It's systematic.

Let it go.

This too shall pass.

Be kind to Virginia's 8th grade teachers as we wrap up our state writing assessments...

and switch gears to prepare for the reading assessments.

March feels like a pressure cooker sometimes.

Okay.  Every March since 2000 has felt like a pressure cooker to me.

Let it go.

This too shall pass.

I'm not saying that you should bring a lawn chair and a cold drink and set up spa camp in your classroom while your students do what students are wont to do when left unattended.

I'm just talking perspective here.

If you know that you are teaching the curriculum with a wee bit of passion,

your students will take the tests seriously.

Let your mind find ease in OK Go's elegant chain of events.

It's a smooth nod to Rube Goldberg.

Let it go.

This too shall pass.

If you want something a little quieter, check out this guy.   He can't go to sleep without his nightlight, but his folks insist that he turn the light out before he nods off.  

What's a pig to do?  

You'll marvel at his amazing contraption.   Some pig.

Anne Lamott's Back Pocket

There are so many reasons I heart Anne Lamott.   Inspirational. Conspiratorial. Practical. Comical. Spiritual. Commiserational.   Is that last one a real word?  Well, you know what I mean.

All of her books are worth your time, but I want to focus on one chapter from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.   "Index cards."

Isn't it fun to find out how particular writers practice their craft?   Ms. L. uses index cards to capture ideas from everyday life that sometimes evaporate if you don't have a pen and scrap of paper with which to capture them.   She keeps index cards in a flock all around her house and her car, but it's the one in her back pocket that interests me most as a writing teacher.

For those moments that you take your students to a band or chorus concert, a speaker, a play, a field trip or even to the cafeteria, the index card in the back pocket can be a fun way to capture writing outside your classroom.

In my dreams, especially now that I am teaching inside a trailer, I can hitch my classroom to a truck and drive my writers to a creative hot spot, teeming with the energy of everyday life.  

In reality, the closest place full of vibrant, teen power is the cafeteria.   The index card provides a great tool for quick, observational writing without intruding too much into their free time.   I have a class that is split by lunch, so it's a great opportunity to try out this technique.   The assignment was to create a two-sentence observation of a food item...using the old show, don't tell technique.  And no one complained.   Hmm.   A few crafty souls even worked in some figurative language into their work.   It was fun to display their work after lunch and get such a thorough, varied report from a familiar location.

Eastern Virginia Writing Project 2012

Stop the presses.   A friend of mine just told me that the EVWP sponsored by the College of William and Mary received funding for its 2012 Invitational Summer Institute.   Start the application process today!   Classes run from June 25- July 26.   Books are provided.   If you are accepted into the program $800 of the $1642 tuition is also covered.   Completing the coursework will earn you 6 hours of academic graduate credit.   The best reward is spending time with the amazing staff.

I would have told you earlier, but I just found out a few minutes ago.   Funding for programs connected to the National Writing Project has been in jeopardy, and it looks like there is good news to share.   Please pass this link on to any interested friends and coworkers.

The Heart of Rock and Roll

This one's on my bucket list for later, but maybe you want to get to it sooner.   Every summer the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum invites teachers to Cleveland for a week to learn how to use popular music to enhance their lessons.  
You are responsible for paying for the class as well as food, lodging and transportation.   You can also earn graduate credit through Ashland University...for a fee.   If you're a local, maybe you just want to hang out at their library and enjoy the archives.   Explore the previous years' institutes to see what a typical week involves before you fork over your funds.  

Too busy (broke) to travel this summer? Dress in pleather, play your own music collection and peruse some pre-made lesson plans.  

Maybe you want to donate your stage costume from your world tour...you can do that too.   You've really made the grade.

Wake Up, Chuck

My principal sent out this article to our faculty via e-mail.   It's a list of 10 ways you can keep your students awake.   These suggestions are from Wisconsin middle school teacher Michelle Doman.

I've tried #5 before, but don't miss #7.   Here's a kinder, gentler clue to technique #7 below.  

I wonder if Chuck Norris can tame a class full of middle school students.

Where I'm From

I've yet to even scratch the surface of the beauty that is Nancie Atwell's Naming the World: A Year of Poems and Lessons.   Today I continued an exercise from the "Your Life" section of the book.  

Ms. Atwell provides a copy of poet George Ella Lyon's poem, "Where I'm From," as well as two poems written by inspired middle schoolers.   We read all three poems last Friday, and I sent students home with the intergenerational questionnaire.   Because of the nature of eighth graders and weekends, many people did not have the interviews done by Monday, so it took until Tuesday until we could really get down to the business of writing.   And, no, everyone had not completed their interviews by Tuesday either.

Today I shared the poem that I wrote based on Lyon's original.   You already know that it's good to make yourself vulnerable to your students by sharing your own writing.   They generally respond with kindness and respect; it also gets them into their poets' groove.  
Please understand that the intent of the lesson is to borrow Lyon's riff, to mimic her style and to mirror her repetition.   This is not a lesson in how to plagiarize.   Make sure you click the above link to Lyon's poem, so you can see her patterns in my draft below.  

I am from Sundays after church,

from sweet tea and Formica tables

enchanted by my grandmother’s blessings.

I am from the vinyl records inside the garage.

(Silent, waiting,

they held secret spells.)

I am from the tulip tree,

the summer garden

whose crusty, baked soil  between rows of corn

crumbles gently under bare feet. 

I’m from Number, please  and  Promenade.  

I’m from dusty circuses and shimmering skylines

from tobacco leaves in barn rafters

from flowing rivers near textile mills.

I’m from both Carolinas

     from limestone and sisterhoods. 

I’m from dipped snuff and tinned sardines,

jets of sawdust that tickle noses.

I’m from wires pulsing with electricity

   stretching across the South. 

From the body bag of the local boy

     my father escorted home from Vietnam.

I’m from a hand to hold and shirts off backs,

from promises kept

rooted in both love and duty.

Some students will need your help to mine for information.   I grew up minutes away from all four of my grandparents and was a curious child.   It was easy for me to tap into all of those years of informal "research" that I completed before writing this poem.  

I drew a simple family tree on the board, and many writers used that as a way to brainstorm.   Although their homework was to interview one person using the questionnaire, their poem should include anyone from their family line.   Steps, adoption, blood...it doesn't matter.   Your students can decide who is or is not family to them.

Please be aware that some of your students have only painfully dark memories of their families.   Some will be ready to write, some won't.   Encourage children who make an attempt to tackle such a raw topic.   Give an alternative assignment for those students who just can't face or make sense of their family relationships yet. 

DFTBA

If you already know what I'm talking about, you must be a fellow Nerdfighter.   If not, it's simple to explain.   Don't forget to be awesome.   Is there a better motto out there?   Probably not.   Being awesome just about covers it.   Benevolent brothers John and Hank Green reign supreme in the sparkling Nerdfighter universe.

You may already know John Green from his young adult novels.   A few years back I had the great pleasure of being inside a metaphor, thanks to the Green brothers and their merry band of Nerdfighters.   My own high school was a stop on their Nerdfighting tour.   To be an adult back inside Menchville High's auditorium with a bunch of teens being their awesome nerdy selves was a delicious moment in time.   And you know how much English teachers like metaphors.   Which brings me to...

In short, this book is about two teens whose day-to-day dealings with mortality insist that they make awesomeness a requirement.   Hazel and Gus will make you  blush and give you goosebumps for all the right reasons.   You will get a little misty.   I did.   It happened during a round of applause at the Anne Frank House.   Anne Frank is one of the strongest cases for never forgetting to be awesome.   This metaphor is the main reason I got the sniffles when Mr. Green took this dear reader into the world famous hiding place.   I could go on and on, but so many others already have.

Here's the thing about John Green.   He's on my secret list of truly lovely people on this earth.   Mr. Green inspires teens to be who they are and share this sweet feeling of self-acceptance with others.   His fictional characters are bright, witty, sly and deep...a task best undertaken by writers with the same qualities.

As I stood at the back of a long line of teenagers waiting to get my first edition of Looking for Alaska signed, I recalled my classmates from Menchville and thought about the young people in front of me.  How many of them got the "awesome" message from the people in their lives?   Who cherished them for who they were and are?   And here's how cool John Green is.   When I finally got to the front of the line, I opened my copy of Alaska and placed it in front of him to sign and he told me that his signature would bring the value of the book down.   As if I would ever sell it.   I asked him to sign it anyway.   He did.  

"DFTBA."