Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Pick Your Brains, Please
Hi ISI friends,
I am writing a proposal for my district to have an invitational after school writing workshop for K-8 teachers. Besides building in a budget for vast amounts of fruit salad, I'd like to hear from you what elements to make sure I include. I'm thinking we'll meet whole group and then in small (ala afternoon writing groups) groups for a time period in the fall and in the early spring. Then have a celebration, maybe in May.
Our curriculum supervisor mainly wants more collegiality and the experience to filter into the classroom and positively affect student writing. I want to try out some of the best of Lucy Calkins.
What, besides offering units or hours of professional development should I say? If it were yours, what would you do?
:-) Thank you for feedback.
I am writing a proposal for my district to have an invitational after school writing workshop for K-8 teachers. Besides building in a budget for vast amounts of fruit salad, I'd like to hear from you what elements to make sure I include. I'm thinking we'll meet whole group and then in small (ala afternoon writing groups) groups for a time period in the fall and in the early spring. Then have a celebration, maybe in May.
Our curriculum supervisor mainly wants more collegiality and the experience to filter into the classroom and positively affect student writing. I want to try out some of the best of Lucy Calkins.
What, besides offering units or hours of professional development should I say? If it were yours, what would you do?
:-) Thank you for feedback.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Coolest Place in NorCal
ISI 2006
I read Martha's piece "The Heat" in our anthology this morning, and by noon I was marveling at how reality mirrors art... Some friends and I drove up to SF to escape the heat and walked out on the Golden Gate Bridge. I testify that out on that bridge you can freeze your capootie even in a heat wave. It's miraculous. After the big chill on the bridge, I escaped back into the "warm embrace" of the heat with something like a grudging acceptance. An interesting experience.
I read Martha's piece "The Heat" in our anthology this morning, and by noon I was marveling at how reality mirrors art... Some friends and I drove up to SF to escape the heat and walked out on the Golden Gate Bridge. I testify that out on that bridge you can freeze your capootie even in a heat wave. It's miraculous. After the big chill on the bridge, I escaped back into the "warm embrace" of the heat with something like a grudging acceptance. An interesting experience.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
to my fellow travelers
Hi Everyone,
I'm writing this from Islip Long Island (about 1 1/2 hours east of Manhatten), where I'm visiting my older daughter Stephanie, a doctor of Emergency Medicine (yes, that means she spends lots of late night hours in the ER), as well as meeting her fiance Mike Rose, and Mike's 5 yr old daughter Sarah (a real cutie), and visiting some possible sites for their wedding next May/early June. Dad;s handy in such situations not so much for the depth of his understanding as the depth of his wallet, which is fine by me. I figure the depth of my understanding was always a little suspect anyway.
We'll be traveling up and down the east coast visiting with various relatives for the ten days after this, then heading for Waterloo Canada (Marie's almost natal shores) for a week of Scottish Country Dancing. I hope to be sporting a new sporran (check Nicola for the details, if you dare!) at that time, courtesy of a gift certificate provided by a group of exceptionally thoughtful and generous fellow travelers I happen to know.
And whom I happen to be missing a good deal at this particular juncture of my own travels.
Hope you are all doing well, I'll bet 'my' Long Island humidity can beat 'your' San Jose area humidity any day of the week. Any takers on this annoying topic?
Fondly,
Jonathan
I'm writing this from Islip Long Island (about 1 1/2 hours east of Manhatten), where I'm visiting my older daughter Stephanie, a doctor of Emergency Medicine (yes, that means she spends lots of late night hours in the ER), as well as meeting her fiance Mike Rose, and Mike's 5 yr old daughter Sarah (a real cutie), and visiting some possible sites for their wedding next May/early June. Dad;s handy in such situations not so much for the depth of his understanding as the depth of his wallet, which is fine by me. I figure the depth of my understanding was always a little suspect anyway.
We'll be traveling up and down the east coast visiting with various relatives for the ten days after this, then heading for Waterloo Canada (Marie's almost natal shores) for a week of Scottish Country Dancing. I hope to be sporting a new sporran (check Nicola for the details, if you dare!) at that time, courtesy of a gift certificate provided by a group of exceptionally thoughtful and generous fellow travelers I happen to know.
And whom I happen to be missing a good deal at this particular juncture of my own travels.
Hope you are all doing well, I'll bet 'my' Long Island humidity can beat 'your' San Jose area humidity any day of the week. Any takers on this annoying topic?
Fondly,
Jonathan
Friday, July 21, 2006
Anthology
Having now finished Word by Word, I must express my appreciation. I laughed and cried all over again. Some of the pieces I have read or heard previously, but that didn't seem to dim their power. Some were total surprises. How did I miss that piece by Laura? Great job one and all.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
JoAnn's memorable scribe notes
Dear Fantastic 21 (Laura's in on this one),
Here are JoAnn's Amazing Portfolio Day Scribe Notes in electronic form, just in case, remembering our friend Ray, you might need a little reminder in the days and months and years and decades to come. May you all bless others as you have so blessed one another, including your very own Button-Down Shirted, Tie-Sporting Venusian!
Scribe Notes from Memory, Portfolio Day, Tues July 18, 2006
by JoAnn Freda
I have to be honest. I signed up for the very last slot on the scribe notes board with the hope that Jonathan and Laura wouldn't notice we didn't need a scribe for the last day because we wouldn't be meeting after that. I really underestimated them. They noticed (good '“noticers'”) the mistake almost immediately and scooched everyone back a space to fix the '“problem' and restore me to my duties. So that plan really backfired and now I have the challenge of trying to come up with something fresh after our clever scribes have explored genres and exploited genres, created genres and corrupted genres and one member! even tried to use every genre in one set of scribe notes. I thought about writing the notes as a love story (you were there today, it could be a love story) but it just wasn't working for me:
What can you say about an exceptional group of people
that are parting ways. That they were beautiful and brilliant?
That they loved Lamott and Spinelli , Cisneros and each other?
The mood in the room is tense and excited and expectant. We'’re not quite sure what to expect but we'’re eager to get started. Our Bird by Bird reader is stuck on 880 and so Craig fills in. He reads the last page of the book. Lamott says we write because:
Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen our sense of life....When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or our life, our buoyancy is restored.
Over the next few hours, this group of writers will prove the truth of these statements. But before we can get started we need to take care of business. Lina and Donna read their notes recounting Jay Richards'’ completely engaging presentation. Next, in the most stunning display of patience I have ever seen, Laura endeavors to explain to the group how to use our new community blogsight. Using as many modes as she can, she walks us through the steps several times, never once letting even the slightest hint of irritation slip into her voice. She does everything but promise to make house calls to help us with this and still one gets the feeling that she'’d have better luck teaching this procedure to her cat. It'’s not you Laura; it's just that many of us were working late into the night and we may have hit a wall. This whole exercise reminds me of the MTV show called 'Boiling Point'” where they put an unsuspecting contestant through some very trying and frustrating experience to see how long they can take it before they blow up and start swearing. Laura never reaches the boiling point.
Undaunted, Laura tries another activity with us. She gets us to brainstorm ideas for our two Saturday sessions that will complete our obligation to ISI. I am in a dangerous situation. Given the state of euphoria and goodwill that I'’m in, I would agree to do anything this group wants. Fortunately, Nicola interjects a bit of practicality and suggests we link our get togethers to the Super Saturdays.
The moment has arrived. Jonathan explains how we are going to present our portfolios. He says that everyone will take a turn reading their one page reflection and we will take turns in a counter clockwise direction. Someone makes the obligatory 'turn to the person on your left remark'” (are you wondering when the statute of limitations will run out on this one Mary?) and then he tells us that we will just listen, no applause (to save time). Patrick is the first to read. Of course we can'’t restrain ourselves and we burst into applause. We are admonished. We move on to Craig who reads his letter and we make a feeble attempt to curb our enthusiasm. Then Karen reads Sandy'’s letter and even though Sandy isn'’t here, we still feel like applauding her. Karen reads her letter and by now there is a palpable feeling of mutiny in the room. A discussion breaks out about the viability of the '“no applause'” rule but Jonathan is congenially adamant. Next is Erika's turn and she points out that the 'no applause' discussion is actually taking longer than applauding would. Erika reads her letter which is a beautiful explanation of her attitude toward "crummy"” first drafts and how she had to reach back to her experience as a young musician to gain an understanding of the importance of being willing to do something imperfectly. We can'’t stand it any longer. We are bursting with appreciation. We have to do something and so in a show of defiant obedience, EN MASSE we throw our hands into the air hokey pokey style and wave them wildly - even Jonathan. There's no stopping us now, we wave wildly after each reading. Jonathan'’s time-saving rule has set us back several minutes now and while we are in the middle of one our crazed hokey pokey waves, Provost Carmen Sigler walks in. This will surely make Jonathan think twice about ever making another unilateral executive decision. Jonathan explains the situation and asks the provost if she needs to get going. She says she wants to stay and listen to our reflections. Catherine's reflection compares her writing process to giving birth to an alien and we are all midwives. Tori does a great job of comparing learning to write to learning to surf. She goes on to tell us how difficult and overwhelming it has been for her to participate in the institute because of the recent death of her father. She isn'’t the only one who cries during her letter. A pile of napkins is passed across the back row and several of us take one to wipe our tears. Nicola's reflection tells us about the intense feelings about her son that surfaced during the poetry writing. Martha takes over the reading of Nicola's letter and I am deeply moved by what she has to say. It is like Anne Lamott says when she compares writing to singing on a boat in a terrible storm. "You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship."
Laura is the last to read her reflection. We are about an hour behind schedule. The provost presents us with our certificates, graduation style. Having had to show such great restraint during the reading portion of the morning, we go nuts applauding and whistling and high-fiving for our fellow writers as they receive their certificates. When Grant receives his certificate he takes a victory lap, Rocky style. The only thing missing is the beach ball.
For the next two hours we read the portfolios in quiet reverence. The silence is punctuated by an occasional battle to get to a portfolio before Patrick can. We don'’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. The room has been broken down, all that remains is Jonathan'’s little island with his laptop and printer. Finally Patrick moves in....
Here are JoAnn's Amazing Portfolio Day Scribe Notes in electronic form, just in case, remembering our friend Ray, you might need a little reminder in the days and months and years and decades to come. May you all bless others as you have so blessed one another, including your very own Button-Down Shirted, Tie-Sporting Venusian!
Scribe Notes from Memory, Portfolio Day, Tues July 18, 2006
by JoAnn Freda
I have to be honest. I signed up for the very last slot on the scribe notes board with the hope that Jonathan and Laura wouldn't notice we didn't need a scribe for the last day because we wouldn't be meeting after that. I really underestimated them. They noticed (good '“noticers'”) the mistake almost immediately and scooched everyone back a space to fix the '“problem' and restore me to my duties. So that plan really backfired and now I have the challenge of trying to come up with something fresh after our clever scribes have explored genres and exploited genres, created genres and corrupted genres and one member! even tried to use every genre in one set of scribe notes. I thought about writing the notes as a love story (you were there today, it could be a love story) but it just wasn't working for me:
What can you say about an exceptional group of people
that are parting ways. That they were beautiful and brilliant?
That they loved Lamott and Spinelli , Cisneros and each other?
The mood in the room is tense and excited and expectant. We'’re not quite sure what to expect but we'’re eager to get started. Our Bird by Bird reader is stuck on 880 and so Craig fills in. He reads the last page of the book. Lamott says we write because:
Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen our sense of life....When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or our life, our buoyancy is restored.
Over the next few hours, this group of writers will prove the truth of these statements. But before we can get started we need to take care of business. Lina and Donna read their notes recounting Jay Richards'’ completely engaging presentation. Next, in the most stunning display of patience I have ever seen, Laura endeavors to explain to the group how to use our new community blogsight. Using as many modes as she can, she walks us through the steps several times, never once letting even the slightest hint of irritation slip into her voice. She does everything but promise to make house calls to help us with this and still one gets the feeling that she'’d have better luck teaching this procedure to her cat. It'’s not you Laura; it's just that many of us were working late into the night and we may have hit a wall. This whole exercise reminds me of the MTV show called 'Boiling Point'” where they put an unsuspecting contestant through some very trying and frustrating experience to see how long they can take it before they blow up and start swearing. Laura never reaches the boiling point.
Undaunted, Laura tries another activity with us. She gets us to brainstorm ideas for our two Saturday sessions that will complete our obligation to ISI. I am in a dangerous situation. Given the state of euphoria and goodwill that I'’m in, I would agree to do anything this group wants. Fortunately, Nicola interjects a bit of practicality and suggests we link our get togethers to the Super Saturdays.
The moment has arrived. Jonathan explains how we are going to present our portfolios. He says that everyone will take a turn reading their one page reflection and we will take turns in a counter clockwise direction. Someone makes the obligatory 'turn to the person on your left remark'” (are you wondering when the statute of limitations will run out on this one Mary?) and then he tells us that we will just listen, no applause (to save time). Patrick is the first to read. Of course we can'’t restrain ourselves and we burst into applause. We are admonished. We move on to Craig who reads his letter and we make a feeble attempt to curb our enthusiasm. Then Karen reads Sandy'’s letter and even though Sandy isn'’t here, we still feel like applauding her. Karen reads her letter and by now there is a palpable feeling of mutiny in the room. A discussion breaks out about the viability of the '“no applause'” rule but Jonathan is congenially adamant. Next is Erika's turn and she points out that the 'no applause' discussion is actually taking longer than applauding would. Erika reads her letter which is a beautiful explanation of her attitude toward "crummy"” first drafts and how she had to reach back to her experience as a young musician to gain an understanding of the importance of being willing to do something imperfectly. We can'’t stand it any longer. We are bursting with appreciation. We have to do something and so in a show of defiant obedience, EN MASSE we throw our hands into the air hokey pokey style and wave them wildly - even Jonathan. There's no stopping us now, we wave wildly after each reading. Jonathan'’s time-saving rule has set us back several minutes now and while we are in the middle of one our crazed hokey pokey waves, Provost Carmen Sigler walks in. This will surely make Jonathan think twice about ever making another unilateral executive decision. Jonathan explains the situation and asks the provost if she needs to get going. She says she wants to stay and listen to our reflections. Catherine's reflection compares her writing process to giving birth to an alien and we are all midwives. Tori does a great job of comparing learning to write to learning to surf. She goes on to tell us how difficult and overwhelming it has been for her to participate in the institute because of the recent death of her father. She isn'’t the only one who cries during her letter. A pile of napkins is passed across the back row and several of us take one to wipe our tears. Nicola's reflection tells us about the intense feelings about her son that surfaced during the poetry writing. Martha takes over the reading of Nicola's letter and I am deeply moved by what she has to say. It is like Anne Lamott says when she compares writing to singing on a boat in a terrible storm. "You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship."
Laura is the last to read her reflection. We are about an hour behind schedule. The provost presents us with our certificates, graduation style. Having had to show such great restraint during the reading portion of the morning, we go nuts applauding and whistling and high-fiving for our fellow writers as they receive their certificates. When Grant receives his certificate he takes a victory lap, Rocky style. The only thing missing is the beach ball.
For the next two hours we read the portfolios in quiet reverence. The silence is punctuated by an occasional battle to get to a portfolio before Patrick can. We don'’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. The room has been broken down, all that remains is Jonathan'’s little island with his laptop and printer. Finally Patrick moves in....
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Thanks again
Yes, I echo Nichola's thanks. Insert here some wise quote about journeys. I have just bookmarked and filed in a folder all of your blogs. I will be checking in that way. Maybe now I will make a real post on my own blog.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Feedback for Jay Richards' Wringer Presentation
1) Did it help you think about how you read a book?
2) what worked best for you?
3)Was there anything you wanted done differently?
2) what worked best for you?
3)Was there anything you wanted done differently?
Saturday, July 15, 2006
birdwalk away from STARTING my anthology piece
'Tis true. The peevish pelicans of procrastination have me in their grip once again.
Birdwalk away from finishing anthology
Omigosh, I can post here in spite of electronic rejection notices when I responded to the email. I have book marked the site and look forward to our continued conversations. -Laura
canadian pronunciation
if you will all be patient, my wife Ellen and I will give you a report on this extemely sensitive and important question in just about four weeks. We'll be traveling towards the end of this four week period, from Aug 1 to Aug 13, out of the USA and into Canada, gun and camera at the ready. We'll first travel from Buffalo to Niagara-by-the-Lake: from thence to Guelph [which I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce]; and finally to Waterloo [pronounced WA-TER-LOO], where we'll be spending a week engaged in that odd activity where men have known to be kilt (hence the need for the gun).
So we'll give you a report when we return--perhaps at the reunion party at Mara!'s following our Oct 7 Super Saturday program?
So we'll give you a report when we return--perhaps at the reunion party at Mara!'s following our Oct 7 Super Saturday program?
In appreciation of Todd
Todd, I want to thank you for this fantastic new group blog--may it serve us well--and I hope you have a splendid time in Kuaui (did I spell that right?). You are a jolly good fellow.
From Grant (aka "the Alligator") --not to be confused with "The dancing Venusian."
From Grant (aka "the Alligator") --not to be confused with "The dancing Venusian."
Thursday, July 13, 2006
a thank you to Todd
Dear Todd and ISI 06ers,
This is quite, quite cool. Thank you Todd so very much for being such a patient and gently persistent advocate for the practice of blogging, even while those venerable souls among us were shaking our heads and saying "No, no, this will never, ever do."
But to almost quote from James Carville's book title (no I won't link to the Amazon or Powell Books page at this point in my entry, although thanks to you I do know how to) "you were right and we were wrong."
Have a great vacation in Hawaii, and I hope you'll return to find many new postings on this terrific new ISI 06 blogspot.
My very best,
the dancing venusian
This is quite, quite cool. Thank you Todd so very much for being such a patient and gently persistent advocate for the practice of blogging, even while those venerable souls among us were shaking our heads and saying "No, no, this will never, ever do."
But to almost quote from James Carville's book title (no I won't link to the Amazon or Powell Books page at this point in my entry, although thanks to you I do know how to) "you were right and we were wrong."
Have a great vacation in Hawaii, and I hope you'll return to find many new postings on this terrific new ISI 06 blogspot.
My very best,
the dancing venusian
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
For Posterity
Here's the list of blogs from the 2006 Invitational Summer Institute:
- Patrick
- Mara
- Craig
- Karen
- Lina
- Grant
- John
- Nicola
- Mary
- Suz
- Erika
- Sarah
- Donna
- Laura
- Sandy
- Annie
- Tori
- Martha
- Catherine
- Jonathan
- Leah
- Marie
- Pam
