A day in the life of the CTWP
Homemade muffins and fruit what a wonderful way to start our morning! Then onto journal writing Shirley reads a piece out of the tornado book about butterflies, and tortillas as we begin to write. As the room is in silence for about 30 minutes everyone is diligently writing or looking as though they are writing. Then it is time to share, anyone up for authors chair? Joel shares her piece on writing, I share on what I want to be when I grows up, Katie shares on jumping,and Erin shares on teaching and the changes she is going through while sitting in this class. Which leads us into a great discussion about the wonderful teachers we are because we are here in our new found family or as Kristen called us a,”writing sorority.” Next was book talk time and Erin lead us through her journey to find the book that would help her through next year and seem to call out to her. The book she connected to was Sparking the Thinking of Students by Glenda Ward Beamon. Erin lead us through the book outlining each chapter and pointing out the highlights. Joel comes in very eager to share. One of her students in summer school called to let her know that the teacher,”knows he can read.” She seemed to light up when she retold us the story(we love to share everything with each other here). Christy shares her beautiful log with the group and I set in awe of her words(I can not even compare to that) who knew a log could be so terrific. Adrienne read from Crazy Loco to give us an insight into the author we have coming tomorrow. Then is was time for the Farah show…”Special students are special writers.” We got a first hand look at the life of Farah and how to pronounce her name correctly, also we were given the opportunity to act like “special” students some of us took it a little further then others. She leads us through a guided research paper and all of us learned many new facts on wild animals. Time for lunch our favorite part of the day. As lunch is being digested many begin to dive into their research papers while others meet in response groups to share. Soon we come back together as a whole and listen as Freddie shares his piece on using our words. Finally what we all have been awaiting the title of our Anthology….the winner is “Behind Closed Doors”. That is just one buy day at the Central Writing Project who said this was going to be a boring summer?
2 comments June 26, 2008
Notes and Blips from Kristy’s Head–June 25th
8:30-Whoa. Jennifer looked so calm and collected sitting there surrounded by ominous trifolds and when she sensed my stress she let me in on her secret–she was imagining them as beautiful trees. The image worked for about three minutes and then they turned back into research skyscrapers with impending task graffitied all over them.
After Farrah started passing out strawberries and I gobbled down one of Freddie’s pineapple empanadas I began to breathe a little easier. Liz assured us she would take the obstacles down, we just had to read them first. (mental note: wear comfortable shoes if I ever participate in a poster conference)
8:45-I wish I could attend a conference in sunny South Padre like Lee Ann!
8:50-NCTE convention is being held in San Antonio–no excuses ladies.
9:00-Journal time. What, no inspiring words? What should we write about? Write about writing-cool, I can do that.
9:10-Sharing: Lee Ann reflected on writing and the affect the CTWP has had on her as a writer. Liz responded, “Where will you publish that?”
Erin shared her experience about David the Meanie and how she feels horrible about her memory of bullying Meredith. She wants to use the story to teach her students about bullying.
Joel shared her love for Tyra Banks
9:30-Book talk by Katy Peterson: Katy talked about the book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne. Hays ISD loves this book. Katy found it insightful. Everyone has read it but me. Hmm, maybe I should.
9:45-Erin was excited that she put the log on the blog and it was working beatifully…on her PC at least. Is it working? I don’t know. Try this. Try that. Take a break…(10 minutes later)…ok, we got it. It was beatiful, good job Erin.
10:20-The Lisa Show.
Yumm, with my eyes closed I could feel the intricate little checkered pattern of the tiny corn weave on my toungue. Ooooh and I love chocolate, who would have thought you could put a chocolate coating on a corn product and it would be so delicious?
Focus! Lisa taught us about focusing our writing and pushing the slow motion button on our memories.
I remember…how she used that cool I Spy book to illustrate her concept.
I’d like to forget…that the video clip from A League of their Own didn’t work on the first try.
I feel happy…when I think about using Lisa’s lesson in my own class.
I feel sad…when I think about the last day of the institute.
5 minute drafts–Lisa warned us not to do this in our own classes but the precocious writers had no problem with the time limit. Thanks to the following gifted writers for sharing: Joel, Adrienne, and Lee Ann.
12:00-lunchtime
1245-A2I team:
“We have this great tool called the Analytic Writing Continuum. We love it. It is so wonderful.
You can’t have it! We will let you look at it and touch it but you can’t have it!”
(mental note: I need to work on that photographic memory)
Add a comment June 25, 2008
Farah’s Log (June 23rd)
This is a link to my log from June 23rd. I used PhotoStory 3 to create it. I hope that you liked it!
http://txstate.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
Farah
Add a comment June 25, 2008
June 23 log
Go here for the June 23 log:
http://english.tamucc.edu/wiki/Quick/CTWPlog
Add a comment June 24, 2008
Corn and Black Bean Salad
Ingredients:
3 cans of corn
2 cans of black beans
cherry tomatoes
1/2 jalapeño
3 scallions
cilantro
1 lime
avocado
salt and pepper
Zesty Italian dressing
Dump Recipe:
Drain the cans of corn and dump into the bowl. Drain the black beans, rinse under cool water and dump into bowl. Cut a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half and dump into bowl. Chop 3 scallions, 1/2 of jalapeño into small bits and, yes, dump into bowl. Take a large handful of cilantro, chop and dump into the bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze the juice of a whole lime over the ingredients. Add about 1/4 of a cup of Zesty Italian dressing to the ingredients. Stir, taste, add more if necessary. Chill. Chop and stir in avocado and add before serving.
Add a comment June 20, 2008
Daily Log: 6/18/08
Adrienne shared a read aloud regarding adversity from Beyond Basketball by Mike Krzyzewski. Journal entries were shared by Lee Ann and Erin.
Adrienne’s book talk was aligned with her belief that working in a professional learning community is a valuable tool. She is a mentor to many teachers and values the time the campus collaborates in planning. Letters To a New Teacher by Jim Burke responds to questions we all face. A validation of our work is nice to hear.
Stacey shared her PowerPoint log. The pictures were great. Thanks.
Kristin shared her “log on the blog”.
Kristin shared her passion for teaching through her demo. The new home computer with IWorks and Keynote caused a frightful moment in the beginning. Her beliefs were shaped by her 1st grade love of reading, her experience as a member of the Bluebird group and fighting for good grades. She shared the love for her family and the value for her students. School facts and TAKS data was shared. Kristin shared her belief that TAKS is something we must deal with and we can support students in spite of the test.
She shared her students and special days with them. The Demo was aligned with the belief that children should have the opportunity to dive into amazing pieces of writing and that reading should be fun and desired by students. Borrowing ideas from authors is a key belief. Her demo illustrated how to use a mentor text by reading aloud Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. The students were asked to identify what the author did in the story to make the story interesting. Students used these techniques to write their own story using magazine or newspaper pictures as a starting place. Author’s chair illustrated the creativity of the group.
Jennifer and the tech team facilitated group discussions about the articles read. Jigsawing each article allowed us to talk about the highlights/gist from each article. Sharing out as a whole group and writing the highlights in Kidspirations allowed us to see a model of how writing could be added to a group discussion. The graphic organizer will be saved as a jpeg for us to access. “Did You Know 2.0” YouTube video was shared.
Our response groups met to share and write.
Add a comment June 19, 2008
June 17th, 2008
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Journaling- Shirly read a story called Don’t Try to Avoid the Rocks out of a book titled: Writing Toward Home.
Brave Readers:
Pat Jones- Wrote a Poem!!!
Joel- Wrote how most of us feel at one point or another with writing.
Book Review: Breakthroughs: Classroom Observation About Teaching Writing—–Given by: Catherine
Stories written by NWP
Absolutely Amazing Presentation by KATIE PETERSON!! Keeping Creativity Alive! Inspired by Roald Dahl
LUNCH BREAK
Jennifer Woolven helped with our Technology Crisis.
Steps for Success:
Logs only go on the Home Page
Biographies
Click Manage
Pages
Click on the Word ABOUT
Paste Bio at the bottom of the page
Broke out into small groups to discuss technology articles within our group.
Tea Time Brought
The One and Only …..
KATHERINE BOMER, Author of Writing a Life: Teaching Memoir and For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action
SHE WAS AWESOME!
Add a comment June 18, 2008
