Sometimes Pilates exercises are downright scary. I have a short list of things I refuse to do when I go for a Pilates session. They are as follows: I will not... 1) Do anything that requires me to lower my back side into the well of a reformer. Why? It creeps me out. 2) Hang… Continue reading Conquering Fear — Pilates & Writing Series: Part 4 of 5
Category: writing workshop
Filling Needs.
I have this job that I'm incredibly thankful for. It gives me a chance to focus -- really focus -- on the teaching of writing. Naturally I'm interested in all areas of literacy, as well as other content areas (for those of you who don't know I'm a licensed biology and chemistry teacher), but my… Continue reading Filling Needs.
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Forty Years.
Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! Forty years ago today they were married. It's kinda a big deal, you know, to be married for forty years. It gives me pause and makes me think about what it takes to have that level of commitment. Like usual, my thoughts swirl around to teaching writing. What does my… Continue reading Forty Years.
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Concrete Tools – Pilates & Writing Series: Part 3 of 5
On pages 62 - 63 of Day by Day, I talked about the role of Pilates and its connection to writing workshop in a detailed discussion called "Concrete Images for Support." Here I talked about one of many concrete tools, a ball, I used to help support my body as I did Pilates. I want… Continue reading Concrete Tools – Pilates & Writing Series: Part 3 of 5
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Storytelling
One of the ways Martha Horn suggests launching workshop is to spend a significant amount of time steeping the workshop in storytelling. In fact, she suggests every child tell a story aloud to the entire class. She shares this approach along with Mary Ellen Giacobbe in their book Talking, Drawing, Writing (Stenhouse, 2007). She also… Continue reading Storytelling
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Modifications – Pilates & Writing Series: Part 1 of 5
I began working with one-on-one with a Pilates instructor in August 2008, just 15 months after I had an artificial cervical disk replacement in my neck. In an effort to regain the strength I lost as a result of the surgery I was told to try Pilates (since physical therapy alone wasn’t cutting it). At… Continue reading Modifications – Pilates & Writing Series: Part 1 of 5
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It Feels Good…
It was one of those days where writing workshop just felt good. Here's a little recap of the highlights. First thing this morning, I implemented the things I'm learning from Martha Horn from listening to her speak and from reading her book, Talking, Drawing, Writing, which she wrote with Mary Ellen Giacobbe. Writing workshop was… Continue reading It Feels Good…
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Nananana!
Imagine me gloating because I spent the day learning about our youngest writers with Martha Horn. Check out the day on my Twitter feed.
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Sometimes It Gets Messy
Sometimes writing workshop gets a little messy. At least it does for me. I think we are trucking along, working our way through a unit of study, learning as writers, preparing for a celebration and then -- all of a sudden -- it crashes. Sometimes it crashes and burns. And sometimes I just want to… Continue reading Sometimes It Gets Messy
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How to Write
This past week I've had several conversations with young writers about how to write something. Not the logistics of making letters or spelling words, but how to craft their writing in order to make the reader feel or know something. With our youngest writers this conversation has centered around illustrations. With intermediate writers it has… Continue reading How to Write
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Martha Horn!
Martha Horn is coming to NE Indiana on October 14, hosted by the All-Write Consortium. I'm super excited to hear her thoughts about teaching our youngest writers. If you are interested in attending, just click here for registration information. Do you know her book, Talking, Drawing, and Writing? She wrote it along with Mary Ellen… Continue reading Martha Horn!
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Beginning the Journey
Today I worked with 17 teachers who attended the All-Write Primary Beginning Writing Workshop. Basically it's a training for teachers who want to learn the basics of writing workshop and get it going in their classrooms. Although I've led this training many times, this is the first time it has been focused on primary grades.… Continue reading Beginning the Journey
