Today was the introduction of all introductions.
We started off the day by reading our metaphorically written introductions of ourselves. I will include mine. there were many great introductions. I was very impressed by the different genres fellows chose to express themselves. We had slideshows, visual poetry, show and tell, acrostic poems, "I'm from" poems, comparisons to ants, wind, and dance shoes, and others.
1969 Vista Cruiser.
My eyes are the headlights and reverse lights. I need to know where I’ve been and see where I’m going.
An upgraded stereo are my ears, I tend tune in and out easily.
My hands are the gears. I have a handle on the way I shift through the motions of life.
My head is the steering wheel. I can turn in the right direction.
My mouth is the rumbling of the car, it doesn’t ever stop.
The body is my smile, it’s the first thing people usually see.
My heart is the fuel. Without putting my heart into what I do, it doesn’t run well.
Speaking in public is a starter going bad. Takes a while to get started, but once it’s started it seems to run fine.
My navigational skills are the mirrors, always backwards.
My mind is the trunk, always full.
Laughter is my windshield, blocks anything from getting inside.
The students I teach are the tires, they keep me moving.
Poetry is my floor mat, it’s where I stomp out all the dirt.
Conversation, laughing, the arts, traveling, music and being around people are like all the parts of the engine that help me run.
My facial expressions are brake lights, they warn you of what I’m thinking before I even say it.
My humor is my windshield wipers on a sunny day, dry.
Getting impatient is the sound of my horn, not used too often.
My morning caffeine is my seatbelt, I don’t go anywhere without it.
My feet are skid marks. I leave a path behind me, so I have to remember to make ones I want to see again.
At first impression I’m a 1967 Chevy SS, fast paced and always moving, but really I’m just a 1969 vista cruiser, easy going and laid back.
A facilitator presented their TIW
Take Aways:
- Using train of thought writing in the classroom will help see how students are precieving different things or "diagnose understanding"
- Inquiry is not linear, but rather circular or without direction.
- Valuing confusion can show more learning than accepting un-thought out garbage that sounds good.
- My favorite part of the TIW was looking at a painting called "Action Panting #2" by Mark Tansey
- We had to write our "train of thought" for this painting. I was very caught up on the painting because of the how unrealistic it was. I was unable to get past that in the time given to write.
- In one sentence we had to capture or write a caption that demonstrated the thinking of this painting.
- "What message is the artist trying to send by using this mode of creativity, painting, to make a scene of an event in time, yet surrounded by things very unrealistic to that era?"
Another facilitator's TIW
Take Aways:
Question: How can I use narrative writing to help my students see
themselves rightly and therefore envision a meaningful future?
He teaches Beowulf to his class, so he had his students do a responsive writing about the days of their youth and what they were filled with after sharing an example of his youth which was very personal to him.
Here was my “My Days of my youth have been filled with…”
My days of my youth have been filled with hospital rooms and ER visits. I remember spending an abundance of time in clinics, specialists, one doctor after the next. I remember being told they didn't know if i would ever out grow the asthma with the way my lungs were. I remember my mom crying because she couldn’t do what moms were suppose to do, fix it. I remember things going on in my brothers life, but I would be sick, so the attention went from to him to me and I felt guilty for that. I remember hearing my parents having conversations in their bedrooms about me being sick again, as I slept on the couch where it was cooler and my mom getting up every time I coughed to make sure I was okay. I remember going outside at 1 or 2 in the morning wrapped up in blankets so the cold air would consume so I could maintain breathing. I remember crying because I couldn't stop coughing and apologizing for needing to go to the ER again. I remember being in middle school being asked to go to Dallas, and the day the charter bus was schedule to leave, I couldn't go because I could chance not being able to use m breathing machine on the 12+ hour bus trip down there. I remember going tests done, I remember doctors saying that the lab results didn’t show anything and I would have to ride this out. I remember moving to Kansas City and sitting in ER rooms and clinics alone trying to remember to tell the doctors everything they needed to know before they gave me medication which was more like a tic-tac to me then a medication. I remember my mom overnighting me her own medications just so I could be awake enough to be at school so I didn't fail. I remember the first time I over came a cold as an adult without using antibiotics.
After students wrote their struggles they had to name struggles in their life, list patterns, what they learned from their patterns, what was the common good that could come it. He shared an example of a students paper and shared how this child's paper helped him view him differently in class.
We all have struggles that we can name and list of and relive in our heads over and over again, but we must also reflect on what we want to do because of those struggles, who we want to become despite those struggles, or in spite of those struggles. If I were to use my example from above to spin off into the common good, I'd have to start it off with "My days of my youth have been filled with living"
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