A Teaching Life

My Y A Picture Book Round Up - Take three!

2012-02-12T23:36:00.002-05:00

Non Fiction Picture Book Challenge is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts

Nonfiction Monday is hosted by Wrapped In Foil

I'm managing to keep up with my YA picture book and nonfiction challenges, and what a pleasure it has been to count among the books I read this week the following:

I, Dred Scott written by Sheila Moses, with illustrations by Bonnie Christensen

The Dred Scott decision remains one of the most shameful in the history of the United States Supreme Court. When we reach this point in our study of American History, my students are simply stunned - what do you mean, they ask, how can a man be deemed property by the highest court in the land???!!! How can that be okay??? Well, it was in 1857.
In this "fictional slave narrative based on the life and legal precedent of Dred Scott," Sheila Moses gives us a first person account of the story of Dred Scott's life and journey in search of his freedom. The front flap copy gives us this succint summary:

Born into slavery in Virginia in the late 1700s, Dred Scott had little to look forward to in life. But he was fortunate in two ways: His first owner was fairly kind to him, and he grew up with his owner's children, forming friendships that he would come to depend on years later. For on April 6, 1846, Dred Scott and his wife, Harriett -- their ownership having changed hands several times during adulthood -- took the dangerous and courageous step to sue for their freedom, entering into legal battles that would last for eleven years. During this time Dred Scott would need all the help and support he could get -- from folks in the community all the way back to the people with whom he had been raised.

But the story, of course, is a long and winding road through our nation's conflicted and treacherous history towards true emancipation for all. For every person determined to keep him in slavery, there were others equally determined to fight to ensure Scott's freedom. Moses' eloquent narrative and Christensen's stunning woodcuts take us through this remarkable story from his boyhood until the day the family of his original owners are at last able to set him free. I think that this is such an important book because Moses' first-person narrative allows the story to come alive for kids today - it personalizes the legalities of the case in a truly authentic way. I know I will use my copy (just ordered from and on its way!) in my Social Studies class when we are studying this particular case, and I know my students will also appreciate and learn much from this powerful story.
You can learn more about Dred Scott here and listen to the historian Eric Foner discuss the case here.

Love Twelve Miles Long, written by Glenda Armand and illustrated by Colin Bootman is a lovely picture book based on the true story of young Frederick Douglass and his mother Harriet Bailey, who, sold away from her son to a plantation twelve miles away, nevertheless makes the journey on foot to see her beloved son as often as she can.

One evening, she tells Frederick the story he loves to hear - how she invests each long mile with just what she needs to make it through: forgetting, the memory of her son, listening to the sounds of the night, looking up at the stars, wondering about God, praying, singing, happy thoughts, dancing, giving thanks, dreaming and love. Frederick knows Mama will be gone when he wakes up in the early morning, but he also knows that her love will sustain him until she can once again make the long journey to see her son.
The paintings are just beautiful - capturing the warmth and love between mother and son perfectly. In his autobiography, s he author notes, Douglass wrote that his mother taught him a powerful lesson: that he was "not only a child, but somebody's child." She believed he would do great things, which indeed he did...thanks in part to her abiding love.

Many have already blogged about Kadir Nelson's brilliant Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans. What an experience! Nelson begins with the Declaration of Independence and concludes, fittingly, with the election of our nation's first African-American President - Barack Obama. It is the arc of our nation's experience towards the true meaning of "we hold these truths to be self evident," and Nelson tells it with clarity as well as deep emotion. As he writes on the books' back cover: "You gotta know where you come from so you can move forward." I imagine using each chapter to cover the African-American experience in our history classes - and the paintings, well, the paintings are to be marveled upon slowly, they are simply sublime.
Here is Nelson describing the genesis of this project:

I also came upon a most unusual picture book: Good Night , Commander written by Ahmad Akbarpour and illustrated by Morteza Zahedi. Originally published in Iran, this is a story about a little boy who loses his leg and his mother to the Iran-Iraq war . Within the confines of his room he assumes he guise of a fearsome Commander, a warrior brave enough to avenge his mother's death in dangerous battles. One night, however, he encounters an enemy soldier who has lost a leg as well...and his nightly adventures are subtly transformed.
In his foreward, the author writes:

The story is set in Iran. But it could be the story of any child in any country where a war is fought for economic, strategic, ideological or other reasons, and in the end leaves everyone far worse off than they were before, especially the innocent victims.

I found this deceptively simple story made for powerful reading, perhaps all the more so because of the unusual illustrations.

Finally, I finished:

Wow...I can see why it won the Newbery Honors!!! I want book club copies for my classroom, now...but will have to wait for the paperback edition.

Launching Historical Fiction : part 3 - wrapping up the read aloud

2012-02-12T09:57:00.000-05:00

By Friday we had come, at last, to the end of our readaloud of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" - and an emotional end it was. There were many time in this process where I questioned the use of this particular book, and the impact of its conclusion. But careful reading and pausing to gauge meaning and character development and author craft really prepared us well. And, as we wrapped up our discussions and prepared for book club selections on Monday, I felt my kids really understood that reading historical fiction requires a process all its own. We learned to:
1. Check our prior knowledge about the historical era and look things up to help us understand the context of events, action.
2. Keep track of the real vs. the fictionalized characters, and the dynamics between them.
3. Chart the character's interior lives - how are they reacting to external events? What is the author trying to say?

4. What is the larger meaning of this book - what message is the author sending us through this particular story, told this particular way?
Our charts were messy and on-going - but they gave us real reference points as we began our reading anew each day:

On Monday, we select our books and brainstorm what we know about the historical era of each title. I'm creating wiki pages for each title, so that my kids can have resources to draw from for checking their information and doing some background research. My hope is that all this work will pay off once book clubs begin, and that discussions and responses will reflect all that work above...we'll see!

Poetry Friday: Finding poetry in the news of the day

2012-02-10T08:32:00.000-05:00

Poetry Friday is hosted by Laura at Writing the World for Kids

Last Friday evening, my radio tuned in to NPR as always, I heard a brand new and very exciting new project launched:

Today marks the start of an exciting project at All Things Considered. Each month we'll be bringing in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end, to compose a poem reflecting on the day's news.
The first poet to participate is Tracy K. Smith. She has received degrees in English and creative writing from Harvard College, Columbia University, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. Her latest book of poems is titled Life on Mars.

What followed was a fascinating glimpse into the artistic process - a poet in search of poetry under extraordinary circumstances. Our news cycle is filled with every day struggles and cataclysmic events. How does a writer pick and choose amongst these and then distill the emotional force of the story into a poem? As the NPR host went about interviewing Tracy Smith and uncovering this process, I found myself listening intently, thinking to myself this is impossible, actually.
Well, I was SO wrong! Tracy Smith followed the news of the day, as assigned, and out of one story that caught her attention came this incredible poem:

'New Road Station'

by Tracy K. Smith

History is in a hurry. It moves like a woman
Corralling her children onto a crowded bus.
History spits Go, go, go, lurching at the horizon,
Hammering the driver's headrest with her fist.
Nothing else moves. The flies settle in place
Watching with their million eyes, never bored.
The crows strike their bargain with the breeze.
They cluck and caw at the women in their frenzy,
The ones who suck their teeth, whose skirts
Are bathed in mud. But history is not a woman,
And it is not the crowd forming in a square.
It is not the bright swarm of voices chanting No

And Now, or even the rapt silence of a room
Where a film of history is right now being screened.
Perhaps history is the bus that will only wait so long
Before cranking its engine and barreling down
The road. Maybe it is the voice coming in
Through the radio like a long distance call.
Or the child in the crook of his mother's arm
Who believes history must sleep inside a tomb,
Or the belly of a bomb.

The poem, of course, stands on its own. But it becomes even more powerful to read its context here - where you can also listen to the poet read her just-written poem.
I will be tuning in to All things Considered for this monthly event from now on, to hear what in that day's news moved a poet and inspired poetry...

Wonderopolis update

2012-02-08T09:17:00.000-05:00

We have been working with Wonderopolis for a whole quarter now, and I am so glad that I took the plunge and went ahead with this particular learning adventure. The daily topics are so high-interest, that this homework assignment is one that they actually like doing - with 493 (as of today) Wonders to choose from, there is something to pique everyone's curiosity, and I think the format is just so student friendly that looking for a Wonder to explore is part of the fun.
The Wonder Trackers we work on help to give a purpose and focus to the explorations. The notebooks below illustrate how engaged my students are, and how our weekly assignments have become a dialogue in nonfiction study.

      The next step, I think, will be both important as well as tricky. Here are some ways in which I could extend this project:
1. Maria at Teaching in the 21st. Century  wrote  a fabulous post about using Wonderopolis in a unit on persuasive writing, this is something I want to take on as well - partly as a skill building exercise for the NJASK.
2. Extending a topic covered by a Wonder into a research project - in other words exploring some of those questions they've already generated in their Wonder Trackers.
3. Creating a Wonder of their own. I will be attending a workshop on digital writing in March, and hope that it will give me the tools (and the confidence!) I will need  to experiment with this project.
     I'm curious about how other teachers have used Wonderopolis in their classrooms...would anyone care to share ideas????

Slice of Life Tuesday: Students notice EVERYTHING!

2012-02-07T08:04:00.000-05:00

Slice of Life Tuesday is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

As most teachers do, I dress for comfort - whatever it is has to work for the kneeling-by-the-side-of-the-desk conferences, or the sitting-on-the-floor-conferences, or the pacing-around-the-room discussion sessions. The most important item has to be the shoes I wear - shoes, I have found, are the key to comfort. So, when I discovered these about a year ago, I knew that I had discovered shoe heaven:

These Bjorn flats go with everything, look fantastic (I think!) and feel like walking on air. They came in seven lovely colors, some basic and some whimsical, and I bought them all. The one pair I wear all the time, especially come winter, is the black one. From the time I leave the house in the morning, to the time I kick them off in the mudroom on the way into our house in the evening, my feet are happy in their flowered glory. Yesterday morning, I plucked the beige pair in my collection just for a better "match" and sashayed off to school.

I thought nothing more of shoes as I stood before my morning class and went over our Monday morning "peek at the week." Until Caitlin, forthright and full of things to take note of, piped up, "Hey, Mrs. Smith...you FINALLY got another pair of shoes!! YAY!!"

Our students notice everything - from new eyeglasses we get to a different haircut (or hair color!)...so I should't be surprised that my class is also paying attention to the shoes I wear .... and had felt some sympathy for my very limited selection.

My Y. A. Picture Book Challenge Round Up - Two Y A picture books on Irena Sendler

2012-02-06T01:19:00.002-05:00

Non Fiction Picture Book Challenge is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts

Nonfiction Monday is hosted by Capstone Connect


It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts

This week I found two picture books on the topic of Irena Sendler, a courageous young Polish social worker who helped nearly four hundred children escape from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Irena's father, a doctor, inspired her though his own life of service. "I was taught by my father," she said, "that when someone is drowning, you don't ask if they can swim, you just jump in and help." Sendler passed away quite recently, and I remembered reading her obituary in the New York Times when I came upon these picture books. The first is , Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto written by Susan Goldman Rubin and illustrated by Bill Farnsworth

Rubin's story begins with the terrifying outbreak of World War II, as Irena and her mother listen to the news on the radio in their Warsaw apartment and immediately realize that their lives are forever changed. A Catholic social worker, Irena does what she can do to tend to the needy. When Poland falls to the Nazis and the Jewish population is confined to the Warsaw Ghetto, Irena risks her life to tend to the suffering there. By July of 1942, the Nazis began removing the children of the ghetto and sending them to the concentration camp at Treblinka. Sendler knew she had to act quickly to help as many children to escape as she could, and she does so with the help of a loyal network of Polish citizens. Her daring mission succeeds, even though Sendler herself is eventually betrayed and is sent to prison where she is tortured and sentenced to death. Somehow, the Resistance is able to bribe their way into securing her freedom - and Sendler, undaunted continues her mission.
Rubin's text and Farnsworth's lovely illustrations tell this story beautifully - through all the difficulties and dangers faced by Sendler and her group, the clarity of the mission remains constant. Rubin ends the book with the remarkable story of Piotr who is rescued by Sendler and finally reunited with his mother after three years of moving from home to home in secret, despairing that he would ever find his family again.

Irena's Jar of Secrets by written by Marcia Vaughn and illustrated by Ron Mazellan

tells the same story in equally compelling text and illustrations. Vaughn adds further details about the jars Irena used to hide the lists she kept of children's names and false identities. These she buried under an apple tree in her friends garden, hoping some day, when the war had ended, that she would be able to reunite families once again. Alas, that was not to be the case, most of the parents of the 2,500 Jewish children who had been rescued by Irena and her intrepid group had perished during the war - some were reunited with remaining family members, others stayed with the non-Jewish families who had been taking care of them, and still others traveled to live in other countries.
In her "Afterword," Vaughn shares something I found both fitting and comforting: Sendler's last years were spent at a nursing home in Warsaw, where she was tended to by Elzbieta Ficowska, one of the babies Sendler had rescued from the Warsaw Ghetto.
In doing some further research about Sendler, I discovered Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project, which is an organization dedicated to "continue to share her legacy through a play, the web site, through schools and study guides, and world media." I imagine this would be a wonderful resource to use in a unit on the Holocaust, or along with units on Anne Frank and World War II. Hallmark also produced what looks to be a wonderful movie about Sendler's life and work, a preview of which can be seen here:

Poetry Friday: discovering "poetry apps"

2012-02-03T12:37:00.000-05:00

Poetry Friday is hosted by Karissa at The Iris Chronicles

For my fifty-something birthday, I received an item I had secretly been pining for: an Apple ipad. It had seemed a foolish thing to pine for, since I already had several computers and laptops scattered in various rooms of our house. But the ipad still sang to me whenever I chanced upon someone enjoying theirs, or heard of someone else finding something marvelous to do with theirs. So, it was a happy day when I held my very own ipad. I can't say that my world has been transformed by this sleek little item, that I have made a creative breakthrough in my writing, or figured out something brilliant to do with it in my classroom - but it certainly has been a LOT of fun to have. My nineteen year old son, salivating over my shiny new gift, urged me to "check out the app store." Being a creature of habit, I checked out every education/teacher app that I could find....and then discovered poetry apps - oh happy day!

The Poetry Foundation app - (their description)

With the Poetry Foundation's universal iOS app, you can now take thousands of poems by classic and contemporary poets with you wherever you go.

From William Shakespeare to César Vallejo to Heather McHugh, the Poetry Foundation's app turns your phone, iPod Touch or iPad into a mobile poetry library:

* Search for old favorites with memorable lines.
* Give your device a shake to discover new poems to fit any mood.
* Save your favorite poems to read and share later—through Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail.
* Read poems by T.S. Eliot, Pablo Neruda, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and many others.

This app allows you to search for poems by poet, by theme (a process called "spinning" - what fun!) and to save favorite poems in files. Somehow, this so much easier than printing poems and saving them in files one can never find when one need it most).

2. Poetry Everywhere By WGBH

Now poetry lovers have a new way of experiencing great poems with a free app.

POETRY EVERYWHERE is a collection of short poetry videos featuring contemporary poets reading their own works, introduced by Garrison Keillor. It’s pure poetry! With easy navigation, this app is a sure way to provide reflection and inspiration.

"What makes a good poem? I’d say stickiness, a kind of memorability....You hear it and a day later some of it is still there in your brain. I think a poem is “good” if it's memorable, reciteable, and it’s accessible. There are many good poems out there you don't get a chance to see or hear and now Poetry Everywhere is giving people just that opportunity." - Garrison Keillor

Keillor's informed and entertaining introductions are wonderful to listen to, and the poems themselves are gems - especially because they are linked to videos of the poet's reading/recitations which makes the experience so immediate and meaningful. Here, for ecample is Mark Doty reading Brian, Age 7

Here is the poem:
Brian Age Seven
By Mark Doty
Grateful for their tour
of the pharmacy,
the first-grade class
has drawn these pictures,
each self-portrait taped
to the window-glass,
faces wide to the street,
round and available,
with parallel lines for hair.

I like this one best: Brian,
whose attenuated name
fills a quarter of the frame,
stretched beside impossible
legs descending from the ball
of his torso, two long arms
springing from that same
central sphere. He breathes here,

on his page. It isn’t craft
that makes this figure come alive;
Brian draws just balls and lines,
in wobbly crayon strokes.
Why do some marks
seem to thrill with life,
possess a portion
of the nervous energy
in their maker’s hand?
(you can read the rest here).

It's thrilling to know that I can now take delight in experiencing poetry in this way even as I wait outside my daughter's SAT tutor's house/dentist/voice lessons, etc.....as long as I have my ipad!

Slice of Life Tuesday: Being deliberate...reflecting upon my OLW

2012-01-31T10:31:00.001-05:00

Slice of Life Tuesday is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

Today's slice is doing double duty - as a slice of life, and a reflection of how my OLW has guided my thinking in the month of January. The second idea is the brainchild of

Maria @ ttp://teachingin21.blogspot.com/ , who thought it would be interesting to see how our OWLs had interfaced with our teaching lives this month, and in this endeavor we are joined by Melissa @ Technology: figuring out how the pieces fit and Tracy @ Thinking Stems .

     I had selected the word deliberate after much thought, because I loved the fact that it spoke to me both as a noun and as a verb...and because I felt that my teaching ideas box had become so stuffed with possibilities, that I needed to really focus on choosing what I did with more intentionality and to evaluate all options more carefully.
     So... I began to be more deliberate with my historical fiction unit of study - before I launched book clubs in this genre, I decided to introduce the unit with an in depth readaloud of a title my kids have loved to read but really struggled with in years past - John Boyne's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." Even though so many of them knew quite a bit about World War II, there were many times when their comprehension broke down because they just didn't have the background information to connect the story with what really transpired in history. We did a lot of pre-reading brainstorming to figure out what we already knew, and then I interlaced each reading with Prezi presentations of maps and photographs so that my kids could visualize what they were listening to and taking notes about. We created charts and mind maps to track our thinking, as well - other ways in which to be deliberate about the reading process. I had done pieces of all of the above before, but this time I went slower.
     We are about 3/4 of the way through the book now, and what I notice is how my kids are paying much closer attention to the subtleties in the story. Our map work and our peeks at aerial shots of Auschwitz have given my kids a better understanding of the way the main character views the camp beyond his fence - they can "see" what he sees. Our deliberate work with mind mapping also allows them to experience events in the book as the ten year old main character does - they realize that how he begins to connect the dots and reach conclusions.
   Yesterday, we after we had completed a few more chapters and were wrapping up our discussions, one of my students suddenly smacked his forehead and yelled, "So that's what that was all about!" Needless to say, everyone stopped short and wanted to know why the heck he was so excited. "I finally get why Bruno's dad was so mad at that Kotler guy's father for leaving Germany in 1938!!" We had talked about "Anschluss" before that section of the read aloud - so Will was able to connect the dots. I was especially happy about this because he had been one of those students who "just didn't get" so much of the book when he'd read it last year. It had been an exercise in frustration then...but now he was loving it, and one of the ones who protested the loudest whenever we came to the end of the day's reading.
     Yes, this deliberate pace is time consuming, but I've learned that it's made the entire process so much more meaningful. Now, I am busy creating wiki -pages for each of their book club selections, so that when we finally get around to making our selections each group can go about researching the history behind their titles and making their book club choices meaningful explorations of historical fiction, too. Being deliberate may have kept us from spelling and grammar for a bit (much to my kids' great delight, I might add), but it's made our reading experience of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" so much richer!

My Y. A. Picture Book Challenge Round Up

2012-01-30T00:18:00.001-05:00

Non Fiction Picture Book Challenge is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts

Non Fiction Monday is hosted by Wendie's Wanderings

My stack of Y A picture books included tow new title about the environment, which made the conservationist in me quite happy to see among the bookshelves in the first place:

My interest in Thomas Yezerski's Meadowlands : A Wetlands Survival Story is rather personal; after all, I live in New Jersey and pass through the Meadowlands on my way to New York City so often. Formed where the Hakensack River and Passaic Rivers empties into Newark Bay, this area of wetlands once covered 20,00 acres of land and was home to a thriving ecosystem that included many species of plants and animals. The Lenni Lenape tribe lived here , too - until the Dutch arrived, the first wave of explorers and settlers to begin the process of "improving" the marshes and depleting its natural resources. By 1985, highways and factories and full scale dumping of toxic chemicals had shrunk the Meadowlands to less than 7,000 acres of a polluted, debris-strewn area where little could thrive.

Through clearly written and beautifully illustrated text, Yezerski tells the story of it's slow but steady revival (once the state of New Jersey realized that "the Meadowlands had deteriorated into one of the worst places in America, and was giving New Jersey a bad reputation"). Each positive step by man was rewarded by nature herself - slowly plants and fish and birds began to return and thrive once again. By July of 2007, "for the first time in fifty years, a young osprey - a bird of prey-leaped out and took flight from a nest its parents had built in the Meadowlands."

This was an inspiring story to read; I loved the way the author captured all the season's of the Meadowland's life - from its pristine beginnings to its most polluted to the way it looks today. I know my students will be interested in reading about this natural miracle taking place just at our doorstep. There is also an interesting interview with the author here.

Along the same lines of ecosystems and the importance of conservation, is Allan Drummond's Energy Island: How one Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World.

Drummond's illustrations, as always, are just a joy to view. In this case, they are the perfect vehicle to help tell the remarkable story of the Danish island of Samso - in the middle of Denmark and in the middle of the sea, it is blessed with many wonderful things, including a strong and steady wind. A science teacher by the name of Soren Hermansen was selected by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy to lead an energy independence project based in Samso.

After much thinking and debating and thinking some more, the town turns to wind turbines,and soon achieves its goal - energy independence!

Drummond concludes his inspiring story this way:

"And what can you do to make a difference on your island?

What's that? You don't live on an island?

Well, maybe you think you don't live on an island but actually you do. We all do.

We're all islanders on the biggest island of them all-planet Earth. So it's up to us to figure out how to save it."

Indeed. I appreciated the way Drummond included more detailed information along side panels throughout the book - for instance, did you know that windmills were first invented 1,00 years ago by the Persians in order to grind corn and pump water? Readers can learn how turbines are built and what causes the greenhouse effect, even as they follow the story of how one little town in Denmark took on and solved such a huge challenge.

I also read Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, written by Monica Brown and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Myra at Gathering Books had just blogged about this, and I was hooked (partly by the rich illustrations, and partly because I love Neruda).

What is not to love about a boy "who loved wild things wildly and quiet things quietly" and who becomes a man "heard across nations and oceans", whose "poems grew flowers of hope and dreams of peace?" This one is a keeper for my poetry section - I can see introducing Neruda with this book and its stunning illustrations.

Finally, I'd like to share Walking Home to Rosie Lee, written by A. LaFaye and illustrated by Keith Shepherd.

The Civil War has ended, and while everyone around him is busy "getting the feel for freedom," young Game sets out to find his mother. His journey takes him many months of weary travel, with nothing but the dream of seeing his mother again to keep him going. Everywhere he finds himself he asks for his mama, his Rosie Lee. And his tenacity pays off...he discovers her at last, and they pray for "all those boys like me searching for their mamas who be searching for them."

In her afterword, the author writes that she "wrote 'Walking Home to Rosie Lee' to celebrate the strength, love, and determination it took for families to find each other at the end of the Civil War. I also wrote it to start filling the gap in children's literature that should be overflowing with a wide variety of such stories." She's right, of course, this IS a gap in YA lit, as least as far as I know. Although it is book better suited to the elementary grades, "Walking Home to Rosie Lee" is a title I may refer my kids to as a starting point for an inquiry circle, perhaps. It will definitely get them interested in and moved by the topic.

To Pinterest or not to Pinterest????!

2012-01-28T16:03:00.000-05:00

So many teacher-bloggers have been raving about this site that I simply had to check it out. And it IS fun...lots to check out and "pin." I even created a board all of my own, and found some wonderful teaching anchor charts to "pin" - but then what? I guess I'm trying to figure out how to best use this new internet resource in a smart, resourceful way. Blogging has been a wonderful way to connect to a whole new community of teachers, I'm wondering how Pinterest will work. Any ideas suggestions?

Poetry Friday : The Favorite Poem Project

2012-01-26T22:56:00.000-05:00

Poetry Friday is hosted by Jim Hill at Hey, Jim Hill!

We just finished a unit on Langston Hughes on Thursday with the sublime "Minstrel Man."

Because my mouth

Is wide with laughter

And my throat

Is deep with song,

You do not think

I suffer after

I have held my pain

So long?

Because my mouth

Is wide with laughter,

You do not hear

My inner cry?

Because my feet

Are gay with dancing,

You do not know

I die?

— “Minstrel Man” Langston Hughes
After putting the poem into its historical context, we read it together and discussed its beauty and its content. Then we watched this, a segment from the Favorite Poem Project, which gave the poem an entirely new perspective:

You can find the collection of poetry videos from the series here. There's something so moving about hearing a poem recited by someone who knows and loves each and every line- you get to feel their experience of the poem, too. My students, for instance, came to think about "Minstrel Man" in a different light once they'd heard Pov Chin's highly personal interpretation of the poem. We had wonderful discussions today, and my kids now want to compile a "Favorite Poem Project" for our class, too. They were so excited that we watched one more video, Theodore Roethke's "The Sloth", read by the delightful Katherine:

The Sloth by Theodore Roethke

In moving-slow he has no Peer.
You ask him something in his Ear,
He thinks about it for a Year;

And, then, before he says a Word
There, upside down (unlike a Bird),
He will assume that you have Heard--

A most Ex-as-per-at-ing Lug.
But should you call his manner Smug,
He'll sigh and give his Branch a Hug;

Then off again to Sleep he goes,
Still swaying gently by his Toes,
And you just know he knows he knows.

My personal favorite is Roethke's beautifully evocative "My Papa's Waltz":

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother’s countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

Still clinging to your shirt.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;I &amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

We bring so much our ourselves to the experience of reading poetry - each poem is such a personal experience. These videos (we watched the first two) were a good lesson about this idea for my sixth graders. We've given ourselves a month to think about the poem each of us will select for this class project - enough time, I think, to identify the one, learn it and find a way to share what it means to us.

A day in sixth grade...linking up to other classrooms

2012-01-26T12:28:00.001-05:00

I'm linking up with Katie Klohn's "A Day in My Shoes"..so here it is...as of yesterday

5:00 up and out with the dog for a walk around the block.

5:45 - 7:00 Running around like mad getting ready, doing the 101 things necessary to get my family up and organized for the day - lunch, dinner, dog and house all sorted out as best as I can.

7:10 - 7:40 In my classroom! We are doing a unit on photo essays in our writing workshop classes, so I post the minilesson on the easel, organize the mentor text pieces I want to share and line up access to the media center for our workshop use. I respond to emails and chat with a steady stream of sixth graders - some with questions, some with issues and some who just want to yak.

7:40 - 8:30 Redo our historical fiction charts to reflect our last conversations.
Prepare for an IEP meeting later in the day. Read and comment on 15 Reading Journals - one student just finished "The Count of Monte Cristo", and his response was five pages long!!!
8:30 - 11:03  Morning Block begins - we start with Writing Workshop: first with a mini lesson and then my kids begin working on their photo essays while I circulate and confer. Writing Workshop ends and we segue into Social Studies. We are preparing for a unit test, so we spend the period creating a study guide together. Finally, it's time for Language Arts, we review vocabulary homework and then grammar. My kids are not too fond of grammar, so we break it up with parts of speech stations and sentence smackdown...keep them moving, keep them awake! With the half hour left, we return to our read aloud: "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." The bell rings and out they go calling goodbyes.
11:03 - 12:10 IEP  meeting. We don't seem to get much resolved, and I can tell that the parents are not happy. The legal hurdles it takes to get a 504 are always daunting - especially when Federal dollars are few.
12:15 - 12:40 Lunch!!! I could hear my tummy rumbling all through the meeting...I could hear my bowl of "Amy's Brown Rice and Steamed Vegetables" whispering sweet nothings all the way from my classroom all meeting long - so I devour my lunch quite happily. This is also a great time to read the progressive news blogs online and catch up on teaching blogs. I'm halfway through an interesting piece of news when the bell rings and in they come....
12:40 - 3:05 Afternoon block. We repeat the morning schedule, but my kids have a surprise. It had been my birthday the day before and the cat got out of the bag - so, a plot had been hatched unbeknownst to me. Two students asked to leave during Language Arts - they needed to see their Home Ec teacher. Not happy in the least about this, I let them go...but frowns turn to smiles as they return bearing the fruits of their Home Ec project - just-baked apple-cinnamon muffins! YUM!!! We pause to munch and glory in this unexpected but so welcome treat...and then it's back to work.
3:05  The bell rings...dismissal!!! We're having a Junior Honor's Society meeting in my room - and hyper active sixth grade bodies give way to slouching, cool-as-cucumber eight graders. Meeting over, I turn to two students there for extra help and begin reviewing for the Social Studies test.
4:00  Race home to walk and feed the dog. She makes a new friend and finds a new place to pee and a perfect stick to chase. All is well again in Sophie's world!
4:30 - 8:30 Pick up my daughter from the high school and commence the schelepping - music lesson, chiropractor, grocery store so we can eat something for dinner. Run home and get dinner in the oven and then off schlepping again - SAT tutor, a-forgot-something-at-school run.
8:30 - 10:00(ish) Dinner, a load of laundry, then harrass my daughter into cleaning the hovel that is her room. I watch the news with my husband, and settle into catching up with emails while he practices guitar - nice!he's getting so much better!!
10:00 - 12:45 Log onto to the school portal and begin commenting on my students' "Slice of Life" entries for the week. I tweak a lesson, finish a chapter of the professional development book I'm reading....and call it a day.

Slice of Life Tuesday: When a book you read is a window into your parent's life

2012-01-24T09:54:00.001-05:00

Slice of Life Tuesday is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

Yesterday, I shared a review about Eugene Yelchin's new novel, Breaking Stalin's Nose. This much-anticipated-in-my-reading-life book arrived in our last purchase order, and I opened the box to squeals of delight and anticipation in my afternoon class - book orders are a BIG DEAL in my room, right up there with "candy for no particular reason" and "homework holidays." we opened the box, spread its contents across desks, and I went about the delicious process of explaining why I chose each title for our library and what special treasures I believe each book contained for us.

Avi gravitated right to Eugene's book - he studied the cover, the flap copy and the illustrations thoughtfully, and then asked if he could check the book out right away. Delighted, I said "Yes!" right away - but there was something about the intensity of his interest that made me curious. So I asked if he'd share what drew him to this book in such a powerful way.

"My dad grew up in Russia," he said, "this sort of reminds me of things he's talked about. I think he'd kinda like to read it, too." So off Avi went with Eugene's brand new book. He burst into my classroom the next day and announced that not only did he love the book, but that his father did, too! Much of what Eugene writes so brilliantly about had been experiences his Dad was familiar with, had witnessed, had felt. Because the book is told from ten year old Sasha's perspective, and because Avi's father was reading along with him and able to connect and expand upon the story, father and son were able to share a piece of their history -what it had been like to grow up in Soviet Russia.
Eugene's website allowed Avi to see up close all those little things so familiar to his father - the Young Pioneer kerchief, the type of desk and classroom, Lubyanka prison, what the Secret Police looked like - and so utterly unfamiliar to him. And Sasha's story allowed Avi insight into his father's life - what it must have been like to grow up in a cultural atmosphere that promoted false truths, where your neighbor or your relative just might be the person who will turn you in to save their own skins. Avi had much to think about...and much to say...this wonderful book has opened up a whole new line of thinking and conversation in Avi's family, and I am just marveling anew about the power of literature.
UPDATE:
Oh my word....Eugene's book just won the Newbery Honor!!!

Book Review: Breaking Stalin's Nose, Eugene Yelchin

2012-01-23T15:41:00.001-05:00

It's Monday! What are you reading?? is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts

I've been sidetracked by adult fiction and professional reading this week, but I did manage (at last!) to get to a book I've been so looking forward to reading: Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin. I had blogged some time ago about some of the other books Eugene has illustrated, but this is his first novel, and the subject matter comes from his own life experiences in the former Soviet Union.

Breaking Stalin's Nose is the story of Sasha Zaichik, who idolizes both his father and his father's boss: Stalin. Through his ten year old eyes, the world revolves around "the great Leader and Teacher" who works night and day to ensure that the good workers of the Soviet Union march "forward and ever forward to Communism." It seems to be a world in which there is much that Sasha doesn't fully understand but is convinced, nevertheless, is just and fair and leading towards a bright future. Sasha's greatest dream is to wear the red kerchief that signifies his membership in the Young Pioneers - Stalin's dauntless youth brigade. To make matters even better, none other than his own father will have the privilege of tying the scarf during this important ceremony in front of his entire school. Sasha is simply bursting with pride and excitement.

But, the night before this special event, Sasha's world is suddenly upended and all that once seemed safe and true vanishes.

As Sasha tells his story, we are transported into Soviet Russia - where everyone is a suspect, and truth is sacrificed for the exigencies of survival. Yelchin captures Sasha's innocence beautifully - the reader knows far more than he does, and can see where the story is going....but one hopes because one has grown to truly love this little boy.

The nightmarish unravelling of Sasha's life makes for powerful reading. His story also allows us to ask important questions about power, fear and what we take to be true. In Yechin's afterword, he writes, "I set this story in the past, but the main issue in it transcends time and place. To this day, there are places in the world where innocent people face persecution and death for making a choice about what they believe to be right."

Yelchin's illustrations are nothing short of remarkable - he has a way of capturing facial expressions that reveal complex thought, joy, hope and terror. These illustrations lent so much to the book's reading experience.

Breaking Stalin's Nose would be an excellent choice for a middle school historical fiction study. Yelchin's website is full of just the sort of details and information that one could share with one's students in order to make them aware of the historical framework of the novel.

Poetry Friday: Deborah Warren - Marginalia

2012-01-19T22:56:00.000-05:00

Poetry Friday is hosted by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader

I went through old books in my office the other day, trying to clear away a bookshelf and make space for a table upon which to set the contents of the bags I bring home from school every night - my stacks of reading journals and writers notebooks and tests to be read through, annotated and corrected. As someone who loves books, buys lots of them and reads lots of them, I find it really difficult to make that decision to actually part with my books - even though I will probably not ever read this or that particular book again... The books I have the hardest time deciding what to do with are those I bought in my long ago student days - the ones filled with earnest questions and notes. Deborah Warren's poem is about just that....

Marginalia by Deborah Warren

Finding an old book on a basement shelf—

gray, spine bent—and reading it again,

I met my former, unfamiliar, self,

some of her notes and scrawls so alien

that, though I tried, I couldn't get (behind

this gloss or that) back to the time she wrote

to guess what experiences she had in mind,

the living context of some scribbled note;

or see the girl beneath the purple ink

who chose this phrase or that to underline,

the mood, the boy, that lay behind her thinking—

but they were thoughts I recognized as mine;

and though there were words I couldn't even read,

blobs and cross-outs; and though not a jot

remained of her old existence—I agreed

with the young annotator's every thought:

A clever girl. So what would she see fit

to comment on—and what would she have to say

about the years that she and I have written

since—before we put the book away?

design by artsyville

Social Studies: Interactive Supreme Court Sites

2012-01-18T21:38:00.001-05:00

We arrived at our investigation of Marbury vs. Madison this week, so this afternoon I called up my old Power Point presentation to practice taking us all on our virtual tour of the Supreme Court tomorrow. I can't even remember how many hours it took me to put this together - to find the links, the photographs, the videos, the everything-needed-to-make-this interesting stuff that will make my kids understand how truly cool our Supreme Court is.

Once I began viewing the presentation, I couldn't help but feel that it was somewhat....well, lame. So I set about converting this Power Point into a Prezi with some new stuff to make it more interesting, and came upon these amazing sites - all about the Supreme Court, it's history and it's present day workings:

1. The Oyez Project - this site "walks" you up those grand stairs and into the building - you can view close ups and panoramic views, and get a wonderfully real sense of the grandeur of this place.

2. Also at the Oyez Project is a recording of the "Oyez" call to order. I love sharing this with my kids - it's such a neat way to get that "you are right there" feeling.

3. C-Span has its own Supreme Court site which shows the history of its building, interviews with the Justices and glimpses into the robing room, the filing room and the justices' offices. How cool is that?!

So - away with the old Power Point and on with these interactive sites!

Slice of Life Tuesday: Sharing student slices

2012-01-17T06:34:00.000-05:00

Slice of Life Tuesday is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

We have been slicing away every Friday in my sixth grade Writing Workshop classes - and every week I am reminded once again how much this experience allows my kids to grow as writers and as a writing community. By Monday, everyone has read each others slices, and we vote for our favorite Slice of Life. The room is usually buzzing with compliments and excited comments - a favorite line is recalled here, a funny story recounted there, it's great fun to listen in (and it validates the entire purpose behind using this writing exercise in our workshop). Our Slice of Life project has become an important part of our class identity. This Tuesday, I'd like to share just a few samples of these slices (some with student comments) - mostly because I am so proud of my kids and the writing they push themselves to accomplish, and also because they are so entertaining to read!

Rachel: Change of Plans

As I slipped on my puffy black winter coat, I thought about what fun it would be to finally go out to dinner with my WHOLE family on a Saturday night. Talking and eating delicious food were only some of the things that I was looking forward to. I hadn't done this in a while, since my dad had been away for ten days. I was barely used to having him home again since he had just returned from New Hampshire the day before. Just as we were ready to walk out the door, my dad's cell phone rang.
"Hello?" he answered in a professional voice. I knew this meant it was someone from his work. I wondered who and what it was about. I watched my dad's familiar face suddenly fall, like a scoop of ice cream falling off the cone to the ground.
"Ok." He replied back to the unknown caller.
"I'll book the earliest flight possible." He hung up the phone and immediately started to get ready to leave.
" I've got to go to Rome." He said to us in a disappointed voice. Rome? I knew it. My dad was always called unexpectedly for emergency news stories. The calls always seemed to come at the worst times. This was just another one of the many moments that my dad was pulled away from us. Another trip. All of a sudden, sadness flooded through me. It washed away all of the happiness, excitement, and optimism that ever existed. I watched my dad make many more phone calls.
'How long will he be gone?' I thought. 'What about watching football on Sunday?' I hugged him goodbye as hard as I could, even though he was still on the phone.
"See you soon." I whispered trying not to sound upset. After all, it wasn't his fault he had to leave. I struggled to hold tears back as I thought about what the night would be like without him. Tonight was supposed to be our night out. Tonight was supposed to be special. <<

· Madalyn: Nice job! I loved how you described how much you were going to miss your dad and how that rush of sadness flooded through you. Also you had a excellent ending. Great slice!
· Catherine: I thought you did a really great job. I love the way you described how you were ready to say goodbye when he said I will book the earliest flight. Great job

Nicholas : Christmas Tree

Every year my family puts up our Christmas Tree! It is always so pretty and beautiful when I look at it. But like every year, there comes a time when my family must take it down. This was that day.

We started by taking down the ornaments, almost every single one had sentimental value! I took down a round ornament that I saw and started packing it up. Just then I remembered something.
"Hey guys" I said to my Mom, sister and brother. "Do you remember when I dropped this ornament 5 years ago and Dad had to fix it?"

My family remembered and we kept packing up ornaments.

"Wait!" said my sister. "Look at this! Do you remember how we got this ornament from my friend as a Christmas gift?"

We continued packing.
"I remember," my Mom started. "When I was searching for this icicle looking ornament and I went to the store and they just had one package? I am so glad I took it!"
We all agreed.
"Hey" Stephen said, a little unsure, "didn't we get this when I was born?"

"Yes" My Mom said!

This shows how even the littlest things can have so much meaning to us sometimes.

Michael: The Golden Apple
I was apple picking with my family on a breezy autumn day when an amazing golden apple caught my eye. The apple was absolutely magnificent and right away I knew I had to have it. The gleaming apple was on the top of a sturdy tree that towered over me and as I looked all along the tree the branches seemed to get farther and farther away from each other. Even though the climb looked tough I had to do it, I needed to know what that Golden Delicious would taste like.

When I finally had my feet planted I took a big bite out of the grapefruit sized apple. After that bite my mouth started to tingle, the apple was the juiciest, sweetest, and most succulent apple I'd ever had.

Rachel: I really like all of your descriptions about the apple- where it was, what it looked like, and how you felt determined to get it. I also like your simile. This was a great slice.
Isha: Wow! After reading that slice, I'm hungry for an apple! You described it really well . . . it made me feel like I was there!
William: Thank god the apple was good!
Amanda: Wow, you’re a good writer. I love the suspense of you getting to your reward. Also how you said you felt a tickle in your mouth I thought it was a worm!
Emily: I love the way you described as you were climbing the tree so you could get that one apple that you thought would be the best apple you have ever tasted, and I bet you were right in your own way.reply

We've collected nine weeks worth of slices, and I am already planning on the portfolio I will assemble and find some creative and appealing way to package for my sixth graders come June - it will be a treasured memento of our year of being a writing community.

Monday - The Reading Challenge Roundups

2012-01-16T09:05:00.001-05:00

It's Monday...What are you reading?? is hosted by Book Journey

Nonfiction Monday is hosted by The Swimmer Writer today.

So, in having enthusiastically signed up for all the reading challenges at the beginning of the month, I neglected to take into account one important factor: Murphy's Law. Last week was pretty much spent just trying to get through each day ... and my reading life took a back seat. Here's what I did manage to squeeze in:

1. 300 pages of Cutting For Stone . Abraham Verghese's novel won rave reviews when it was first published, and went on my "must read list" right away. From the jacket copy:

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles--and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

Although the medical descriptions (Verghese is a doctor after all) can be a little too detailed for me at times, the story is so compelling and beautifully written that I find myself completely transported to Madras, India and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the intertwined lives of these characters . A great read - and it is good to be enjoying adult fiction again!

2. Maira Kalman's Looking at Lincoln. This picture book biography of Lincoln is told through the perspective of a little girl who sees a man resembling Lincoln and goes on a quest to learn more about this remarkable man. I first learned of Kalman's unique way of telling a story through art and text through her New York Times blog "And The Pursuit of Happiness" - she is a visual columnist there (what a totally cool job!). Her vibrant, quirky and utterly appealing artwork is hard to resist - I can spend hours just looking at her paintings - and her highly personalized way of telling her story (great examples of "thoughts and feelings" lessons for writing workshop) makes you fall in love with her various subjects (Jefferson, Franklin...and Lincoln). I loved Lincoln before...and now (through Kalman) even more so...

Here is a reading of the book to give you some idea of the richness of text and art:

3. We are reading John Boynes' The Boy in the Striped Pajamas for our historical fiction genre study, and I re-read the book in preparation for this. Although I remember the story well, using it as a readaloud necessitates knowing it in a whole new way - where to pause, where to provide more information, where to stop and open a line of discussion. The jacket description reads:

This work was set in Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

I have not seen the movie version of this book, although some of my students have. The unusual perspective and the power of the story and its historical context itself make this such a special book to read and think about...especially with a class full of rapt students.

4. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. One of my sixth graders insisted that I read this bookon Thursday night so that we could talk about it during our reading conferences on Friday...so I did, and was so very glad!

Based on the true story of Salva Dut, one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan airlifted to the U.S. and safety in the '90s, this is one of those books you have to read in one sitting - which I did. Here are the author and subject discussing this must-have book:

...and here is Salva's website: Salva's Story, which my students now want to explore and participate in.

I'm hoping the new week brings calm and therefore more opportunities to read and live up to my reading challenge goals!

Poetry Friday: The round up is here!!!

2012-01-12T23:29:00.020-05:00

Welcome to Poetry Friday! I've been "saving" this poem for today, in anticipation of all the new poets we will be introduced to during the course of the day:

A New Poet

Finding a new poet
is like finding a new wildflower
out in the woods. You don't see

its name in the flower books, and
nobody you tell believes
in its odd color or the way

its leaves grow in splayed rows
down the whole length of the page. In fact
the very page smells of spilled

red wine and the mustiness of the sea
on a foggy day - the odor of truth
and of lying.

And the words are so familiar,
so strangely new, words
you almost wrote yourself, if only

in your dreams there had been a pencil
or a pen or even a paintbrush,
if only there had been a flower.

Linda Pastan

I'll be checking my comments all day and posting your contributions before school, after school, and whenever I catch a moment in between teaching my sixth graders.

....and the roundup:

Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) has two poems to share, one for kids at Father Goose and one for the rest of us at Bald Ego.

Robyn Hood Black is celebrating a new year of Haiku at Read, Write, Howl .

Linda at TeacherDance is using her One Little Word as inspiration to collect some magnificent poems of comfort.

Greg shares an original poem the title alone of which is sure to pique interest: The Evolution of the Toilet (A Brief History)!

Tabatha marks the 600th. anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc with a poem in her honor at The Opposite of Indifference.

Myra posts a 2-in-one-special - a review of Shel Silverstein at Gathering Books.

Mary Lee adds to A Reading Year's weeklong series on digital mentor texts in the writing workshop with a post on digital POETRY mentor texts.

Carol is in today with a review of DEAR HOT DOG, one of the CYBILS finalists in the Poetry Category.

Sorry folks, I'm having real issues with Blogger today, but here's the next set of contributions:

Katya found some lovely poems as she was cleaning out her studio, lucky for us!

Diane Mayr at Random Noodling explore Emily Dickinson haikus among other treasures.

Laura Salas is in with student written odes today.

Jama treats us to a Nancy Scott poem and a recipe.

Ed DeCaria makes his Poetry Friday debut with a poem that takes us back to the holidays. Welcome Ed!

Amy shares a review of a "newish old favorite"!

Irene Latham gifts us an original poem inspired by a post on Jeannine Atkinson's blog.

Elaine is in with an original fairy tale poem written in the form of a FAX from Cinderella to Prince Charming (fun!) at Wild Rose Reader.

I'll check in again at lunch for the next batch of poets and poems!

Jeannine Atkins gives us lots to think about as she turns from writing poetry to writing novels at her blog Views From A Window Seat.

Also new to Poetry Friday, Renee shares one of her charming children's poems . Welcome, Renee!

The Write Sisters are doggin' it over at their blog with a doggie poem AND and adorable picture of Cooper!

Sally at Paper Tigers shares a post on Linda Sue Park's Bee-Bim-Bop.

David Elzey shares an original poem about a house in his neighborhood . Thank you for your patience in posting, Daid - Blogger seems to be experiencing difficulty (or maybe it's just because this is my first time hosting!)

Mandy is in with a triolet (that's a new one for me!) at WriteOnTheWorld.

Tabatha intrigues us with a poet who is both new and old and the same time.

Whew...I think I've rounded up everyone who has posted until this moment (11:44) - off to teach a unit on the photo essay and I'll be back to include everyone else!

Catherine, at The Cath in the Hat (love that blog title!) joins us for the first time with a review of The Hound Dog's Haiku. Welcome!

Jim shares a "quirky, personal and/or just-plain-weird offering for the week" - lots of fun!

At Readertotz Lorie Ann has a poem perfect for Friday the 13th., and a haiku for us to enjoy at On Point.

Andi is in with another gorgeous haiku and photograph for us to enjoy at A Wrung Sponge.

Karen shares a video about something we can all relate to: The Joy of Books!

Jone shares a poem by William Stafford ...and another adorable doggie photograph - Buster!

April at Teaching Authors is in with a book giveaway contest and interview with author/illustrator Barney Saltzberg, who talks about what he tells his students regarding writing rhyming stories. He also
shares a poem about bullying.

Ruth shares a beautiful photograph (truly!) and a companion William Carlos Williams poem.

Sit at typewriter is in with an original poem.

Amy at The Poem Farm shares an original poem about finding luck and throwing eyelashes.

Jan contributes mentor texts at BookSeeStudio.