What If....

What if we abandoned all rules?  What if there was no lined paper?  No rubrics? No specific prompts?
What if students could read what they want? Read how they want? No left to right....no top to bottom?
Would students be able to take risks because they wouldn't be wrong?

Yes, and yesterday, as we wrote into the day, Steven Johnson visualized how creativity and ideas come to be.  With no teacher restraints, would students develop hunches?  Would they explore them?



Yes, and Lacy made us think in her presentation, "Where Words Go," about this as we explored the lined paper society pushed upon schoolchildren as we teach them to write.  It was a totally out-of-the-box way of thinking.  It was the thinking that we would love to instill in our students.

Yes, and how do our "rules" impact student creativity?

Yes, and what if we abandoned rules and gave students a trusted writing community? What if students develop bonds and trust with a few fellow classmates who reflect and give non-judgemental feedback as Cindy and Steve describe in their "Peer Writing Groups" presentation?

Yes, and what if we try something new as teachers, just as we encourage our students to do in our classrooms?

Yes, and what if...?

UNCC Writing Project

For the next few weeks, I will be participating in the UNCC Writing Project....something I have been wanting to do for several years. We got started this past week with activities we can use with our classes:  Writing Timeline, Mapping Childhood Home/Community,  Murray Cards,  and Mentor Texts.

Mapping the Classroom and the School was a great self-reflection  activity that I would like to do with my English department.  As I mapped where student writing goes after the students finish a piece, I  realized that I could expand the ways students publish their writings to make their writing more authentic.

I am very intrigued with 21st century literacy, so I am thinking about using this topic for my Demonstation and Inquiry. My passion with the topic began a while back as I was reading an article in which the author said that in order to teach 21st century learners, we must speak their language.

Below is an example of  21st century literacy that can be used in classrooms.  It is an Xtranormal video that I made about the Writing Project. Xtranormal is neat digital storytelling site. Kids love writing scripts and making these robotic movies!

Writing Project

by: debbie.biggers

So,  this week, I will be working on my self-selected writing piece (about me), a digital timeline about me as a writer, a book review, my inquiry, and my demonstration.  I was told this week that Peter Elbow says that writers should work on multiple pieces of writing at the same time, and one can give inspiration to another....I hope he is right! 



Monarch Cookies

Monarch Monarch Cookie Ingredients:


3/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 3.4-oz package Jello vanilla instant pudding (Not the sugar free or stove top version)
1 egg

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda


Chocolate variation:
use chocolate pudding and add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugar, dry pudding mix and egg in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Combine remaining dry ingredients. Gradually add to pudding mixture, beating until well blended after each addition. Form into ball. You may refrigerate up to 1 hour if dough is soft, but I did not find necessary. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch think. Cut into shapes, place on parchment paper on baking sheet. Reroll scraps and cut additional cookies. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until slightly firm. Cool on wire racks and decorate as desired.

Decorating:
We used 4 colors of Wilton Cookie Icing in the 10 oz bottles (red, yellow, white and black). Michael's sells them; see attached photo. Mix yellow and red together to make 2 shades of orange. With a clean flat paint brush, paint the yellow-orange shade on the 2 bottom "wings", and paint the darker shade on the top wings. Allow to dry -- about an hour. Then squeeze the black heavy lines for the border of the 4 wings. You may also put black in a baggie and cut a tiny hole in the tip to make the thin veins within the wings' borders. When the black is dry -- make the white dots on the wing borders; we used the baggie technique to make tiny dots.

Monarch Teacher Network

Day One

Sarah and Mike are working hard!

As many of you already know, I am a butterfly enthusiast!   Monarch Teacher Network  came to our school last week.  We certainly had a great time sharing our passion, and hopefully, created a few more butterfly enthusiast, as well!


The workshop was wonderful! We made cages to hold catepillars and to hold the butterflies once they emerge from their chrysallises.
We learned to care for the butterflies, and what their needs are depending on their stage of development.

We even had some time to play!

Threading the needle may have been the hardest part!

We spent the afternoon playing games....many great School in the Woods ideas!

Day Two

Butterflies enjoying their Juicy Juice!

On day two, after feeding the butterflies, we loaded the bus and headed out to find milkweed. Our first stop was the McMullen Creek Greenway. Here we were able to see a large milkweed patch! We were also able to see dogbane and compare it with actual milkweed. We saw many of the little creatures that live in milkweed communities.

We then headed to Beth Henry's home. Beth is a native gardener with a plethora of information. Here we were able to see milkweed and many native plants that are useful in home and school gardens

See why it's called the Cup plant!



The "Cup" Plant

This is the book Beth highly recommends!

Ellie with her beautiful, and yummy monarch cookies!

We then headed across the street to Ellie's home. Here, we were greeted with beautiful homemade monarch cookies.

Wonderful Story

My colleague shared a wonderful story with us last week about her sister.  Her sister had been at home all day with her sick child.  When her husband arrived home, she went to get a pedicure to have a little "Me" time, and I am sure there are many of us who can relate.

As she slipped her feet into the bowl of warm water, the stream of water was diverted into her lap.  Immediately, the staff brought her towels to wrap around her, as they put her wet clothing in their drier she continued along with her pedicure.  The staff was very apologetic.  They continued with their sorries during the pedicure.  Her sister totally understood that these things happen and told them that everything was alright.  She continued with her kindness and understanding, and at this point, she was reassuring the staff that everything was good and that she was happy and content.

A few minutes later, the lady sitting next to her, who had witnessed the entire event, slipped her sister a note.  The note stated, "I don't know you- but so appreciate the woman you are. What an example you will be to your 1 year old! Your kindness and forgiveness are not found in many humans anymore. Have a great evening!"

Her sister immediately text messaged the incident to her two sisters and her mother.  She thanked her mother for raising her to be the kind person she is.

In reflecting on this entire event, I realize that a person's actions are able to make or break a person's day.  In this chain of events, everyone chose kind actions.  Her sister chose kind actions despite the fact she was physically tired and emotionally drained from a day with a sick child.  The stranger chose kind actions with a small action that reaffirmed the kindness always wins. My colleague chose kindness in sharing the story with us this morning.

Everyone is able to chose how they will handle a plethora of situations on any given day.  The world is most certainly a nicer place when we choose kindness.

I think I will go put a cute notepad in my purse!

Day 1 of summer did not seem much like summer vacation.  The three language arts and social studies teachers who remain from this year met with out new team member to begin planning for next year.  Since we are continuing our work on creating and implementing standards, we began with writing our "Enduring Understandings" for language arts....what do we want our students to remember that we taught them twenty years from now.  Neat thing is that we all seem to be on the same page, and all of us want to create a love of learning.
On another note, my two children left with friends to go camping for the weekend...it is so hard seeing your children grow up and not "need" you any more.  I know they still need me, and I can't wait to hear the stories of what they forgot and such.  I am sure these are the experiences that teach them about the real world.  How I would love to save them from some if these lessons!It seems like yesterday we were packing their bag for first grade.
So, here's to new beginnings for me and for them!

Here I Go!

I am learning to blog!  I have wanted to blog for many years now...so, here I go!