Now that you have taken the time to go through all of your closets, and attics and basements and anywhere else you could find items for your Bio Book Bags, what does this collection say about you as a reader? As a writer? Choose one of the items from your bag and do a quick write on it...right here on the computer...right NOW! This is not something you have to draft and revise, just let your thoughts flow as you explore the corners of your mind to discover how this item influenced you and who you are today in terms of attitude, your teaching, your likes and dislikes. Have some fun with this. Here is mine as a model.
My Winnie the Pooh cookbook makes me think of my Nana. Nana was the one person in my life who really saw me as her "favorite". How do I know this? I know this because of the way I felt when I was with her. She listened to me and really heard what I was saying about what I liked and what I didn't like. Her gifts, which include this cookbook and my Raggedy Ann and Andy chalk board, were gifts that "showed" how she knew me in a way nobody else seemed to. Somehow she knew that I loved to bake and that this cookbook would be something I would always treasure. The chalkboard was something that validated my desire to one day be a teacher, but it was even more than that because at that time in my life I was an avid collector of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Anything with Raggedies on them...I HAD to have!It was not just the gifts, but the fact that she really listened to me and would take the time to hear what I had to say. This meant the world to me and now that I think about it, that is one of the things that I carry with me as an educator...a teacher...a mom. To listen, to really listen when someone is talking shows that they matter. It shows that their thinking, their thoughts, and their ideas count. Yes, that is what my Nana showed me. She showed me the power of someone hearing you out and truly listening to what is in your heart.
That is my quick write. Notice how I get "off track" a little bit. THAT is what a quick write is! Just start writing and see where it takes you. I had NO idea that was where I was going. Quick writes ask us to follow our stream of consciousness...to make connections where there might have been none. It is a way for us to discover what it is that we did not know before. I never thought about my Nana in this way before and it clarifies my great love for her!!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Welcome!!
Hello All,
I am wondering about your experiences in creating your Bio Book Bag. Please take a few minutes to write about your experience in finding old artifacts and what it felt like to discover the old the the new!! Here is my model:
Every time I share my Bio Book Bag I wonder...is this incredibly self-absorbed and indulgent? And although I struggle with these feelings, I also know that I have learned so much from creating my bag. I remember distinctly finding a crate full of old stuff from my parents' barn. It had that old paper moldy smell that whacked me across the face as soon as I opened it. Once I got past the smell though, so many other memories and ideas and thoughts and feelings passed through me. How could it be that this "stuff" could bring me back so clearly to a particular place and time. And if so, then what about these experiences really mattered in my teaching? I found so many artifacts that could be included so then I had to think some more about which items actually taught me something about myself as a reader or a writer. Here is where the true thinking began. It moved beyond the scrapbooking kind of fun and into a more analytical kind of thinking. Socrates said that, "the unexamined life is not worth living." This bag was a way in for me to uncover where I came from, what I believed and how those beliefs were formed. It was a step towards uncovering my attitudes, beliefs and biases about reading and writing and how those have shaped me as a reader and a writer. As self-indulgent as it might be, it makes me think that is exactly what we need in schools! Who are you? What do you think? What matters to you?
I am wondering about your experiences in creating your Bio Book Bag. Please take a few minutes to write about your experience in finding old artifacts and what it felt like to discover the old the the new!! Here is my model:
Every time I share my Bio Book Bag I wonder...is this incredibly self-absorbed and indulgent? And although I struggle with these feelings, I also know that I have learned so much from creating my bag. I remember distinctly finding a crate full of old stuff from my parents' barn. It had that old paper moldy smell that whacked me across the face as soon as I opened it. Once I got past the smell though, so many other memories and ideas and thoughts and feelings passed through me. How could it be that this "stuff" could bring me back so clearly to a particular place and time. And if so, then what about these experiences really mattered in my teaching? I found so many artifacts that could be included so then I had to think some more about which items actually taught me something about myself as a reader or a writer. Here is where the true thinking began. It moved beyond the scrapbooking kind of fun and into a more analytical kind of thinking. Socrates said that, "the unexamined life is not worth living." This bag was a way in for me to uncover where I came from, what I believed and how those beliefs were formed. It was a step towards uncovering my attitudes, beliefs and biases about reading and writing and how those have shaped me as a reader and a writer. As self-indulgent as it might be, it makes me think that is exactly what we need in schools! Who are you? What do you think? What matters to you?
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