Living Life Twice

 I have been away from these pages for some time. But I have not been lollygagging or malingering. I have in fact been hunting and gathering in far away places. I have recently been on what I called my 3 Island Tour. Over the course of almost 6 weeks, My wife Vicki and me had the good fortune to visit the island of Capri, Sicily and Salina. Each time I am given the privilege of embarking on a new adventure I am reminded of this quote by Ibn Battuta: 'Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.' Among the many special moments I captured in my notebook while away, there was one in particular that I wanted to share here. As I walked through the Boffe section of Anacapri on the Isla Capri, I passed high white washed walls of long standing, local residences. On the walls of many of these buildings, colourful ceramic tiles feature. They are often adorned with elaborate numbers on patterned backgrounds, many also feature the name of the residence...

I feel a compelling need to revisit notions of what it means to use a writer’s notebook as a writing tool. Firstly, I understand, not every writer has a notebook in the traditional sense, but many do. I am one of the many. My relationship with writer’s notebooks winds all the way back to September, 1983. Across the intervening years, my notebooks have been various. I have an extensive collections of notebooks. Notebooks documenting my journey as a writer across more than three decades provide a rich paper trail from which I am able to mine some writing wisdom. Mu notebooks have evolved over time with respect to shape, form, and content. However, there are elements of that notebook/writer relationship which have remained consistently unchanged. Each notebook has been sturdy in its design. All my notebooks have had strong spines and hardy covers. Most have had ruled lines, but occasionally I have consciously chosen a new notebook with totally blank pages. I enjoy the variety such...

I recently had the pleasure of conducting a workshop on Wordplay and its important role in growing writers. Here are some of the messages I was able to share with participants. Trust they add to your thinking around the teaching of writing... Wordplay is such an omnipotent thing. It is unavoidable. Conversation, songs, TV shows advertisements, literature , greeting cards, brochures magazines and newspapers all employ word play abundantly. Everywhere we go, it leaps out at us. In many schools however the study of words, has over time, been shrunken down to mean little more than reading and vocabulary knowledge. And yet, I still recall my teachers encouraging me to play with malapropisms, oxymorons, listen for tautology and wonder at the mystery of invented words in Lewis Carroll's poem 'Jabberwocky.' I recall the fun we had creating rhyming couplets and discovering palindromic words. At home, my father regularly engaged me in wordplay and riddles. There were a...

The first  notebook entry is most important… It might be a letter to one’s self about what you intend to do as a writer. John, a fifth grader wrote the following poem as his initial entry. It’s a Place Why am I keeping this notebook?                                                                                                                           Because it’s a place where I can keep track of my life                                                                        ...

I have been promoting the use of magnifying glasses in classrooms for some time. I want the curious learners in our classrooms to have the opportunity to discover and celebrate natural wonder. I recall how much fun I had as a small boy with my own magnifying glass. –Seeing snails and slugs up close, or watching ants and noticing their fine feelers, or exploring nature’s wonders in the fine lines and patterns on leaves. There was for me, a fascination observing the world through this magic portal; this round window.  I want the natural curiosity children possess further stimulated by the experience of seeing small wonders up close and personal. I hope a magnifying glass stimulates their imagination and creativity. I hope they respond with wonderment and awe. A magnifying glass is not a piece of cutting edge techno wizardry, but it is a powerful tool for determining answers to questions that spring from every day experiences. Seymour Simon said ‘ I’m more interested in ...

As   a writer, I am constantly looking for ideas and inspiration. So naturally, I was excited when I came across this poetry pearl of an idea when checking Twitter last evening. It comes from Austin Kleon, http://www.austinkleon.com/newspaperblackout/    an Austin , Texas based artist and writer. Austin calls this method for composing poetry ‘Blackout Poetry.’ He uses newspaper pages to redact the original text with permanent markers to eliminate words not required, thus leaving only those words essential for creating the desired message.   Austin encourages fellow poets to dive right in and try blacking out and then sharing the resultant poems on his web site. This strategy works in a similar fashion to ‘found poems’ and ‘river poems’ in so much as it brings old pages back to life by using the words in an enterprising and creative way.   I  can imagine Blackout poems working really well with  the student writers I meet...

A conversation with some young writers prompted memories of spiders. They were sharing spider stories and deciding how they might choose to write about these fascinating creatures. I told them, ‘You have got me thinking now. You know, that’s why writers need to have conversations such as this.’   It was true. My mind was  alive with possibilities. I could not wait to explore the topic of spiders in my notebook and I shared this simple truth. Today I began to think about the common Australian Huntsman Spiders and their particular characteristics. I listed what I already knew about them in my notebook. My list included: They move very quickly The female lays up to 200 eggs They don’t build webs They have eight large, long hairy legs and flattened bodies ideal for living in narrow spaces They are crab like and grow up to 15 cms. from leg to leg People often refer to them as ‘tarantulas’ They have no qualms about entering houses and cars. They often announce their pre...

The Stenhouse Blog: Quick Tip Tuesday: Nudging kids to make a choice  'Nonfiction reading, research, and reporting is hard work. For students to maximize their inquiry experience, they should choose a topic they care about, know something about, and wonder about,' writes Stephanie Harvey in her book Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Reseach in Grades 3-8. But some students find it difficult to pick a topic or they think that their hobbies and interests are not suitable for school. In this Quick Tip, we get a quick glimpse into a conversation between a student, Thomas, and his teacher, Mary, as they talk about Thomas’ interest in football and how that will make a great topic for his research paper. Some students struggle with topic selection. On the eve of the topic deadline, Thomas had not come up with a single idea for research. His mother rang Mary first thing in the morning and described a family in turmoil. Thomas had been up all night fraught with anxiety ov...

I have been buying magnifying glasses lately. I want my grandchildren to have one each so that they can discover and celebrate natural wonder. I recall how much fun I had as a small boy with my own magnifying glass. –Seeing snails and slugs up close, or watching ants and noticing their fine feelers, or exploring nature’s wonders in the fine lines and patterns on leaves. There was for me, a fascination observing the world through this magic portal; this round window. I want the natural curiosity my grandchildren possess further stimulated by the experience of seeing small wonders up close and personal. I hope such a simple gift as a magnifying glass stimulates their imagination and creativity. I hope they respond with wonderment and awe. A magnifying glass is not a piece of cutting edge techno wizardry, but it is a powerful tool for determining answers to questions that spring from every day experiences. Seymour Simon said ‘ I’m more interested in arousing enthusiasm in kids than in t...