Writing with power! - part 1

Two weeks ago, 16 young writers and I launched ourselves into an exploration of Powerful Writing at Nueva Summer, a camp with the motto “Imagine Create Explore.” I love those words! I believe kids should be doing that all year long. At the very least (fault "No Child Left Behind" evilness and other political nonsense), they should spend summertime fueling their curiousities with PLAY. While a request to include some skills work trickled my way, I realized that none of my teaching would matter in the end if the kids didn't have fun. I’d love to share some of the highlights with you from the week. (Of course for privacy reasons all names have been changed.)

Morning Pages
On the second day (our first day was spent deliciously cultivating Ideas), I introduced what I called “Pages” based on Julia Cameron’s practice found in The Artist’s Way. I had read that Aimee Buckner (Notebook Know-How) also does this with her fourth graders, so I felt justified in bringing the challenge to younger people. For these 3rd – 5th graders, I asked them to put pencil to paper to fill one notebook page with stream of consciousness ramblings. I told them that “I do not know what to write. This is boring. My hand hurts...” was just as valid as “The pig jumped in the oatmeal. Mrs. Pig. Boing. Woah!” They were eager to try it. And while their hands did hurt by the end (good time for a lesson on proper pencil grip!) they were impressed that they had just written over 100 words in 15 minutes. Sloane, who loved to write but had a strong internal critic, was thrilled with the opportunity to get her silly, crazy thoughts down on paper with strict instruction not to judge. Jon, who only wrote single letters across his first page, independently asked if he could try it again later with words. We were getting somewhere.

I love this practice. I do my best to stick to the regimen of my adult version, 3 notebook pages by hand daily. I look at it as the garbage pickup for my brain. All the silly worries and lists of things to do and strange feelings are downloaded onto the page, leaving me free to move on with other writing and the rest of my day. When you commit to this practice over weeks and months, interesting insights begin to appear. New ideas you didn’t know were hiding behind some subconscious brick wall, waiting to be invited out for tea, suddenly clamor for air.

Writing Choice
I fully believe in letting kids having freedom of topic choice. I did ask them to try some strategies from our mini-lessons, but after about 10 minutes they were free to either continue that work, or move on to their other ideas. Sophia, a third grader who had attended many camps in the past elsewhere, declared that this was her favorite simply because she was allowed to write what she wanted. After kids learn how to generate their own ideas, there's really no stopping them.

Seriously—how else are we going to convince kids that writing is a pleasurable activity unless we let them do what inspires them?

Tomorrow...Part 2: Jack

Making a commitment

It's not yet 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday. This is probably my favorite time of the week. The summer light is illuminating the neighborhood with a hazy, periwinkle sheen. Birds have awakened and are in the middle of their morning sonatina. The dog and the boy sleep peacefully in bed, where I would like to be, if not for all the non-stop excitement that ricochets in my head. I pinned an image on Pinterest that says it all:

Know that feeling? I think many people experience this in the wee hours of the night. For me, it's the early morning.

In these waking hours, lying in bed hoping to return to sleep, I come up with my most inspiring and energetic ideas. I'm often moved to leap out of bed and begin some new project in earnest, fueled by an inner force. It feels incredible! And then...

...it's time for breakfast. Need to start the laundry. Let's go on an errand. Oh yeah, remember that other house project you've been meaning to get to? The desire to write and create is not lost but the energy has been redirected. And here is where I feel, in all my usual calm, groundedness, I experience my version of ADHD. When I return to free time, I've been distracted by another of my many interests. Between blogging, creative writing, cooking, singing, playing steel drums, gardening, photography, reading, movie watching, social networking, yoga, dancing, hiking, traveling, writing with kids, singing with kids, baking, not to mention spending quality time with my love and my family, hanging out with friends, dog walking, and keeping house. Oh yes, and my time-consuming, passion-inducing career in education!

I'm thoroughly exhausted just reading the list.

And somehow I think I can fit all this into the span of each week. Clearly, some realism could be brought to the table. Especially as one sits with a sprained ankle and crutches nearby.

Do you wrestle with crazymaking such as this?

So, I'm going to do it. It's time, and I stand here (sitting, ankle elevated!) before you to say, I'm going to write a post each morning until the end of the month. No matter what. It might be totally uninteresting or crap or any of the other things the inner censor wants to call it but I'm all right with that. Characters need to be given a space to speak before we can know and understand them. Finding that voice is step numéro uno in the vein of creation. I'm going to take advantage of my summer freedom and use it to uphold this commitment to myself.

Who will Six Giraffes be at the end? And after that?
Well, we shall see!

Summer Time

The school year has ended and my injured foot is beginning to mend. My days are now wide open and waiting to be filled with relaxation, rejuvenation, and creativity. I've been thinking about my friend (at the Dew Drop Inn) Diane's penchant for scheduling, realizing that I, too, work most productively with a routine of sorts. This requires making a commitment to myself: I actually do want time for writing and time to pursue my hobbies more deeply. My lifestyle as a teacher affords me this gift each summer, so why let procrastination and self-doubt hold it hostage?

My first big project is to develop a week-long, half-day curriculum for a writing camp for 3rd to 5th graders, which will take place next week at Nueva Summer. I have been eating up writing books left and right, such as Ralph Fletcher's Pyrotechnics on the Page and Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How, books that don't pertain as much to my usual first grade clientele. I've been envisioning a writing space for these young people to spend time playing word games, creating writer's notebooks with tools, and just put words on the page. We will take advantage of the beautiful coastal oak woodlands exploring nature with our senses, and we'll end each day with a good solid chunk of writing time. This project has ignited my passion for teaching and writing all over again, and it is inspiring me to Dream Big. I love dreaming, don't you?

So here's to celebrating the fruits of a well-planned day. Let's make things happen!

Crutches: a humbling experience

Last weekend while letting my dog out into the backyard, standing perpendicular on our steep back porch steps, I lost my footing and fell onto the deck. After hauling myself inside and realizing a trip to Emergency was in order, I received the verdict: sprained foot with a small bone chip. Crutches for at least a week with a follow-up in the Podiatry department.

This has definitely been a big learning experience. Here are some of the things that have come up for me:

Crutches are not fun. I always envied kids who had them. Not just for the attention, they also looked like a fun challenge. Now I know that crutches are only fun when you borrow your friend’s pair for five minutes. The toughest part is not being able to carry things. No, the toughest part is feeling like the rest of my body is broken after a day of trying to get around.

I have even more respect for people who are permanently disabled or chronically ill. After three days I started to feel depressed, against my typical nature. It’s frustrating not to be able to take care of the things I normally do and to feel hurt all day long. I have a greater insight into why people with serious conditions suffer emotionally as well as physically. And I’m only here for a brief moment in time. Beans.

After spending a week in Hawaii, I was looking for a way to become even more fit and toned but I'm not a huge fan of the gym. I like exercise that has a purpose, like running with the dog or dancing or gardening. Still one has to put in time to get a sleek, firm body like the gym rats. How about something like propelling yourself with just your arms all day long and standing on one leg for periods of time?

The wise words of my good friend continue to ring in my ear:

Be careful what you wish for. And BE SPECIFIC.

Yesterday, my sweet and I took a trip to Home Depot for supplies for my new garden bed (post forthcoming!) A woman in a soft cast encouraged me to remain in my cozy seat on the bags of soil amendment, noting that some people with flatbed carts had a tendency to ram into her without cause or care. Another woman in a wheelchair rolled by and smiled, making jokes about how my guy should be carrying me everywhere. Even though I noticed her making friends with everyone else in the garden department, I somehow felt seen and understood, as well as having the ability to see and understand. I was grateful for the care from these strangers as much as the love of my friends and family over the past week.

To quote The Phantom Tollbooth (our current classroom read aloud) “The way you see things depends a great deal on where you look at them from.” I suppose I no longer see the world from the same Point of View. And I am much the better for it.

{source}

Easter Monday

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter yesterday! Sadly there was not much wi-fi in Maui (boo hoo), so these are a little late but still I couldn't resist. After a recent trip to Filoli Gardens in Woodside, we stopped in the gift shop and found these adorable creations!

{Robin Seeber for Bethany Lowe Designs}

{felted New Zealand wool}

{sweet bunny china!}

Garden Dreaming

Spring has arrived! As soon as the sun comes out and the earth begins to warm, I can't help but begin dreaming about gardens.

I've always loved gardening. I'm sure the influence of all my early caretakers, my grandma and my dad in particular, had a large part in this. I remember being 3 or 4, picking pears in grandma's backyard and popping the snapdragons in my own. And then there's the infamous carrot story...my dad offered to pay me a cent per baby carrot I scrubbed. Two buckets full later, this no longer seemed like a fun project and I never let him forget it.

Now that I live where the sun shines nearly every day, I can't stop dreaming about harvesting my own vegetables. I love our wide backyard lawn, though it leaves only the border around the edges available. This lonely, sunny plot has been begging for attention.


I once saw a pyramid type small-space garden in a parking lot at the co-op grocery in San Francisco. It's no longer there, but I'm hoping to replicate it from memory.


Something like this but much more natural looking. I think two or three tiers are plenty. I might use bricks if I can find some cheaply somewhere. Stones would be nice, too.











Kind of like this, but smaller stones and a larger space.



I think there might have been a bean teepee on top of it all, too. Which brings me to the difficult question. What to plant?

Herbs, carrots, zucchini...would the tomato plants do better to end up around the outside of the pyramid? Will I use containers to augment the crop load and design aesthetic?


And can I grow a row of sunflowers along this fence?

What would you do if this were your yard?

Pan is de Ting

[photo by Laurie Frankel]

I gigged with my steel drum band last night in honor of the release of their 5th CD called "Pan is de Ting" (meaning pan music is "the thing.") Steelpans are another name for the drums, made from oil barrels. Steelpan music originated in Trinidad and Tobago, and I find playing pan music to be intoxicating as well as challenging. Someday I'd love to go to Trinidad for Carnival and hear the 100-piece Panorama bands perform calypso and soca.

Our band, the Panhandlers Steel Drum Band is led by the talented and hilariously humble Jim Munzenrider. He runs several wildly popular afterschool bands for kids locally and is adored by every child he meets. Having been in the music scene for many years, he was able to bring in some incredible talent for our rag-tag band's performance. We were joined last night by Harry Best--an incredible pan composer from St. Lucia (he wrote Pan is de Ting), Michael Spiro--an internationally recognized percussionist, and Tony Lindsay--the lead singer for the band, Santana.

The highlight of the night for me was singing backup with Tony on three tunes. I've been a performer all my life but this was one of the most fun experiences I've had on stage. Coming with the confidence of five years of vocal training and a willingness to accept myself as a singer, I was able to truly ENJOY the moment.

Perfectionism leads straight into performance anxiety for me. It's been my biggest roadblock in performing. Recently while practicing my drum I realized that if I could focus only on what was in front of me, the notes in one measure which simply led to the next measure, I was infinitely more successful. I brought that mindset into my vocal lessons, following the words of my teacher, "Focus on the task in front of you!" I made leaps and bounds.

Last night I went to Twitter hoping for some pre-show inspiration and I found this quote:

"Why worry about what might or might not happen when the Heart is longing only to drink in the breath of this moment?"
~ Cathy Ginter via @Zen_Moments

All night I "drank in the breath of the moment" and it was glorious.