Thinking & Writing Wrinkles

Christmas Wishes

from

MerryChristmas

Questions Galore!

The room was just buzzing this morning and the excitement was in the air!  Questions galore!  Of course, all of them centered on Super Thinker!  Many thought that I was the Super Thinker!  Can you imagine?  They also seem convinced that she must be a teacher and boy, did they zero in on each and every clue Super Thinker left!  Wonder why they are so sure Super Thinker is a teacher. They know I know but I told them that when you give your word, you are honor bound to keep it.  And keep it, I will!  They have asked Super Thinker lots and lots of questions so we'll see how good they are at wading through the clues!  I hope they get lots more clues! 

Smiles were everywhere today and everyone was giving it their best!  They want so to be good writers - we don't want any egg on any faces around here, at least not because of our writing, right?

Jerry, we missed you today and we are so sorry you are sick.  Hope you get well soon!  Juana will be attending other classes for a while so we hope she can perhaps come back to the group a little later in the year.  We also gained a new member today - Noe! Welcome Noe! He is good friends with Cristian and they make a dynamite team.  Cristian is helping Noe with his Spanish and Noe is helping Cristian with his English.

I am proud of each and every one of you.  I wish you a wonderful holiday season.  I'm going to miss you but it is going to be so much fun getting back together next year!!

If you have some spare moments - write, write, write!!!  Also, think, think, think!!

Till next year......

WHOOSH!!!!

Good morning, boys & girls!  WHOOSH!!!  Did you hear that sound last week?  I heard it not once, not twice, but several times.  I was on the Internet and what to my wondering eyes should appear but Super Thinker- superhero to bloggers everywhere!  Why, I believe Super Thinker even made the ten posts of Christmas! One or sometimes even more for each one of our amazing Wrinkles group!  My goodness, what to our wondering eyes should appear but this powerful writer who uses superpowers to inspire emerging webloggers everywhere!  Who is Super Thinker?  Where did Super Thinker come from?  How did Super Thinker find us?  What do you think?  Quick!  Go read those comments and post your thoughts - oh, tis the season to be thinking about the power of the written word!!!

Give comments for Christmas!

Student weblogs are up now!  We have been working on them for the past couple of weeks.  Today was a productive one and you could hear the clicking of keys throughout the room.  Students made their introductions with poems.  They liked this activity - said it was hard at first, then with more writing, it got easier.  They gathered up their different writing pieces and began to publish.  Everyone had been thinking about names and tag lines for their weblogs.  Most of those are done, but some are still thinking. Yes, Jackie, I know you are pondering and will have a clever name next week!

I have created an "Idioms Are Fun" weblog where idioms chosen by the students will be defined and then used in a sentence to show understanding.  The first idiom we spotlighted was "apple of my eye" by Yoceline.  This is going to be a weekly activity.  The students loved it and are getting ready to create some good illustrations that we will post later. 

Our writing community is off to a great start! I am proud of all of them!  Take a look at this good-looking crew......

And then treat yourself to a look at their weblogs listed to the right!  I'm sure they'd love a comment or two on their writing!  Give a little Christmas gift to a great group of kids!  Give comments for Christmas!!!!

The Beginnings of a Writing Community

It has been an extremely busy week at Georgia State.  I have been unable to post but I have been thinking about all of you all week.  First, I want to say that your poem ideas were really good. Hey, they were more than good, they were terrific.  I had read the students the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon.  Click here if you would like to read it.  I had learned about a group of elementary and middle school students who had been inspired by this poem and written some of their own. I read several of them to my students. I thought what a great way to make introductions on our Wrinkles weblog.  We had lots of discussions and everyone brought in their list of ideas.  The students are in the process of posting them but I wanted to share a little of what you did as our poems are still a work in progress.

Yoceline - I can learn new cultures everytime I meet someone new.  I am from a school where I can always say, "I can do it!"

Jackie - I'm from a Mom who is a best friend to a good cook.

Keith - I am from the swamps in Louisiana.

Jenny - I am from looking at horses to almost having my own.

Luz - I am from a holy day to eating tasty food.

Juana - I am from Mexico and playing with my friends.

Derrick - I am from a grandmother far away and a mother who is always cooking.

Jerry - I am from a town with lots of traffic and business and a state that is known for its peaches.

Emily completed hers.  Emily was in my NewsQuest group last year and she is really soaring with her writing skills.  She really pitches in to help everyone else learn and write well, also.  This is a team effort.  For a real treat, click here to read Emily's poem entitled I'm From. Click here to see Emily's weblog. We hope to have all others up and going this week!

Tomorrow we will work some more on the poems and maybe even get them published on our weblogs!

Last week I was amazed at the students' responses to my post the previous week.  I had talked about how weblogging made me think and write and learn!  I had shared Mr. Richardson's view of what blogging was to him.  They love the idea of forming a writing community.  They can express themselves well but the writing is much harder.  They all began forming their thoughts on a post last week but as usual the time ran out before we wanted it to!  It was a good thinking day.  We are going to keep on working on our writing skills. We will probably have a mixture of types of posting from writing about subjects they choose, to current events, to teacher prompts, to wherever our discussions lead.  

Where I'm From

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush,
the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I am from fudge and eyeglasses,
     from Imogene and Alafair,
I'm from the know-it-alls
     and the pass-it-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.
I'm from He restoreth my soul
     with cottonball lamb
     and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's
Branch,
fried corn and stong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
    to the auger
the eye my father shut to keep his
sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures.
a sift of last faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded--
leaf-fall from the family tree.

I'm From by Emily

I'm from fresh baked goods with my mom's special touch

I'm from diving in machinery, calling my dad to lunch

I'm from novels of all kinds, fantasy my favorite

I'm from refreshingly cool water down my back from my aunt's pool

I'm from waking up to a warm fresh cinnamon rolls on a sunny Sunday morning

I'm from Sarah, my unique one-of-a-kind sister

I'm from my dad, showing off his new RC boats

I'm from my mom, my loving mom who tucks my covers in tight

I'm from my family, the treasure who I will cherish forever!

Think possibilities!

Good morning students!

It's early Thursday morning and I want you to know that I have been thinking about you all week!  I am delighted that we have your weblogs created!  Now the fun part begins.  Of course, in order to have fun, we have to think long and hard about the content of our weblogs, what we have to say, and what direction we need to head in our weekly sessions.

I have been reading some very interesting posts from some of my weblogging friends this week.  They make me think.  In turn, I will then write on my weblog and others begin to think about what I wrote in response to a friend's post.  Sometimes I write about something I have read that makes me want to explore and find out even more about what I think and others think.  It's a great way to learn - it's real, it's a way to share and grow with others, and it is an exciting way to learn.  Now I have to be motivated, I have to work hard, and I have to really think and write about things of interest to me. What's great about it is that I am part of a community that really cares about education. You won't believe what our main focus is in our edublogging community - you guys and all the students from many different states and countries.  We view weblogs as a place to give you a voice and we want to oversee that process in ways that will make you good thinkers and continue to develop as good citizens of our world. Writing what you think and writing it well can be one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.  What's even better is that we can have a lot of fun on the journey.

One of my many good edublogging friends is Will Richardson.  Now three of you remember him from our NewsQuest group last year and all of you heard what he wrote about our Wrinkles group a little earlier this year.  I want to share something he wrote a few days ago about what blogging is.....

Blogging (from Mr. Richardson's post)

1. Find and read material that is relevant to your life.
2. Capture the essence of this relevant reading, give credit to its source, and synthesize those ideas into a piece of writing that advances a personal, perhaps greater understanding of that topic. 
3. Publish that writing for response and for perhaps pushing someone else's thinking on the subject. 
4. Read some more.

This is what I wrote on my weblog in response to Mr. Richardson's post:

"Will goes on to wonder if this is really even possible in a school setting.  I'm not sure either, especially when many of the things that are relevant to teenager's lives are difficult subjects for us to just give them  free rein to discuss on a school weblog. However, I think we could steer them to issues that should be important to them and work at fostering interest.  This is why I think a school-wide focus on current events is so important.  A base knowledge has to be built. 

The other thing I'm not sure about is whether the students have the developmental skills or readiness or whatever to actually start "blogging."  I think we have to oversee it in our school settings and that means we have to have control and make sure the content fits our curriculum. Of course, I'm coming from an elementary prospective mostly. I'd be interested in what you middle and high school edubloggers think.  Next semester we will be letting some of the preservice teachers have reflective blogs during their student teaching. I'm sure we'll hear their voices!

I am going to try just letting my Wrinkles group explore and then write next week. I'm going to suggest that they think of something they have learned in school this year that is of interest to them and an area that they wish to learn more about. They are so used to not really having many choices of what they will learn and the idea of having a voice is yet again another matter. Just that concept alone is mind-boggling for them. They haven't had enough opportunities to write freely. Giving them a voice should not be as difficult as it is in our schools.  I've been thinking a lot about that lately and need to contemplate that much more!

Next week I may need to help the students with sites about different topics and let them choose as our time is so limited.  Most of these kids don't have computers at home. I'm not sure they are ready for this yet but it won't take long to discover that.  It wouldn't hurt to see their reactions, talk to them about it and see what they think. Hmmm, wonder where it will lead.... I just know that when I ask the students the questions, most of the time they have the answers.  I just have to figure out the right questions (not so easy)  and then listen carefully (again, not always so easy)."

So students, for today......

We're going to talk about all this and work on our new weblogs.  Can't wait!  We may try to "tweak" Mr. Richardson's writing a bit and have a model for elementary kids!  Maybe we can create our own dynamic little community and who knows what all could evolve from such a good learning journey. Many say that it may not be possible and elementary students can't do this. What do you think? 

I know I believe in possibilities and mostly I believe in you! Today we are going to think possibilities!!

Wow! Enough said! I better finish getting ready for school!  See you in an hour or so!

Mrs. Davis