Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday

Interstate Icicles

When you grow up in Florida, chances are you don’t see many icicles. I remember the first time I saw icicles growing out of a rock on the side of the interstate. My brother and I were fascinated. We were so excited about those white icicles that Dad slowed down and came to a stop on the side of the interstate so that we could get out of the car and feel them.

As I drove in to Nashville for a meeting this morning I saw a car pulled over to the side of the interstate. There on the side of the interstate was a man holding up a little boy. A little hand reaching up to feel a cold icicle. A little boy whose father loved him enough to slow down in the midst of the morning rush. A gentle reminder to slow down and make memories.

Wordless Wednesday

Writer’s Notebook Wednesday

On Halloween I took a group of high school students to the Young Writers Conference at the University of Tennessee at Martin.  In the session I attended on collaborative writing we were greeted by a college professor wearing glittered cat ears.  It was a fun session where students were challenged to work together to create writing to share with the group.  I wrote this poem as I observed the interactions between the students and the college professor.

 

Three adolescent boys sit in the back of the room

rudeness dripping from their pores.

Too cool to listen to a crazy college professor in glitter ears.

The professor crazy enough to ignore their 

immaturity and allow them the freedom to be themselves.

The boys naive enough to ignore her 

wisdom and allow her to be herself.

Writing Assessment Day in Tennessee

Today is writing assessment day in Tennessee. All across the state of Tennessee 5th, 8th and 11th graders will take 35 minutes to write to the state selected prompt. Writing assessment day happened to fall on February 3rd in the year 2004 as well. How do I know? I wrote about it in my journal. I always loved to write as my students were writing and they always loved for me to read what I had written. Here is my journal entry from 2004. What a great year!

Writing Assessment 2/3/04

J. quickly begins tracing her hand to use as a prewriting planner. She fills the fingers with details and ideas quickly.

D. begins a web, checks the word wall for words, and then works frantically to plan her story. (Please note: the word wall is covered up for the writing assessment. Students still look that direction when writing though.)

S. does a quick prewriting and jumps into her story.

T. looks around the room for a few minutes. I can see that her mind is working out the details of her story. Soon she is writing. She may use up an eraser before she finishes, but she has a lot of determination on her face.

V. stares at the word wall searching. I’m not sure what he is searching for, but he is searching. He stops and writes for a few minutes only to stop and stare intently at the word wall again.

Z. looks around the room as if he is grasping for ideas. He sees J. tracing her hand and decides to do the same. He notices that D. is looking at the word wall. He looks at the word wall. I wonder what he is thinking. Is the asking himself why he should be looking at the blank word wall? Is he sondering what D. is looking at?

10 minutes pass – They are all still writing.

J. and D have finished planning and are busy drafting.

I think M. is finished he is looking at his paper, possibly reading it. His pencil is making a mark in the upper left hand corner — too far up to be part of his story. He lookds at the clock. His finger goes into his mouth and stretches his cheek out until I fear a loud popping noise is about to be released. Fortunately he slowly removes his finger and looks back to his paper. He erases something toward the top of his paper. He writes. He looks up to catch me looking at him. He holds his pencil in ht writing grip, but does not write. At least he has learned to look like he is writing.

Z. peeks over to D.’s paper. I think he wants to do well, so he looks to his peers for examples. He continues to write.

T. yawns and stretches noisily drawing my attention across the room. He glances up from his writing and catches me looking at him. Turns to the second page and continues writing.

M. catches my eye as I scan the room. I smile.

V. bites his nails and looks to the word wall for guidance.

I can’t help myself, I must take a walk to see how much M. Has written. HE stares at the clock. I don’t want to distract anyone so I decide to stay here. I can see M.’s paper when I collect the papers.

Everyone is still gripping their pencil and writing. Even M.

D. and J. take a brief rest to soothe their aching writer’s hands.

D. Stretches.

T. seems deep in thought. Is she planning her next move?

V. stops. He sits back in his seat to read his work. Holding it in from ot him like a newspaper at the breakfast table, he reads. Ah, it must be a revision, he sits back up armed with an eraser, he gets back to work.

B. is finished, he peeks at me over the stack of newspapers and remembers to keep his thoughts inside his head.

5 minutes left.
C. sits hands on each side of her head as if she is holding it up by the ears. She is finished. She stares down at her desk, and then she begins running her fingers through her hair.

The silence begins to be broken by the sounds of squirming 5th graders.

D. J. S. T. V. M. K. M. H. T. and J. still have pencils moving.

Times Up!

Good luck to all the students and teachers who will participate in the writing assessment today.

Herkimer, The Fish We Left Behind

The summer after kindergarten and before first grade my family moved from Naples, Florida to Dickson, Tennessee. It wasn’t long after the move that I remember hearing stories about Herkimer, the fish we left behind. I don’t really remember much about Herkimer. I’m not even sure that I ever actually saw him myself, but I do remember his funny name and the laughter that always filled the room when Mom and Dad talked about him.

A few years ago I asked Mom to tell me more about Herkimer, our “pet” fish that had “lived” in the deep freeze. I wanted to know what happened to him when we moved to Dickson. In my mind, I had always figured Herkimer to be a large fish waiting to be taken to the taxidermist for mounting– waiting to fulfill every fishes dream of becoming wall art. I always knew that Herkimer would have been breathtaking on any living room wall. 1 1/2 feet of snook perfection arched in a graceful curve. Little did I know Herkimer was never destined to hang above anyone’s couch or mantle. His residency in our deep freeze was the result of something else entirely. Herkimer was just a fish who never made it to the frying pan. Dad didn’t have time to clean him when he got home from his fishing trip so he put him in the freezer so that he could get him out later. Later turned into years and Herkimer just became part of the family. Mom got used to moving him out of the way when she needed something out of the deep freeze, and Dad gave him a name. When we moved to Tennessee, there was actually a conversation about what to do with Herkimer and my parents may have even considered bringing him to Tennessee. He was left in Florida, but he is still part of my life. To me Herkimer is a symbol of the love my mom must have had for my dad. I think about how easy it would have been for her to get mad at him for leaving that nasty fish in her deep freeze. I wonder how many times she thought about cursing him for leaving it in her deep freeze. Instead, she chose to laugh. Because she chose to laugh, my brother and I have this funny story to tell about Herkimer, the fish we left behind.