A Boat Named Mary Lou

The trait that is the focus right now in writing workshop is ideas.  One of the mini-lessons for developing ideas uses "building blocks" (when, place, name, colour/size) to help students craft detailed sentences that help paint a picture in the reader's mind.  I wrote a simple sentence paragraph on the board which included the sentence, "The boat rocked."  With the students' help new sentences were created that added layers of detail:

The boat rocked.
Last night, the boat rocked.  (when)
Last night on Lake Superior, the boat rocked. (place)
Last night on Lake Superior, the big yellow boat rocked. (size/colour)
Last night on Lake Superior, the big yellow boat named Mary Lou rocked. (name)

I then said, "Hmmm, I seem to recall another boat named Mary Lou.  I wonder where I have heard that before?" I knew the answer, but often, just like a lawyer in a courtroom, teachers know the answer to a question asked.  To my surprise, two of my grade eight students who I taught last year (in a 7/8 split, which I also teach this year) called out, "It's the name of the boat from the book Holes (a novel study last year)."  Hah!  It's small moments like the above that bring joy to a teacher and make teaching worthwhile.

Randomography

Imagine That

Last week I warmly greeted a colleague before the beginning of the school day.  He responded with, "I am trying to imagine you overweight."  Huh?  Then, realization set in.  Pop (my father-in-law) has been wearing a black Danier leather jacket to school to ward off the cool mornings we have been experiencing lately.  The jacket used to be mine, but it was passed on to Pop before the our family moved north.  Several staff members had complimented Pop on his jacket and he mentioned that it used to be worn by his son-in-law (yours truly).  Worn in my pre-running, overweight (250+ pounds) days.  The colleagues were surprised, and thus the comment above.  I guess I look slimmer than I imagine.  I often still feel like the 250 pound person on the inside, though the comment from the colleague helped me feel this a little less that morning.  It also gave me a much needed impetus to keep running, especially now that the dark and cool mornings make it more difficult to rise early to pull on the running shoes and head out the door.

Afternoon Hike

Yesterday afternoon we trekked out into the bush for some quality time with the Sprouts and Nana and Pop.

Our explorations took us to the beaver dam, the location of which we still have to pinpoint on a map. The dam is quite high, taller than the Sprouts, the resulting lake (with beaver lodge in the distance) just below my eye (and camera) level.

We explored the immediate area a little more, discovering all sorts of interesting things, including deer antlers.

Pop and Jo hammed it up a little.

By the expression on this Sprout's face, this adventure was a success.

Wordless Wednesday

You Have to Know When to Stop

Balance is the new mantra for my spouse and I this school year. It's too easy to spend literally hours working away on a particular mini-lesson, searching for the best resource online for social studies, or discussing until the wee hours of the night the merits of differentiated instruction. 

NO MORE!

We have resolved to start letting go of the nitty-gritty details that can so consume our teaching lives.  Instead the time gained from "knowing when to stop" will be spent pursuing hobbies that bring joy, or curling up in book nooks to read, or biking, or hiking, or canoeing, or visiting family, or drawing, or listening to music, or telling jokes, or cooking, or building Lego cities (and tearing them down), or playing soccer, or baking, or stargazing, or watching Star Wars on Blu-ray, or playing the guitar, or singing, or sleeping, or blogging...

Go Ahead, Make My Day