Category Archives: Day in Sentence

If you are wondering what happened to last week’s Days in a Sentence, well, I was away to the National Writing Project conference and I think many others were at either NWP or the NCTE conference, because I received only one reply to my call for sentences — from Ken (thanks!). although Gail P. did try out Vocaroo (she is ever so brave).

So, I am hoping everyone got home safe and sound, and now has a rich sentence to share.

Please considering boiling your week or your days down into a sentence, then use the comment link on this post to submit your sentence. I will gather them up all and release them as a collective post sometime this weekend.

Here is mine:

Sitting in a room with 1,000 other teachers from the National Writing Project is like being part of a tribe that learns and shares and grows together.

With Vocaroo:

And if you are in the US, have a nice and relazing Thanksgiving break.

Peace (in stuffing),

Kevin

Along with many other folks, I am off to San Antonio tomorrow for the annual meeting of the National Writing Project. It’s going to be a bit of a whirlwind, as on Thursday, I have to go to a dinner celebration that honors a book project that I was part of, in which three of us from the Western Massachusetts Writing Project wrote about how an organization can prepare for unexpected change in leadership and be ready for the unexpected. Our monograph book — The Challenge of Change — was just published and the dinner is a nice way to gather writers and editors together after two years of work.

Then, on Friday, along with sitting in on at least one workshop, I am co-presenting a session on the Writing Processes of Digital Storytelling in which a NWP colleague and I will talk through ways to get kids writing as they begin planning a movie project. This session comes out of some work that we did as a partnership between NWP and Pearson. The website resource is still under development, but you can see some of the work that I did around the concept of claymation in the classroom.

And then, I fly back home on Saturday (after a dinner with some NWP tech friends on Friday night). Phew.

But first, how about Day in a Sentence? Boil down your week or your day into a single sentence and then use the comment link on this post to share out. I will do my best to gather all of the words and release them on Sunday, but it may be Monday or so before you see them.

Here is mine (I tinkered with an audio site called Vocaroo to podcast — you can try it, too — if you podcast your sentence, just include the Vocaroo link with your words):

I feel a bit like a mouse in the maze this week, as I help students working on stop-motion movies, Google maps, and other technology-related projects that have fully engaged them and given them hands-on creative work. (direct link to podcast)

Peace (in days),
Kevin

I’ve been thinking in syllables this week (maybe some residual sickness?) and so it seemed natural to return Days in a Sentence to a former version of itself, known as Day in a Haiku. I invite you to boil down your week or a day in your week into a haiku (traditional structure: 5-7-5 or non-traditional) and share it out with us here at Day in a Sentence.

Use the comment link on this post to submit your words. I will keep them in a moderation bin until this weekend, when I will publish them all.

Here is mine (as podcast):

Macs for podcasting
then,  PCs for stopmotion;
Maps, too. We’re busy.

Peace (in verse),
Kevin

Greetings

I was greeted almost every day with some new sentence and thought for the Day in the Sentence activity and there was a mix of messages, too. Some of us are looking ahead to the United States presidential election and others are looking at the moments of our lives, both in the classroom and in the home. That’s what I love about Day in a Sentence — the variety.

So, thank you to all who contributed.

Here are your Days in a Sentence for this week:

Gail P. and I teach in the same school and this week, we were both immersed in parent-teacher conferences, but not before we had dinner with some friends from online communities (Liz and Maureen). And now, Gail is on Twitter, ready for another adventure. This week, she writes: This week has been full of important and interesting conversations with family, friends, students, and their parents.

Liz is new to Day in a Sentence, but she went at it in great style. If you head over to her blog, you can see how she made her entire thinking and editing process transparent as she moved from a long piece of writing to the very concise: My mind jumps, I wonder, am I learning less than I would if it were still, is ADD another word for the 21st century brain?

Janice took a step back and listened to the voice of her mom. Perhaps that is something we should all be doing more regularly, don’t you think? (Maybe the world would be a more peaceful place). Anyway, Janice realized a lesson in perspective. This week provided several examples of what my mother often said when I was complaining about my state of affairs; there’s always someone worse off than you.

Chaos? Yep, we know about chaos. And when Lynn J. finds the right tool to rein it in, she will share it with us. Right, Lynn? Lynn? Can you hear me? (hey, pipe down, you there, in the back of the room …) Lynn writes, Chaos reigns at the middle school again this week, and as I look for what will calm and engage my students, I wonder whether we will ever get our footing this year. (Good luck, Lynn)

Michaele has voted and hoping for the results. Me, too. It took a week to hit me, but the delayed surprise was still intense when I realized that I had signed, sealed, and hand-delivered my absentee ballot to the post office with as much care, determination, and HOPE as I did with each of my letters to my husband when he was last depolyed overseas to Iraq.

Yeah for reading! Sara, who is new to Day in a Sentence (I believe — welcome), shares this wonderful moment when the light goes on for a child. And when it is your own child, all the better. This evening I proudly listened to my six and half year old daughter read Ten Apples Up On Top! BY Theo. LeSieg for the first time ever.

Lynn C. (my other Californian Lynn) worked on the Day of the Dead this week and found a couple of cute C words to capture her thoughts (I added a few C words of my own). Comics, calacas, and can’t think of another “c”-word to describe prep for Day of the Dead this week. (Yeah, comics!)

sara p. had some venting this week, so I will just step out of the way and let her go: mike had back surgery on tuesday. it’s wednesday morning now. i slept on the floor last night, my emotional tolerance is, um, low. so here’s my sentence –
note to the nurses of the world: trying to catheterize my husband without a numbing agent makes me want to punch you in the face. don’t ever do it again.

Delaine has gone, and come back, and now contemplates the work on her desk. I think I know that feeling. After taking 34 seniors to visit University of California, Merced, on Tuesday, I returned to a pile of yearbook proofs to check.

Perhaps Liza needs a breather. You have our permission, Liza. There is stress all through her words this week. Feeling overloaded is starting to feel normal and I’m pretty sure that’s not a good thing.

Lori (also new to Day? I think, so welcome) had one of those weeks where the pieces don’t always seem to fit in place. But I hope it turned out all right for her in the end. Here I sit my school’s media center, surrounded by books, overwhelmed by it all, attempting to puzzle out what to do with Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this fragmented, out of order, falling behind week.

I love the poetry of Lisa’s sentence this week. I’ll leave it at that. Normal days only exist in my imagination.

Bonnie is all in with the election, making calls this weekend (hey, don’t hang up on her) for her candidate and excited about the possibilities. We are coming to the end of a very long presidential campaign and I am holding my breath, hoping for the best and looking forward to next Wednesday, the morning after. Life goes on of course, but I think we need someone like Barack Obama to take the reigns away from Bushwacker. Here’s a great polling site:http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ for updates.And for bit of diversion, here’s yet another writing challenge, the National Novel Writing Month that begins on Friday. Write a novel in the month of November: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Cheryl engaged them, with complaints. Now, how in the world did she do that? (through wonderful mentoring, I am sure). I spent an afternoon in a training with educators about using the online reading resources we have available to us. With purpose, there wasn’t one complaint about using technology.

Stacey needs a new light. Now, this could be metaphorically, I suppose. Or not.  I’m sitting in darkness because my desk lamp, which has had the same fluorescent bulb for the past five years, just blew out.

Joe (another new friend here) made some discoveries just below the surface that has him thinking of many possibilities. Way to go! This half-term week I’ve leapt far further into the future of teaching than I thought possible, discovering that what I have been imagining is actually happening and all in between digging the garden!

I want to get on an airplane and head to Anne M.’s classroom. She describes a possible project that would have engaged me to no end as a kid. Where were all the musicians when I was in school? Had a meeting with a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra member who wants our school to be involved in a music classroom that will be a virtual one, next year, term one where our students work with two other schools and will be taught how to make compositions of their own and save them for digital use, with the orchestra providing any sounds or effects that they need.

Nancy read a book! (which is not so easy to do when juggling an newborn child). I wonder what she read. Nancy?  This week was all about trying to get back into my pre-mommy groove by reading an actual book; so far, so good!

Nina did the impossible: she beat the clock and got things done earlier than usual. I hope she relaxed a bit. Instead of staying at work until 7 pm on Friday as I usually do, I managed to plan next week’s lessons by 11 a.m. today, so why can’t I do this every week???

Gail D. had a well-deserved respite and found a way to rejuvenate herself in the hills. I had the week off – and savored every moment of the last days of October in the Sierra foothills.

Amy has a sentence and a request (which I just did for her): I thought I was crazy to try to do anything academic on Halloween. I decided to have the kids create their first blog posts on our brand new classroom blog. They got out the laptops and you could’ve heard a pin drop in my room. They were engaged and focused, even in full costume! Click here to visit our 3rd grade page. The kids would love to have adult and student comments on their work.

Thanks to everyone for sharing out this week.

Peace (in words),
Kevin

I’d like to invite you all to participate in this week’s Day in a Sentence. No strange twists of the concept this week — just simple: Reflect on your week or a day in your week, boil it down to a single sentence, and share it out here through the comment link of this post. (If you podcast it, that would be cool — just give me a link and I will include it in the final post).

I will gather up all of the comments and repost them as one community post over the weekend.

I look forward to your reflective insights and, if you are new, please give it a whirl. It’s a wonderful community of writers, educators and others, sharing out some words and thoughts.

Here is my sentence:

I had my first Tweet-Meet-Up this week and finally put faces to two “friends” from the online world (and one friend from my daily world) over Mexican food.

And thanks to everyone who added their voices to the NotK12 Conference VoiceThread that we used last week for Day in a Sentence. It’s not too late to join that party. The K12 Conference remains in full bloom, with new presentations every day, and the VoiceThread I set up is for reflections on what you are experiencing and learning.

Peace (in days),
Kevin

I am hoping you will join me this week (and beyond) in adding your Day in a Sentence to a VoiceThread that I have set up as an offshoot of the K12 Online Conference. Bud Hunt is leading the NOTK12Conference, which is another way to reflect and expand upon the learning from the wonderful K12 Online event (which has really launched in full force this week).

I set up a K12 Conference in a Sentence as a VoiceThread, asking folks to reflect on their experiences with the material in a sentence. And then, I tacked on a Day in a Sentence page, too. So, I figured, why not just make this week’s Day in a Sentence right in that VoiceThread.

Haven’t used VoiceThread? You should give it a try. It’s a great platform for pictures and audio and is quite easy to use. You will need to have an account with VoiceThread to post your comment (which can also be posted as a written comment).

So, please consider heading to the VoiceThread directly, or use the embedded Thread down below (they are one and the same).

Peace (in days),
Kevin

As anyone trying to blog with Edublogs knows, last week was a difficult time. The entire network was in the midst of change to a new server system and it was difficult at times to get to a blog to comment. Although there was grumbling in the forums, I still think Edublogs is a powerful network and that the push for upgrades shows foresight by James Farmer and company. I know I don’t want to be part of a network that just stands still.

So I asked Amy, who hosted last week’s Day in a Sentence (see the results here), to consider doing it again this week and she graciously agreed. Amy continues with her theme from last week, which is to boil down your week or a day in your week, with music and lyrics in mind.

We hope you consider joining us over at Amy’s place for this week’s Day in a Sentence.

Here is my submission:

My Sentence: I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to be a stock broker these days, wandering the wreckage of the economy.

Reflection: And this reminds me of a song that I wrote a few years ago with my older band. The song is called: The Stockbroker’s Blues.

Listen to the song

THE STOCKBROKER’S BLUES

I got the stocks
I got the bonds
I’ve got the whiskey
to tie one on
I’ve got the money
I’ve got the gold
I’ve got companies down on their knees
being sold

You know it’s funny
these games we play
All of that money
Bound to drive a man insane

I’ve got the mansions
I’ve got the cars
I’m laughing and smoking
Cuban cigars
Living the high life
Making the calls
Hoping and praying the market
doesn’t fall

You know it’s funny
these games we play
All of that money
Bound to drive a man insane

Now I’ve got nothing
I lost it so fast
One day I’m up
and the next day I’ve crashed
Five-cent deposits
Thunderbird wine
That’s how I spend my days,
killing time

You know it’s funny
these games we play
All of that money
Bound to drive a man insane

Peace (in days),
Kevin

We have this very neat little restaurant in a neighboring town called Amy’s Place. Great food. Good conversations. A nice hangout. I mention that because this week, we are heading over to Amy’s Blog for the Day in a Sentence. She is tweeking it into Day in a Lyric and would like us to imagine a theme song for our week. (Hopefully, no AC/DC’s Highway to Hell is on anyone’s list)

Head to Amy’s Blog

We hope you join us.

Peace (in melody),
Kevin