“Hope is a little girl finding a bird’s egg and knowing it won’t hatch, but hoping that some way, some how, by some sort of miracle it will.”
I don’t know what inspired the above but I have believed in miracles for a long time. It’s really because I have lived them.
“Around about the dawn of man
There came a gentle rumble across the land
It grew and grew to strength untold
Then like a flower it did unfold
A gush of air, a bright light
Life exploded with all its might!”
Hmmm…
Some prose…
“There is a person inside myself that bounces from extreme to extreme of my mind. Oh, if only I could stay in the middle.”
And some poetry…
“Myself, inside me
Confined by conscience bound skull
Bouncing from extreme to extreme
Revealing the outer limits of personality
And seldom my real self.”
Entry from May 11, 1981 – “As we drove by IWC this morning bringing me to school, Becky said, “They get out of school pretty soon.” Heather (age 7 at the time) looked at the kids walking to class and said, “Get out of school? How early do they get up?” It was really funny but it kind of hurt Heather’s feelings when we all laughed.”
In the fall of 1981 I was thinking about ways to help my students remember what each punctuation mark is for. I considered having students in groups make giant copies of each mark and become experts on that particular mark and share what they knew with the rest of the class. Although I don’t remember for sure, I think we did that at least once.
What I do remember is that out of this idea the Punctuation Players evolved. I wrote a short play called “The Tragic Story of Penrod Period.” It was humorous play and each punctuation mark was a character in the play. My students did it every year until I left teaching. I still have videotapes of one or two of the productions.
In December of 1981 I wrote that a student brought enough lumps of coal that each student in my class could have one. It was near Christmas and someone had a reference to receiving a “lump of coal’ for Christmas and most of the students, to my surprise, had no idea what a lump of coal was. I don’t remember who the student was or where they had gotten the coal.
The last entries in the second journal are from January of 1982. I write that the weather has been cold, snowy and windy. One day it was 25 below zero. We missed the first two Mondays of January because of the snow.
That journal took me from Christmas of 1980 into January of 1982 so it was used just barely over a year. The quotes, original writing, thoughts, dreams and frustrations chronicle my life during that period. The germs of thoughts and ideas were started and beginning to evolve. Looking back now, knowing where those thoughts lead me makes reading the journal personally fascinating!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Renaissance
Participation in the Southeast Iowa Writing Project propelled me into many things. As I read that second journal I realize it is just churning with ideas. It was a time of a renaissance of my mind. I was reflecting on my teaching, writing letters, submitting articles, dreaming about going to graduate school and much more.
I had, up to that time, thought the graduate school option just wasn’t there for me. My academic record was not all that good and I didn’t typically do to well on tests. The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) was required for entry and the College of Education at the University of Iowa had high standards for acceptance. In those days they had a nationally highly respected program and graduates were considered the cream of the crop. I thought I would be naive to think that I could do well on the test let alone get in.
On March 27, 1981, I wrote: “I took the GRE last Saturday morning at Iowa City. I didn’t feel very good about it after I was done. I don’t think I did very well. I hope it’s not a major factor in my acceptance to graduate school. If it is, I suppose I will have to take it again.”
I filled out the application for graduate school and waited. On May 14, I received word that I was accepted at Iowa as a graduate student in the M.A. in education program. I was surprised and even thought they might have made a mistake. I originally wanted in the program because I wanted to take classes and that opened the door to that opportunity. Completing the program seemed too distant to even think about at first but slowly that dream crept into my head. Having an M.A. would open the door to more opportunities for our family and I liked the thought of being able to put M.A. after my name.
Iowa accepted most of the courses I had taken so that gave me a good start. My advisor was Dick Shepardson. He was a kind and generous fellow. He had great knowledge of classroom management and was an expert on cooperative learning. We discovered we had a lot in common. He had been an elementary teacher and was an avid arrowhead hunter. We became friends and even hunted arrowheads together one time. He was a strong supporter during my entire time at Iowa.
I also became friends with Jack Bagford. He was a professor in the department and specialized in the teaching of reading. He authored several books and was nationally know for his expertise. He, too, was an arrowhead hunter and joined us once when we hunted. I took a couple classes from him before I took any from Shepardson. I really became intrigued about the teaching of reading and couldn’t get enough of it.
I decided to make my focus general elementary education with an emphasis on reading. I didn’t think I would ever be a school administrator so I didn’t take any courses in that area until much later.
I had, up to that time, thought the graduate school option just wasn’t there for me. My academic record was not all that good and I didn’t typically do to well on tests. The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) was required for entry and the College of Education at the University of Iowa had high standards for acceptance. In those days they had a nationally highly respected program and graduates were considered the cream of the crop. I thought I would be naive to think that I could do well on the test let alone get in.
On March 27, 1981, I wrote: “I took the GRE last Saturday morning at Iowa City. I didn’t feel very good about it after I was done. I don’t think I did very well. I hope it’s not a major factor in my acceptance to graduate school. If it is, I suppose I will have to take it again.”
I filled out the application for graduate school and waited. On May 14, I received word that I was accepted at Iowa as a graduate student in the M.A. in education program. I was surprised and even thought they might have made a mistake. I originally wanted in the program because I wanted to take classes and that opened the door to that opportunity. Completing the program seemed too distant to even think about at first but slowly that dream crept into my head. Having an M.A. would open the door to more opportunities for our family and I liked the thought of being able to put M.A. after my name.
Iowa accepted most of the courses I had taken so that gave me a good start. My advisor was Dick Shepardson. He was a kind and generous fellow. He had great knowledge of classroom management and was an expert on cooperative learning. We discovered we had a lot in common. He had been an elementary teacher and was an avid arrowhead hunter. We became friends and even hunted arrowheads together one time. He was a strong supporter during my entire time at Iowa.
I also became friends with Jack Bagford. He was a professor in the department and specialized in the teaching of reading. He authored several books and was nationally know for his expertise. He, too, was an arrowhead hunter and joined us once when we hunted. I took a couple classes from him before I took any from Shepardson. I really became intrigued about the teaching of reading and couldn’t get enough of it.
I decided to make my focus general elementary education with an emphasis on reading. I didn’t think I would ever be a school administrator so I didn’t take any courses in that area until much later.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Response
The overwhelming response I got to my letters asking authors to offer advice to young writers inspired me to write to others. What started out to be an inquiry to few suddenly involved many.
On of the things we learned about in the Southeast Iowa Writing Project (SWIP) was that the use of the red pen was counterproductive. It put a damper on writing and discouraged many to not write at all. SIWP suggested that in response to student writing you focus on what the writer was doing right and the time will come to work on polishing up what was wrong with the writing. Grammar and spelling could be taught in the context of the student’s writing.
Every writer longs for response to what they have written. They want to know that someone read it and agreed or disagreed with them, someone laughed, or someone cried when they read their writing. Absent the promise of some kind of response a lot of writing wouldn’t have happened. Oh, I am sure there are some exceptions. Writers may not want or expect response to their reflective journals but generally they do want it for almost everything else.
The response I was looking for when I wrote letters to authors was advice for my students and boy, did I get it! That prompted me to write to others and the collection was born. But, there was more! When I saw and felt how powerful letter writing was for me, how it made me want to write more, I realized it would work the same way for my students.
I began collecting addresses of sports teams and figures. I bought an address book full of the addresses of TV and movie stars. I collected addresses of politicians and public figures. The next step was to take the students through a lesson on letter writing emphasizing the form a letter takes and, of course, the importance of following all the rules so the reader is sure the get the writer’s message. Suddenly, spelling and the other rules had a real purpose. I let each person choose to whom they wanted to write. Everyone sent out one letter and we waited. It was not long before the magic began to happen!
With in a week or two students had received a reply. It worked like wild fire. Other students wanted a similar response. Hayden Fry wrote personal letters to everyone one who wrote him. George Raveling sent autographed posters of the Hawkeye basketball team. Dan Gable did the same. It was all from sports teams but I will say they were very responsive. Students wrote to authors of their favorite books.
They wrote to celebrities and others. Suddenly they were asking me for stamps almost everyday. I didn’t provide it until I had read the letter and looked over the envelope to make sure they were in good order. I had two students who wrote to presidential candidates and received good personal responses. George H. Bush actually read aloud one of the letters in a speech and another invited the student to a rally.
The bottom line is the kids were empowered to write by writing and response. The students could directly connect to writing for a purpose. Many students told me years afterward that they saved and cherished the responses they got. I did, too! My classes continued to write letters the rest of my years as a teacher. I gave presentations at conferences about the effectiveness of letter writing as a tool to get more writing from their students and increase their comprehension skills.
On of the things we learned about in the Southeast Iowa Writing Project (SWIP) was that the use of the red pen was counterproductive. It put a damper on writing and discouraged many to not write at all. SIWP suggested that in response to student writing you focus on what the writer was doing right and the time will come to work on polishing up what was wrong with the writing. Grammar and spelling could be taught in the context of the student’s writing.
Every writer longs for response to what they have written. They want to know that someone read it and agreed or disagreed with them, someone laughed, or someone cried when they read their writing. Absent the promise of some kind of response a lot of writing wouldn’t have happened. Oh, I am sure there are some exceptions. Writers may not want or expect response to their reflective journals but generally they do want it for almost everything else.
The response I was looking for when I wrote letters to authors was advice for my students and boy, did I get it! That prompted me to write to others and the collection was born. But, there was more! When I saw and felt how powerful letter writing was for me, how it made me want to write more, I realized it would work the same way for my students.
I began collecting addresses of sports teams and figures. I bought an address book full of the addresses of TV and movie stars. I collected addresses of politicians and public figures. The next step was to take the students through a lesson on letter writing emphasizing the form a letter takes and, of course, the importance of following all the rules so the reader is sure the get the writer’s message. Suddenly, spelling and the other rules had a real purpose. I let each person choose to whom they wanted to write. Everyone sent out one letter and we waited. It was not long before the magic began to happen!
With in a week or two students had received a reply. It worked like wild fire. Other students wanted a similar response. Hayden Fry wrote personal letters to everyone one who wrote him. George Raveling sent autographed posters of the Hawkeye basketball team. Dan Gable did the same. It was all from sports teams but I will say they were very responsive. Students wrote to authors of their favorite books.
They wrote to celebrities and others. Suddenly they were asking me for stamps almost everyday. I didn’t provide it until I had read the letter and looked over the envelope to make sure they were in good order. I had two students who wrote to presidential candidates and received good personal responses. George H. Bush actually read aloud one of the letters in a speech and another invited the student to a rally.
The bottom line is the kids were empowered to write by writing and response. The students could directly connect to writing for a purpose. Many students told me years afterward that they saved and cherished the responses they got. I did, too! My classes continued to write letters the rest of my years as a teacher. I gave presentations at conferences about the effectiveness of letter writing as a tool to get more writing from their students and increase their comprehension skills.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Advice to Young Writers
Journaling prompted an abundance of ideas about teaching, professional growth, and several others areas. I am amazed as I go back and read about ideas I had that grew to something significant. It is interesting knowing how it turned out and how an idea or thought developed.
One of the most fascinating ideas is a collection of letters from over 200 writers offering their advice to my students. It was from a time when most writing instruction centered around grammar and spelling and very little on what the writer had to say. Those that pushed that approach believed that you couldn’t be a writer until you mastered all of the skills. The trouble with teaching writing was that the kids never got around to doing much writing because they were doing worksheet after worksheet on grammar or taking spelling tests.
Even though research did and continues to support the notion that there is no correlation between grammar skills and writing traditionalists insisted what should be taught. I wondered what real successful writers would say is important. Few mentioned grammar and not one mentioned spelling. I collected the letters and published them in a book I titled “Advice to Young Writers.” I gave away hundreds of them after I sold enough of them to pay for the printing. The area education agency was so impressed with it that they published it a second time at no cost to me.
What they did say ran counter to current thought. Things like “Read about what you don’t know and write about what you do,” came from the great writer Arthur Miller. That was the gist of many of the responses. Many of the writers focused on persistence and the need to do a lot of writing. Erma Bombeck said “Write and keep at it. Nothing is too puny or too small.”
Norman Bridwell offered, “ First, get the words and ideas down on paper as fast as you can. Then go back and polish the phrases, and check for spelling, punctuation and proper structure.” Many echo that basic theme! It is exactly the opposite of the way we were teaching kids to write. We had kids so paralyzed worrying about doing it right that they didn’t do it at all.
Beverly Cleary said, “The best advice I can give to young writers is to read, listen, observe, write and try to find your own voice instead of imitating the work of others.” Many others mentioned the importance of reading a lot. Annie Dillard said “don’t think of yourself as a writer, don’t think of yourself at all. Just read everything and learn everything about the world from books. The writing will take care of itself, if you read enough. Cheers!”
Some wrote long detailed responses. Some said very little and some said they were too busy or charged for their advice. Even today I am impressed with the response and should do more with them. That may end up being a project for me sometime in the future.
One of the most fascinating ideas is a collection of letters from over 200 writers offering their advice to my students. It was from a time when most writing instruction centered around grammar and spelling and very little on what the writer had to say. Those that pushed that approach believed that you couldn’t be a writer until you mastered all of the skills. The trouble with teaching writing was that the kids never got around to doing much writing because they were doing worksheet after worksheet on grammar or taking spelling tests.
Even though research did and continues to support the notion that there is no correlation between grammar skills and writing traditionalists insisted what should be taught. I wondered what real successful writers would say is important. Few mentioned grammar and not one mentioned spelling. I collected the letters and published them in a book I titled “Advice to Young Writers.” I gave away hundreds of them after I sold enough of them to pay for the printing. The area education agency was so impressed with it that they published it a second time at no cost to me.
What they did say ran counter to current thought. Things like “Read about what you don’t know and write about what you do,” came from the great writer Arthur Miller. That was the gist of many of the responses. Many of the writers focused on persistence and the need to do a lot of writing. Erma Bombeck said “Write and keep at it. Nothing is too puny or too small.”
Norman Bridwell offered, “ First, get the words and ideas down on paper as fast as you can. Then go back and polish the phrases, and check for spelling, punctuation and proper structure.” Many echo that basic theme! It is exactly the opposite of the way we were teaching kids to write. We had kids so paralyzed worrying about doing it right that they didn’t do it at all.
Beverly Cleary said, “The best advice I can give to young writers is to read, listen, observe, write and try to find your own voice instead of imitating the work of others.” Many others mentioned the importance of reading a lot. Annie Dillard said “don’t think of yourself as a writer, don’t think of yourself at all. Just read everything and learn everything about the world from books. The writing will take care of itself, if you read enough. Cheers!”
Some wrote long detailed responses. Some said very little and some said they were too busy or charged for their advice. Even today I am impressed with the response and should do more with them. That may end up being a project for me sometime in the future.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Writing Class
I have met Gwendolyn Brooks twice. She was a great African American poet from Chicago. Her autograph, dated February 26, 1981, is inside the back cover of my second journal. Both times I met her at Iowa Wesleyan College.
The first time was in the chapel on campus. It was in the evening and I was one of very few Caucasians in attendance. After it was over I went to the stage to shake her hand. When I did she held onto my hand and looked me in the eye and said “Why are you here?” I said she was a great poet and I came to hear her. She said, “Langston Hughes is a great poet. I am just a writer.”
The second time I met her I was teaching a writing class through Southeastern Community College. The class usually met at the high school in my old English classroom. I am sure some of my former English teachers would have turned over in their graves if they had found out I was teaching a writing class. The evening Gwendolyn Brooks was reading at the Iowa Wesleyan College library we met there instead, and the class listened to her poetry. I loved it! I am not sure the class did?
The first time I taught the class with another person. After that I taught it own my own. That first time the guy teaching with me missed many of the classes and never came prepared. I figured after that that if I was going to do all the work I might as well get all the money so I taught it on my own. The other guy made it easy because he moved to Colorado.
I, too, struggled with the class. There are only so many activities you can do and then they need to get down to writing. No writing means no sharing and discussion, which translate into a boring two and a half hours.
I was always disappointed that some people would just show up and expect to be entertained the entire time. In a class like that the writing of the participants becomes the contents of the course.
I asked everyone to keep a journal. I assured them I would not collect them and never ask them to share anything they didn’t want to share. Sometimes I would give them long diatribes on why they should be writing things down. If they wanted to be a writer they had to write and one of the easy things was to write about what was going on in your life.
One participant was going through a bitter divorce and took my encouragement to heart. At the beginning of one session she told everyone about how many pages she had written in her journal and how cathartic it had been for her to get that stuff down on paper. Later, though, when I cautioned the group about no writing anything down they wouldn’t share with their mother or their children that same person opened her journal and tore out several pages.
The first time was in the chapel on campus. It was in the evening and I was one of very few Caucasians in attendance. After it was over I went to the stage to shake her hand. When I did she held onto my hand and looked me in the eye and said “Why are you here?” I said she was a great poet and I came to hear her. She said, “Langston Hughes is a great poet. I am just a writer.”
The second time I met her I was teaching a writing class through Southeastern Community College. The class usually met at the high school in my old English classroom. I am sure some of my former English teachers would have turned over in their graves if they had found out I was teaching a writing class. The evening Gwendolyn Brooks was reading at the Iowa Wesleyan College library we met there instead, and the class listened to her poetry. I loved it! I am not sure the class did?
The first time I taught the class with another person. After that I taught it own my own. That first time the guy teaching with me missed many of the classes and never came prepared. I figured after that that if I was going to do all the work I might as well get all the money so I taught it on my own. The other guy made it easy because he moved to Colorado.
I, too, struggled with the class. There are only so many activities you can do and then they need to get down to writing. No writing means no sharing and discussion, which translate into a boring two and a half hours.
I was always disappointed that some people would just show up and expect to be entertained the entire time. In a class like that the writing of the participants becomes the contents of the course.
I asked everyone to keep a journal. I assured them I would not collect them and never ask them to share anything they didn’t want to share. Sometimes I would give them long diatribes on why they should be writing things down. If they wanted to be a writer they had to write and one of the easy things was to write about what was going on in your life.
One participant was going through a bitter divorce and took my encouragement to heart. At the beginning of one session she told everyone about how many pages she had written in her journal and how cathartic it had been for her to get that stuff down on paper. Later, though, when I cautioned the group about no writing anything down they wouldn’t share with their mother or their children that same person opened her journal and tore out several pages.
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