Daily Log for Friday, July 18

Joel started our morning with a reading from Lester Bang’s Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste. In sharing our responses, we learned that:
· Chris attended a Stones concert and set her jeans on fire.
· Ruth hopes she can keep her artistic virtue intact (unless she finds the perfect story of Lincoln’s Doctor’s dog).
· Brenda, who is a musician, thinks music can sooth and save.
· Missy would sneak down to the basement to listen to her brother’s band.
· Sean thinks there is something to savor about nothing.

Brooke gave an excellent demonstration lesson on introducing revision for not only a first grader audience, but for students of all ages. After dissecting the word revision, we were then encouraged to look at our writing with new eyes (with the help of colorful sunglasses!). Brooke’s lesson was a great reminder for all of us to revise, revise, revise.

Jonathan guaranteed that shooting our i-movies would be fun. To inspire everyone, we watched our short-movies about “I teach because”. (See reverse side for a list of inspirational reasons.) Jon was very impressed by the use of sound effects, imagery, and collaboration. Groups should be ready to start turning their research in to movies and begin shooting their videos on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. The creative and informative i-movie should be 3-5 minutes in length. Remember to take a deep breath and have fun!

Jonathan introduced us to a writing opportunity through the Smithsonsian Project. NWP teacher-consultants are being asked to submit writing about the influence of photography in their lives. Submission deadline is August 1. For more information, go to the NWP homepage (www.nwp.org) and follow the links for click: photography changes everything.

Stories inspired by our children, parents, loneliness, regret, and the metric system were shared. Some were shared willingly, other under the pressure from writing groups!

Of course there is the bonus of summer vacation and random snow days, but the benefit of being a teacher is much more than that. Here are the reasons why we teach. (Keep these handy for those days when you ask yourself why you do.)

We teach because...we can
open students’ eyes to the endless possibilities
around them...we can give students knowledge that
can never be taken away...we can inspire passion
in their lives...we can create a shared record of
the human experience...we are too short for the
NBA...we have a love a learning that we can
evoke in others...we can introduce students to
books they will never forget...learning is an
adventure where you can be a participant and
a guide...we can help children explore the world
and themselves...we can cut through the enigma
that is the teenager’s mind...students can learn…
we find joy in seeing students take flight...we
can share our love of books and see students fall
in love with those same stories....it makes us
better people.

Jessica Wagner