September is a tough month for me. It's way too busy with school starting and every committee needing extra time to get going. This year my kids have been here for much of the month too which is wonderful and busy-making. E moved to her own apartment about 40 minutes away at the beginning of the month and T is leaving next week for southern CA to visit friends and take another long bike trip.

School is tough in September too. There's all the wonderful new faces to meet and lots of meetings with parents and special educators who want to make sure this year is successful--a great goal, it just happens all at the same time.

And then there's the end of baseball season and the tension as teams get closer and closer to clinching and I have to stay up and watch, don't I? Hooray for the Red Sox clinching the wild card spot last night!

Today is an in-service day. We meet all morning planning team projects. This afternoon I have a training on using the SmartBoard. In between things, I have a pile of papers to read, folders to make, and a book I'd like to finish. To say nothing of getting in some writing.

There must be something in the freezer we can have for dinner...

In case you haven't seen it, post a comment on kmessner's journal by Friday night and you'll have a chance to win a copy of her new book Champlain and the Silent One. I love Spitfire and got my whole history department to read it. In fact, I need to bring it to school today for my principal who loves historical fiction. As soon as September is over, I'll be able to read my copy of Champlain and the Silent One!

Enjoy the end of September!


Current book: Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

It was a bright and sunny day. Another day like yesterday. Clear blue sky, sharp fresh air, no humidity. Perfect.

I'll go for a walk on the hill, I thought. Oliver can chase chipmunks.

Oliver and I left to do errands. When I headed the car toward the hill, I almost turned back. The sky over my house was bright and sunny, but over Hurricane Hill dark clouds loomed.

But we had come this far. The way the weather has been around here, those clouds might amount to nothing. (Bet you can guess where this is going, right?)

We went into the woods. Nice filtered light showed through the canopy. A bird called (I'm really going to learn what it is someday!) Thunder rumbled far, far in the distance. I let Oliver and my mind wander.

I love those moments when you are in a totally familiar place, but you don't have any idea where you are. I've spent a lot of time in the town forest, hiking, marking trails, finding the boundaries. I can get anywhere in the park without a map or compass (although it's easier with one!) but I still can come to a point and be surprised by where I am. I need to look around to find a familiar tree or rock. It's not that I'm lost, just that I don't know quite how I got where I am. For some reason, I really like that feeling.

That's the feeling I get sometimes when I reread a manuscript. I've been on this page multiple times. I wrote (and rewrote) every word. It should be familiar to me. And yet, I'm surprised by what it says or how it's said. How did I know to have this happen? How did I figure it out? And how did I forget it was there?

We'd reached the top of the hill and were well down the other side when the light changed and the thunder became more insistent. I could hear rain in the treetops, but we were dry under the umbrella of the leaves. We took a sharp left off the path into the woods (I told you, I know my way around the hill) and cut down to the other end of the trail so we only had a short way to go to the car.

Tomorrow, we'll try again.


Current book: Peeled by Joan Bauer

Today in between downpours, I picked this:



And turned it into this:



I love summer!


Current book: Kendra by Coe Booth

Here's what we're driving:



And here's where we are visiting:



T works on this beach every day. It's beautiful although hot and sunny for me. We went geocaching this morning and found one. We'll try for another one this evening when it's cooler. I love geocaching in a place I don't know (and sometimes in places I thought I knew!) because I find out all kinds of history and lore and nature information through the searches. This morning's geocache took us to the site of the first automobile crash on Ocracoke--between the only two vehicles on the island. This afternoon we'll explore a nature trail near a lighthouse that ends on the beach. Check out www.geocaching.com for more information. Search using googlemaps on this site. You'll be surprised at how many geocaches are around you.

I checked my writing log for the month of July--63 pages of this revision. Most of it is new. I'm pleased with the progress. I thought I'd be done, but I'm glad of where I am. I enjoyed keeping track with WFMAD from halseanderson. I can always find 15 minutes. I didn't write for only 15 minutes a day, but I did write for at least 15 minutes every day. It adds up.

And since it's so hot here and I have to stay inside in the AC, I'll be racking up some more pages before Monday when we return home. Not a bad way to spend a vacation!


Current book: Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

If anyone needs a good dose of teens to help with details in your writing, I suggest you come visit writing camp! These teens are the best. I'm loving spending my mornings with them.

Every year we take one day and walk outside to different spots to write. Today we dodged the rain and thunderstorms forecast all week and took our walk. Eighteen campers from 7th to 12th grade spread out in clumps between Rick and me as we walked past the bus garage, through the woods, and into the cemetery.

The cemetery is a great place to write. One of the characters in my wip spends lots of time walking in the cemetery, so today was a great chance to gather specific details. I scribbled down a page of notes, including the rules of the cemetery posted at the entrance, before we got back together and read some of what we had written.

Then it was off to the river. I had the good fortune to bring up the end of the line and be walking behind a chatting ninth and tenth grader. I started scribbling down bits and pieces of their conversation. On the way back, another group was talking and said a phrase that my mc needs to say--in fact, it spurred a whole scene I hadn't thought of before.

Walking back, I observed the clothes the group was wearing, the shoes (or lack of), the bags they carried. Everything I needed to know about my characters was right in front of me.

I know some of the campers read this blog. (RW are you reading this? You can comment!!) I hope they realize how special they are--and how much they help me with my writing. I'll be sad when camp is over on Friday!

It was a busy and successful morning. I made doughnuts for our Fourth of July breakfast then headed to our squash garden at my mom's house. I weeded in the peacefulness for an hour and then headed home. As I was riding along with Oliver perched on the console between the seats, I was thinking that I'd forgotten the bird call CD again and how I really like to ride in silence in the car.

And then...a deer appeared out of the thick undergrowth next to the railroad tracks to cross the road. I braked, the deer leapt, but it wasn't enough. She landed on her side on my windshield which now looks like this:



Oliver didn't even fall off his perch. The deer slid off the other side of my car and ran off into the field on the other side of the road. And I made lots of calls to get my car in for an appointment. (won't happen until Monday--kind of messes up my kayaking for the weekend!)

In better news, E finished putting in the stone walk in the garden:




And how can anyone not smile at flowers lined up for their picture:



Thanks to halseanderson for her 15 minute a day challenge. I didn't know whether I'd manage yesterday, but when I got home from the fireworks I sat down and wrote even though it was 11 p.m. I even managed my 500 word goal!


Current book: Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox

Managed a whomping two and a half pages on my wip yesterday! Woohoo!

We went geocaching yesterday and found the geocache that had eluded us last year. I SAW a wood thrush. He followed us along the trail and sang his distinctive flutelike song.

One more picture of Oliver--in his favorite position on the boat:



The sun is shining. I'm off for our last morning boat ride.

1. I don't think readers are fair to all the writers out there. I can work for an entire morning, complete two pages, and feel wonderfully accomplished. Then I sit down to read in the afternoon and read 100 pages. That was 50 mornings of someone's work!

2. Vacation in Maine has had the usual benefit of changing my crazy routine. We spend our days sitting on the dock or the deck, kayaking, and walking in the woods (dodging mosquitoes!). It's a good way to get out of the frenzied pace of the end of a school year.

3. My most productive morning writing was the morning spent at jeannineatkins's summer place with jbknowles and cynthialord. There is something about the silence and the knowledge that everyone around you is accomplishing much that makes me work harder. I discovered my way through a chapter I had been struggling with in that silence.

Even though they've posted pictures, here's one from my camera taken by Jeannine's lovely daughter:


(Cindy L., Jo, me, Jeannine)

4. I would like to link to a couple lj entries, but I haven't managed to figure out how.

professornana has a great entry on 6/23 that is a letter to Obama that makes so much sense.

And, if you're looking for a reading list for the summer, try kmessner's class list for the one book to read this summer recommended by her 7th graders (posted 6/18)! I'll post my seventh graders' list when I get back home.

5. I need to get out on the kayaks while the sun shines. Oliver will take his position on the front of my boat. When we sit on the dock, his favorite game is to accidentally drop his ball into the water--and then go retrieve it. Here he is:



and





Current book: Trouble by Gary Schmidt
Just finished Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor and Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett

1. As others have already said, Cindy Lord was terrific speaking at the DCF ceremony (children's choice award for Vermont). My students raved about her talk to their friends when they got back home. The librarians I rode with were very enthusiastic.

Here's Cindy accepting her award:


2. I love my students' taste in books--and the notes they leave on my board:


3. This morning my first student in (at 7:15!) said, "Do you have any more books like Killer's Cousin?" I'm always happy when I find readers who love what I love!

4. Our last major project in 7th grade is "The One Book to Read This Summer". Students think of a book they would recommend to a friend who said they would only read one book in the summer. Smart group this year. They asked who their friend would be--male/female etc. We talked about recommending books because we know the reader's taste and recommending a book because we don't think anyone should miss it. I'll put together a little book of recommendations that they'll get to take home for the summer. With 33 seventh graders, I don't think I have a repeat. Great list!

1. Here's what I've been up to:




2. Which means here's what I've been doing:



It's a great chance to catch up on reading. I help present the new DCF list in two weeks, so I'm zipping through the list. Maybe my tower of books will be just a bit shorter by the time I go back to work next week.

3. But all these beautiful days, and I can't get outside. The flowers are beginning to bloom anyway:




4. Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy the weekend!

Congratulations to cynthialord!!! Rules was recently announced as the winner of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher award--Vermont's children's choice award. Woohoo!

VT kids are smart!

It's good having post-college kids around a bit. My daughter, anxious for spring, sketched our front yard and planned our gardens. She worked around perennials and trees already there and kinds of flowers/plants that we both really like.




She bought seeds and we built a small cold frame for the sunny back deck.

I think we'll be busy this spring!

There was a message on my school phone the other day from a teacher in another school. She said her school had noticed that our school's reading and writing scores were really high and she wanted to know our secret.

I can't tell her.

It's not that it's a secret, it's that she won't believe me.

First, I have to say that I don't care about the tests. Oh, I care that my students do well on whatever they attempt, but I refuse to get caught up in the current educational whim-of-the-moment and change what works for students. Somehow, what works with students actually makes a difference in their test scores. Go figure.

If I could tell her the "secret", it would include something like this:

Read and write every day in as many classes as possible. Celebrate reading and writing every day. Get other people (adults) to celebrate reading and writing with students.

Write as much as possible. Not practice pieces for the test. Not only specific pieces for the portfolio requirements. Do prompts because they're good warm-ups, because they allow students to become fluent in writing, and because since they're not graded (and shouldn't be!) they allow students to succeed. Do things with these prompts. Let students who want to, read aloud. Mention good pieces you've read to other teachers who will then ask to read the student's work. Publish pieces in little books for students to read and take home. Write poetry. The list goes on.

Read books that the students are reading and talk with them about the books. Read articles in newspapers and magazines and show your excitement. Talk about reviews and interviews of books or writers on NPR.

The current test craze isn't going to go away soon. The test companies make too much money to allow that to happen. It's okay for students to learn how to take a test--briefly. It's not okay if that becomes the only focus.

Our students do well on the test because we ignore the test. We actually teach "reading" and "writing" in spite of the high stakes of the tests.

And, surprisingly, that's the knowledge the test is testing.



Current book: Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White What a good book! Thanks to literaticat for suggesting it.

Because my day ends before d_michiko_f, I get to post the soup first! Mine's done while hers is still cooking.

Sweet Potato Soup with Carmelized Onion



MMMMM!

1. It's snowing. Again. Luckily, my meeting at the library this morning was already canceled. Due to my head cold, I canceled my Saturday morning walk with a friend. Today will be a day of lots of tea and reading. And naps. : )

2. We had the best ever writing group meeting with my 8th graders and jbknowles. The group was so excited they were roaming the halls at the end of the day, trying to be the first one to spot her. The energy in the room could barely be contained. We wrote to a prompt, read aloud, and talked about character and character's needs and wants and when to reveal them. Students asked Jo lots of questions about Lessons from a Dead Girl and about writing. I know Jo felt she didn't really get to say much--the students had so much to say--but every time she talked, they hung on every word.

The next day they were still so excited they could barely stand it. They were in the science teacher's room at 7:00, telling him all about Jo's visit. They accosted me as soon as I got out of my 7:15 meeting to see whether Jo had said anything about them in her lj post--and were thrilled when she had. And they all told me they had written the night before. Thanks, Jo, for a wonderful afternoon!

3. In class, we just finished reading Speak by halseanderson. We assigned the kids to write something connected to the book--anything. We got incredible stories, poems, and essays. Wow! Some of my favorites included a conversation in a character's head, a poem from the pov of Heather, a list of the ten lies told to you by friends, and a poem/story about how Melinda got where she was.

4. Whoopie pies!


These are the whoopie pies I made with d_michiko_f while in California.

When I was in high school, our club made lots of money having bake sales where the only thing we sold were whoopie pies. Now, this is the "birthday cake" choice for both my kids.

( Recipe behind cut )

5. I made it through this draft of my wip!!! I'll let it rest this weekend and read next week for continuity and silly errors and all that, then get it out to a few readers. And that means...

6. I get to read for a bit! My book pile is teetering. I almost don't know where to start. There are so many good books I want to read. I'm looking forward to a couple weeks of solid reading time.

Welcome to March everyone! Spring must be coming.

d_michiko_f has posted quite eloquently about how I spent my school vacation--our wonderful writing week.

It was great to spend time with someone who wanted to do the same things at the same time. My highlights:

Writing! I arrived on page 58 and went home on p. 112 of this revision. About 40 pages left--and I've managed to get through about 15 of them since I've returned.

Reading! Mostly our wip's. We started and ended each day reading 10 pages. With a few extra sessions, we managed to read up to the points where we were. Hearing Debbi's 10 pages was a treat to look forward to! I did read on the plane--JUMPER on the way out and THE WILD GIRLS on the way home.

Movies! We saw SPIDERWICK together in a theater larger than any around here. It was a great movie! I can't wait to see it again!
We also watched a few DVD's LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (I know I'm the last person on the planet to see this.) and BECOMING JANE which I enjoyed.

Food! Besides Bob being a wonderful cook and Debbi making a big batch of soup so we could share the same pot as soup sisters, we ate out several times. We had terrific Chinese and Mexican and burgers. And I got to introduce Debbi and Bob to whoopie pies.

People! Of course, I got to spend wonderful time with Debbi. I got to meet Bob. I saw my sister and my nephew for tea one afternoon. We had lunch with Jenn from Books, Inc. (and bought lots of good books!) We spent a great morning with VC classmate Sharry.

Weather! It rained--maybe every day, but only for a little while and then it was sunny. And it was warm. T-shirt warm. We took walks in the afternoon. No ice to contend with. Wow.

It was hard to leave. I can't think of a more perfect way to spend my vacation!


Current Book: The True Meaning of Smekday

Thanks to professornana for this quiz.

You're The Catcher in the Rye!

by J.D. Salinger

You are surrounded by phonies, and boy are you sick of them! In an
ongoing struggle to search for a land without phonies, you end up running away from
everything, from school to consequences. In this process, you reveal that many people
in your life have suffered torments and all you really want to do is catch them as
they fall. Perhaps using a baseball mitt. Your biggest fans are infamous
psychotics.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

It's exactly what I feel like today. Hmpf!

Current book: Spiderwick #1 The Field Guide

d_michiko_f has a contest on her blog today. You could win a copy of her brand new book! Look at this:



and

Welcome back to cynleitichsmith. I'm glad to see her blogging again! She had a great post on revision on 2/3 that I really needed to read.

Current book(s): Candy Freak, A Whole New Mind, Winter World, and Race. And We Are the Ship, but I lent my copy to a friend so can't finish it yet.

I do an author project with my classes that involves students researching a favorite author and writing a letter to them (an actual letter--envelope and all--because getting a real letter back is much more satisfying than getting an email back. Years later, students tell me they still have the copies of their letters--some framed.)

I don't correct these letters--we talk about what should go into a letter and how they should try to find information before they ask questions that they don't need to ask. Their letters are honest and heartfelt and interesting. I love seeing why they choose the books they choose and what those books mean to them.

Here are some snippets from the letters I've read today. I've left out titles on purpose.

The praise letter:
I adored your book. It was AMAZING. That book sprung tears to my eyes and made my heart panic. It brought hope to my emotions, it brought fear to my nerves. But most of all it brought caution to my life.

Don't feel too good:
*** has been my favorite book for years. I read ***(another book by same author) too. It wasn't as good but it was still great.

You are my friend:
I did some research on you on google.com. I have found out a lot of really cool things about you--like how you play in a band and play lead guitar. Dude, that is so awesome!

Maybe we're related:
I was wondering if you have family in Law Enforcement because so many of your books have main characters involved with law enforcement and my father is a police officer.

About that ending:
I wish you would write another book to the series but you have other things to do so I understand why you probably won't. I think the series really didn't have an ending it just ended without a finale. But that's always good too right? It makes me use my imagination. It makes me feel like I should write a final chapter. It makes me feel good.

Need advice:
Well, those are my questions, but I still have more to say. I am writing a book and I would like to know what you should do if you are absolutely stumped. Well, please write back to me.

And:
When I am older I hope to write book like you. Do you have any advice for me on what to do to pursue this dream of mine?

Just in case:
If there is anything about me you'd like to know, go ahead and ask. I'll try to answer as honestly and precisely as I can.

This one knows what it's really like:
It is just amazing what you can do. I don't know how you get up in the morning after writing for a whole day. I guess it is probably easy for you but I would collapse. I hope you keep writing for as long as you live.

For Christmas, E painted a bowl at the pottery studio in town for me.




When I was in second grade, my whole elementary school studied South America together. We put on a show, and the second graders sang a song about soup. I can't make soup without singing the song. E's certainly heard it enough, so inside the bowl she wrote:




"Soup without onions is no soup at all..."

This week I made Black Bean and Sausage Soup from the wonderful New England Soup Factory Cookbook and ate it in my new bowl.




Now I'm caught up with soup sister d_michiko_f and ready for next week's choice. MMM!