A slice of summer

Day 15 of 31 at TWT!

"Looks like everyone else had the same idea!" We have to wait for a few cars to pull ahead before we can even turn into the Dairy Queen parking lot. The drive-thru line snakes around the classic little brown building, and the front deck is a sea of families basking in the sunshine. Giggling kids covered in dripping ice cream dangle their feet from the benches that face the street, pumping their arms at passing traffic and cheering every time they get a honk. Gaggles of teens in team jerseys cluster in gossipy blobs. Moms and dads lean forward and bending over, doing their best to wipe sticky fingers and faces on squirmy targets.

"This is amazing!" I chirp to Husband for probably the tenth time, between mouthfuls of shredded chicken and fried mushrooms. "It's like summer!" My cherry milkshake slides down my throat with the cool sweetness of childhood happiness. Growing up, my mom would pick me up from school to attend her students' sporting events with her, and we'd always go to this same DQ for the exact meal I'm eating right now. And last summer, when M&M was just a couple of weeks old, we took her to this DQ for our first dinner out.

Now, she's a big girl who beams at all the other customers, squealing and clapping with delight when people enter or leave the deck. Her curious little finger stretches toward each marvel that surrounds us, silently asking, "Ooh, what's that?!"

"Daddy! Look! What's that?"

Point.
"Do you see the big girls? They're eating ice cream!"
Wiggle.

Point.
"That's a sign! It says 'Dairy Queen.' That's where we are!"
Wide-mouthed grin. "Goo!"

"Bvvvvt!" Wiggle. Point.
"Ooh, do you see the doggie? That's a doggie!"
Squirm. "Ba-ba-ba! Bvvvv."

Point. Lean. Grab!
"That's Mommy's ice cream sundae. You can't have that yet! Soon though!"

Point. Slow, finger-wiggling wave.
"Are you telling those people 'bye-bye'? That's very nice! They're going home. We'll go home soon."

Point.
"Do you see the car? That's a black car. Those people are coming to get their ice cream."

I gaze at the sunlight gleaming golden on her soft blonde hair, and I'm so grateful for this early slice of summer.

Enjoying

Tuesdays at Two Writing Teachers!

"Are you enjoying your time off?" As soon as the calendar flips to June, every teacher is bombarded with this inevitable question from friends, family, acquaintances, and those random people you just met in line at the grocery store.

I think every teacher has a different response.

Some practically shout a resounding "YES!" while letting go of the worries of the school year. Some gush over increased family time and exciting vacations. Others smile with a quick "Yes, but..." and then attempt to patiently explain a few of the myriad ways teachers hone our craft over the summer.

Depending on my mood, I think I've been known to do all three, but as the political climate has shifted, I've tried to do more of the last choice. Since I've been getting more questions prefaced with "I know teachers work a lot over the summer, but...", I'll take a wild guess that many of you have been doing the same!

So, to everyone wondering if I'm enjoying my time "off": Yes, I am, but I'm really enjoying a blend of recovery, rejuvenation, and preparation!

Here's what I'm enjoying this summer:

• playing with new technology and envisioning how it will transform my students' learning
• cleaning and organizing my classroom, which always falls by the wayside
• creating new materials, from digital activities to classroom learning aids
• collaborating with colleagues across my district and outside of it
• sparking new ideas, from nudges to blog posts to presentations
• digging into standards and reflecting on my core philosophies
• pushing my thinking through professional reading, conferences, & workshops
• planning innovative activities and refining past practices
• continuing to encourage students through Goodreads and our blog
• curling up with books and notebooks
• exploring this wonderful world with eager eyes and an open heart
• savoring sweet time with my husband and parents
• and, of course, resting and relaxing, with beautiful treats like this:

Lunch at my favorite summer spot! So much to enjoy with a view like this!

It's been a busy couple weeks of end-of-school craziness, but just writing this post makes me so excited and grateful for all I have to enjoy!

What will you enjoy in your time "off"?

Nature's Peace

at Two Writing Teachers! 

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as the sunshine into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off you as autumn leaves." 

– John Muir

I missed you all last week, but I was having an amazing vacation in Hocking Hills, enjoying nature and my sweet husband!  After having such a tough year last year, and spending so much of my summer thinking about school, I really needed that week away.  And it was wonderful!

my March Challenge prize!

Actually, it was so wonderful that I couldn't possibly describe it all for you in one slice.  In fact, it took me 25 pages to capture all the fun we had in my travel journal!

that's right, 25 pages for 5 days!

Since I can't share 25 pages with you, here are the top ten things I learned during our five days away:


10. Raccoons like to have big eating parties!  However, deer like to eat alone.

Our cabin had a wildlife feeding station. On our first night, 12 coons came out to welcome us!

The animals, deer included, didn't mind if we were sitting quietly on the deck!

9. There are still tiny fawns around in early August!

We saw 34 deer, and 6 of them were small fawns!

sweet mom & baby!

8. Saddles are heavy and complicated!

Before horseback riding, we got to brush, saddle, and learn about our horses! 

7. Hummingbirds and wild turkeys both make happy little sounds to themselves as they eat!

Three hummingbird friends visited us constantly on our deck.  When they were together, they bickered with perturbed squawks and chased each other away, but when they were alone, they squeaked happily as they ate!

To our surprise, we could hear the wild turkeys gobble as they ate!

6. No gourmet restaurant can beat grilling hot dogs on the deck of a secluded cabin!

our gorgeous deck!

5. It's possible to see 49 turtles in two hours!

That's right! 49 turtles, some on logs and some on beaches like this guy!
We realized that's an average of two turtles every five minutes, which may be my turtle-loving husband's definition of heaven!

4. Music brings people together, and making music is about having fun. (Ok, so that wasn't new, just a pleasant reminder!)

The bluegrass in this peaceful outdoor amphitheater was excellent, but watching the band members have fun playing together made it even better!

3. How to say "thank you" in Shawnee. (It's pronounced "NEE-oh-way".)

Shawnee storyteller Wehyehpihehrsehnhwah was engaging, educational, and inspiring. One of very few remaining native speakers of Shawnee, he sprinkled Shawnee words throughout his presentation.  Through talking with him before the show and trying my best to thank him in Shawnee afterwards, we made such a personal connection that he gave me one of the wampum bracelets he was wearing! I couldn't STOP saying "NEE-oh-way"!

2. Vacation isn't about the distance. There are many treasures hiding closer than you think, and REAL time spent together (with no distractions!) is the best gift of all.

Ash Cave. See the tiny person at the bottom? That's Husband!

And the number one thing I learned on our vacation was...
1. While I love being connected, being unplugged is good for my soul.

It really felt like home!

a smattering of slices

at Two Writing Teachers!

It's been a whirlwind of a summer so far.  The day after school ended, I attended two days of "tech talks" run by my district.  I had the weekend and two more days to prepare my archeological dig of my writing life for the Columbus Area Writing Project before we embarked on our three-day retreat.  The next two weeks were filled with such intense writing, learning and bonding that we might not have remembered to breathe if Kevin hadn't kept reminding us!

After all that, I guess last week was a break... except that it certainly wasn't the restful kind!  Instead of just telling you about everything we did, I thought it would be more fun to let you experience it with some images and imagery:

We marched in a local 4th of July parade with the Alumni Band and were dazzled by two straight nights of fireworks and a concert by Chicago!

dazzling fireworks crash

hearts soar with familiar songs

rejoicing as one

Seeing Chicago perform right in my high school's football stadium was incredible!  Husband's high school marching band did a Chicago show, and the OSUMB Chicago show from my rookie year was one of my all-time favorites from my five years in TBDBITL, so we both had special memories come alive as we danced in front of their stage.

The view from our table -- WOW!

Even though all we wanted to do the next morning was sleep, we headed up to Lake Erie for a friend's wedding, where we enjoyed seeing old marching band friends and celebrating the power of love.

snippets of laughter

smiles invite: "Remember when?"

united by love

There was a lot of time between the wedding and reception, so we decided to spend it exploring a secluded nature preserve near our hotel.

We walked alongside a docile deer who was content to keep nibbling, certain that we were harmless visitors...

listened to rippling waves lap leisurely, beating out sweet summer songs,

watched graceful herons and egrets soar in circles, become stately statues casting quiet reflections, and dart forward to come back with flipping flashes in their beaks,

and discovered timid turtles paddling hidden in serene wetlands, exploring worlds beyond our reach.

There's not just the one turtle here, although he certainly posed for us!
We counted at least 35+ in this pond!  See if you can spot some more little turtle heads!

The next day, we braved the rollicking roller coasters of Cedar Point... and some thunderstorms too! 

flying and twisting

barreling through rushing wind

laughing together

No wonder I'm ready for a relaxing week at home!

(side note: Originally, I had a completely different idea for today's slice, and then this came out instead! Isn't it funny where writing can take us?)

Spring Days Like These

at Two Writing Teachers!

I've been welcoming Poetry Month into my classroom, and it's been really fun so far.  When I was walking out of school today, I thought about writing a post about how poetry has always been a part of my life.  As I climbed in the car, I started to think about some of my favorite poems and how special they've been to me. (I always brainstorm Slice ideas in my head while I drive home from school!)

Then I started driving.  I rolled down the windows and opened the moon roof.  The sun was shining so brightly and the air was so warm, and new words just flew out of the breeze and into my head.  As soon as they started to tumble around in there, I knew that I wasn't going to be writing ABOUT poetry anymore.  I was writing poetry.  (This is how poems always come to me: nature, and then words in a jumble that bounce around my head!)

I walked into the house, threw my school supplies on the ground, and grabbed my notebook before the words left.  (Husband came home while I was writing. As soon as he opened the door, I screeched, "DON'T TALK TO ME!  I'M WRITING A POEM!")

So, Happy Poetry Month!

Spring
These days,
when sunbeams sparkle
playfully on the rolling river ripples
and filter
lazily through the just-awakening
green growing trees

I roll
     down
           the windows
and pop open the moon roof,
crank up the country,
and catch
great greedy gulps
of sweet sunshine
and delicious dancing daffodils

Breathe deep
and smile.

These days,
I can
almost
                        reach
                                                           out
and
touch

toe-wiggling sandals,
warm-breeze-welcoming tanktops,
foot-tickling grass

jump
     SPLASH!
          d
            r
              i
                p
                   p
                     i
                       n
                         g
water

crisp crackling fireworks
gleeful glowing fireflies

and days that just never seem to end.

almost.

Magical summer moments

at Two Writing Teachers!

Hello slicing friends!  I've missed you, although I had a wonderful break!  My brain is very tired from our district's voluntary summer PD today, so I thought I'd share a few highlights of the time I spent away from you the past month:

• Husband and I traveled to Spain, a trip I planned as a fifth-anniversary present for us.  It was AWESOME and I'll be sharing more about it for the next few Fridays for Spanish Fridays. While there, I journaled each day in my Spanish travel journal. (the same one I had with me when I lived there!)  I also got in some just-for-fun reading in the planes, trains, and parks!  Best of all, I lived with joy the whole time.
• A few days after we got back, my mom and I went out to Arizona to visit relatives for a few days.  My oldest cousin's family is shipping out to Turkey for two years (her husband is a JAG) and it was really special to spend some time with them before they left.
• Husband and I celebrated our anniversary this past Saturday.  The trip was my present to him, but he got me a present that was just as thoughtful and personal: a spiral notebook of the emails we wrote back and forth to each other while I was studying abroad in Spain.  We were dating at the time, and he wrote me an email every day with a different snippet of a love song in the subject line.  For the present, he compiled and formatted them all (to and from) into this notebook:

a powerful reminder of how writing connected us from faraway

• We performed with the Alumni Band at the State Fair and then got to become little kids again.  (Doesn't the fair make everyone into a kid?)  We petted all the animals, dangled our feet on the skyride, and ate waaaaaay too much junk food.  (Including fried Buckeyes -- yummy!)
• I've been loving following the incredible moments of triumph, courage, and community in the Olympics.  For me, these 2012 Olympics are even more special because I met my New Zealand pen pal in the 1992 Olympic pen pal program... and we are still writing (and now emailing and Facebooking) 20 years later!  (I am planning a slice or two on this special connection soon!)

I know a lot of you took breaks as well, so I hope you had as many adventures, special moments, and relaxing times as I did! 

 

Doce días de encanto (p.1)

 

at Latinaish.com

Durante el mes de julio, fui a España con mi esposo por dos semanas.  Yo no había   visitado este país tan querido desde 2005, cuando estudiaba allí por un semestre.  Mi esposo no había estado fuera de los Estados Unidos nunca.  ¡Claro que tuvimos un viaje divertido y lleno de aventuras, que nos ha dejado con muchísimos recuerdos lindos!

Por unas semanas, quiero utilizar los "Spanish Fridays" para compartir algunos de estos recuerdos.  Si no hais estado en España (¡mirad, que empecé de utilizar el "vosotros" de nuevo!), es un país que vale la pena visitar muchas veces.  ¡Qué lo disfrutéis!

Nos quedamos en Madrid por 12 días, con viajes por tren a otros pueblos varios días.  (Vivía en Madrid cuando era estudiante y me encanta esta ciudad y todo el centro de España.)  Un día de estos, viajaremos más allá, al sur (también me encanta Sevilla) y al norte, pero ¡hay tantas cosas interesantes allí mismo en el centro!

Bueno, pues... me encanta Madrid porque:

¡Hay una historia riquísima...

La Plaza Mayor, mi sitio favorito

... mezclada con la modernidad.

las torres cerca de Chamartín, vistas desde nuestra habitación

Hay arte y arquitectura impresionante ...

El Palacio Real, visto desde el Templo de Debod

... y cultura viva.

fuimos a un tablao flamenco de Cardamomo: ¡increíble!

Para moverse, ¡es fácil utilizar el transporte público!  Metro, autobús, Cercanías... ¡tan cómodo!

tren del metro moderno, de la línea 10

Pero lo que me encanta más de todo es el estilo de vida.

remando en el Retiro... ¡que descanso!

¡Mi Madrid: emocionante y tranquila, pero siempre encantadora!

With Joy

at Two Writing Teachers!

I'm a perfectionist.  I'll admit it wholeheartedly.  In fact, I embrace it... it's who I am!  Hard work, hyper-focus*, and a determination to settle for nothing less than my best are essential elements of my personality.

Admittedly, this can cause problems, particularly when I have too much on my plate... which is pretty much always!  I love striving for excellence and taking pride in everything I do, so it's sometimes hard for me to step back and make myself take a break.  However, I need and want to take deep breaths and enjoy all the other parts of life that I also love.

Plus, I know that tearing myself away from time to time is a good thing.   When I give myself real breaks, I work harder and better, I come up with fresh new ideas, and I become energized and excited again. Soooo... I'm going to take a couple of weeks off.  No schoolwork.  No blogging.  No professional books.  Reduced electronic screentime.  No stress!

What will I do?  Well, I hope to:

• Enjoy.  Sunshine and birdsongs and breezes.  Husband's smiling eyes.
• Watch. Winding streets and wide-open views.  Tiny flowers and big blue skies.  Flitting butterflies and  scampering squirrels.  
• Laugh and giggle.  Eat ice cream in the middle of the afternoon.  Go barefoot for no reason.
• Have adventures.  Try something totally new.  Eat something crazy.  Use a map.
• Explore and learn.  Capture the past seeping out of old buildings and the future shining through new ones.  Fall into the pages of stories and come out of the back cover as a slightly new person.

See you in a few weeks!  I will miss you all... but I'll have some amazing stories to tell!  I'll leave you with a favorite quotation from Walden that I dug out of my Evernote:

"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal – that is your success." 

(Henry David Thoreau)

(* In grad school I read an article that listed "hyper-focus" as a typical trait of gifted kids and thought: My mom was searching for that word all those years she had to call me ten times for dinner even though I was in the same room!)

Fun with Themes!

Year 4 (for me) of ELL Summer School is in full swing.  I love summer school because it's been my chance to play around with teaching ESL, to implement my teaching philosophies with no strings attached, to create finely crafted, meaningful language use opportunities in contextualized thematic units while engaging students with interesting academic content.

I've taken K-5 students into the ocean, complete with blue cellophane over the lights, windows, and tables, paper scuba masks, and a touch table with real shark teeth and seashells!

grab your snokel and dive in!  :-)

Middle school students went to South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, where they performed Reader's Theater skits of traditional South African folktales and followed the soccer action with daily game reports:

best of all, Spain won it all!  :-)

Last year, more middle schoolers braved the icy cold of Antarctica by making our own pemmican (just like the first explorers!), modeling topographic maps out of sugar cookie dough, and creating Antarctic adventure board games!

brrrrr!  :-)

This year, it's back to K-5 students, and toned down because of a new format.  Nonetheless, we're having a great time learning about the upcoming Summer Olympics!

A Poem from the Front Yard

at Two Writing Teachers!

We've been having amazing summer-y weather lately.  When I feel the sun and warmth on my face after school, I just want to skip through the parking lot!

In honor of this beautiful gift from nature (although honestly, today's kind of cloudy...), I thought I'd post a poem I wrote several weeks ago and haven't gotten around to posting.

This one is kind of a companion to my Spring Break backyard poem, except this is from our front yard!

Today I should have

done the laundry that's climbing out of the basket
listened to my students' voices calling from their ungraded papers
given the bathroom a good cleaning
and tidied up the downstairs

But

the sweet spring breeze
was
rustling the leaves
and
the playful gold sunbeams
were
warming the grass

and

the faraway-yet-familiar intrigue of Chile
was
beckoning from inside the pages of my
crisp
smooth
new
book

so

I spread out a blanket
under the comforting canopy of our big tree
kicked off my shoes
felt the warm sun filter through the leaves

opened the pages
and left
what I "should have done"
behind.

Summertime in the Spring

Day 21 of 31 at TWT!

Usually, my mom and I go to Phoenix over Spring Break to visit my cousins.  This year, we didn't go.  While I'd love to see my cousins, I have to say I'm a little glad we didn't go... just because of the weather!  Most years, when we go, we welcome the chance to bust out our short sleeves and feel the sun on our faces after a long, cold, Ohio winter.  (Which, some years, has yet to show any signs of thawing in March!)  Instead, this year, Phoenix is currently having high temps in the 60's while we are walking around in shorts!  That's right, shorts.  In Ohio.  In March.

So, today's post is brought to you... from my backyard!  (Thank goodness for wi-fi!)

80 degrees?!
Put on my comfy shorts
Slip on my pink sandals
Refill the bird feeder

Drag out the old, rickety chaise lounge
(the one with the paint
p
e
e
l
i
n
g
off the arms)

Grab my laptop and
plop
down,
s    t    r    e    t    c    h
out my bare legs,
            my          in        sunlight
wiggle        toes       the

Breathe in flowers and grass and warmth

Listen to birds chirping and
bugs buzzzzzzzing
and the neighbors mowing,
hammering, drilling...
bouncing balls, zooming cars.
Dogs bark cheerfully, their chains
jingling as they run in their yards.

A jet rummmmbles by through the blue sky.

A red flash;
a cardinal swoops into the pine tree.
The gentle breeze ruffles the grass.
A red-wing blackbird I can't see
calls to me from a distant branch.

A dainty white butterfly flutters across the yard.

Summertime in the spring
in my backyard.

Goodbye Summer

    A few mornings ago, on the last day of real summer before teacher workdays started, I woke up with a poem in my head.  Then I actually sat and wrote it down, which is a big deal since I'm not sure I've written a poem since high school!  When I was done, this is what I had.

------------------------------------------------

           Sun streaming in my window
           looking out over green
                        grass, shady tree
           roses by the mailbox

          Little girls giggle in the street
          cheerful breezes rustle
                         playful leaves
          birds chirp, cicadas sing

         Lounging reading in my pjs
         ice cream, smoothies, s'mores
                       by the campfire
        cool waves of relaxation

         Music filling parks with joy
         red-orange-purple sunsets
                      twilight, sparking stars
        learning, spinning school thoughts

                      Goodbye summer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. I know this is a day early but I won't be able to blog tomorrow!
                                                             

Too Many Slices! (or, my reflections on a busy summer as it ends)

So today is slice-of-life day, and I've been excited for that for a few days since I love reading other people's slices and getting comments on my own.  However, when today actually got here, I didn't feel like writing at all.  It's not that I don't have anything to write about... in fact, it's the opposite.  There are way too many things happening in my life right now to be able to step back and concentrate on one in a nice writerly way.

School is looming ever closer, like a thundercloud on the horizon just waiting to drop gallons of busy raindrops on my head.  Don't get me wrong; I love school.  I love planning, getting creative, making fun activities, being with kids, watching them learn and interact and grow, sharing my life and my love of learning with them.  But I don't feel ready this summer.  Maybe I worked too hard during summer school this year.  Maybe summer school just went too late into the summer.  Maybe I did too much optional PD.  Maybe I have so many new ideas and too much of this push inside of me (and outside of me, in the form of "accountability" and "merit") to be a better and better and better teacher that I'm stressing myself out.  Anyway, I feel like I don't want school to come just yet.  Will I be excited and ready to go when it does come?  Of course!  I love school and I love teaching and I love working hard on something.  I just know that when school comes, it's here until next summer, and there's no going back.  I will be spending evenings grading and making materials, waking up in the middle of the night with a new lesson idea I just have to write down before I forget, pondering student performance while I'm eating, driving, showering, working out, cooking, hanging out with friends...

The only problem is that I haven't done all the things I wanted to do over the summer, in my "more time"!  I haven't organized the house, haven't cleaned the house, haven't tried lots of new dinner recipes, haven't scrapbooked or done anything else with my pictures, haven't organized my ELL materials, haven't spent lots of time with friends... My husband and I still haven't even seen the new Harry Potter movie!  And we LOVE Harry Potter!  (Although to be fair, that's the fault of bad timing -- it came out right before we left on vacation and then we kind of forgot about it!)  It's hard to feel refreshed and ready to start a new year when there are so many things I haven't done!

After looking through my calendar and to-do list, I made a Wordle word cloud to capture how I feel right now. It's not a real cloud, but it does show all the things looming in my mind right now.  I guess this is what mid-August is like: "real" school things (like lessons, materials and my room!) are taking over but I'm also still clinging to all the personal, social, and PD things I feel summer should be about.


Although, now that I think about it... I did accomplish a lot this summer.  Maybe I should focus on what I have done:  I learned about a lot of new tech tools and how I might use them in my teaching, learned a lot about Antarctica with my ELLs and used a class blog for the first time in summer school, starting reading lots of teacher blogs that have already helped me grow tremendously, joined a gym and started exercising regularly with my husband, and started this blog!  I also had a fun and relaxing vacation with my husband!  We played at lots of band events and became co-chairs of the Active Band committee.  I made my first professional presentation, as you know if you read the previous post.  I spent some fun times with my family and friends: the zoo, the fair, the Irish Festival, a Brad Paisley concert, and dinners and lunches out.  Despite all the busy-ness, I even managed a couple of relaxing, stay-in-my-pjs days too!

So I guess it was a good, productive, fun summer -- maybe too much productive and not quite enough fun, but productive is important too!  I think I could be almost ready for school now... it's feeling more like a mysterious new "front" of weather than a thundercloud.  I bet it'll bring some sun and a balmy breeze by the time my alarm goes off on Friday morning for our first teacher workday.  (Ok, maybe not when my alarm goes off, but at least by the time I'm driving to school!)  Until then, I'll be trying to squeeze in some last bits of fun and relaxation. (And just a few of those school things, even though I know they'll be here soon enough anyway!)

P.S. Funny how I wrote a lot for someone who didn't feel like writing!  I guess sometimes we all need to give up those excuses and just write anyway!  After all, I do love to write... just like I do love to teach!