September Mosaic

September always begins with the Upper Arlington Arts Festival. The blown glass tree and the grilled cheese sandwiches from my favorite food truck are from UA Arts. A week later, Clintonville had its first ever Festiville -- SpiderMonkey and SuperMonkey were spotted there.

The cocoonish thing on the brick of the school wall was sighted by an observant Environmental Club member. ID, anyone?

All the rest of the photos, except for the last four, are from Ohio's Casting for Recovery event at Indian Bear Lodge. Pretty spectacular sunrise over the pond, eh?

The last four are teasel critters -- made with the seedhead of a wonderful weed -- thank goodness I left enough or missed enough in the Land Lab so that every Environmental Club member could make a critter with one last week. We had our first indoor meeting of the year, due to the wet weather. The club members and their critters made a glorious, noisy, creative mess.

You can check out a larger view of the photos on Flickr.

An Interview with Katherine at Read, Write, Reflect

Katherine at Read, Write, Reflect asked me to do an interview after reading my new book THE JOY OF PLANNING.  I agreed, of course!  The interview is posted on her amazing blog if you are interested. And if you aren't interested, add the blog to your list of blogs to read regularly--spend some time there.  Amazing learning opportunity--she shares so many great reflections about reading, writing and teaching!

Poetry Friday -- Be the Change You Wish to See

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar!

edited by J. Patrick Lewis, U.S. Children's Poet Laureate

National Geographic, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

Today begins the three-day 100 Thousand Poets for Change event: "...a demonstration & celebration of poetry, music & art to promote social, environmental & political change...a global celebration of solidarity for peace & sustainability."

I'm aiming a little lower than the grand goal of 100 TPC, under the assumption that every little bit counts.

The change I want is for poetry to be a natural part of every child's life. My corollary wish, the one that's necessary for the first to happen, is that poetry is a natural part of every parent's and teacher's life as well.

How best to make that happen?

Give J. Patrick Lewis' newest book, the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry to every new parent, and put a copy in every classroom!

This book is a treasure of poetry (and some pretty spectacular photography). It's as if Pat went through my classroom collection of poetry and plucked a favorite from each book -- Kristine O'Connell George is there with her polliwog commas, and there's Douglas Florian, David Elliott, Julie Larios, Jane Yolen, Arnold Adoff, Janet Wong, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Marilyn Singer, Jack Prelutsky, and Joyce Sidman. PLUS some of my favorite poets who are usually for adults have poems here -- Kay Ryan, Ogden Nash, and Hilaire Belloc. AND there are "classic" poets -- Walter De la Mare, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Louis Stevenson.

In his introduction, Pat writes about the possibility that animals "appreciate most of all the simple joys of exploring their worlds." This book is a poetic exploration of the natural world.

He invites us to wander through the pages: "This book is not for reading straight through. Pick it up anytime. Choose a poem and then read it out loud: You want your ears to have as much fun as your mouth is having...Once you have opened it, you are likely to find words that are not so much a description as a revelation."

If you  haven't gotten your hands on a copy of this book, CHANGE that! If you want a few more peeks and reviews, check these out:

Julie Danielson at Kirkus Reviews and Seven Imp


Marjorie has today's Poetry Friday roundup of posts at Paper Tigers.

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Addendum -- What I Learned About the Quote in the Title of This Post

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Ghandi

"Gandhi’s words have been tweaked a little too in recent years. Perhaps you’ve noticed a bumper sticker that purports to quote him: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” When you first come across it, this does sound like something Gandhi would have said. But when you think about it a little, it starts to sound more like ... a bumper sticker. Displayed brightly on the back of a Prius, it suggests that your responsibilities begin and end with your own behavior. It’s apolitical, and a little smug.

Sure enough, it turns out there is no reliable documentary evidence for the quotation. The closest verifiable remark we have from Gandhi is this: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.”

Here, Gandhi is telling us that personal and social transformation go hand in hand, but there is no suggestion in his words that personal transformation is enough. In fact, for Gandhi, the struggle to bring about a better world involved not only stringent self-denial and rigorous adherence to the philosophy of nonviolence; it also involved a steady awareness that one person, alone, can’t change anything, an awareness that unjust authority can be overturned only by great numbers of people working together with discipline and persistence." from Falser Words Were Never Spoken by Brian Morton in the New York Times, August 29, 2011.

BULLY by Patricia Polaco

Bully
by Patricia Polacco
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2012

Bullying is a problem that is not going to take care of itself. We need to prepare students with the tools they need to resist peer pressure, to make good decisions, and to stand up for what is right.

Lyla is a new student, but she makes a friend on the first day of school, begins to distinguish herself for good grades and service to the community, and makes the cheerleading squad. The "cool" cheerleaders include Lyla in their group, taking her away from her friend Jamie. Then, she witnesses her new friends cyberbullying Jamie. She stands up for Jamie and stops hanging around with the "cool" girls, but their revenge for this isolates Lyla from the whole student body and focuses the cyberbullying on her.

Jamie stands up for Lyla in the end, providing the information needed to clear her name with the authorities. But the reader is left with the question, "What would you do?" Should Lyla and Jamie return to their school and hope for the best, or should they switch schools for a fresh start?

This book will provide lots to talk about with students in grades 4-8.

Just as important as talking about bullying and strategies to avoid or resist them, are the conversations about all the good we can do in the world -- ways to fight bullying by being the best and kindest people ever. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's poem, "Lets", provides this flip side to the bullying conversation.

WHAT CAN A CRANE PICK UP?

I love Rebecca Kai Dotlich so I pick up every book she writes. I fell in love with Bella and Bean the minute I read it and it is still one of my very favorites.  And I got to spend the day with Rebecca when we both worked with teachers at the Princeton Day School.

Rebecca's new book What Can a Crane Pick Up? is great fun! The book is illustrated by Mike Lowery (who also illustrated one of my other favorites--The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School ).

Kids love trucks and cranes and in this book, Dotlich explores the many things that a crane can pick up.  With Dotlich's wonderful rhythm and rhyme, we learn about things that cranes lift. We see cranes lifting things like trees and bricks. But it is also able to pick up some surprising things!  Rebecca shares them all with us!  And Lowery's illustrations make the book a happy learning experience--even the trucks are smiling!  Dotlich and Lowery make a great team! I am hoping they work together on more books since this one is such fun!

The author blurb in the back of the book mentions that "Rebecca spent some time in a crane while it picked up thousands of Christmas lights to string atop tall buildings!"  What a fun fact for kids to know about this writer and the writing of this book!

Kids are going to love this one. We are getting ready for our first visit with our younger buddies this week and I can imagine lots of kids will want to share this one with their buddies!  After they enjoy it a few times themselves, that is! Then I think it will go on our poetry shelf. Since we have Poetry Friday each week, I know kids will love to revisit this one over and over.

Sharing My Life as a Writer

I wrote a post for the Stenhouse blog on the changes in the way I share my life as a writer with students. If you are interested in reading the post, you can find it on the Stenhouse blog:-)

I LOVE the new book, Ralph Tells a Story  by Abby Hanlon. I ordered it when I heard about it because I can always use new books about kids' writing.  I like to have them handy for minilessons ans small group work. There are lots of books that fit this category but this one is definitely my new favorite.

This book is about writing workshop and poor Ralph who can't think of any ideas.  He spends a long time staring at the blank page, getting drinks of water and asking to go to the restroom.  He just can't think of anything to write.   Of course, as expected, his writer's block is cured but it is cured because he is in the midst of an amazing writing workshop. But the magical thing that ends his writer's block happens during the share session of the workshop--that important time where writers grow.

This is the first time I have seen a book that so perfectly captures the Writers' Workshop.  It captures the joy and the authenticity of this time in a classroom.  It captures the teacher's role and it captures the energy. It captures the conversations and the realities. Somehow in the illustrations, the author/illustrator has captured it all. (The back flap says that she was a classroom teacher, so maybe that's how she captures it so well!

In my opinion, this is a must have. Young children will love it and I am sure it will start great conversations with my upper elementary students too!

And don't forget to check out the end papers!

Poetry Friday: A Passing Hail

A Passing Hail

By James Whitcomb Riley

Let us rest ourselves a bit!

Worry?-- wave your hand to it --

Kiss your finger-tips and smile

It farewell a little while.

Weary of the weary way

We have come from Yesterday,

Let us fret not, instead,

Of the wary way ahead.

Let us pause and catch our breath

On the hither side of death,

While we see the tender shoots

Of the grasses -- not the roots,--

While we yet look down -- not up --

To seek out the buttercup

And the daisy where they wave

O'er the green home of the grave.

Let us launch us smoothly on

The soft billows of the lawn,

And drift out across the main

Of our childish dreams again:

Voyage off, beneath the trees,

O'er the field's enchanted seas,

Where the lilies are our sails,

And our sea-gulls, nightingales:

Where no wilder storm shall beat

Than the wind that waves the wheat,

And no tempest-burst above

The old laughs we used to love:

Lose all troubles -- gain release,

Languor, and exceeding peace,

Cruising idly o'er the vast,

Calm mid-ocean of the Past.

Let us rest ourselves a bit!

Worry? -- Wave your hand to it --

Kiss your finger-tips and smile

It fare well a little while. 

All I can manage this week is a passing hail. If I could pick the place to sit with you and rest ourselves a bit, it might be Winan's Chocolates in German Village. Doesn't get much better than that...unless you are in Belgium, of course!

Renee continues the candy theme with a yummy array of Poetry Friday posts at No Water River.

What Keeps You Going?

Teaching is really hard work.

Not only is it hard, it is relentless. We start most every morning with a meeting, so we better be ready to roll when the students walk in the door. We have short lunch periods (usually accompanied by a duty) and a planning period that is never equal to the amount of work that needs to be done in that time. We spend our days teaching, monitoring, questioning, noticing, grouping, helping, differentiating, showing, telling, encouraging, listening, improvising, answering, documenting...and every now and then we get to sit down for a minute.

So what keeps you going?

For me, it's my recess duty. Fifteen minutes spent outside in the fresh air rejuvenates me. Sure, I'd rather not have the duty, but without that duty, I'd go all day without stepping outside. I love the young naturalists who catch grasshoppers and bring them to show me, and who wonder what kind of bush that is over by the swings that has the red berries on it (Yew -- I looked it up on Google and I'll tell them at recess tomorrow). I love the kickball game when it's going well, and I even love slowly but surely teaching kids in conflict to use their words and talk it out before jumping to conclusions and assigning blame.

What else keeps me going? Reading Elephant and Piggie books with my new-to-the-U.S. ELL student from Saudi Arabia. She's a sponge. She's picking up lots of oral language on her own, but she needs me to (begs me to) sit beside her with Gerald and Piggie so she can echo read with me.

The readers at the other end of the spectrum in my two language arts classes fuel me, too. The ones who have read every Lunch Lady book like they were starving, and the ones who have so much to say after we read Capture the Flag during read aloud.

And I'm energized by my vision of what my language arts classes are going to be like in a few more weeks, when the norms are fully established, the fall diagnostics and assessments are completed, and we really dig in and begin the work of growing readers and writers. We're not there now, but we're going to get there.

What keeps you going?

IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING?

This week, our class decided to join in the fun of IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING! on our class blog. Check it out at Learning Together in 4th Grade!