writing in the open spaces » Uncategorized

An Afternoon

scm — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:05:03 +0000

Rain today.

Needed, but dismal

Even the cat backs away from the open door.

The dog falls asleep to the rhythmic sound on the roof.

You gather your thoughts and remember what she said.

I am fine. Just fine.

The rain continues to fill your head with questions,

Knowing she is not.

#npm prompt: rain

Holding On

scm — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:59:43 +0000

She held his hand, letting her thumb trace the spaces between his fingers
His breathing, in and out, kept time to the ticking of the clock
And then the clock stopped,
And she knew she had to let go.
#npm

Sleep

scm — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:48:45 +0000

Sleep doesn’t come easily to me anymore. I fall asleep fine. But, if something interrupts my sleep, it’s all over. And I am finding the more I think about writing, the more I think about writing. The other night, the cat decided to jump on the bed and sit on my chest, purring loudly. Once awake, I started analyzing the plot to a story I’m working on. I really like one of the characters, but I hadn’t developed her enough. Finally, I had to get out of bed and write. (Thus yesterday’s poem about finding morning to be a relief.)

I am also taking the advice of writers who say we have to be willing to write badly. After years of writing only nonfiction (as a journalist) or posts on my blog, I am treading carefully into creative writing. It’s painful, at times. Yet, I take seriously this gift of time to explore my creative side through painting, sketching, and writing.

And, now, back to work….

The Summer I Was Seventeen

scm — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:36:03 +0000

(writing prompt: model your poem after another- I chose Geraldine Connolly, The Summer I Was Sixteen)

The baby blue bug beckoned me,
its body freshly washed, its windows shiny
and waiting. I jumped in, my ripped jeans
sliding onto the black seats. Giddy with joy.

Turning the key, I pressed lightly on the
clutch, and then lifting my right foot,
gave the car gas. Moving. Slowly and surely,
I felt the rumble, left security, and rolled away.

Windows down, air as warm as buttery toast,
Beatles blaring. I grinned and dangled my arm
out the window. Turning. Watching the
yellow light. Yes, this is my car.

Eyes scanning for friends on foot, I drove
past the grocery store, through the park, and
onto the highway leading out of town. All you need
is love. My day-old license, an A&W root beer,

singing to no one and everyone as I emptied
the gas tank mile by mile in my tie-died t-shirt
and Birkenstocks. Hoping and praying

for someone to see me alone and in control.

#npm

Grief Comes in Moments

scm — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:04:38 +0000

Writing a poem a day for #npm is pushing me. This one is unfinished; I will come back to it.

The sun broke early that day.
Too little sleep, long talks over bourbon into the night.
Where’s dad, my confused mother said upon waking?
Gone, I say, holding back oceans of tears.
Calls to make, food to order, prayers to choose
And then, out of the corner of my eye, the abandoned boat in the yard.
Visitors to greet, memorials to write, bills to pay.
And then, as I pass the old wood shop, an imagined waft of turpentine.
Plane schedules to check, flowers to order, forms to file,
And then, while I pause, a familiar voice in my head, saying: Hello Daughter.
What I learned that day is grief will come in moments.
It will squeeze your heart, it will stop you in your tracks.
And then you will move on.

Writing Prompt What she learned that day #npm2012

Yes, they can

scm — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:55:34 +0000

via http://boats-against-the-current.tumblr.com/

iPad

scm — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:29:36 +0000

I never thought I would be linking to this….really. But I am finding I am spending more and more time with this thing. So here is a great resource for iPads in Education.

Symmetry of Life

scm — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:53:35 +0000

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

Breaking Some Rules

scm — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:54:24 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38075169@N00/2416875581/

Are you a rule-follower? I am. After all, I was an Army officer’s first-born daughter, raised to curtsy and and speak when I had something “nice” to say.
Now that’s not all bad. Rule followers and nice people can get pretty far in this world, so I don’t hold this against my parents too much. But after reading a recent article in Scientific American, I realize there’s much to be said for being a rule-breaker, or at least one who isn’t afraid to follow her own path.
Andrea Kuszewski shares her two hypotheses in the article:

1) Teaching and encouraging kids to learn by rote memorization and imitation shapes their brain and behavior, making them more inclined towards linear thinking, and less prone to original, creative thinking.
and…
2) Teaching kids to ask questions and think about problems before receiving the solution encourages more non-linear, divergent and creative thinking, to produce better innovators, problem-solvers, and problem-finders.

My own schooling was much of the first. Teachers who told me what and how to think. Schools where I was either ahead or behind because of yearly moves with my family (I attended 13 schools in 12 years!) Few opportunities to think on my own or, worse, fail and recover.

Years later, I remember the first time I really had to figure something out, and I almost didn’t make it. After staying home with my children for a few years, I decided to go back to the classroom. But first I had to renew my teaching certificate, which had expired. I signed up at our local college for two courses, one of which was BASIC programming.This was 1986, and I had never seen a computer. An English major who preferred humanities to math and science, I was taking these courses while I was teaching full time again with two small children at home. Not a pretty picture.

After three weeks of working in the college computer lab, I came home one day and said, “I quit. I don’t get it. It’s too hard.”
But something in my head said, no. Don’t.
So, I tried again, making my brain understand the code, the symbols, that needed to speak to that darn machine. And soon, I had created a short program that worked.

Yes! Such satisfaction.
The next week, I bought my first computer. I then taught myself DOS, and learned how to add hardware and software (do you remember installing the first Windows program that took about five hours and tons of disks?)

Most of my exploring happened as I said, “I wonder what will happen if I….” Sometimes in my playing around, I had to reformat the machine because I got myself in so much trouble. I figured out how to use Pagemaker and was the first teacher in my district to self-publish our school’s newspaper, and I moved online when the web was only text based, opening myself up to a world of research and global awareness. More often than not, I had no one to tell me what to do as I explored this new world. Technology became my window to becoming a self-confident, self-directed learner.

As Kuszewski said, “students that are more actively engaged are more intrinsically motivated to learn—no bribes or artificial rewards needed, just pure enjoyment of learning.” I was “in the flow.”

Over the years, I’ve continued to find ways to break rules and take risks. I don’t find it easy, and often retreat to safer places. But I know my journey from passive to active learner has resulted in greater work and life opportunities and general all around feelings of accomplishment.

I agree with Kuszewski who wonders why, with so much evidence, we continue to subject children to the kind of schooling I had. I love how she closes:

What is supposed to be the most critical learning period for shaping children into the leaders of tomorrow has evolved over the years into a stifling of the creative instinct—wasting the age of imagination—which we then spend the rest of our lives trying to reconnect with. The time has never been more ready for systemic change than right now, and we’ve never had better tools to achieve this level of creative disobedience, to successfully prepare our children for the big challenges that lie ahead. It might be uncomfortable and take a bit of work, but our future depends on this radical change in order to survive.

My life changed when I realized I could do whatever I wanted to do, and I didn’t have to wait for instructions. Don’t we want that for all our children?

Thinking About How We Think

scm — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:49:30 +0000

Finding wisdom to live and learn.

Isn’t that the most important skill we can teach our children? Then why don’t we do it?

Columnist David Brooks said in his book, The Social Animal, “Children are coached on how to jump through a thousand scholastic hoops. Yet by far the most important decisions they will make are about whom to marry and whom to befriend, what to love and what to despise, and how to control impulses. On these matters they are amost entirely on their own. We are good at talking about material incentives, but bad about talking about emotions and intuitions. We are good about teaching technical skills, but when it comes to the most important things, like character, we have almost nothing to say.”

Imagine a world where we all have healthy ideas of how our conscious and unconscious works, a world where children are helped to know who they are and why they act in certain ways. Carol Dweck in her book Mindset says mindset is the view we adopt for ourselves. But how can we adopt a healthy view without fully knowing ourselves? And how does resiliency play into this?

Dweck points out that “mindsets frame the running account that’s taking place in people’s heads. They guide the whole interpretation process.” And, the good news is, mindsets can be changed. Hard work, but possible.

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
Albert Einstein