Days in a Sentence

(I created this header with a cool site called Spell with Flickr)

It was another fantastic week of receiving your sentences and words through Days in a Sentence and we continue to have a trickle of new writers in the group. I love the sense of slow growth that happens in this sort of project. So, welcome to anyone new to the project this week and if you are just lurking, please consider joining us next week or sometime in the future. Your words are welcome!

Here are your days in a sentence:

Bonnie has been busy with work at the Hudson Valley Writing Project, which is in the midst of its Summer Institute (same here in Western Massachusetts).

“A second exhilarating and exhausting week of our summer institute 2008 and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, it’s a great ride!”

Tracy is finding beauty in the quiet things of life, which is a nice reminder to all of us to “see” the world through such eyes.

“Grateful for my present setting: the sun and the garden, my dog teasing the ball at my side while I listen to music, read, and play all day long.”

Ken had what he called “a day of love” with his daughters and once again tapped into his poetic talents (of which he has many) to compose a sort of poem in a day in a sentence.

“Look for the simple thing, that’s where it’s at –
On one brief syllable so much depends –
Value its presence; know the sign off pat –
Each joy is a jewel and sadness ends.”

Mr. Mansour (a new friend) seemed to be juggling many different things, including family and connections with his neighbors.

“After filming a wedding and reception all day Saturday, I spent the rest of this week uploading all the footage and figuring out how to mix SD and HD video while also taking care of my 13 month old daughter, putting together a new website for a presentation to some teachers in training, and attending a neighborhood meeting on energy conservation.”

Lynn J. confronts the past in the clean-up routine as material goods spark something deeper.

“Clearing the clutter takes me deep into sorting through old memories before I can take the clothes to the Salvation Army, donate the hardback books to the public library and turn in the paperbacks for used bookstore credit.”

Ben D‘s plate has been full with the Writing Project work (see reference to Bonnie above).

“This week has been spent digesting the pedagogical casserole I just finished (a.k.a. the Red Mountain Writing Project).”

Jane S. has found beauty in the pounding of nature.

“The process of releasing the natural pigments found in flower petals, leaves and even grass to fabric or paper by pounding with a hammer creates a fun floral project but it also provides an outlet for those crazy days when all you want to do is hit something.”

Janice has caught her breath. Finally.

“It has taken until now for me to relax, and realize I have the opportunity to completely waste away hours, if I so desire.”

Susan had an eye-opening experience in a retreat with the Writing Project.

“Returning from a week engaged in collaborative learning with NWP colleagues, I keep thinking: It’s all about POWER!”

Nancy, the new mom, has already discovered one aspect of her new life. Sometimes, it feels like Groundhog Day.

“My week: sleep, feed, change dirty diapers. Repeat. )

David says, and I agree, that a beer sounds good right about now.

“Crushing deadline, aching limbs, need more water, could do with a few beers…”

Matt is finding time with loved ones to be beneficial.

“Enjoying a week spent with visiting family.

Illya sent the kids packing and now eager awaits their return. Just like a mom.

“I’m sitting on an anthill waiting for my boys to return home from 2 weeks of camp. One is back, now just two more to go.”

Stacey went for a hike, but in the wrong shoes. It must have been one of those days.

“I cannot figure out why I ruined a perfectly good pedicure by walking over three miles in dressy sandals.”

Kristi (welcome!) has some advice that might be used for kindergarteners, but can I say that it works well with sixth graders, too? (And maybe some adults)

“I teach kindergarten and my Day in a Sentence (or even my year in a sentence) is most often “If it’s wet, and it’s not yours, don’t touch it.”

Deb has a sentence that is short, but powerful.

“Don’t take family love for granted!”

Elona has gratefully found some time to gaze skyward and in good company, too.

“This week my granddaughter and I spent time doing things like lying on the grass at the Credit River and looking at clouds and finding one that looked like a hippopotamus. )

Talk about meandering minds! Sara fills us in.

“working at my local plant nursery is the perfect summer teacher’s job – the plants stay where i put them, no one supervises my watering, there’s an utter lack of lesson plans (yippee!!), and my mind wanders down any path it cares to, getting lost in tasks like deadheading petunia baskets for hours.”

Break is over for Anne but I bet new adventures await her and her students.

“This week has been rather a crazy, hectic and time-consuming week, as our school settles in to the first week back after a two week break.”

Mary (who I believe another newcomer and so, I welcome her, too) has some mixed emotions this week.

“Happy thoughts of new faces and smiles. Sad thoughts of summer ending.”

Peace (to all of you),
Kevin

Days in a Sentence

Welcome to Days in a Sentence — an ongoing Web 2.0 feature in which teachers and educators and others from around the world boil down their week or their day into the essence of a sentence and then share it out via this Weblog or a guest site.

It’s a great way to connect and share your writing with the world.

Please consider joining us this week. To do so, just:

  • Think about your week
  • Write your sentence
  • Share via the comment link on this post
  • On Sunday, I will collect and collate all of the sentences and publish them all
  • Come on back and read what others have written

Here is my sentence this week:

Why haven’t I used Google Sites before? is the question I pose to myself as I pull together my first attempt at an eZine for summer youth programs within the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. — listen to the podcast

Peace (in your days),
Kevin

Day in a Sentence with Illya

My good friend, Illya, is the guest host this week of Day in a Sentence, where we ask folks to boil down their day or their week into one sentence or thought and then share with the world. Illya has two possibilities for you: you can do it the traditional way at her blog site or you can follow her directions to use an application called Chinswing (which is new to me) that seems to be an audio discussion thread site.

Happy explorations!

Head to Illya’s Blog Site for Day in a Sentence.

Peace (in connections),
Kevin

Planting Some Day in a Sentence Technoseeds

The Day in a Sentence is on the move again. This time, we hope you will follow the bread crumbs over to Barb K.’s blog called TechnoSeeds. Barbara is part of the National Writing Project and she was also a participant in last year’s Collaborative ABC Movie Project. She is working with some teachers this week and we hope they will become interested in Day in a Sentence and join our growing community of writers.

Here is how it works:

  • Head over to Barb’s Technoseeds Blog
  • Boil down your day or your week into a single thoughtful sentence
  • Use the comment feature on Barb’s Blog to post your sentence
  • Consider sending a photo or a link to a photo to Barb (her optional twist this week)
  • Barb will compile and publish all of the submissions over the weekend
  • That’s about it

I was happy that so many people responded to my call for Guest Hosts of Day in a Sentence and so over the next few weeks, you will be shown some fine blogs and meet some fine people as part of this weekly venture. Feel free to explore the sites and engage in other conversations while you are there at the guest blog, too. I am sure they would love that.

Peace (in words),
Kevin

Six Word Reflections of Our Days

In the span of the first day that I posted a call for Six Word Days in a Sentence, my blog was hit with 20 submissions. That says something about the power of the six words and the power of the Day in a Sentence format, doesn’t it? And the words kept coming the next day … and the next. By Saturday, I had more than 30 sentences in my blog bin.

Thank you to everyone who lent us your words this week. I have been very protective of them, but now, they can be released into the world. I won’t say much this week in terms of introductions, as the six words (give or take), capture what the writers were trying to say. My own words would just jumble up the experience.

What I did decide to do, however, is to group them according to some common themes that seemed to emerge (sorry if you don’t quite agree with my categories) and then it made sense to me to create a Bubble.Us concept map, color-coded along those themes.

Here you go:

The Teachers’ Life: School

  • Graduate school projects consume my time — Amy
  • Packing up is hard to do — Stacey
  • Graduation, celebration, culmination, year-end roll. — Lynn C.
  • Language immersion camp in full swing! — Amy K.
  • Students staff vacation packing for NECC. — Cheryl
  • Waiting irritably 4 school to be done. — Lisa
  • School ends, summer arrives, SI looms. — Bonnie
  • Our hard work recognized; Thanks NYSCATE! – Sue
  • My learning binge finds new fuel. — Connie
  • Holidays, time to reflect and regroup. — Jenny
  • Lunch with colleague lifts my spirits. — Susan C.


The Teacher’s Life: Kids

  • School’s out – twenty-two books still missing. — Janice
  • Kids creating music blows me away. — Anne B.
  • It was sad to say goodbye. — Paul
  • Discovered that Wii bribery helps math — Kathryn

The Home Life

  • Thunderstorms wreak havoc on family activities. — Kevin
  • Pool installers here–kids in frenzy. — Renee (for her kids)
  • Early starting, hard working, dogwalking. Sleep. – David
  • Moving this week, wish us luck! — Michaele
  • My vacation is taken over by life. — Liza
  • Trying to fill in my taxes. – Illya
  • muggy, humid; thunderstorms approaching rapidly – cool! — Sara
  • Smocking for grandson. Raccoons finally finished! — Cynthia

The Reflective Life

  • Tomorrow, I’ll have much better luck. — George (via Flickr)
  • Distractions win out over obligations (again). — Renee (for herself)
  • At 6,000 feet elevation, priorities shift. — Jo
  • Been there, done that – now vacation – Elona

The Odds and Ends of Words

  • Led North Webster parade as Santa — Rick
  • Painted tree nurtures young girl dreams — Jane
  • Forest fires cause smoky days. — Delaine
  • Relentlessly, the smoke fills our lungs — Lynn J.
  • Gleam, glean, lean, learn, earn, yarn. — Ken
  • The medical establishment is a turn-off. — Nancy

And here is the Bubble.Us Concept Map (and a direct link because the embed box is kind of small):

Peace (in words),
Kevin

Day in a Sentence in Six Words

Wanted: Six Words. Your story. Here.

It’s that time again — we’re looking for your Days in a Sentence and since so many of us in North America are entering summer vacation/break (but not everyone, of course), I thought we could return to the Six Word Story format in an effort to keep things brief and to the point.

So, please consider boiling down your week or a day of your week into six words. You can use the comment feature on this post and then I will collect and redistribute the Six Word Sentences over the weekend as part of our growing network of writers.

Here is my Day in Six Words:

Thunderstorms wreak havoc on family activities.

I look forward to your words this week.

Peace (in brevity),
Kevin

PS — If you are interested in guest hosting Day in a Sentence, please let me know. I love having other folks take it on from time to time.

Your Days in a Sentence

It’s difficult to express the wonder and amazement that I get when I put out a call for Days in a Sentence and receive back such a wealth of words. There were more than 20 contributors this week! The vibrancy and giving of our writing community, and the way that a sentence pinpoints the act of reflection, is really quite something.

Thank you.

Here are your Days in a Sentence, traditional-style:

Bonnie as salmon? Naw. But in her role as a leader and mentor of teachers, she admits that the classroom is getting more distant, particularly as a heat wave pounced on her (and my) region last week and fried plenty of brains in the schools.

I am moving upstream from the rest of the fish in my river, as teachers I know melt in their classrooms while I am in my AC planning for work this summer and finally taking on the projects demanding my attention. I still hold my memories of school in June but they are fading.

Paul had a sudden realization of the balance between what he carries around in his hand from place to place and what carries him around from place to place. Until he thinks about the debt. It’s a skewed financial equilibrium (OK, that has to be a good band name, right? Skewed Financial Equilibrium!)

I think it is scary that my laptop is worth more than my car, or my truck, or all of my clothes, or my living room furniture, but not as big as my student loan.”

Ken composes poems that are not of this world. Spend a moment reading this one aloud and you’ll see what I mean. Thanks, Ken. (Note: Ken and I crossed many paths during the Comment Challenge and he is one of the finalists for prizes for that event. Please consider casting your vote. First, read the nominations and then consider voting — Bonnie is also a nominee, as is Kate — see below)

Somewhere between dreaming and waking,
when least expected,
there’s a turning point
with no life going into it,
no usefulness coming out of it,
where cogent thought
carries no weight
for sensibility
and idiocy
are in dispute –
Reality,
its hand
held out to meet you,
Fantasy,
its limbs
spread out to greet you,
confusing
night and day,
life and death,
till passage
is complete.

Kate had weather on (and in) her mind this week as the term neared its end for her. (Kate is also a nominee in the Comment Challenge)

Rain and sunshine, wet and dry as mixed as my feelings in the last week of term.”

Connie sees the virtues of continuity with an initiative she is part of. That would be nice, since most of us know that continuity in education rarely happens unless there is a solid base underneath it to support and nurture it. And if anyone is good at nurturing folks, it is Connie. (See the Fireside Ning for examples)

Ah, here I am, the last day of school, weary but emotionally elated from having broken new educational ground; the funny thing is we’re now so completely networked, I know we’ll just continue on from here–and that has never happened before.

Amy makes the quick and seamless (?) transition from the classroom to camp, with barely time to catch her breath. She must love kids!

School is over but my camp director job has already begun – no rest for the weary! It would be nice to have a break in between the two jobs, but it is a change of pace anyway. Camp tours begin today so I will be meeting many nervous parents (and kids).

Lynn cites “frozen brains” in her post. To be honest, a frozen brain would have felt nice in my head this past week. Lynn also talks of renewal — that way in which we have in finding new energy and motivation in our life.

Frozen brains will melt soon enough with respite, roaming, rare family-time—ah, renewal!

Illya has had quite a week — from sports to teachers to climbing walls (in a good way, it seems).

It’s been a full 3 days of teaching baseball to a group of eager young boys, showing eager teachers how to teach with their new book and tomorrow I’ll be helping eager young children to climb walls – now that is a fulfilling week!!!”

Matt appreciates the fact that we threw no curve balls (continuing with Illya’s reference to sports here) with Day in a Sentence this week. Sometimes, we need solid footing in our lives.

This week I’m finding change is hard. I’m glad my day in a sentence remains the same.”

Barb‘s part of the world got hit hard with Mother Nature, but does anyone in the outside world know about it in this Age of Media? Not if you live in a small market, unfortunately.

Southern Indiana fields plowed, planted, and flooded with devastating flooding across the state get very little press.

Janice (who joins us for the first time, I think) pushed herself hard this week in a physical way. She may have paid the price with a sore body but, hey, she got a sentence out of it! (Thanks for participating, Janice)

My brain, which believes it is still twenty, had great difficulty convincing my almost fifty year old legs, lungs, and heart that they COULD keep going when I filled in as the extra player in an intense game of Ultimate, and then, later, on a lengthy hike to release salmon back into the Credit River.

Can you hear them? The kids? They are calling you out to the playground.The monkey bars and swings await. Delaine heard them and is on her way. (Me, too. See you there).

Just like small children, my friends are anxiously waiting outside, ready to play, for me to come running from the house after all my chores are done. The end of school is very near, and the playground is calling.”

Michelle feels her feet sinking into the Earth that once was solid but which now has absorbed the rains. May she soon find solid ground again!

Rain-soaked nights and rare sunshine make me feel as if I am sinking into a very spongy clay earth here in Vermillion, South Dakota.”

Sara can find some space this summer to breathe and to talk as a married couple. Her single life is behind her now (good thing, right?). I love that she has big dreams. I hope she achieves them (I know she will)

my thoughts lately are of freedom, sustainability, choices, and the tenacity of my first summer of married finances – discussing big dreams with my husband and taking the first journeying steps to reach them. (and god forbid i write “baby” steps, or both mothers will sense something grandchild-ish in the atmosphere…)

Warm, gentle and nurturing thoughts go out to Nina, who clearly has had a difficult time. I hope these words find you with some sunshine peeking through the clouds, Nina.

I feel surrounded by cancer; it has been a cruel week.”

Alice‘s sentence reminds me of the song from Semisonic that goes “Every new beginning starts from some other beginnings end.” I always liked that line. And the prospect of summer brings that idea forth for many of us.

Welcome to summer vacation, where ends become a beginning.”

Mary got a gift of cooler temps as she headed to Beantown to explore the Freedom Trail with her students this week. If she had gone any earlier in the week, she and her kids would have melted into the sidewalk and ended up in the Charles River.

With temperatures above 90 in the classroom on Monday and Tuesday it was ironic that on Wednesday we were walking the Freedom Trail in Boston celebrating the cooler temperatures and the change in venue. The Boston Massacre was refreshing after the South Hadley Melt Down.

Brandi (Welcome!) is new to Day in a Sentence, I believe, and her blog, Lead by Example, is very cool and worth your attention. She’s a bit tired from the technology, but I appreciate that she found the energy to contribute here.

As I watch the week come to an end, I am exhausted from trying to catch up on all of my digital communication.

Anne was one step ahead of her principal in a cross-world journey this week.

It was announced at morning briefing that our principal was leaving for USA, but I reported that I would be there before her, taking my kids with me, as we were using skype to participate in an amazing videoconference for a “show and tell finale” with the New England students we had connected with through blogging.

Amy P. is having one of those unscheduled moments of blissful confusion. I think it is blissful, but it may not be.

This week brings randomness due to no established summer schedule.”

Cynthia always packs a handful into a sentence and this time, she realized how she could use a tool to explain a tool. Great insight and I would love to see her movie.

I spent all week working on my presentation on Photo Stories for the 21st for the MWTI Writing conference, and then Wednesday night I had an epiphany about what I should have done, so I spent Thursday re-vamping and re-creating a Photo Story on how to use Photo Story. Whew!

I also redid my Wordle experiment from the other day, adding in the newest sentences and then editing out my own introductions to each sentence. Here, then, is a gift to everyone who participated this week: Your Days in a Wordle.

You can go right to the Wordle Gallery to get a better view of the design, too.

Thanks for participating this week. Be on the lookout for a guest host for next week.

Peace (in our connective words),
Kevin

Wow! Wordle is Cool

I found this site via Larry (always a good connection) and it is called Wordle. Wordle takes your words and then reforms them as a Word Cloud, giving prominence and good placement to words that are repeated or used most often in the text you provide it.

As an experiment, I took all of my own Days in a Sentence from this year (since January — I keep them in a Google Docs file) and created this:

I love that Students is the biggest word on my cloud. (Although why the word Goo is bigger than some others has me pleasantly puzzled)
Then, I grabbed all 20 (so far) submissions for this week’s Day in a Sentence feature, and gave Wordle another go.
Check this out:
The word Week is pretty big, but I also see Summer and Teachers and Students in our collective Wordle Mix. I love transforming words, you know?
What can you do with Wordle? Let me know.
Peace (in word clouds),
Kevin

Day in a Sentence is only a Sentence

Welcome to Day in a Sentence — your weekly adventure with words and reflection.
After a wonderful visit to Nancy’s blog, where books were all the rage, Day in a Sentence returns home this week and we want you (and you and you) to consider joining us.
The premise is simple:

  • Consider a day in the past week or the entire week itself
  • Write a single sentence that captures the spirit of your day or week
  • Use the comment feature here on this post to share your sentence
  • Over the weekend, I will gather up everyone’s words and post them together as one big collective Days in a Sentence

This is an open invitation to anyone passing through this neck of the Bloggery Woods or anyone who happens to collect my blog in your RSS.
Please consider joining us this week.

Here is my sentence (and you can listen to it as a podcast, too)

The early summer heat wave that hit this week has melted my brain to the point that I almost need to stick my head inside the freezer in order to plan out lessons that will take my students and I through the final days of our school year.

Peace (in words and deeds),
Kevin