Daily Log July 9, 2008

DAILY LOG
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The rain did not dampen anyone’s spirits as we gathered for another day of the WNYWP. Breakfast was provided by Ellen, Nicole and Beth as we chatted about the rain, and the heavier than usual amount of traffic many of us encountered on our drive to Canisius College this morning.


For today’s R & R, Katrina read two short poems titled “The Problem of Discovering Color” and “The Problem of Discovering Trees” from TIME AND MATERIALS, Poems from 1997-2005 by Robert Hass. The book was a gift from her son for Mother’s Day! Beth shared her response to the reading which was thoughtfully written and full of imagery. Tom shared his response in a version of “Katrina poetry.” I think I would like to hear some of the poetry Katrina has written!

Next, we broke up into our writing groups. Clearly our group is becoming very comfortable as we freely share our written work which is very often about family and very personal issues. Feedback from our group members is very enlightening as we are encouraged to continue our creative writing by digging deeper to keep the thoughts and ideas flowing.

Following a short break, Chris, a returning SI fellow from 2003, presented her demonstration lesson titled “One Man’s Treasure: A Lesson In Marketing.” Chris’s lesson had several creative tasks for us to participate in. These tasks ranged from brainstorming about what markets are, understanding vocabulary for that lesson, writing an individual short synopsis about a particular marketing picture, integrating the specific vocabulary for this lesson, and watching clips from “Friends” and “Jingle All the Way” bringing funny visuals about marketing to this lesson. The final activity was writing an ad for the product that was in our mystery bag to encourage our marketing skills. Time was given to trade our product however the majority were not too anxious to trade! The lesson was enjoyed by all and Chris was given wonderful feedback in the Reflection Pool. Thank you, Chris. Your lesson was top notch!

After lunch, we convened in the computer lab where Jonathan patiently guided us (me!) on completing our imovie. All of our finished clips were saved on Jonathan’s flash drive to be viewed at a later date….and the Oscar Goes To…!
We were then able to work with our Inquiry Group discussing our “game plan” and continued with research for our particular topic.

We ended with positive reflections about our day and announcements concerning tomorrow…..Open Mike, 2 demo lessons, titles needed for demo lessons…AND……socializing at the Pearl Street Grill. Kathy