Treasure Chest of Thoughts

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity…what with school starting and my staying up late to plan and prepare and my staying late after school in an attempt to find my desk and keep some semblance of order…both visually and mentally!

So what will next week be?  A metaphorical hurricane?  For with next week comes a masters level course that I will be taking and a college-level course that I will be teaching for Lyon College.  Oh, yes, and preparation for an additional class for the junior high that I obtained three days into the first week of school. 

Have we mentioned the roller coaster called extracurricular?  I would love to work full-time in the extracurricular department, but, unfortunately, those “other duties” do not bring enough income for me!  But, I do so enjoy working with Beta Club, Student Council, and assisting with the National English Honor Society.

Enough of that, though…now to discuss metaphor number four.

This week I asked each student to consider to what they might compare their writing styles.  Several used a sports metaphor; some were more unique.  For example, one student plans to compare her writing style to rain.   Interesting.

This assignment began with our reading Richard Wilbur’s poem “The Writer” and my sharing my rendition of this assignment through which I compare my writing style to the story The Ugly Duckling.  (This poem with a TPCASTT worksheet and the PowerPoint version of my writing style are available on my class wiki.  Components of this lesson were borrowed from ReadWriteThink/Writing Metaphor Assignment.)

Why this assignment?

1. Students need to reflect on the how, not the why, but the steps, the process they take in completing an assignment.
2. Then they visit with Mr. Bloom (figuratively, of course!) as they analyze and synthesize and evaluate these findings.  Then, they present.
3. Creativity is encouraged at this point…but not penalized.

From here, we prepare to enter the digital world as the students begin considering a theme for their student blogs.  Maybe they will use their writing-style metaphor…or maybe not.  I didn’t.  When I created this blog last year, I considered using a duck as part of my theme but then decided to use my last year’s decorating theme.  That’s right…pirates!  I had just gone to the movie with my family and watched the latest Pirates of the Carribean movie and was inspired! 

Ducks, sports, starlings, pirates…the theme itself is not important.  The goal will still have been accomplished.

My students are thinking.

Now if only I can keep this going in weeks two, three, and four and for the rest of the year!