Blogging with Summer Institute 2008

Good morning. Sorry I can’t be with you today but I will return!

Writing into the Day

Considering our writing lives.  Where are we now?  What plans can we make beyond the SI? Suggestions???

Bonnie

DD: Marisol

Logger: Cathy B.

Daily Log – Thursday July 24, 2008
Day 12

8:30 We began our day with a lovely breakfast provided by Lilah and wonderful writing prompt courtesy of Bonnie. We each got to pick a black and white postcard and write about the image. “What is it saying?”, “Write from their voice!”

8:40 Katelin, Mike, Jose, Lilah and Paulette entertained us with their depictions of what was happening with their characters.

9:00 Mike shared his log from Visitor’s Day yesterday. We all had such a great time meeting other members from various Writing Projects and listening to a fantastic TIW from Nancy McCracken, Making it Better by Making it Worse. We all got a kick out of screwing up our work. Have to try this with the kids!

9:05 Kathy B. provided us with feedback from her TIW Reflection comments. Her ideas about using music to inspire and develop creative writing was a great exercise and we all had fun with drawing, writing and sharing our work. Gina would be in later in the day and provide us with her feedback them.

9:12 Katelin hands out the ballots for our Summer Institute T-Shirts……so many great ideas….I think I like Write On! best, but truly hard to choose. I regret to admit that I need an XL….maybe in blue?

9:15- 9:30 Break time

9:30 Jose’s TIW -Writing to do Math and Doing Math Through Writing. Jose began by showing us photos from his field trip, Storm King Art Center Art/ Math Project (SKACAMP). His students were very engaged in observing, measuring, calculating dimensions and analyzing the awesome large art scattered though out the grounds of this outdoor gallery. We reviewed the NYS Standards for Math and then Jose challenged us with some equations. OUCH! Can’t quite remember my algebra! Jose then engaged us in recreating a sculpture his students had studied, using either string or copper wire. He gave us a photo of the sculpture to guide our work…..only problem is that our materials were bigger that the photo and we had to use all of the material…no cutting! A fierce competition arose between various groups, Respect! , PEMDAS, The Mathemagicians and The Quadrilaterals. Serious posturing on the part of The Quadrilaterals, and return attitude by PEMDAS, resulted in a fun time for all. My group gave ourselves a 4+ …for effort…..we actually fell a little short on the end result. Jose ends his terrific TIW with reflections from the group. We had fun….I want to go to Storm King and see these groovy sculptures…Jose, can I climb on them?

1100-11:10 Break

11:10 Judith Rance-Roney joins us to discuss her article from English Journal entitled, Creating Intentional Communities to Support English Language Learners in the Classroom.
Judith discussed creating intentional communities within classrooms that foster positive and enriching relationships between students with diverse backgrounds. We were inspired by her struggles to bring two Vietnamese brothers, Tu and Phan, from the margins of her classroom community to fully accepted and cherished members of the group. We shared our frustrations with NCLB and the long road ahead with limited funds and administrative ignorance. We ended our wonderful discussion with some questions and comments to ponder, “How do we define and label students?” “We are all English Language Learners at all times.” “Be intentional in creating cultures of acceptance.”

12:30- 2:30 Break for Lunch

2:30-3:30 TIW Brainstorm Groups

3:30- 4:00 Some last minute housekeeping ….”Where to have our last day potluck?” Maybe at Jose’s? What is that about a swimming pool? Gina gave us feedback on her TIW Reflections….I loved the stations and I learned some Spanish…..And we ended the day with some really fantastic Writer’s Chair sharing.

I can’t believe we are at the end of week 3 …..