notes+from+Nov.+9th

Dear Friends at PDS: What a wonderful session on Wednesday! Thank you all for sharing your stories, your work in the class room, and your books of poetry! Your "stories from the heart" were very moving and inspiring. Jan, I want to meet the candymaker who taught you to make toffee! I hope you finish your piece and send it to him. I'm sure he would love to hear about the impact he has made on you --- and, now, on all of us. Gretchen, you have inspired me to start collecting postcards again. What a wonderful way of corresponding with your granddaughter! I'm sure she saves them all! Sue, you brought tears to our eyes with your beautiful story about a former student who most definitely touched your heart. That's what the general public does not get about the bond of teacher and student. David, how fortunate you are to have traveled to Africa and experienced the daily life and challenges of its people! Thank you for enriching us with your stories! Anita and I enjoyed participating in the Living Poetry Anthology Project, inspired by our mentor text, __Awakening the Heart__, by Georgia Heard. It was fun to choose poems to copy and post in prominent places around the school. What a wonderful way to involve the school in the appreciation of poetry and perhaps inspire students to write poems! Amy, we were excited to hear that you, with Ruthie's assistance, have already started this project with your first graders. We'd love to visit your classroom to see their work. Anita, thank you for sharing your students' playful rhymes. You helped me overcome my fear of rhyming by introducing the idea of creating words in the style of Dr. Seuss in order to make the piece sound poetic. Judy, we missed you but hope that your son is feeling much better. Our next meeting is this Wednesday, November 16th. Amy Van Zanten will be our guest presenter. She will bring the headphones so that we can begin creating our own VoiceThread. You may decide to use the writing piece you wrote this week or perhaps an original or favorite poem to record. //Since some of you have used VoiceThread already, we hope to rely on your expertise as well. Please remember to bring your laptop, if you have one.// //Amy Miklos is bringing snacks this week. If anyone would like to team with her, I'm sure she would appreciate it. Because our group is so small, we have had to volunteer twice. Also please invite others to attend if they are interested.// //Enjoy the beautiful fall weather!// //Dotty//