Category Archives: Day in Sentence

(I couldn’t resist some alliteration in the title here — sorry)

Please head over to Bonnie’s Blog to get the scoop on this week’s ever-expanding, ever-interesting Day in a Sentence feature. There are some amazing insights in this week’s crop of words and Bonnie certainly did an outstanding job with her introductions (better than I have ever done).

See you next week, when the feature returns here to my site and then heads off to someone else’s blog (Larry kindly offered, so I will contact him)  as we pass this “gift” around to each other.

Peace (in partnership),
Kevin

When I took over the reigns of the Day in a Sentence from The Reflective Teacher, my intention was not only to continue the great work that he was doing but to try to push the collaborative venture in new directions. (Thus, our forays into podcasting and VoiceThread and my hopes to stumble upon some cool mapping-writing site).

So this week, I asked my friend, Bonnie Kaplan, to guest-host the feature for us this week, and I hope as time moves on that I can ask the same of some others in the group of regular sentence-writers. It’s really not that difficult to do and is a great way to showcase your blog.

Please head on over to Bonnie’s Blog — http://blk1.edublogs.org/ — and write your sentence.

Peace (in brevity),
Kevin

This week’s Day in a Sentence includes some new friends, as I posted a call for responses over at the Classroom 2.0, just to see what might happen. (My fear was hundreds of posts but that hasn’t happened … yet). Without further ado, here are your Days in a Sentence (with no podcasts this week — darn it):

The holiday break was on the minds of many this week, including Delaine, who wrote about finding some time away: “A holiday getaway to our San Francisco highrise made me giddy with pleasure.”

Sue, who comes to us via Classroom 2.0 and who has launched her own site called MasteryMaze for teachers and students, had a residue of good feelings from meetings at her school: “This week’s resounding applause from parents and students at parent teacher conferences reinforced my belief, as unpopular as it may be to many, that you can reach them best if you are courageous enough to step into their world!“

Durff, whom I seem to run into all over the Web and who is doing some amazing things in many different format, posted her comment on Classroom 2.0 for us. She writes: “This week could be wrapped up by saying it was a week of great loss, great gains, and great rest: the great loss was Monday when a good friend died; great gains when 17 faculty went to ACSI; and great rest for Thanksgiving holiday in USA.“

My colleague, Susan, of the Western Mass Writing Project, is still energized by the meetings in New York City. She writes: “There’s nothing more satisfying than connecting people with people and opportunities that support their passions, their great thinking minds, and their vital voices; it’s like living your life in hyperlink!“

Ben is nearing fatherhood (whoo-hoo) and realizes that being away from home is not so great a thing, as he muses: “I realized that using the NWP/NCTE New York conference as a exciting, if not poetic, deathbed for the final weeks for the pre-fatherhood epoch in my life was useless because I missed my wife almost as much as I missed seeing my unborn sun bulge in her belly.” (Editor’s Note: Did he mean sun? or son? I didn’t change it because sun seemed poetic to me).

Amy‘s words kept coming, beyond a sentence, and who am I to edit the rush of the writer? She writes: “This week we had our Thanksgiving Morning Ex at school. (Morning Exercises are all-school assemblies that occur once or twice a week.) The Thanksgiving Mex is always highlights fall service learning projects that have happened in the lower, middle, and upper schools. I am the service learning coordinator for the lower school, and although it is a lot of work to put together, it went really well. Today I am baking pies in preparation for tomorrow’s festivities! (Sorry that was more like a paragraph than a sentence!)“

Larry (whose blog site you must read regularly — it is wonderful) comes to us with a possible solution for a practical problem, and some learning, too. He writes: “The highlight of this short week was the classroom management success of giving two VERY active students soccer “stress balls,” with the caveat that they had to jot down at least one time each day when they used it (so they might eventually see a pattern).”

Bonnie seems a bit rested and then disturbed by real life, and it comes in the form of filling up the tank. (Is there a metaphor here?) She writes: “Coming back to life without a workshop to prepare for is nice, just a chance to breathe and devour some turkey and wonder just how high the cost of gas will go until someone screams out: I WON”T TAKE IT ANYMORE!“

Cheryl (who co-created the podcast-friendly Seedlings Ning for the K12 Online Conference) continues to spread her knowledge and skills with others, as she notes, “I presented about Moodle in 4 different workshops and teachers moved on with Moodle, I am a happy presenter.“

Ginny, who has been forging her way into podcasting with the Seedlings Ning site started by Cheryl, is looking closer at student interaction, explaining: “I have discovered how peer assessment, that is students assessing students, contributes to deeper learning and is a fairer way to recognise contribution to groupwork for example.“

And then there is Nancy, a virtual friend with whom I met in real life in NYC, who writes: “This week, I went to bed early nearly every night, recovering from a weekend of volunteering and being professionally developed, and practically gave up on teaching my Juniors, those little buggers; thank goodness Thanksgiving is finally here.“

So there you have it — a great expanse of writing and thoughts. I encourage you all to follow some of the links to each other’s blogs, and begin a conversation — start a friendship — connect.

Peace (in shortness),
Kevin

This is a shout-out for everyone to capture your week or a day of your week into a single, concise, emotionally-centered sentence. Last week’s VoiceThread experiment didn’t generate too much response but I won’t give up and will give it another go at another time.

This week, it’s back to tradition, so please use the comment feature on this post to share your sentence with us. Please leave your name and your blog, so we can connect with others. You can also podcast your sentence — just provide me with a link to your file or podcast or email an audio file to me directly at dogtrax(at)gmail(dot)com and I can host it for you.

I will collect and post all of the submissions over the weekend.

Here is mine:

“I discovered the joys of quickfiction this week and find my thoughts jumping from short narrative to short narrative in an attempt to harvest this little goldmine as a writer and maybe later, as a teacher.”

Peace (in all of our myriad connections),

Kevin

I am out of town this week and so I thought I would leave a different format for the Day in a Sentence feature, as I am hoping to push this concept into new directions (and I am hoping people come along for the journey with me).

I decided to use VoiceThread, which allows people to add short audio clips to pictures, and you will need to sign up for VoiceThread, if you don’t have an account (and teachers get free upgraded professional accounts with VoiceThread). You simply click “record” and record your voice. Or use the text command to add words. And you can even doodle on the pages, too, which allows us to locate ourselves on the maps.

In this case, I have uploaded a few maps of continents, and I am asking that you post your Day in a Sentence on your map and locate yourself for us. I’ll reflect a bit more when I come back home on Sunday from the annual meeting of the National Writing Project, and see how it goes.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=20416" width="450" height="650" wmode="transparent" /]

Of course, if this is too confusing or you don’t have the patience, you can still use the comments on this blog to submit your sentence. But I do hope you will give VoiceThread a try.

Peace (with possibilities),
Kevin

We have a whole lot of folks involved in this week’s Day in a Sentence feature. Many are friends from the National Writing Project but others are not, and all of them were very gracious in sharing their words with us. I am deeply appreciative of them all.

The first group of participants were in a workshop that I gave on Saturday at the Hudson Valley Writing Project, and as we talked about podcasting, I had them do it — using our Day in a Sentence prompt. Listen in to their voices.

Susan experimented with PodcastPeople and posted this, as she begins a week of conferences (and I am going to be right there with her. Here is her podcast.

April had trouble getting into Edublogs this week (it has been a bit quirky as they do some changes to the servers) and so she just emailed me her post, which I gladly share with you: “Swimming in a murkey sea of curriculum and meetings, I grasp for moments of bouyancy, clarity, levity; a lifeboat looms ahead, providentially named NWP Annual Meeting, and I strike out for it, suddenly energized.”

Nancy was experimenting this and is excited to try new things. “I used the SmartBoard for the first time in my classes on Thursday, and today we are headed to Storm King Art Center; it’s been an exciting week!”

Bonnie prepares for a conference in Upstate New York (where I am also a presenter and speaker), writing, “Last night, around 9, maybe after I read Kevin’s latest post, it hit me, Saturday begins the flood of conferences and I’m involved in a BIG way for the next two weeks… I think it will be great, but you wouldn’t know it if you were in my head last night because one dream after the next forced my eyes open and I was up watching yet another home renovation show on he Home and Gardens network…It will be great…It will be great, but the torture comes first, Kevin, see you in the AM when you ROCK THE HOUSE and get this party going…”

Larry is all about alliteration this week, and that is fine. “It was a week of field trips, family, fighting fatigue, feasting on “flan,” and filled with fun.”

Diane had a nice, short, sweet thought that rings true for the New Englander in me: “Time trickled slowly through meetings while outside, leaf-fall turned the grass into sunset.”

Jeff has some great advice — something to humanize us a bit. “Sometimes it’s okay to leave your guilt bag at school for the night and focus on other things.”

Experience is everything, as Amy reminds us with her post. “This week has been full of our fall parent-teacher conferences. This year I have been blessed by having a good group and also more teaching experience under my belt. This means that the week has not been as stressful as in years past.”

Ahhhh — it stinks to be sick, even though the prospect of a quiet house brings the possibility of relaxation and some work getting done, as The Mindful Teacher writes: “A day alone at home is blissful although the price is high — stomach flu and a stack of papers that need grading before report cards and parent conferences next week.”

The Z Game” Check out what Lynn writes: “After a week of chanting my mantra, “focus on the strengths,” I was caught up short yesterday at a staff meeting where the presenter showed a neat diagram that does precisely that—giving me a new strategy, the “z game.” Interested? Here’s a link: http://lsculp.edublogs.org/2007/11/09/the-z-game/“

Ginny found some time to head through the K12 Online Workshops and came out the other end with this to say, “This week I discovered more tools and finished watching the video presentations of the K12Online2007 conference.” And she posted her voice as a podcast, too- http://ginny.podcastpeople.com/posts/13106

Peace (in brevity),
Kevin

I would like to invite you to participate in the weekly Day in a Sentence feature. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s informative (uh-oh — that always turns off the kids). Just boil your day or week down into a concise sentence, use the comment feature at this post here to submit (they will sit in moderation for a day or so), and then on Sunday or Monday, I will compile them all and share with the world as another post. Please leave a blog address, too, if you have one to share, as we create virtual connections amongst us all.

I will be working with teachers at the Hudson Valley Writing Project tomorrow on a podcasting workshop and I will be having them do this activity and creating a group podcast, so we will have some other voices this week. But we still want you!

Once again, I encourage folks to maybe try their hand at podcasting, either through the awfully-easy-to-use site PodcastPeople or create an MP3 file and ship it my way at dogtrax(at)gmail(dot)com and I will host your voice for you (for free!!).

Peace (in a few words),
Kevin

Today marks the first official time I am in charge of the Day in the Sentence feature and I am happy to report that we have a lot of people submitting their words to our collective voice. My aim is to keep the feature running for now here at this site, but to eventually pass it off to the community of bloggers and have others guest-host the feature. I imagine our friend, The Reflective Teacher, would enjoy knowing that his idea can blossom into a community of teacher-writers who connect every week.

So here goes:

A new colleague, Cheryl Oaks (who led a great K12 Online presentation and has done some podcasting with me via a Ning site), writes, “My week in reflection: I’ve been blogging about web 2.0 tools, good ideas, ideas about how to get new people involved in 21st century tools, this week I blogged about a day in the life of a 7th grader with the 1-1 laptop, time to spread best practice in the classroom. Over and out , Cheryl Oakes”

Nancy is back in the classroom after a break and glad to be there, too, as she reports, “Back to work after a two-week sojourn and the kids are mighty happy to see me!”

Now, the holiday spirit can often bring up conflicting emotions, as the Mindful Teacher explains, “My room was filled with riotous costumes except for a couple of kids who didn’t participate — for one, it seemed to be a cultural issue; for the other, he couldn’t bear to be uncool even though he knew that being the only one out of a costume wasn’t cool either — besides wearing a bright orange shirt on Halloween is a giveaway that you think its important.”

Bud the Teacher may be missing the classroom a bit, as he writes, “I’m spending more time talking tech with administrators than teachers; I sure hope that is a good thing for teachers in the long run.”

My good friend, Lynn (with whom I am co-presenting a workshop at the upcoming National Writing Project), reminds us that chaos is always on the doorstep of the classroom. She reports, “As a writing teacher I want to be like my models—Nancy Atwell, for example—but, the best I was able to do this week was to dispose of 3 constantly disruptive students, and by sending them out, allowing a class a break from chaos and (what was for them) a descent into thirty minutes of writing.”

Bonnie, who is about to entire Conference Overload, writes, “This has been a peaceful week as I move into conference mode next week for two action-packed weeks that I will be sharing with great friends of collaboration but first I have to get rid of a head cold and get my guitar ready to go more public to get my hands to stop shaking when I play for the world beyond my safe walls of my home.”

Family is always important and Tim writes that he has been trying to keep hold of that center, writing, “The week unfolded with a reaffirmation of the things that truly matter in life- family and spouse–and I managed to keep my eye on that center throughout which I believe was reflected in my connections with my students.”

Mr. Murphy gives us just enough to wonder just what is going on in his classroom, as he reports, “Everything came crashing down, but in the meantime my students and I got to murder a man.”

The pranks of Halloween visit Cynthia this week, as she muses, “The week began as usual in Room 13–some arguments, some disruptions, but mostly cooperation and teaching and learning–then Wednesday morning came and brought with it an early Halloween prank (or perhaps an act of “revenge” from some disgruntled students)–a trashed room and a missing podium–making it rather difficult for my oral communication students and me to effectively deliver our speeches.”

The Big Game was on Delaine‘s mind. “Cross-town rivalry week kept the yearbook students and me busy with all the activities leading up to the big game tonight.”

We’d still like to know how your week went and so feel free to add your comments to this post and leave a blog address, too, as I try to create a web of contacts. And I hope you return next week with some more of your writing, and possibly podcasting your voice. Spread the word — build a community.

Peace (in reflection),
Kevin

Some bad news came this week, as some of fans learned that The Reflective Teacher is taking a break from blogging. He has been incredibly generous with his time and resources and got many of us working each week on his Boil Your Week/Day Down to a Sentence. It’s an idea I have used many times.

In the past, I have guest-hosted the feature for him, and I told him I would continue to take the reins of the weekly venture, as best as I can, in his honor, until the day he returns to blogging.

So, if you would like to participate, here is how it works:

• Reflect on your week
• Write a sentence that captures the week
• Use the comment feature on this post to write your post. I hold it in moderation until all of them are submitted.
• I collect them all and then publish as a post over the weekend
• If you want to podcast as well as write, please do (please?) One resource is PodcastPeople, which allows for easy, no hassle podcasts. Just create a show and provide the link in your post.

So, go ahead and give it a try. It’s yet another way to connect with teachers around the world.

Peace (in reflection),

Kevin

PS — Here is my Week in a Sentence, as a sample.

I heard some news this week of two of my former students who have troubled pasts and difficult lives and the news wasn’t good — both are already labeled behavioral problems and both are on the edge of the world, about to drop — just as I predicted and just as I strongly warned about last year, to no avail.

Listen to the podcast

Or head to my PodcastPeople site