Hidden Power

from Nikki Grimes's Ordinary Hazards:

"You know," she said, eyes firmly fixed
on the six o'clock news,
"Writers are a dime a dozen."
And just like that--bam!--
she slammed my heart
in the door of her words.

Sitting in the wooden desk in the front row right by the window, I listen as Mrs. Morgan, my English I teacher, explains that she is trying something new.  She had gone to a training and wants to see how we respond to an activity she learned there.  Leaning against the wall, just below the blackboard, is a large framed picture.  We cannot see the front since it is facing the wall.  Mrs. Morgan is asking us to take out some notebook paper, explaining we will have the entire class period to write.  She says we can write whatever we want, using the framed picture for inspiration.  Writing like this is a new technique she learned at the training.  She turns the picture around.

A typical framed picture that most people during this Spring of 1983 hang over the back of their sofa leans against the wall.  It is a country scene with a red barn on the left and green, rolling hills and large shade trees.  Was there a boy?  My memory is unclear about the boy, but I will forever remember what I wrote.  Studying the picture, a story develops in my mind.  I begin writing.  I am describing the scene, the adventure ahead, even the concerns of the day, but once I get to a certain point, I reveal to the reader that the barn is telling the story.  It is from the barn's perspective.  The bell rings so I hand Mrs. Morgan my writing and go to my next class.

Sometime in the next week, Mrs. Morgan gives the class some overall feedback on what she had gleaned from our writing.  Then, she asks me if she has my permission to keep my writing.  She loves how I used a creative perspective and wants to use it with future classes.  My heart swells!  I am validated as a writer.  

For the first time, I had written and received praise for writing from a trusted person, someone I admired.  Almost forty years have passed, but when I read Nikki Grimes's poem this morning, that moment in Mrs. Morgan's class is as fresh in my mind as if it happened just yesterday.

As I sit here in my recliner, writing for the 21st day of the Slice of Life writing challenge, I know that Mrs. Morgan could have easily crushed our spirits, expecting perfection with punctuation, verb tense, capitalization, spelling, everything.  I have that power as an LA teacher.  But not only do we as teachers have that power, many others do as well:  parents, friends.  A kind word goes a long way!  Building people--writers--up!  Who will you affect today?

Voila! Pie!

Voila!  Pie!

I have been doing double-duty lately.  This week, I started my own writing challenge for my students,  using our blog.  Only a portion of them have joined, but those who did have written from the heart.  It is my hope that the writing is helping them as much as it has me.

I Am Still Needed

"Mom."  I think I hear my name.  "Hey, Mom!"  Definitely, that was someone calling me.

"Mom, are you in here?"  Jacob asks through the door.

"Just a second, please.  Let me turn off the hair dryer," I respond.  What is that saying about once you're a mom, you are never alone in the bathroom again?  Yep, it is definitely so true!  When Jacob was an infant, I would put him in his carrier and set him outside my shower.  He could see me and wouldn't cry because I could talk to him, sing to him.  I know, right?  You don't want to hear me sing, but Jacob and  Hope loved it.  As he got older, there was the lifeskill of potty training so I was always  in the bathroom with him, teaching him about the toilet and how it makes all this noise but won't swallow you up.  Oh how he loved to drop Cheerios in the water and watch them disappear!  Of course, since I was in there with him while he potty'd, and I would get all excited, "Yay, you went pee-pee!", he thought it was perfectly fine to be in the bathroom when I went.  Fair is only fair.

"Do you hear that?"  Jacob would whisper.  "Listen, there it goes!  You went pee-pee.  Yay!"  His sweet laughter would fill the room; his claps (and sometimes his whole body jumping up and down) would echo throughout the house.  His face would be animated with surprise if anything bigger happened.  You know...like pooping.  BIG praise then!

Currently on spring break, Jacob is spending his time with us, enjoying some time away from the home he has made away from home this year.  Just 25 years old, he is a head baseball coach and 7th grade math teacher, along with numerous other coaching duties in his tiny school.  He said just yesterday as he was walking upstairs with his sweet iced tea in one hand and his Goldfish crackers in the other, "I feel like I am 13 again, going upstairs to play X-Box with my friends online."

"Mom, can you hear me now?"  His voice brings me back to the present moment.  "When you are done in there, will you do me a favor?  I need you to pop this pimple in my nose."

Even when they are grown, your children will still need you, especially for those special tasks.  And because you love them unconditionally, you will take care of them the best way possible.  Treasure those moments; they are the memorable ones.

Hope

With the sun trying to make its way around the clouds, the world is aglow in my backyard.  The fresh raindrops cling to the green, green grass.  Irises with purple and yellow petals stand tall in the corner, almost commanding attention from anyone who enters their space.  In the trees with their new budding leaves, the birds sing to each other.  Or is it a warning?  Cardinals with their bright red feathers fly from one tree to another.  The female, camouflaged with her brown body, is near.  Are eggs in a nest?  There was a blue jay yesterday who visited my garden.  Blue jays have such a ferocious reputation!  I later found feathers scattered by the fence.  The sun streaks across my window in a moment of triumph.  There is hope for a better day.

A New Task

Sitting in my chair, I am nervously getting my phone in video mode.  I know what I want to say.  I have notes.  I have practiced.  I have thought about it since early this morning.

The living room is my best choice for places to record right now.  The lighting is good, and it is almost silent here.  Except.  Except for the NOM! NOM! NOM! noises that Meat begins to make right in the middle of the recording.  These noises are screaming in my ear.  I just know they will overpower the video.  Meat, of course, decides at that moment to get up and get a little love by laying his head in my lap.  I have truly lost my focus now and begin laughing.  What else can I do, right?  Then, he gives me a big ole kiss!  He is only ten months old but currently weighs a whopping 150 pounds.  He is a slobber machine!

Videos are just not for me.  I love to record other people and to watch videos.  I just don't like being recorded myself.  I finished.  I viewed it.  I think I covered all that I wanted to say.  I hope I reminded my students how much I will miss them.  They are the highlight of my days.  I wish each one well!

Ask for What We Need

"When we ask for what we need, it allows others to show up for us."  Gravity Goldberg posted a simple message on Facebook tonight about how you may not always get what you ask for, but if you at least ask, others are able to step up.

Tonight, I am truly overwhelmed with feeling as if on one level so many others are controlling what I am supposed to be doing.  I am ready for some semblance of a routine.  Yes, I am one of those who doesn't need the daily schedule printed out as I have always lived with some sort of permanent daily schedule right here in my brain.  I am a self-starter and rarely rely on anyone else.  (This is a huge flaw of mine.)  I will be there in a second if you need me though.

Last night, I sent out an email to my students wishing them well and letting them know I was thinking about them.  I told them what I was reading and encouraged them to continue to read each day.  I even set up a discussion board for them to put what they are reading out there for others to see and maybe get some reading suggestions.  Then, I created a writing challenge on our class blog.  I know there is one here on the Slice of Life, but our technology is very restricted.  I was very nervous that I was creating the writing challenge (because I have so enjoyed the SOLSC) and no one would join.  I made it active at 1:30 and by 6:00, there were students signed up.  I was tickled pink!

As I was needing some TV time, I turned on Netflix and found Freedom Writers is now available.  This will be a wonderful ending to my day.  Not only did I meet Erin Gruwell many years ago and hear her speak, but I have read all of her materials and even used some of the activities in my own classes.  This is such a "feel-good" movie for me.  She gave it all she had and helped so many students be successful.  That is truly what I want:  to be helpful to my students, to give them what they need to be successful.

A Little Gloom with a Ray of Sunshine

April showers bring May flowers, right?  March is supposed to be our windy month, but for so many days now, it is just raining.  Sometimes, it is this fine mist that falls and causes the world to look as if it is covered in fog.  The gloom and dreariness seem to reflect the current state of uncertainty.  No one seems to know what the next step should be.  If we plan out lessons, can they be used?  For some strange reason, we have to wait until we get directions in order to teach our students.  Will we be out of school for the next two weeks or more?  Will we continue to be socially-distanced or become quarantined?  It's almost like being a marionette with someone else pulling the strings.

I did go out on a limb tonight.  Several of my students have emailed me, wanting to know what they should do about schoolwork.  You see, we were at the end of a research project and were to have the main writing and display pieces ready-to-go on Tuesday, the 18th, when everyone returned from Spring Break.  Then, beginning on Wednesday, we would have our Dinner Parties, which are the presentations finalizing the project.  Well, I cannot give them info on those items as of yet, but I did send out an email challenging them to continue reading and to check out our class blog tomorrow by noon.  At that time, we will begin a writing challenge.  Prizes will be involved.  All of this is voluntary, of course, but if they will continue to read and to write, my heart will be happy.  It will be like a ray of sunshine in all of this gloom to know they are continuing what we started in our class.