Notes+from+October+26

Notes from Oct. 26 Meeting Present: Judy, Sue, Jan, Amy, Gretchen, Anita & Dotty

Gretchen began with a discussion of the description of the workshop from the Wiki Spaces site. There was some concern that we were not following the prescribed plan. However, I hope I assured everyone that Debby McLean, who ordered the books for us, is aware that we are focusing on the work of Georgia Heard and bringing in guest presenters to provide workshops that will support the PDS focus on technology. Our first guest, Bonnie Kaplan, presented her work with digital stories last week. Teachers expressed a desire for hands-on work with technology. I will check with Amy Van Zanten to see if her workshop will fulfill this need. Judy shared poetry she wrote with her K class. Having given them a camera to take fall pictures outdoors, Judy put the pictures with the words and sentences that the students had brainstormed in class. What developed was a beautiful poem to which the Music teacher added sound and movement! It was a wonderful collaboration of words and images and music! There were suggestions made that perhaps it could be performed for parents or created into a digital piece. Thank you, Judy, for sharing! Anita also shared work inspired by Georgia Heard. Children collected poetic ideas form the playground by using their senses and their thoughts and wondering. In a combined brainstorming, they shared these ideas, and then each child wrote, answering the question, Where Does Poetry Hide. In a second lesson, the students examined one idea, trees have limbs, moving from ordinary to poetic language. The result was surprising imagery from her students. Thanks, Anita, for sharing! Dotty led the group with an exercise on "Heart Mapping" as described in Awakening the Heart. Each participant created their own "hearts" into which they wrote names of people, places, memories, and things that are important to them or have touched their hearts. Each participant added one or two entries to a charted group heart. We agreed that what we each added was cherished by all. Dotty then distributed a lesson utilizing the "Ordinary to Poetic" idea and samples of student work. Following the Protocol for Studying Student Work, Dotty read the work, asked the group for input, and responded to questions. Teachers discussed the student samples, pointing out that some of the words that were ordinary could be poetic and that some students would not understand the meaning of "poetic." There was some discussion about this. Dotty explained that this procedure has had much success, explaining also that students sometimes need to be led to think about their writing and revise if necessary. Sometimes teachers are uncomfortable with guiding students to examine their poems for purposes of revision, but this is necessary to take the students to the next step in their writing. Teachers will find ideas in The Revision Toolbox which will be our next book.