Slice of Life Day 31: Why I Love March

I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with a good sum-it-up post for the March Slice of Life Writing Challenge. And in true slice-of-life fashion, I had one idea when I stepped in front of my keyboard, but my brain and fingers went another route. It’s one of my favorite things about this month – the power that writing has to surprise me, even as I create it. And so, in David Letterman (yep, dating myself there) fashion, I give you my Top Ten Reasons I Love Doing the Slice of Life Challenge.

10. I get to visit friends’ blogs, squirreling away ideas and mentor texts for kids.
9. And for me.
8. I get to shove my perfectionism in my back pocket, if only for a month.
7. I get reminded of how simple and joyful the habit of writing can be.
6. And how hard.
5. Which deepens the respect and admiration I have for my students.
4. With each passing year, I’m reminded of how deeply I love this community.
3. Which makes me want this community for my students.
2. For all students, actually, and for teachers.
1. Which means that no matter how tricky it feels to do it, you bet I’ll be signing myself up for next year.

Some of you writer friends…I’ll see on Tuesdays throughout the year, others as each of us post whenever. And I can’t wait. =)

Slice of Life Day 30: On Ruining Movies

Today’s Slice muses on the difference between my husband and me when it comes to watching TV and movies. He just sits and likes to watch. I, on the other hand, am a classic overthinker. I’m analyzing camera angles, picking apart the holes in the script, looking for patterns, symbolism and the like. I’m the one putting myself in the fictional writer’s room at the ad agency figuring out how – and why – they blocked their shots and chose their images. I’m also increasingly aware that I’m kind a pain in the patoot to watch a movie with. Let’s just chalk it up to my life as a reader and writer.

“You ruin everything,”
said my husband, half
(or maybe not-half)
kidding, as we watched the
hokey feel-good basketball movie.

To be fair, I wasn’t really trying to ruin anything.
But I mean…
tropes are tropes

ammirite?

Like, this movie’s been made before.

We know which one is the love interest,
and we know the NBA is going to call the coach back,
and we know he’s going to need a reluctant sidekick,
and we know the team is going to give up on him,
or he’s going to give up on the team,
and we know they’re going to patch it up,
and we know he’s going to LEARN a THING
about himself, and life maybe,
and we know that crazy farfetched basketball shot
from that early scene
will be what decides the championship game
we know they’re going to play

So I gathered my predictions
and quietly tucked them away
so a man could finish the
hokey feel-good basketball movie
in peace.

But for the RECORD,
I was right about the love interest,
and the NBA,
and the sidekick,
and the giving-up on,
and the redemption arc,
and the championship game,
and the crazy farfetched shot
which
(for the record)
the kid missed…

(7 out of 8 ain’t bad)


Slice of Life Day 27: The Days are Numbered

(a triple-nonet for a triple-nonet type of day)

Today seems like it’s the perfect time
to play with nines and their nine-ness:
perfect groups of threes, bundled
in three more groups besides:
three by three by three
two and seven
tidily
summed up
there.

Maybe it’s because I love numbers
just as much as I cherish my words
that I sit and ponder the
poetry of the nines,
their looping back on
one another
all back to
number
nine,

that I see number twenty-seven
and my mind begins to deconstruct
one number, then two, then three
(it’s all about the threes)
calculating awe,
counting wonder,
in every
magic
sum.

Slice of Life Day 25: Golden Shovel

Today’s post is a golden shovel, inspired by a quotation from Sylvia Plath. I heard someone say it in a podcast, and the words stuck with me all day. It’s a keen observation on what words can – and cannot – do in times of grief and struggle. Mix in the grief that keeps popping up as a theme in my world – both mine and those I care about, and this poem came out:

I ask myself, what
does standing on ceremony
mean, if really we are just speaking of
the way words
shatter, or the way they can
work to patch
the shards, all of the
ways they bring peace, comfort, havoc

“What ceremony of words can patch the havoc?”

– Sylvia Plath

“Conversation Among the Ruins“

Slice of Life Day 22: A Heart Swells

A few months ago, my good friend and colleague Kurt came to me with an idea. Kurt teaches music at one of my schools, and he’s a guy who likes to take an idea and run with it.

And if there’s anything I also like doing, it’s taking ideas and running with them.

It is, quite honestly, the only running I find myself willing to do.

Maybe running late.

But I digress.

Kurt came to me with an idea: what if we take the concept of choice writing, and use student work for the basis of a show that they create ?

Well twist my arm, why dontcha.

Of COURSE I said yes. And in the weeks that followed, I got to visit the 3rd and 4th grade music classes. We talked about writing, about letting ourselves be quiet enough to hear our thoughts, about letting writing take us wherever it wanted to go.

From there, Kurt and the kids got to work, choosing written pieces that wanted to be dance, or drama, or music. Our incredibly talented art teacher, Kristin, guided the kids in creating abstract art based on a piece of their writing.

Parents would then be invited to a performance followed by an art showcase.

And yes. In case you were wondering, it was as incredible and powerful as you might expect.

Tornadoes in the gym? Check.
Ducks beating up alligators? Check.
Family annoyances, performed as body percussion? Check.
Flying pigs? Do you even have to ask?

It may be snowing to start our spring break, but my heart is warm.

Slice of Life Day 21: That Moment When…

…you realize exactly HOW many sessions you have left with your fifth grade students

…you realize your dogs are at home, waiting for you to love on them

…you kind of wish you had brought snack with you

…you’re perhaps regretting doing alllll those sit-ups yesterday

…you’ve messed up your scheduling and you wind up disappointing someone

…your students make each other lolololol

…you’re wondering when the Plan Fairy will take care of that first week after Spring Break

Slice of Life Day 20: All it Takes

When you get up on the wrong side of the bed,
And you’re a crabby ole patty,
And your worries
And your anxieties
Ball up in your belly,
And you want to say nice things
About people,
Or you want to say nice things
Like hooray! the forsythia’s blooming!
But your mood is a dark cloud looming,
And you’re pretty sure
That even if the glass were half full
You’d probably spill it anyway

Sometimes

All it takes is a country song,
Son-sent
From thousands of miles away,
To remind you
That love still
Holds power.

Slice of Life Day 19: On Identity

Yesterday, I wrote about planning a workshop on identity writing. The goal was to explore:

How can I teach young writers about the power of the “default” where it comes to writing? How can I have them realize that characters without identifying traits still get identified – as whatever the mainstream culture would have readers picture? How can I have young writers begin to put cultural markers into their work through explicit and inferred language? And what are the questions to consider and explore when we do start to incorporate cultural language into writing?

First, let me say for the record that I am notoriously notgreat at taking photos of events, despite telling myself that I wanted to be sure to snap a few. So…words will have to suffice.

We were a small but mighty group: eight colleagues came. I didn’t see the participant list ahead of time, but I was expecting to see a range of language arts teachers. Much to my surprise and delight, two music and two art teachers, along with a library assistant, came to the conversation.

I’m so grateful those colleagues came. Their presence meant that all of us got to think beyond the boundaries of our own discipline, and our conversation put identity at the heart of our self-expression.

We started with a personal identity wheel exercise, and I encouraged participants to note where they considered themselves to be in the dominant, or “default” demographic. It led to conversations about ageism, and people not being taken seriously on either end of the spectrum. It led to conversations around geography, and how it helps us understand the culture of where we work.

That led us to talk about ways that we might see marks of identity in pieces of art. I used written mentor text, though if I realized it would be a cross-discipline group, I would have brought lyrics, sheet music, and/or visual pieces to discuss.

In pairs, and then in groups of four, participants looked at mentor text: where were the cultural markers that let readers know the protagonist was beyond the “default” demographic? And how do we encourage kids to include those markers?

When picking text for this exercise, I chose texts featuring characters from diverse cultures, but not revolving around that theme. It was just…everyday life, everyday stories of everyday kids.

Sidebar: < clears throat, steps onto soapbox > I’m aware this exercise just examines cultural diversity. I’m also aware that my chosen “everyday stories” represent the default for a different identity group. We can – and should! – do exactly the same for physical and neurodiversity, gender expression, socioeconomic status, age…ANYTHING. <Steps off soapbox>

It was a fascinating conversation, and I’m hoping my colleagues left with:

  • Ideas for mentor text to use with students
  • A stronger sense of how identity is integral to self-expression
  • Ideas for leaving cultural markers or fingerprints in creative works

All in all, a very, very good day.

P.S. If you’re looking for short mentor texts to give this a try for yourself, here are a few I incorporated:

Excerpt from Room to Dream by Kelly Yang

Excerpt from A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi

Except from Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun

Slice of Life Day 18: In the Nick of Time

I’m not going to lie…the last several days have been DOOZIES where it comes to getting my writing posted each and every day.

So, I’m going to preview a little project I’ve been working on, and I’ll give you an update tomorrow – that is, of course, assuming that some other post doesn’t pull me to the side.

I’m a strong believer in the power of writing to both shape and affirm identity.

But when I look at the writing my diverse student population produces, there’s actually very little within it to express that diversity.

I wrestle with this. How can I teach young writers about the power of the “default” where it comes to writing? How can I have them realize that characters without identifying traits still get identified – as whatever the mainstream culture would have readers picture? How can I have young writers begin to put cultural markers into their work through explicit and inferred language? And what are the questions to consider and explore when we do start to incorporate cultural language into writing?

Those are the questions I’ll be posing tomorrow at a mini-workshop for teachers. Wish me luck, and I’ll post an update afterwards!