atychiphobia

Kind of Stuck

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

 

I missed my first slice of this challenge yesterday.  I made a commitment to do better this year and so far I have.  My goal was to write at least 20 this year, so I am definitely on target for that.  However, the last few days I have struggled to genreate ideas that seem worthwhile for this challenge.  My wonderful wife, who also happens to be one of my biggest cheerleaders for writing was trying to encourage me with ideas earlier this evening.

You could write about the Scrabble game we just played.

Of course she would want me to write about that.  She just took me to the cleaners.  And I am supposed to be the more literary one.  Great.  Thanks Jules, just because you managed to earn 20 points on "we" near the end, doesn't mean I am going to devote an entrie blog post to your Scrabbliciousness.

You could write about Josie.

Sure, I could write a sappy post about how awesome my 5 pound dog is.  But this wonderful lump of joy has pretty much ignored me all day.  Josie even crawled off my lap when I was watching basketball today.  She always sits on my lap when I am watching sports.  It is just what we do.  Not today.  Apparently, Josie wanted my wife's lap more than mine.

You could write about the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Well the that was a pretty good time.  It was a great day for a parade.  No rain and reasonably warm weather for Ohio in early March.  My son, Hank was in it with his soccer club.  We were hanging out with some great family friends.  It should be something that I could recount.  The drum corps, the bagpipes, the green beer laced happy drunks stumbling around could all be seeds for some fun storytelling.  But it seems weird to be writing about a St. Patrick's Day Parade a full week before the actual date.

So as I write this I am seriously hoping for something in my brain to click tomorrow.  Today was a great day overall, but I am lacking the desire to create anything worth reading.  

Later,

Tony

 

 

 

Baseball on the Brain

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

 

Even though I am a soccer guy, I also have a love affair with baseball.  Spring Training is in full force and I am very optimistic about my team, the Detroit Tigers.  Because of this I have been dusting off some old poetry I have written about baseball.  I played around with the one below earlier tonight.  Still not sure I really like it yet, but it was fun to revisit the trip I took to Fenway Park a few years ago.

Corner of Yawkey and Van Ness

“NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED Twooooo!  GAWT Twooooo!  NEEEEEEEEEED Twooooo!”

Flags snap above the bustling crowd.

Smoke and the smell of cooked onions linger.

Kids punch their gloves and

pop around like water on a hot skillet.

 

“Score Cahd HeeeYAH!  Score Cahd HeeeYAH!

The smell of peanuts floats through the air.

Foam flows down giant cups.

Dads shuffle through the turnstiles and

smile like Cheshire cats.

 

“GETCHA LEMON Ice-a,  GETCHA LEMON Ice-a!”

The perfume of grass hangs.

Sunrays bake the moist infield

We fold ourselves into seats and

periscope our necks like turtles.

 

“Goooood afternoon Red Sox fans.  Today’s starting pitchers are ....”

 

Later,

T

Stories From Room 226: Buzzing About Books

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

On Monday, I shared the March "Book" Madness tournament that our class started.  In order to get the 52 book bracket complete by Monday, April 2 we have already had 22 "games."  So far each game has been really fast.  Just a quick recap of the books, then a quick vote.  Some games have been close, like the 14-13 victory Floors by Patrick Carman had over Bone by Jeff Smith.  Others have been blowouts like the 24-3 thrashing Bigger Than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder handed to Tough Cookie by David Wisniewski.  I am pretty sure the thinking behind the voting is going to get tougher and more passionate.  Soon we'll hit some matchups of books that would be ridiculously hard for me to decide.  

Apparently, most of the kids are realizing it is going to be difficult as well.  In nearly every transition we had today, kids were sneaking over to the bulletin board and talking about the bracket.  I hoped this would happen.  There is definitely a buzz moving around the room.  The kids are remembering books that we have loved and are sharing a ton.  Here are a few snippets I overheard.

• Look, Diary of a Wimpy Kid might play Harry Potter.  That will be impossible.  I loved both of those books.
• "Hat Back" might make it to the final 8.  Crazy.  It's good, but not that goood.   It will probably beat Bone Dog and not very many kids have read 39 Clues.
• How can I possibly choose between Queen of the Falls and Percy Jackson if they meet up.  I really wanted Queen of the Falls to win the Cadecott, but Percy is my favorite book ever.
• Do you think that Mr. K. made the bracket this way to make it hard?
• I hope Breadbox wins, but I don't think it can beat Harry Potter, soooo many kids love Harry Potter.  Even the ones who just watched the movies.
• It stinks that Smile has to play Mt. Olympus Basketball.  All the boys are going to vote for that book.
• I wish we had more time to convince kids who haven't read some of these books to read them.  That would make the votes more fair.
• Mr. K. should have put all the picture books on one side of the bracket  --- Yeah, but if he did that then the final might not be between the 2 best books.
• I hope we do another bracket at the end of the year.  Think about all the books we haven't read yet.

The last quote just made my plans for the last week of school a whole lot easier.

 

Later,

Tony

 

Seriously Not Ready

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

 

My daughter Ellie is about twelve weeks from officially being a high school student.  I say 'officially' because she already takes a class at the high school as an 8th grader, so she is kind of there already.  One would think this gradual easing into the life of high school might have helped me out a little.  It hasn't.

About nine years ago when trying to make the decision about whether to send her to kindergarten or keep her in preschool another year I made a pros/cons list that filled up an entire sheet of notebook paper.  The pros won out, but I was wrought with anxiety about my baby going to kindergarten.

Fast forward a few years later and Ellie was in 4th grade, just a few doors down from me.  I had serious issues with my baby being the same age as the kids I taught.  For years, my class held heroes for her.  "They are sooo cool Daddy"  or "I can't wait until I am in 4th grade Daddy."  That year went vanished quickly because the next thing I knew we were helping her memorize a locker combination for middle school.  In hindsight I should have been a more involved parent when she was in 5th grade, but I think I was in denial.

Her three years in middle school have rushed by like Ussain Bolt on crystal meth.  I think she did fine.  Ellie never got in serious trouble.  She gets good grades.  Unless you count a few awkward moments with friends (when I say awkward, I mean middle school girls shunning other middle school girls just for the heck of it) she had had a good run.  For the most part I think she will look back and remember middle school as being pretty cool.

A few weeks ago Ellie, my wife and I had the big scheduling pow-wow.  In our district 8th graders really need to study the options they have for 9th grade classess.  If you don't get on the right "track" quickly, you will be screwed.  This was so much different than when I scheduled classes.  I don't even know if I scheduled any classes until I was a junior.  I am pretty sure I showed up and was handed a piece of paper that said stuff like English 9, Geometry, Biology, Study Hall ...

Ellie had to figure out what elective art class she needed to take in the first semester of 9th grade that would let put her on the path to take what I believe was an Advanced Placement Art Portfolio class when she was a senior.  Since, at this particular moment in time, Ellie dreams of going to art school it WAS VERY IMPORTANT TO GET INTO THAT CLASS.  Whew.  Who knew how difficult scheduling was going to be.  Thank goodness Ellie doesn't want to double major in Applied Physics and Non-Western Religion in college.  We might not have gotten any sleep that night.

The quickly slipping time of my daughter's youth combined with the strange intensity of high school is making me wonder if I am even close to being emotionally ready for my baby to be a freshman.  About the only thing that is keeping me close to reality is that she doesn't have a boyfriend yet.  When that happens then ... whoa ... seriously not ready.

Later,

Tony

March "Book" Madness

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

Last Friday I wrote about the excitement of Read Across America in our school and my classroom.  This morning, I set this up in my classroom.  

 

 

I think it will definitely continue the celebration of books in a big way.

The kids know it is coming because they helped choose some of the books.  We spent about 10 minutes of our read-a-thon on Friday jotting down ideas on index cards.  Their choices were any books read this year by them that they shared with others.  About half the books in our bracket are from this brainstorming.  The other half are books that I read aloud this year.

In the spirit of the basketball March Madness, I seeded the books.  I based the seeds on my perception of the buzz level generated by the books.  Each day over the next few weeks we will have quick votes of various match-ups and the winner will move onto the next round.  Our Final Four vote will be on Monday, April 4.  That is the same day the NCAA men's basketball champion will be crowned.  If the top four seeds make it through to the Final Four we will have some tough decisions to make on that Monday.

One potential Final Four match-up will see Bigger than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder (not only a great book, but we Skyped with Laurel earlier in the year) face Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allburg (a Wolfcott honor book).  The other match-up will be Powerless by Matthew Cody vs Wolfcott winner Me ... Jane by Patrick McDonell.

For me the choices between these four book would be nearly impossible.  I love all of them.  My hope is the class discussions that will help frame the votes in the later rounds will let the kids see how hard it is to choose.  I expect passionate pleas for why certain books should win.  We will crown a "winner", but in no way does that mean the other books are "losers".  

We will walk away from this experience revisiting and remembering the wonder of powerful stories.

Later,

T

Addtional Notes:

We had our play-in games for the 8th seeds in each part of the bracket  during our morning meeting today.  Results are below:

Two nailbiters and two blowouts.  No surpirses for me, but I was impressed with the peskiness of the Little White Rabbit and Balloons over Broadway.  Both "gave 110% and kept fighting until the final buzzer"  If Tough Cookie thought it had its hands full with Balloons Over Broadway, it better get ready, it faces the overall top seed, Bigger Than a Breadbox, next.  

I am going to have way too much fun with this.

meh

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

 

Image by Doug Savage

Today is turning out to be just one of those days.  I have a mountain of work to do, but I am in world of "meh."  Looking to get myself out of this funk, I read some great posts from the Slice of Life Challenge, tried to make myself laugh by heading to the Savage Chickens website, ate some of my favorite soup for lunch. No luck, still meh.  If I were a paint color I would be utterly beige. 

Occasionally this meh-ness happens to me and to be frank, it sucks.  Thankfully it doesn't happen too often.  I am definitely not a over-the-top bubbly type of personality, but I seldom have days were I don't want to do anything at all.  When I am done with this short post, I will slosh down my 8th cup of coffee, try to get into a productive mindset and attempt to de-meh myself.  Maybe I can get into a dynamo mood.  However, if my past encounters with meh are any indication of what the rest of my day will be, I am pretty sure I will be trying to fall asleep tonight wondering why I didn't get anything done. 

Later,

Tony

Pitch-itis

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

 I am a soccer guy.  Have been for a very long time, hope to be one for quite a bit longer.  Today has been a great day that started with a phone call this morning.  Before I get to describing the call, bear with me while I share a little of how I became infected with a love of soccer.  It won't be every detail but so many of my friends don't get why I rather watch futbol than football.

1) Sometime around 1978 grade I started playing rec level youth soccer.

2) In the summer of 1980 I went to a soccer camp at Ohio Wesleyan University.  One of my instructors was a player named Jay Vidovich.  He instantly became the coolest guy ever.  That same summer I went to my first pro soccer game.  The now long defunct Columbus Magic.  Where I got an autograph from the new collest guy ever, English born player Ron Wigg.

3) I stopped playing competive soccer in 8th grade.  I still loved the game but there wasn't a high demand for the small and slow type of player.  

4) In college I joined a group of friends who would tailgate before soccer games.  The soccer team was consistent winners, the football team won 4 games in the 5 years I was there.

5) In 1992 I read Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and became an instant Arsenal Fan.

6) In 1996 I went to the first game of the Columbus Crew.  They crew quickly became my second favorite team.

7) The fall of 2005 I started coaching my son Hank when he was 5.  By the fall of 2009 I stopped coaching him because he was better than when I left the game when I was 14.

8) I also coached my daughter for a strecth as well.

9) Two years ago I got a fancy schmancy tv and upgraded my cable so I could get Fox Soccer and watch my beloved Arsenal about twice on month on Saturday mornings.  Hank quickly became indoctrinated into the Cult of Gooners.  He now has more Arsenal gear than I do.

10) In August of this year I went to England.  One glorious afternoon I sat in the stands of Emirates Stadium and soaked in the majesty as Robin Van Persie scored to the delight of 60,000 plus fans.  My wonderful wife, Julie, came with me to the match.  She doesn't totally get why I this was so big to me, but the fact she was there made the experience even more remarkable.

This brief timeline of my life as a soccer guy leads me back to why this morning was so awesome.  My two children had a sleepover at Grandma's and Julie slept in a little later than usual.  So I watched today's Aresnal match by myself.  Julie came downstairs midway through the second half, but chose not to join me for yet another game.

Arsenal played like a bunch of cut-rate amatuers for most of the game, but somehow they eeked out a 2-1 victory on another dazzling goal by Van Persie to hand Liverpool their first defeat at home this season.  

As I literally leapt of the couch, a sleepy-eyed Julie looked gave me a funny look, but gracefully indulged me as I showed her the replay of the goal.  When the final whistle blew, I called Hank to see if he remembered our team was on TV.

"I watched the first half, we looked awful."

"You didn't see the end?"

"No, eating breakfast with Mimi.  What happened?"

"2-1 win.  Stoppage time goal.  Van Persie again."

"Yesssss!!! Can we watch highlights when I get home?"

"You bet."

"I love you dad, see you in a couple of hours."

"Can't wait"

I also can't wait for when Hank can pass on this goofy love of the beautiful game to his children.

Later,

Tony.

Stories From Room 226: books, Books, BOOKS!

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

 

Like many schools around the country, mine celebrated Read Across America this week.  We try to keep it realtively simple, but also have lots of fun.  Our students were encouraged to do some things to help "Celebrate the Joy of Reading."  Here is what our school did and how my class did:

1) Match or exceed a nightly reading goal √ Our target goal was to average 30 minutes a night per child.  We averaged 66 minutes per night per child.  For a total of 7,129 minutes during the week.

    My class reads.  It is just one of the identity traits we have.  And if you get stuck in our reading community, you ... read.  So, while the number of minutes read at home this week could seem seem impressive, it is just who we are.   

2) Wear "themed clothes" on each day √ We had over 80% participation each day.

    When you think about it, who doesn't like to wear crazy socks every once in a while? And yes, that is me in the middle rockin' the Leprechaun socks.

3) Donate books √ The target goal for each classroom in the building was 45 books (which is about 2 per child).  Our class donated 577 books.  Which was about 21 books per child.  I did add 23 of my own books on the last day (I didn't want to be outdone by my class and the even 600 number for total books looks pretty cool).

 

To me this was the most impressive thing my class accomplished this week.  I have great kids and great family support so that helped tremendously.  But when a group of children who love reading so much they are willing to clear out their bookcases to give the gift of books to others, that just makes you want to celebrate big time.

So, celebrate we did.  Today we celebrated the "Joy of Reading" by ... wait for it ...

READING.

We didn't have a pizza party, we didn't watch a movie, we didn't have extra recess, we didn't play games on our iPads, we just read and listened to read alouds (including one from our principal). Since we were going to spend all day doing something we love,  I did let them wear their pajamas.  

Best day ever.

Later,

Tony

Humorati

    This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers

Humor plays a significant role in my life.  It started with my dad.  He may not be the funniest guy on the planet, but he joked around constantly.  He is also the one who introducd me to the comedy of Bill Cosby, Steve Martin and George Carlin.  When he let me watch an George Carlin HBO special in middle school, I definitely felt like the coolest guy ever.  Think about it, what middle school boy wouldn't want to know the words banned by the FCC?

The seeds my dad planted in my personality have flourished into a life-long love affair with humor.  I went through a Steven Wright phase in college.  Jerry Seinfield kept me laughing and thinking post college.  Now I am mostly a Louis Black fan.  However, I will still watch any of my "old" favorites if they happen to show up on Comdey Central.  

The humorists I have listed so far are all wickedly funny and in my opinion wickedly smart.  Being a guy, I will still laugh at things that are definitely not smart.  My comeday snobbery is not to the point I can't giggle at the guys from Jackass.  But to really get me going, I need funny and smart.  Again, this traces back to my dad.  He taught me to laugh at good jokes, work hard but never take myself too seriously and maybe most importantly get smart.  

One of his sayings growing up was, "The only prejudice I have is againt stupid people."  Unlike the now semi-famous Ron White line, "You can't fix stupid", my dad honestly thinks you can.  So all that time he made me laugh, he also made me learn.  Mmmmm.  I wonder why my class motto is laugh and learn?

This reflection on humor and my dad was spawned a few nights as I was reading a book by David Sedaris.  At one point I laughed out loud.  Which rarely happens when I read.  I may smile, I may think, "whoa, that's hysterical" but to laugh out loud is quite unusual.  I realized it sounded a little like my dad's laugh.  At that brief moment I knew the reason I like David Sedaris so much is because my dad invited me into his word many years ago.

Later,

Tony

The Power of Conversation

    

Talk is the sea in which all else floats.

                                        -James Britton

 

 

This past Saturday was the annual Dublin Literacy Conference.  It was a ridiculously good day of learning for me.  Since I presented this year, I only went to three sessions but each one was great.  I have seen Donalyn Miller share her thinking before and while there was not much that was completely new to me, the power of hearing some of her central ideas resonated deeply.  When she asked, "What do people who don't read talk about?" I knew what she meant.  At times I have to work hard to be involved in a conversation that doesn't include what I hve been reading lately. Sharon Draper absolutely mesmerized me with her passion for writing and getting great books into the hands of children.  Then at the end of the day I went to a session about the power of film by Bill Bass.  It was after this that I felt like my mind was toast.  All of this new learning was swirling around in my brain and I couldn't slow my thinking down.

Eventhough the sessions I attended were enriching, it was the conversations with some very smart people throughout the day that gave me even more to ponder.  

I ate lunch with Bill Prosser and James Preller.  We had a fascinating discussion about whether or not reading a ton does make people smarter and more interesting.  It intrigued me to think that maybe the depth of reading experiences, even if slightly limited is more important.  For example, does reading every book written by John Grisham or Danielle Steele actually make you smarter compared to a person who spends 15-20 minutes a day reading a newspaper?  In reflection I still think I want my students to read voraciously, but maybe I need to do a better job at moving them toward books that will exapnd thinking and learning.  I will still celebrate a 4th grader reading every book in the A to Z Mysteries series, but maybe I need to also celebrate a child who during the same amount of time only read 4 to 5 books, but they were all more complex and thought provoking than The Absent Author.

After lunch a discussion with Franki Sibberson helped me to understand that it may be way too difficult to plan an effective session on using tech in classrooms based on the wide range of ability teachers have in regards to integrating technology.  How can, in 45 minutes, someone effectively inspire a range of learners that include people who are just getting started to people who live a life of seamless tech integration.  I think it would be daunting and she helped to confirm what I was already thinking.  Which is why in my presentation, the use of tech was a remarkably small amount of time. 

Later in the evening I had the chance to talk with Bill Bass and he helped me to understand in even more detail the transformaive power of creating film in the lives of students.  He also gave me lots to consider in the wrestling match that often goes on in my head in regards to internet safety.  One thread of this conversation contained the idea of if we don't allow students to use tools they use at home in the classroom are we subtly devaluing the authentic work our kids do outside of the school day?  This is a big idea that caused me to think hard all of Sunday.  Now I am not ready to turn my class into a free-for-all of phone cams and let's make a movie for everything.  But I am starting to think I need to allow more of this type of work to occur.

I could go on and on about other conversations that I had during Saturday, but I feel the need to wrap up this post.  My reflecting about the day is nowehere close to being done. I blame this on the Power of Conversation.  Like the quote from above, everything that day floated on a sea of talk.  I cannot comprehend how much I would have missed if I didn't barge my way into conversations with some very smart and interesting people.  There was a time when I went to conferences and really didn't talk at all.  I just absorbed the stream of information and kept my mouth shut.  If I would have done that this year I would have missed a gold mine of ideas and learning.  

Later,

Tony