We dozed with open
windows to let the first whiffs
of fall fill us full
welcome, Great Pumpkin!
welcome all scents of pumpkin spice!
bring on the sweaters!
First Day of Fall
Coaching in Schools – September
Earlier this week, I shared my experience participating in a coaching cycle in an elementary school in my state. This work takes place through the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL) as part of the L4GA Grant (Literacy). During the second day of our coaching cycles, we visited a high school in the same area. In the elementary school, we looked for examples of behavioral, cultural, and cognitive engagement. At the high school, we looked for levels of rigor.
The classes with the highest levels of rigor, we observed, were classes where teachers knew their students’ interests and had a grasp of where they were in their understanding of the content. They knew how to push and how to pull, how to give some students an extra thinking challenge while working on the spot with a small group that needed extra support. The most masterful teacher we observed that day made relevant life applications by giving specific examples, providing time to think and to work on the task, encouraging talking with peers to figure out solutions, and asking questions in a way that allowed students to figure out the answers rather than giving the answers to the students or leading them there with hints. Instead of lowering expectations, they raised the bar.
We observed for instruction that needed tweaking to reach its potential also. No matter where we are as educators, there is always room for improvement. Teachers in these schools appeared to welcome the observation team with sincere interest in the suggestions to improve in the areas that are most often only recognized by someone other than the instructor.
I feel blessed to be able to be part of such a strong network of leaders throughout my state. Each district leader in this particular observation team comes from a different system, so we bring the perspectives of our own school system in terms of strengths, gaps, and areas of opportunity. We also see small things in the moments, on the walls, in the conversations, in the frameworks of instruction that make us stop and smile.
These were some signs throughout the building that brought some encouragement as we walked the hallways. I hope they inspire you the way they inspired me.
September Poetry Marathon – Day 5 of 5
Today’s host for the final day of our September Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Glenda Funk of Idaho, who inspires us to write Barbie poems. You can read Glenda’s full prompt and her poem here. I can’t wait to see all of the poems born into the world on this topic, so please hop over to the site and take a read. I chose a reverse nonet today, crafting nine lines with each numbered line’s syllable count on each in descending order as if going back in time, seeking Fountain of Youth Barbie.
Turning Back the Years Reverse Nonet
We’d line them up like kickball players
at recess, then pick one by one,
taking turns to get the best
looking Barbies. Next, we’d
choose accessories ~
whip worlds to life
narrating
stories
dreamed.
As part of this post today, I’m sharing the remaining poems from the poetry marathon last Friday, where a poem and hour was written either by someone in my family, a friend, or me. Here they are:
12 a.m. hour – Kim Johnson – Hashtag Haiku
#meanness
Fruit of the Spirit
my tree needs fertilizer
nothing much blooming…..
1 a.m. hour – Tanka – a five line poem with a syllable count of 5-7-5-7-7
Cinnamon apples
sliced, wax-sealed in Mason jars
cane sugar syrup
for Thanksgiving dessert pies
prepped-ahead ingredients!
2 a.m. hour – Naani – a poem consisting of four lines, with twenty to twenty-five syllables on any topic
Pumpkin Harvest!
Pumpkin Spice!
Pumpkin jack-o-lanterns ~
glowing face with the slice of a knife!
3 a.m. hour – Senryu – a three line unrhymed poem similar to Haiku, about nature
Midland water snake
basking in Gibbs Gardens grass
misunderstood
4 a.m. hour – Tricubes – three stanzas of three lines with 3 syllables per line
Poetry
Wings to Fly
Words to heal
Poetry
Weatherproof
Warmth for cold
Poetry
What if prompts
Why not now?
5 a.m hour – Cinquain – a poem that has two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in the third, eight in the fourth, and two in the fifth (it was early, and I was watching my Honey Nut Cheerios dance in my plain Greek yogurt)…..
mOrning
cOffee hOp!
cheeriO’ed yOgurt prOm
O’s d-Osi-dO with pOetry
hOedOwn!
6 a.m. hour – Kim Johnson – Ode – a poem of praise, often written directly to a person or object
Memories of Miriam
Dear Mom,
you come to me
in the missing
with tingly spots that
turn warm
in the heart,
help me exhale~ my
fingers circling my temples
bringing back
all the whens
of this Bernina
your fingers guiding
mine under the
foot, stitch by stitch
learning to sew
a lime green terrycloth
bathcover, now
sewing quilts
for your great grands
on your fine
Swiss machine
of hawks,
talons clutching wires
checking that
my seatbelt
is fastened
as I drive past,
shaking your pointing finger
if I forgot,
knowing that
whatever I’m
thinking at
that moment,
you’re there
in it
of strawberry figs,
last summer wave
just picked, my own
weakening fingers twisting
tender fruits free ~
canned this very
week, Mason jars
sealed tight
with summer’s
sweetened warmth
for coming winter
of spiced Russian tea,
the Tangy orange
and lemonade mixed
with clove, sugar
cinnamon and tea ~
a medicinal brush
of your invisible fingers
through my hair
in sore throat season
of rippled milkglass
with resurrection fern
springing to life
unfurling its brown
dry fingers
into open arms
green again
7 a.m. hour – grand finale recap poem
A coffee stir stick
started a 24-hour
poem marathon!
we stirred up writing
gave wings to what if ideas
preserved memories
called love to action
resurrected ancestors
Coaching in Schools – September
One of the most exciting parts of my job is visiting schools across the state of Georgia and observing teachers and students as they learn in different settings. Tuesday and Wednesdays were such days, as I spent time in an elementary school and a high school in the eastern part of the state. Our task for these days was to observe for cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement.
In the elementary school, students smiled and waved as our team of coaches entered classrooms. They sized us up, giving us curious stares. No doubt, their teachers had put them on their best behavior and explained our presence in their building on this day. We took notes, writing down important best practices and preserving the productive struggle of learning.
One student, when sorting details from main idea statements, said, “I think the topic is koalas, because I see the word koala in every sentence.” He was leading his elbow partner through his logic, articulating the turning wheels in his head as he made sense of the sentences. Together, they talked as they sorted the sentences, discussing the placement of each in its correct category.
In another classroom, a young girl beamed as she worked with letter tiles, forming as many words as she could make using digraphs. “I have thirteen words,” she exclaimed, “because I just wrote shoes!”
In a math lesson, a teacher shared a book about multiplication and invited students to explain the similarities and differences between arrays and number sentences. One student noted, “Arrays have dots, and problems have digits.”
Her tablemate inserted, “That’s hard.”
The teacher replied, “Hard things won’t kill us. They make us smarter.”
Where I spent moments considering the full impact of this, the third grade student accepted it, nodded, and continued listening to those sharing.
September Poetry Marathon – Day 4 of 5
Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today for the 4th day of our September Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com, and she’s encouraging us to write poems of inspiration and victory after reading Ada Limon’s How to Triumph Like a Girl. I chose a Haiku as my form and impulse response as my topic. You can read Barb’s full prompt and Limon’s poem here.
How to Triumph Over Impulse
do nothing but this:
turn your eyes in squint wonder
toward the heavens
I’m continuing to share the poems written during Friday’s poetry marathon with a poem written every hour.
11 pm hour – Kim Johnson – Heart poem – a poem having anything to do with a heart, love, bravery, or admiration
September’s Song
from the depths
of her heart ~
Summer Tanager
singing summer’s end
from a low branch
near Auchumpkee Creek Bridge
sad September serenade ~
fall flight farewell
September 2023 Poetry Marathon – Day 3 of 5
The host for September’s Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com today is Barb Edler of Iowa. She inspires us to write poems about favorite childhood books or poems. You can read her full prompt here. I chose to write about my favorite childhood book – Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes.
By The Light of the Moon
back in the 70s, the
World Book Encyclopedia
and Childcraft salesmen came
door to door
selling sets
ecru-colored hardbacks
gold-embossed lettering
the only one that
mattered to me
had a pink-banded
spine ~ Volume 1
Poems and Rhymes
that I read so much
I’m surprised I didn’t
read the ink clean off
the pages
I had a closet-and-flashlight
fixation with Volume 1
I’d crawl in and read for hours
staring at the illustrations,
memorizing the words
Overheard on a Salt Marsh
my favorite of all time
but Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee
and The Purple Cow
and The Raggedy Man
and every.other.page
were my best friends
so much that today,
I have a framed copy
of Harold Monro’s
masterpiece
by my bed, draped
with green glass beads
to remind me
I was steeped
in reading
by the light
of
the
moon
Last Friday, I had a poetry writing marathon, where I invited family and some friends to write poems that I would feature on the blog this week. Each hour, a new poem was born. I began sharing these on Saturday, and today is Day 3 of 5 days of our shared poems, continued below.
6 p.m. hour – Kim Johnson – List poem – – a poem that contains a list or inventory of things, people, places, or ideas
Signs Seen on a Drive Between Counties in Rural Georgia
Do not be lukewarm
Be the light!
Slower traffic keep right
Speed checked by detection devices
The compassion of the Lord never fails
Sad to see summer go. NOT.
Where will you spend eternity?
Don’t be the dealer…..be the difference!
Wrong Way
Don’t scroll. Stay in control.
Everything is hotter in the south!
Fall: When God displays his finest artistry.
7 p.m. hour – Kim Johnson – Etheree – A ten line poem in which each numbered line contains that number of syllables, written in ascending or descending order.
Norris’s Fine Foods
catfish, hush puppies, coleslaw and crawfish
green beans, cabbage, and corn on the cob
fried shrimp, baked cod, barbecue beans
shrimp scampi, rice and cornbread
peach and apple cobblers
Norris’s Fine Foods
chocolate cake
banana
pudding
…..full!
8 p.m. hour – my grandson Aidan – Concrete Poem – a poem in the shape of an object of the poem, or where the arrangement of words looks like the poem’s subject. These are also called shape poems.
9 p.m. hour – Ken Haynes and Jennifer Butler – Renga Poem – a poem in which the first poet writes the first three lines in seventeen syllables, then the second poet writes two lines containing seven syllables.
Gracie and JoJo are mine
Kasa is his
We are one family
loving our dogs
please love yours!
10 p.m. hour – Kim Johnson – Nonet – poem with nine lines, with each numbered line containing that many syllables and can be written in ascending or descending order
Cemetery Slap Fight
they got in a slap fight, those 3, right
in the cemetery over
their mother’s grave ~ she’d once said,
“over my dead body”
turns out she was right
……believing truth
was never
her strong
suit
September Poetry Marathon – Day 2 of 5
Today for the September Open Write, our host at http://www.ethicalela is Stacey Joy of California. You can read her prompt and her poem here and see the amazing Diamante form generator that will help you write your own Diamante poem. Today’s topic is food, but as I was reflecting on last night’s dinner, I chose Riesling as my topic.
Rhine grapes
light, refreshing
flavoring, fermenting, fulfilling
German white wine perfection
dinnering, relaxing, reading
citrusy, aromatic
Riesling
Continuing with Friday’s poetry marathon that I began sharing yesterday, here are some more poems from the 24 poems in 24 hours. I had other writers contributing as well. The first one was written by my stepson, who chose the word laughter to write an acrostic. I love his creativity and his random example of laughter right at the start!
1:00 pm hour – Andrew Johnson, Acrostic Poem – a poem in which the first letters of each line spell a word vertically, often defining or explaining the acrostic topic.
LAUGHTER
Little spontaneous
Alien pajamas
Universal expression
Good times had
Human experience
Topic of discussions
Emotion of healing
Right kind of feeling
2:00 pm hour – Shadorma – Kim Johnson – a Shadorma is a poem that has six lines with this syllable pattern: 3,5,3,3,7,5
Shaving Cream
shaving cream!
not just for shaving
but also
for cleaning
when little fingers write words
into the lather
3:00 pm hour – Abecedarian Poem by Boxer Moon – In an abecedarian poem, each line or stanza begins with the first letter of the alphabet and continues with letters in successive order, or the poet may take creative license and use the stitch-up feature that Boxer used, stitching the ends back to the beginning. I think he created a whole new form – a Circular Abecedarian! He not only wrote it forward, but also back up from the bottom, starting with A and working back up to Z. The man shows his genius in this Halloween poem.
All alone, Zombie of Me
Before Dawn, Your life will be.
Crackling bones, Xanthic Demon!
Demonic Songs, Why have you Chosen Me- Dreaming?
Every Breath a stone, Vicious Song!
For Here my Creature roams, Ugly rightful wrongs!
Gleaming with blood, Tomorrow I’ll retrace.
His eyes yellow with crud, So fast-paced.
Inside no love, Retreating from my space.
Just as teeth chatter, Quietly, I leave my place.
Keynotes of feelings matter, Pathogen thoughts infected.
Leave, oh please leave,—- Rejected!
My heart punctured and deceived- Neglected!
Neglected- My punctured heart grieved- dejected!
Or rejected- Leave, oh please, leave in the latter
Pathogen thoughts, Keynotes of life do not matter.
Quietly, shhhhhh! Justify my chatter…
Running, Ruining, my face! Inside without love
So fast-paced, His eyes yellow stained with crud!
Tomorrow I’ll retrace, Gleaming with blood.
Ugly vicious wrong! For my creature roams
Vicious, ugly, song. Each breath a stone
Why must we repeat this Demonic song?
Xanthic Demon, Crackling bones!
Your life is mine, Be.
Zombie of me, A me of Zombie?
– Boxer Moon
4:00 pm hour – Kim Johnson – Limerick – – a humourous rhyming verse of three long lines, then two short lines, with a rhyme scheme of aabba.
Goofy Schnoodle
A schnoodle who sleeps upside down
Is a goofily-schnoozing nap hound
He contorts in my chair
Chasing rabbit dreams there
Ollie chases those hares ‘round and ‘round!
5:00 p.m. hour – – Kim Johnson – Decima- a ten line poem with 8 syllables in each line, having rhyme scheme of abbaaccddc
Monster and Robber Spray
we used to have a can of spray
when you were but a wee youngster
to rid bad robbers and monsters
to keep those things of fear at bay
and chase those horrid scares away
together we would fill the air
of Lysol-labeled love and care
you thought it did the magic trick
better than any billystick
come near us? No monster would dare!
September 2023 Poetry Marathon Day 1 of 5
Today, Stacey Joy of California is our host for the September Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. She is inspiring us to write odes today. I took inspiration from her poem and from Amy Van DerWater’s Dear Socks in writing an ode to the memories of my mother through the ways she still comes to me when I am missing her.
From Saturday through Wednesday, I will post the daily writing along with several other poems that were written during the poetry marathon I began yesterday morning at 8:00 a.m.. It ends at 8:00 this morning, and will contain one poem written each hour since then either by a friend/family member or by me. (Okay, I slept the night, but I wrote ahead and behind those hours of sleep because…..my meanness might have kicked in).
I’ll begin with today’s poem, written in the 6 a.m. hour, September 16, 2023: ODE – a poem of praise, often written directly to someone or something.
Memories of Miriam ~ An Ode – a poem of praise, often directly to a person or object
Dear Mom,
you come to me
in the missing
with tingly spots that
turn warm
in the heart,
help me exhale~ my
fingers circling my temples
bringing back
all the whens
of this Bernina
your fingers guiding
mine under the
foot, stitch by stitch
learning to sew
a lime green terrycloth
bathcover, now
sewing quilts
for your great grands
on your fine
Swiss machine
of hawks,
talons clutching wires
checking that
my seatbelt
is fastened
as I drive past,
shaking your pointing finger
if I forgot,
knowing that
whatever I’m
thinking at
that moment,
you’re there
in it
of strawberry figs,
last summer wave
just picked, my own
weakening fingers twisting
tender fruits free ~
canned this very
week, Mason jars
sealed tight
with summer’s
sweetened warmth
for coming winter
of spiced Russian tea,
the Tangy orange
and lemonade mixed
with clove, sugar
cinnamon and tea ~
a medicinal brush
of your invisible fingers
through my hair
in sore throat season
of rippled milkglass
with resurrection fern
springing to life
unfurling its brown
dry fingers
into open arms
green again
September 15, 2023 – The Kickoff – 8 a.m. hour – Kim Johnson
Haiku – a poem with three lines and seventeen syllables in 5/7/5 syllabicated lines
My Stir Stick
deep in the forest
a tiny tree takes root
reaches to sunlight
growing tall, falling
with a thud, destined to be
my coffee stir stick
September 15, 2023 – 9 a.m. hour – my son Marshall Meyer – Gogyoshi (a 5-line poem on any topic, and Marshall wrote two back to back gogyoshis, connected, about a recent fishing experience….and he wrote this within a half hour of when I requested a poem, which is what a poetry marathon experience is about – – birthing poetry meaningfully in a few intentional moments throughout the day). I’m so proud of him!
The experience is like no
other. The stalk and hunt is
on, wind and direction
matter. I’m in shin deep
water and the reds can feel
all vibrations.
Concentration is at an all
time high. Cast. The feel of
the exploding strike is like
no other.
September 15, 2023 – 10 a.m. hour – Found Poem by Kim Johnson – a Found Poem is a poem that is written by finding words on an existing page of print, lifting them out to stand alone as a poem. This one is taken from The Outsiders.
A Silent Moment
dawn mist
golden
gray to pink
a silent moment:
paint,
fresh in my mind,
like
nature’s flower;
down to day…
nothing can stay
September 15, 2023 – 11 a.m. hour – Jenga Poem – Kim Johnson
I let my son’s 9:00 poem inspire a title I found on a Jenga block and wrote this poem from the word blocks in my collection. To write a Jenga poem, select blocks and arrange them into a poem of words that stand alone or words that inspire lines mixed with your own words.
Casting a Line
choose your own
hopes for the future ~
murals unveiled:
ending or new beginning?
inspiring
another chance at life
every precious “breath”
how we have chosen
race against time
September 15, 2023 – Noon hour – Kim Johnson
Skinny – a poem with 11 lines, where first and last line repeat similarly in small number of words, and the rest of the lines have one word. Lines 2, 6, and 10 use the same word.
Owl
owl swoops down
gracefully
without
a
sound
gracefully
to
forest
ground
gracefully
owl swoops down
Mammogram Day! Pick Up the Phone to Schedule Yours!
Yesterday I shared about switching veterinarians to avoid having to drive out of our own county to get shots for our dogs. Mammograms, though, still require a drive. We don’t have a mammography facility in our county.
So once a year, I drive a half hour one county to our south and plop the girls on the cold machine to be pressed flat like hot paninis in an iron press at 90 and 45 degree angles – top to bottom and side to side -and imaged for a health inspection. And the drive isn’t bad. It’s not all that ironic that I drive across two large hills to get there, and one is so tall that no one on a cell phone can get over it without dropping the call. I park and enter the hospital, where I already have my driver’s license and insurance card in hand for the paperwork. I get my plastic ID bracelet and then go down to Radiation and Imaging, where I check in and change into a flowery cape that opens in the front.
When I’m changed, I step into the next room for the procedure. This is the reason I always switch to decaf coffee two weeks before coming, and the reason I take Evening Primrose – – to lessen the pain of the fibrocystic tissue that is aggravated by caffeine and eased by the primrose capsules.
I always leave wanting pancakes after this procedure, simply because that’s what comes to mind. I think that IHOP should e-hop on board and partner with preventive breast screening marketing by giving women a free pancake breakfast once a year after enduring the double-digit pounds of compression. Surely they could come up with a new pancake to help support breast cancer research. We could scan our hospital bracelets for the free pancakes and sit in silence, sopping them around in the syrup as we recover from the stress of it all, sipping decaf.
Have you had your mammogram this year? If not, it’s time to schedule it!
Ollie’s Day Out
We’ve recently switched veterinarians to lessen the stress and half-day production of traveling over to the next county and waiting and waiting and waiting our turn. Where we live in rural Georgia, there isn’t much of anything. Our county has a public school, a private school, maybe a dozen churches, a small private airport, 10 or 15 restaurants, a couple of medical facilities, a courthouse, some small businesses along the square and some larger ones farther out, a regional library and a town library, a coffee shop and bookstore, several little free libraries, a small grocery store, a couple of hardware stores, and a handful of convenience stores with gas stations. Oh yeah – – and about a half dozen Dollar Generals. Five small town limits are nestled within the county, and we are spread out in larger land tracts with rolling hills, meadows, dirt roads, and crooked wooden fences.
We drive out of our county to buy clothes, shoes, office supplies, and groceries. And we love Amazon, even for aspirin and shampoo.
That’s why we switched veterinarians. It wasn’t because we suddenly didn’t like the former vet or had some kind of falling out with the other practice. It was because this office has a hometown staff and we see them out together in the county eating at our local barbecue restaurant for lunch sometimes. We wanted to lessen our drive and not have to take a half day off work just to get a heartworm injection.
Also, about six years ago, Dr. Kelly allowed me to bring an adventure book club who’d just finished reading Finding Gobi to his office to go behind the scenes and see what veterinarians do. His office started as a house, then became a restaurant, and now welcomes pets for their healthcare.
Which was Ollie’s outing yesterday. He needed his 6-month heartworm test and ProHeart injection. We walked in to the office and were greeted by Hunter the minute we entered the room: Hey, Ollie, we have you all checked in, buddy!
We walked past the fireplace and the burning candle and took a seat in the room where the large mixed breed dog was not wallowing on his back all over the floor, kicking his feet up in pure joy like he didn’t know what was coming.
And we waited a few minutes, listening to the thunder and rain, looking out the windows, and breathing. Where else could there possibly be a more relaxing veterinary office?
Ollie gets momsick when they take him back for shots (like a preschooler) He started to go all tail-waggy, excited then turned in his tracks We love our new vet right in our own small hometown We love low windows!
Common Threads 