It’s the last week of school…a hard time for teaching and if you can get students’ attention and focus (and that’s a big if!), it’s a great time for learning. A few weeks ago our amazing school librarian hand delivered an amazing picture book to me while I was eating lunch. She explained that it […]
On this 30th day of April, my pockets are overflowing with poems: those I’ve read, those I’ve written, those I’ve taught, those I’ve admired, those that echo in my ears. I’m grateful for the community of poets who have taken the time to read and respond to my poetry, to my blog visitors who stop […]
For a whole month we have been reading and writing poetry in my first grade classroom. Poetry is not specific to April in our classroom, but the intensity increases as we participate in National Poetry Month. Yesterday we read some of the poems from the book, If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of […]
Some people are genius at following directions. Me, not so good. And the first graders in my care, they take a sideways route. Today’s Verselove prompt was about instructions for writing poetry. That made me think about the way students often start with energy and ideas that seemingly evaporate just when it’s time to begin […]
After a day of serious, serial interruptions, Dave’s Verselove invitation was to write about…interruptions. Classrooms are notoriously places of interruptions (at least from my insider point of view)…and I’m not even talking about technology! Questions bombard me missiles propelled From every direction Is she dead? Can I have a bandaid? […]
Today’s Verselove prompt was to describe your place…down the dirt road, and my mind immediately went to the raindrops on the windshield as we drive down the freeway last night, to the music of rain on the roof overnight, of the evidence in the backyard after another shower this morning. Rain is rare here, so […]
Imagine this as spoken word poetry, find the rhythm in the sound of the words, say them loud and clear. Books matter, words matter, libraries matter, poetry matters…even when it’s not perfect. Thanks Verselove and Ashley for the push to try something different. On bookstore day reading rules stories sing poems play words somersaulting dancing […]
Today in my first grade classroom we wrote under the influence of William Carlos Williams and his red wheelbarrow. We gazed out the window, noticing the ordinary and imagining those “ordinary” things in 16 words. Giant puffball of seeds White moonbeams reflecting light Parachutes floating in air Planting the next generation @kd0602
Walking UCSD’s campus is always interesting. Unexpected art pops up in surprising places. Today it was bright orange umbrellas. This is a place where our average rainfall comes in just under 10 inches annually. Some years it’s less. Occasionally we get a bit more–those are the “super bloom” years. At my last meeting today we […]
Inspired by both Verselove‘s onomatopoeia poem invitation by Margaret and NWP’s Write Out Write Where We Stand Challenge, I took a mental walk on the beach this afternoon. The beach is truly my place. Funky fishy salty smells feel like my favorite pair of jeans, an old friend, familiar and cozy and comforting. Whistles and […]