Category Archives: Day in Sentence

Please consider joining us for this week’s Day in a Sentence. No fancy themes this week. Just good ol’ fashioned sentences. How does it work? Boil down your week or a day in your week to a reflective sentence and share with the comment link on this post. I will collect all of the sentences and publish them (probably on Monday, at this point).

As for me, I am heading off to the Prairie Lands Writing Project in Missouri this weekend to give a keynote talk about writing in the online world, with a focus on my webcomic, Boolean Squared. I will show how I used the Web 2.0 and other technology as part of a writing process for the comic strip, and then, how you might move some of those ideas into the classroom. The conference looks very interesting and I am very excited about being asked to present as the keynote speaker (this is the second time this has happened – Bonnie hosted me last year at the Hudson Valley Writing Project).

My hope is to create an online version of my presentation in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, one of my activities for the crowd in the morning (where I focus on Web 2.0 and education) is to write out a Day in a Sentence and then podcast some of their words as part of our own Day in a Sentence collection. It will add some new voices into the mix and bring Day in a Sentence out a bit further.

I look forward to your words!

Peace (in connections),
Kevin

I say,
These days are crazed;
hectic, perhaps, but OK —
we still find time to sit back and think
and find our place here among this virtual space
with words and thoughts and ideas
and the satisfaction of the act of connections
through collectively shared reflections.

Without further ado, this week’s Days in a Poem:

Mr. Mansour got me right at the first line.

Bacteria, viruses, rockets, and rocks.
6th graders still challenged by lockers with locks.

Two student teachers and some nurses to boot.
The best rocket maker might win some loot.

Friday detention is a bit of a pain.
This poem is confusing, let me explain.

It’s my week in a poem, the life of a science teacher.
I’m armed only with my cunning, a computer, and a beaker.

Anne M. came back from behind the Great Firewall of Asia.

Being lost without my blog
In China where it would not log
Then again when back home on the farm
Due a quirk, I felt I’d lost my arm.

Sheryl provides us with a rush of words in her freestyle poem, which she says is “prompted by needs for teacher literacy in technology”:

21st Century is no time to be a wallflower as the dance moves on without you.

Ken continues his wonderful stylistic writing that captures more than a moment:

Fleet stepping figures in oilskin array,
scattered reflections a constant foray,
city street buskers with rhapsodic song –
happy together –
the lyrical chorus delighting the throng,
mocking the weather.

sara (she of the lower case world) mulls over love:

he brought me
a cheesy bagel today
at my second job
at the plant place.
wrapped in a paper towel,
with two string cheeses
on the side.
“you need a snack,”
he smiled.

the mums do their mumming,
the late-summer bees gather pollen,
i count the days of marriage
in the crumbs.
and it’s like the stars.

but better.

I’m hoping Liza made it through, even though a new week now begins:

I think that I will survive this week
Abundant with colds and meetings and chaos
I think that I will survive this week
Where life and work cross swords with one another
I think that I will survive this week
With stinky skunks and dirty hands on kids
I think that I will survive this week
but can I survive the weekend?

Gail P., who gave me the idea of last week’s Day in a Question (and then her question got lost in transit somehow), captures so nicely the richness of her teaching environment and philosophy:

The natives are restless.
They’re eager to go.
They’ve found the right path
But what they don’t know
Is what lies before them,
Around every last turn,
Are the carefully laid challenges
That bring them to learn.

Like Liza, David was looking forward to the weekend. Perhaps the sniffles are gone?

Snuffles and coughing, but deadlines to meet
Still, dogs to walk and children to feed
Poems and blog posts, but
Still, deadlines to meet
Thankfully, in sight: the end of the week

And Lisa C. added her poem called Late September to her blog site, capturing a hectic week.

The week started off without a hitch
We learned how to start stories,
Worked out more than one glitch
We worked on a project, or maybe two,
Finished a couple
And started a few that are new.
A novel was finished, all in one day!
The weekend was coming
With more time to play.
One last thing, before we go
We ended our week
By honoring a hero.
I sigh with relief
Now that it is over
And start make plans for another great week!

Sue W added a haiku to our mix:

Student blogging comp
Read, comment, post, drink milo
Midnight again, BED!!

Thanks to all of the poets here.

Peace (in wordplay),
Kevin

I decided to take all of the many submissions for this week’s Day in a Sentence (actually, it became Day in a Question with the theme), and use a site called Jog the Web, which allows you to set up a series of navigational paths for websites. I like that I can move you to the blogs and sites of all of the folks who added their words to our feature this week.

So, without further ado, please tie the laces on your shoes and let’s hit the trail.

(either click on the image above or use this link for our Jog the Web)

I would love to get some feedback on the experience as a viewer, if you have time.

Peace (in reflection),
Kevin

This suggestion comes from Gail P., who teaches at my school. She came into the lunch room and said, Why not Day in a Sentence as an interrogative?

Well, why not, indeed? We haven’t done that one before, so: Please reflect on a day in your week or your week, and narrow it down to a provocative question or query for us.

Then, use the comment feature on this post to add your question and I will gather them up and publish over the weekend. (Thanks, Gail!)

Here is mine:

Will this push into Professional Learning Communities will make our school more collaborative in nature or will it just tighten the circles around our grade level teams?

I look forward to your words and invite everyone and anyone to come on board with this collaborative, community project.

Peace (in wonder),
Kevin

I was pleasantly surprised to see the rush of words come after I put out my first call for Days in a Sentence in about seven or eight weeks. The break was nice for me and I wondered if Days in a Sentence would still be on people’s radar screens. It surely was. And boy, folks can pack a lot of punch into just a few words.

Here, then, are this week’s Days in a Sentence, Six-Word-Style:

• My colleague, Gail P. (whom I ran into on the beach in Maine while we were both on vacation) teaches kindergarten at my school. Her year got off to a good start. It’s all working according to plan.
• Connie continues to innovate with energy and enthusiasm, with positive results. Successful with class redesign, I’m exhausted.
• Delaine also moves into new territory and then crops out the things she doesn’t want. If only life were like that. Surprise! I am effectively teaching PhotoShop.
• Liza is another one who found that some thoughtful planning is paying off. Routines are making a difference — Hurray!
• David‘s six words remind of a day in my class this week, when my sixth graders came in talking about the new supercollider, and asking if the world were soon to blow up. So I talked science with them and also talked Media Exposure, too. David writes: Hadrons, hadrons, hadrons: subsidized, overhyped, uncollided.
• Sara made the rounds, checking in with students and making connections. conferring with every kid is hard!
• This was great. My Writing Project friend and colleague, Tina (who ran a claymation camp with me this summer) already has some students tinkering with tech. Moviemaker and microphones made students ebullient.
• Stacey was thinking of country, perhaps as part of the 9-11 ceremonies. I’m proud to be an American.
• Ben is no longer on the same pins and needles, thanks to longevity and experience. Open house feels different when tenured.
• I wonder if Janice feels like she’s on the narrow end of a time funnel? Three weeks work, crammed into one!
• Bonnie had Barack on her Brain. Barack is back, and me too.
• Ken, the wonderfully creative Ken, gave us a six word poem:
  • Full sky, beckoning spring,promising rainbows.
• Sheryl has some sort of construction going on. I hope her foundation is strong. Technology helped me communicate with contractor.
• Jeff had the tables turned on him, with students becoming the teachers (although I wonder what words he learned?). Students taught me some Portuguese slang.
• OK. I admit I had to look up the last word of Lynn‘s submission. And then it made sense. My mind is overflowing with ephemera.
• Larry has both words and important lesson for all of us. First, his words: Raised my voice & a student cried. And now, his lesson that he wanted to share, too:
  Kevin, along with my six (sort of seven) words, I’d like to add a quote from Marvin Marshall, an extraordinary writer on classroom management, who wrote that before we act, we should always ask ourselves this question: “Will what I am about to do or say bring me closer or will it push me away farther from the person with whom I am communicating?” Needless to say, I didn’t do that in this instance.
• Anne continues to push into new terrain. Established new friends for online projects.
• Nancy experienced that frenzy of the week where it is gone before you know it. What did I do this week?
• From the mouths of the little ones comes this gem from Eric: Kindergartner asks me,
  Where are we?
• Amy K. had success by digging into the news. Literally. Newspaper number hunt messy and FUN!
• Cynthia is fighting off the Lovebugs (not Herbie!). Darn it! Lovebugs also survived Gustav. She explains: Those of us who live in the Gulf Coast states are cursed each September by an invasion of lovebugs, small black insects whose only purpose in life, as far as I can tell, is to procreate. They are nasty, disgusting, smelly, and invasive. They are supposed to be attracted to white houses. Someone forgot to point out to them that my log cabin is not white because I spent all Saturday morning vacuuming up these disgusting insects, but they just keep coming in.
• Gail W. is bringing some students into a meaningful project between the National Writing Project and Google regarding Letters to the President as the election in America gears up. Started 90 seniors on Google/NWP project:-)
• Nina is a decade old. Sort of. I’m celebrating the webheads’ tenth anniversary.

I could not resist taking our words and pushing them into Wordle and create this collaborative image:

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Peace (in brevity),
Kevin

Greetings

The Day in a Sentence returns here this week with a request that you consider boiling down your busy lives — either as a day or the week — into a single reflective thought. This week, I am returning to the concept of minimalization: the Six Word Sentence.

Here’s how it goes:

• Consider your week or a day in your week
• Reflect on it
• Write a sentence that captures the spirit of the week or a day
• But use ONLY SIX WORDS
• Post your sentence here by using the comment button on this post (note: comments are kept in my moderation bin)
• I will gather all of the sentence and release them to the world over the weekend
• You will get great virtual applause. 🙂

Everyone is invited (yes, even you) so please consider joining us.

Here is my sentence:

I defended technology before reluctant mom.

Peace (in words),
Kevin

PS — Thanks to the folks who hosted Day in a Sentence over the past few weeks, including:

• Two Writing Teachers with Stacey
  
• Jo
• Anne B.
• Bonnie
  
• Lynn
• Deb