Robert Fulghum's "It was on Fire When I Lay Down on it."

A close friend and colleague (from whom I have learned much these past seven years) shared this copy of Fulghum's writing with me in the spring of 2009 as we were planning for the fall opening faculty meetings. Part of this piece figured into our introduction to the simulations and workshops we did that September. 

In an effort to reduce the amount of paper I have in file drawers and loose leaf binders, here is a pdf of the article. If you haven't read a pdf online before, try reading it in full screen.

Testing to see how certain files display

A student and I have been playing around with various exports from Flash. I was curious to see how they would display on posterous.

P.S. Turns out if you click the GIF then it will animate. However, the SWF doesn't display at all. P.P.S. Never mind – it turns out the SWF does play; perhaps it had to fully load the first time in order to play subsequent times…

 

This GIF was exported from a Flash file created by an 8th grader. 

 

And this is the SWF from the same Flash file.

Flipped in Advisory

Back on June 15 of this year I wrote about Flipped by Wendy Van Draanen, my school's summer reading book for all 7th and 8th graders. I quite enjoyed the book, and throughout the summer ideas about how to discuss the book swirled around in my mind. While there would be discussion questions provided, I wasn't keen on doing a standard book discussion with 18 kids.

Fast forward to this past Friday, when all of the 7th and 8th grade advisories, in their separate groups,  spent a period talking about Flipped. Here's what we did…

At the start of advisory we asked all 18 students to line themselves up in age/birthday order. We then plucked a student from either end and one from the middle to form the first group, continuing on in this manner until there were 5 groups of 3, each with someone from the beginning, end and middle of the line. The groups were given 5 minutes to refresh their memories about the book and charged with making sure that everyone in the threesome knew the basic story line. At the end of the time, each group was asked to share a main event from the book, with the first request being for a brief summation of the story (which forms the trunk of the tree). From their responses I drew a word tree on the board.

The reason for placing the events in the shape of the tree is that a tree was a major component of the story. The words in red are the responses given to the second question noted below. Once the kids had finished pulling out main events from the story, I put two questions to them.

• Since there are so many meanings of the words Flip/Flipped,  what are ways that you use the words or what meanings do the words have?• What meaning does the tree have in the story?

Snack was delivered right around when the kids were giving their word choices, and the food helped make for a relaxed yet focused conversation. Each word suggestion prompted someone else to share their word choice, and this sequed to sharing times in our lives when we flipped or an event or person flipped that impacted us. This was the most poignant portion of the discussion, and the aim of the entire activity – to personalize the book and use it to bring a group of 18 students and their advisors together in an ongoing process of supportiveness. We didn't exactly flip head over heels for one another, but we sure managed to share some laughter, seriousness and comaraderie!

Oh, and if you are curious about the book, it's coming out as a movie sometime this fall and you can catch the trailer on the Warner Brothers site.

Munching, scratching deer

While having lunch upon the deck, I noticed something stirring in the marsh grass in our backyard.

A rather handsome buck was having a meal among the grass.

Alas, one camera click too many and he decided to make his way elsewhere.

When lo and behold, seemingly out of the blue, came his munching companion.

Who decided to also head for another pasture!

I suspect it was one or both of these deer that were scratching their antlers upon the azalea bushes on the side of our house. Robin heard their heavy breathing and scratching sounds while he was watching television around 11 at night. The next morning one azalea bush was half its size and the other was no more, their branches strewn upon the ground. And the three foot sprinkler pole that used to stand upright between the azaleas? Ha, that was tilted at a low angle to the ground. I suppose we can now say that "the buck stops here" ;-)

Yardsticks – Chip Wood

Am reading this book

while sitting on our deck

that overlooks Otter Creek

and wondering why we bring so much of our education indoors. When our 19 year old was in middle school, he made a telling observation during the winter. Why was it, he wanted to know, that school keeps us indoors during the sunniest and best part of the day. I have to wonder the same thing. All the research notes the importance of exercise, novelty and movement on the learning process. Especially during the winter, when it is not uncommon for people to miss the sun, feel a bit sluggish and want to hibernate, we should be getting both young bodies and the bodies of us not-as-young teachers up and out and moving.

This all springs to mind in the middle of a warm summer's day, thanks to Chip Wood's Yardsticks and here is Chip's site.

Yardsticks provides a guide for where children are developmentally from ages 4 to 14. Each age level begins with a description of children at that age, followed by descriptions of physical, social-emotional, language and cognitive guide posts for that age. These same areas are then broken down into patterns that are likely to emerge in school in terms of development, along with suggested ways to engage this age group within the curriculum. There is an extensive set of resources, a birthday cluster exercise, two introductory chapters covering Developmental Considerations, and an explanation of viewing Yardsticks as Broad Guidelines.

I am finding this book an excellent resource as a teacher, and wish I had my hands on it back when our kids were younger. I leave with the two opening quotes:
How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? –Satchel Paige

In order to be treated fairly and equally, children have to be treated differently. –Melvin Konner

A little bit of heaven :-)

Whilst in Woods Hole, awaiting the ferry, stood up for smoothies made with fresh fruit – raspberries, banana and apple cider. (We'll have none of that canned syrupy stuff!)


Having a little bit of dialogue, perhaps about the record breaking NYC temps?


Here's a garbage bin we haven't seen before! The top is composed of solar cells.


Then it was off for the 45 minute ferry to Vineyard Haven and the 30 minute drive to home sweet home for the week :-)


Access road to the house, which used to be a farm 150 years ago. The Wampanoag Indians own the land to the right of the hay bales; the driveway to the house is just past Fred on the left.


Kayaking on Menemsha Pond, followed by a glorious swim, same location.


Had to show off my suit! (The suit company, EQ, recycles scraps from their other suits & uses them on this colorful line. The rear has 3 different colors/patterns!)


Walk from the Cliffs to the beach. The stretch of sand includes Philbin beach where we have body surfed, boogie boarded, swam, soaked, and settled into chairs for a bit of reading. Tuesday evening we were further west at Squibnocket Beach (no picture) where we each dined on 2 lb lobstahs from Menemsha Fish Market. Gulp!

These are the cliffs from whence we came on this walk.

On the path leaving the beach. Jamie and Robin, you may notice many similarities to the Orleans beaches. As Dad said, the big difference is that the water here is WARM!


That's it for now, except to say it's Netherlands vs Spain in Sunday's FIFA World Cup final!

The Complete Guide To Service Learning – Cathryn Berger Kaye

By all counts, Cathryn Berger Kaye is the doyenne of service learning. She has written a multitude of books touching on a wide range of approaches to service learning, with The Complete Guide to Service Learning topping the list as the definitive bible.

Those of us on my school's Public Purpose Task Force were given this book to read over the summer. (For more information about the goal of this Task Force see The Public Purpose of Private Schools.) Berger Kaye's book is a jam-packed resource that provides a detailed explanation of what service learning is, research to support the benefits of service learning, a hefty book list geared to different ages and subjects, and practical ideas for implementation organized by 13 themes. A CD is included that contains over 20 reproducible forms and templates plus additional material.

According to Berger Kaye, service learning can be defined as a research-based teaching method where guided or classroom learning is applied through action that addresses an authentic community need in a process that allows for youth initiative and provides structured time for reflection on the service experience and demonstration of acquired skills and knowledge.

She anticipates the varied questions that teachers might have by providing questions and answers throughout the introductory chapters. I suspect that if someone comes up with an unasked question and gets in touch with her, Berger Kaye would have a response!

The first chapter explains in depth the concept of Service Learning, beginning with K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice: (1)Meaningful Service, (2) Link to Curriculum, (3) Reflection, (4) Diversity, (5) Youth Voice, (6) Partnerships, (7) Progress Monitoring and (8) Duration and Intensity.

Of course, the book explains all of these in detail! To carry out these standards, a process is delineated, though keep in mind that while the process is sequential, many of the components overlap. The process consists of:

• Investigation – determining what resources exist within the student group, and what needs exist within the community
• Preparation and Planning  – figuring out what additional information is needed in order to get involved
• Action – carrying out the plan

• Reflection – a continual process between/among students, teachers and the community
• Demonstration – sharing the fruits of the process with others
Teachers will quickly figure out that this book was written by a teacher for teachers. Cathryn Berger Kaye leaves little out in her detailed approach, and her passion for this approach shines through. I am glad to have this guide for what is sure to be a bit of a change in how my school "does school".

On the water

There are two osprey perches in the marsh, but they still like hanging out on this largely dead tree. Nice for us as it provides a great view!

Moderately choppy waters on LI Sound; just enough to make for occasional exhilarating splashes.

Always hopeful I'll see a barrage of sailboats with their colorful spinnakers full of wind. This time round it was a fast moving trio.

Kayaking partner :-)

Great Egret…

…long and lean necked.

Perhaps a gull or a tern?

Scott, if you see this, feel free to chime in with an id!

Same tree on which the osprey like to perch. Could be the tangle tree from Harry Potter ;-) It's been the landing spot for many a bird of prey, including a great horned owl the year we first moved in.

Posterous discoveries – Captions are needed for each pic if I want them to display wholly on the page. Otherwise, noncaptioned photos are displayed in a group requiring clicks to view each.
Okay, this is my last posting of this post! Hopefully it will display the pictures in the order in which they are displayed in the body of my email. The previous posting wound up displaying two pictures of the dead tree and relocating the second gull/tern picture to the end.