Pigeons on their perch #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday, all! Kathryn Apel is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday roundup on her blog, Kat’s Whiskers. Kat has embarked on a poem-a-day challenge (WOW!) and you can catch her first week of installments on her blog. They are stunning Instagram posts. 

This week I am attending a week-long institute with several district colleagues at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Each morning I arrive early to get in a bit of writing and thinking time. I like to ease into my day whenever possible. 

My favorite perch has become a window seat on the 2nd floor of Starbucks with an almost bird’s eye view of busting Harvard Square. I’ve noticed, as sky becomes illuminated, the pigeons gather on a ledge above the entrance to the Harvard Coop, Harvard’s fabulous bookstore-and-so-much-more. Each day as I observed them and the world coming to life down below, I found myself wondering what they notice about our human world. After recording similar observations in my notebook daily, the following bubbled up to the surface. 

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Thanks for wondering and wandering a bit with me today. I hope you’ll join us on this Poetry Friday by posting a bit of poetry — your’s or someone else’s — and leaving a comment here or there. Cheers!

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Call the Cops! #SOL19

 

“The Police were involved.” No teacher out of the building for a week-long PD institute wants to receive a text from their sub with those words in it. Especially when they are a Kindergarten teacher!

Here’s what went down.

• Kindergarten boy asks to use hallway bathroom when classroom bathroom is occupied.
• Said Kindergarten boy doesn’t return after reasonable amount of time.
• Sub goes in search of said boy and can’t find anywhere.
• When returning to classroom to tell co-teacher boy can’t be found, sub finds said boy hiding under coats in cubby area. Said boy find this hilarious. Sub does not.
• Sub scolds boy and then hauls him to School Counselor’s office. Counselor is running the show while the Principal is with me at PD.
• Counselor scolds boy. As she is sending sub and boy back to class, she spots School Safety Officer making his rounds and calls him over.
• Safety Officer scolds boy and then sends him and sub back to class.
• Mom and Dad aren’t amused when they learn of said child’s inappropriate and unsafe choice.
• Said boy significantly scared within an inch of his not-quite-6-year-old self.

How was your Monday?

 

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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday. Won’t you join us?

#OneLittleWord #SOL19

Happy New Year! The first day of the new year seems to be the perfect time to share my One Little Word (OLW) for 2019 and reflect on 2018’s word — write. (Click here to see a brief video of how a OLW can be a thread that weaves its way through life’s tapestry.)

Write I did! As much as I would have liked? No, but does anyone ever accomplish as much as they would hope? Enough to feel good about? Yes! A few highlights included:

• keeping a daily writing notebook, special projects mini note books, and launching my first bullet journal specifically to capture and nurture ideas for future (or not!) use
• participating in my first month-long February Daily Poem Project on Facebook, an ekphrastic poetry challenge spearheaded by author/poet Laura Shovan throughout the month
• slicing daily in my second Slice of Life (SOL) Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers blog, writing 31 straight daily posts
• writing alongside (albeit virtually) author/poet Amy Ludwig VanDerwater during her National Poetry Month Project in April, writing and sharing a new poem every day, each highlighting a different poetic technique discussed in her brilliant Poems Are Teachers (Heinemann, 2017)

That was three straight months of daily writing, creating, and publishing. By May, I was exhausted, but strangely energized, so I also:

• continued to post to #SOL and #PoetryFriday (almost) weekly
• discovered Teach Write and wrote two #TeachWrite Chat Blog posts, which you can read here (Poetry Midwifery in Kindergarten) and here (What I Believe About Writing)
• took my first Teach Write Academy online class in July and August and signed up for another beginning tomorrow night
• took a leap and hosted my first Poetry Friday roundup in August right here

Now onto 2019’s word!

2019 is going to be all about moving and moving forward, both body and mind. My husband and I have lots of fun walks and hikes planned, including a special trip in July. Santa brought us snowshoes, so we are just waiting for snow. And those InkJoy Gel pens (0.7mm, please) will keep moving forward, too, scribbling across notebook pages even more than in 2018. Promise!

Onto 2019! Let’s get a move on!

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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday. Won’t you join us?

December #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday, all! Donna Smith is hosting this final PF of 2018 on her blog, Mainely Write. A recent move to a new state has her feeling a tad discombobulated, so let’s all visit her and the sweet angels she offers up this week, and help her settle in. I hope you will visit not only Donna, but many other PF participants over the next week.

Here in Massachusetts we have yet to experience our first true snowfall that lingers. While I don’t love driving or walking in wintery weather, snow-covered surroundings do make me feel a bit more settled into the season. A walk in the woods yesterday left me feeling a sense of that in-between limbo state. I received my first pair of snowshoes for Christmas, so I’m itching to test them out!

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Thanks for wondering and wandering a bit with me today and throughout 2018. I hope you’ll join us on this Poetry Friday by posting a bit of poetry — your’s or someone else’s — and leaving a comment here or there.

Ring out, solstice bells! #PoetryFriday

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone! Buffy Silverman is hosting Poetry Friday this week at her blog. I hope you will visit her and many other participants over the next week.

Believe it or not, I’ve had the idea for this post for an entire year. For some reason last December 21, I realized that this year’s solstice coincided with Poetry Friday. At the time I was thinking about a favorite song from my youth — Jethro Tull’s “Solstice Bells.” When I was in Middle School (way back in the 70s!), I was obsessed with Jethro Tull and lead singer/flautist Ian Anderson. I was a flute player myself, and my sister took me to my very first rock concert at the old Boston Garden to see them.

I played the Songs from the Wood album over and over and over on my record player. The music had a mystical, magical feel to it. I’m sure my parents were sick of it, but they never said anything. There was far worse music I could have been listening to, after all. I always found the words to their songs poetic, especially “Solstice Bells.” What I didn’t know at the time was that there was a 3-minute (very poorly) animated video to go along with the song. Remember these are the pre-music video days. No MTV or VH1, yet! Here’s a SafeShare of the video for your viewing pleasure. It has a very Canterbury Tales-like feel about it.

And now it’s time. Ring out, solstice bells!

(Image created with Canva.)

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Thanks for wondering and wandering a bit with me and I hope you’ll join us on this lovely Poetry Friday!

Love Note #SOL

Today was one of those days. Come to think of it, yesterday was one of those days, too. When I arrived home this afternoon and reached into my pockets, as I do at the end of the every day, I pulled out a magical slip of paper. I admit in all of the chaos of the day, I had forgotten all about it.

Earlier this morning, a very special First Grader, who was in my class last year, had paid her daily visit for a hello and a hug on her way down the hall to class. She dropped her backpack on the floor and said, “I have something for you, Mrs. Wyman. Let me find it.” And find it she did. Reading her special message and thinking about this “tiny” act of kindness made all the troubles of the day slip away.

 

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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday. Won’t you join us?

It Took a Village #SOL

It finally arrived! A few weeks ago my Principal ordered a standing workstation for me. I couldn’t wait for it to come. The old rolling computer cart I’ve had for years just isn’t working for my iMac, monitor, keyboard, external disk drive, and Ladybug document camera. Too much equipment and not enough space!

When I opened the box there were so many parts. An IKEA-like nightmare! How could I possibly get this put together? And I have meetings every afternoon, so not a minute to spare. I needed help. Kindergarteners to the rescue! What better use of a Genius Hour than to work on this project together. We laid all the parts out and explored them together.

Quite a few students wanted to help and I had stiff competition, including the LEGO table and painting. I was truly honored they were curious and genuinely wanted to help. And they really were helpful! They held up bits and pieces as I began to insert part A into part B and on and on it went. One young man took it upon himself to say from time to time, “Quiet everyone. Mrs. Wyman is trying to concentrate!” I admit that was helpful at times.

After school, when it was nice and quiet, I put the finishing touches on. The floor was a mess, but I’d done it – with a little help, of course. It was dark out now, and my helpers had gone, but I really wanted to push through get it all set up.

Tah day! Mission Accomplished! I can’t wait for my helpers to see the finished product tomorrow morning. When they left, they didn’t know what it was for. Making memories, we were.

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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday. Won’t you join us?