stacking those small stones near the small stones of my colleagues and allies our stacks will grow to solutions of magnitude. Those nightmares that keep me up at night will transform into dreams come true. Maybe this art I found on the beach today is a talisman for the future.

Something Fishy: SOLC 2019 Day 27

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Just when we thought the week couldn’t get any fishier, it did! You already know about the angle fish and the wire fish…today was all about real fish.

Wednesdays are our science lab day and our science teacher always goes to great lengths to make things relevant and hands-on for the kids. I knew that she’d gone to a grunion run last weekend…and the grunion were running. If you’re not from coastal southern California, you may not know about grunion. They are small silver fish, about the length of a dollar bill…and they’re pretty special. They are the only fish who come onshore to lay their eggs in the sand and they are found only along our coast from northern Baja to southern Santa Barbara. They spawn from March to June, riding high tides onto the shore to lay their eggs. A couple weeks later, at the next high tide, the eggs are washed back into the ocean, requiring the wave motion to hatch.

I remember grunion runs from my own teenaged days. Since grunion only surf onto the beach late at night, it was the perfect opportunity for groups of preteens to head to the beach, hanging out in the moonlight, trying not to scare off the grunion. (I don’t know who talked the adult drivers into that duty!) If you’re under 16 you don’t need a fishing license to pick up the fish…not that I can ever remember wanting to pick them up! Lucky for us, our science teacher was able to collect some grunion (and eggs) on her grunion run last weekend for our students to study.

Students were able to touch the fish (yeah, they were dead), measure them to determine their age, and gently squeeze them to determine whether they were female (if reddish eggs came out) or male (if a milky liquid came out).

As you can see, they were eager to handle them, some with gloves and some with their bare hands.

We also took the opportunity to present our science teacher with a gift of fish from us. Each student contributed one of their wire fish (Calder inspired) to our collective fish mobile. The best part was that each student figured out their own fish’s balancing point, tied a piece of fishing line to that point, and then small groups hung their fish together. We tied each string of fish from a piece of drift wood that I found on one of my beach walks. The result was stunning! I’m including a photo–although it doesn’t begin to do it justice!

Next week students will string their own individual fish mobiles…and continue their study of grunion. If we’re lucky, we will be able to get some of those grunion eggs to hatch…right in front of our eyes!

With a Twist: SOLC 2019 Day 25

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School has a reputation for being routine, dull even. Students learn through reading, writing and repetition. Take in information, lather, rinse, repeat.

But does learning have to be like washing your hair?

I’ve learned over my many years of teaching that novelty and doing are essential to learning, but both need to have a purpose integral to the goals of the learning.

Today was all about the wire.

We’ve learned some fish basics in preparation for a deeper inquiry into grunion–a very special fish native to our area that depends on the pull of the moon for the signal to lay their eggs on our sandy beaches. We studied about angles, creating fish from the 360 degrees of a circle, then cut a mouth and caudal fin measured with a protractor to understand categories of angles. And, inspired by Alexander Calder and his circus (have you read Sandy’s Circus?) as well as his magnificent mobiles and stabiles, we made wire fish.

My favorite kinds of projects are those that people can’t believe are possible for kids. Long strands of pokey wire and pinchy pliers are not the usual fare of an elementary classroom. And yet, students couldn’t wait to handle these materials. Equipped with floral wire and pliers, students turned and molded. They twisted and pulled, curved and bent, all the while telling the story of their emerging fish. Buttons became eyes and scales, even the lighted appendage of an angler fish. I coached and encouraged, pushing students to elaborate on their basic ideas–to push past my example and envision new possibilities.

Students also encouraged and informed each other as I watched new ideas take hold. I noticed confidence in students who are sometimes tentative, the challenges of the intricacies of wire. We commiserated about the problems that come with sweaty hands. Eventually, little hands, emerging stories, and big ideas twisted together with buttons and colorful wires became a school of fish.

The next twist is still to come as we assembly each small collection of wire fish into a fishy mobile swimming from a piece of driftwood. There’s a special surprise as well…but I’m not ready to tell about that yet.

Shhhh: SOLC 2019 Day 24

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Shhhh…I missed a day of the Slice of Life Challenge. It was one of those days–rare in my teaching career–when I couldn’t get myself up and out to work.

On Tuesday night, after a long day and a late meeting, I headed to bed feeling chilled and achy. I’m pretty good at sleeping, so I figured I would feel better in the morning. I felt myself toss and turn throughout the night, trying to find a position where my head didn’t hurt, where my body felt relaxed. I woke up before my alarm feeling the heaviness of a dread I tried to push away.

As I wrote on Tuesday’s slice, I had great plans for Wednesday! We would be creating wire fish, a project including science, engineering, math, technology, art, reflection, creativity… So when I woke up with the horrendous headache and body that felt on the verge of collapse, I pushed back. Of course I could go to work, I would will myself to feel better.

I stumbled to the shower, sure that the not-too-warm water would ease the pains and refresh my mind. When I found myself sitting on the shower floor trying to muster the energy to stand, I knew work wasn’t a possibility for me.

But now what? I texted my favorite sub with crossed fingers, hoping she didn’t already have a job for the day. All the while my pounding head was searching for what learning opportunities would replace my plans–plans that exist only in my brain. Flat on my back–the only position I could bear–I texted my team partner. Did she have some kind of a math lesson she could easily pull together for my sub? My phone on my stomach started to buzz. Yes, my sub could come in, but would be late since she wasn’t yet dressed for the day. Okay–that could be handled. Another buzz…of course a lesson could be prepared. Appreciation and relief flooded my still pounding head. I am so fortunate to work in a community of educators who pull together and support each other.

I’m not sure when I moved that phone off my stomach. Once my class was covered and my mind was at ease, sleep was the only option. By about 1:30pm, my headache had eased and I could finally lift my head. It was 4:30pm by the time I finally got out of bed.

My feeling of dis-ease left as suddenly as it came. In less than 24 hours, I felt sick and then not sick again. I missed my teaching day on Wednesday, the afternoon time when I had planned to work on report cards, and had to cancel an early evening meeting…and of course, my slice for the day.

It feels like I have been playing catch up every day since. But shhhh, don’t tell anyone that I missed a day of my month-long challenge! (Maybe I’ll have to write two slices on another day!)

Oops! SOLC 2019 Day 22

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Ah! The briny air filled my lungs as the gentle spring sunshine warmed my back. There is nothing better than a walk on the beach at the end of the work day.

I wondered at the beach goers in bathing suits more than waist deep in the still cold Pacific ocean. (Even in summer, 72 degrees is warm water–refreshing when temps are in the 80s. Today’s water temperature of 60 degrees is hardly balmy.) Low 60s do not constitute bathing suit weather in my opinion. I was thinking about how San Diego is really not a spring break destination. We’re often mistaken for a tropical location, with warm weather year round. In reality, we are a temperate climate. It’s seldom too hot here, and we don’t even know snow unless you drive high into the local mountains. But March is predictably sweatshirt weather–and I almost always wear shoes on the beach at this time of year because of all the rocks.

I digress. I walked quickly, trying to have this clear-my-head walk count as some kind of exercise in a week that left too little time to move my body. I found myself on the uncomfortable slope of rocks thrown high by the surf as I climbed to avoid the waterline, slipping and sliding on the uneven piles.

I’m never bored along the coast, there is always something to see. Today I watched surfers, dressed in their black wetsuits, as they headed out into the glistening sea. There is seldom a day without surfers around here, even when the weather and waves are less than ideal.

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Looking up I noticed a modern day pterodactyl, our native pelican, gliding on the currents.

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At my turn around point, I got bold, walking further out away from the rocks. Walking on the sand just felt so much better than slip sliding on the rocks. I knew I was taking a calculated risk–walking in my jeans and relatively new tennies so close to the water. I know all about rogue waves and watched as I was walking. About halfway back to my car, I could see it coming. Just as I reached the point of no return, I saw the wave rushing toward me. I spied a rock jutting up higher than the sand and jumped on it. Seconds later I felt the cool salty water rush over my feet, my ankles, wicking up my pant legs. With nowhere to go, I stood, waiting for the water to recede.

My walk the rest of the way was of the squelchy variety as my wet socks and wet shoes squished with each step. I was less careful at that point. I was already wet, so I took the easier, if wetter, pathways on my way back to the car. I had to laugh at myself, maybe I should have just taken my shoes off and walked barefoot for the entire walk. If I were more like those bathing suit wearing beach goers, I wouldn’t be squelching my way back to my car!

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But neither wet pant legs or squishy shoes could take away my pleasure and delight in my beach walk. There is something healing and rejuvenating about a walk on the beach!

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Now back home, my shoes have been rinsed, the insoles removed and are sitting on the spare bathroom counter drying. I wonder how long til they’re dry enough to wear on my next beach walk?