Fruitcake

While growing up my parents had friends, Mary & Charlie, who, when they visited or we visited them during the holidays always gave us Claxton Fruitcakes as gifts. Fruitcake giving is the brunt of many a good laugh, however, oddly, I acquired a taste for it and to this day like it (although recent walnut allergies have kept me from enjoying it). The best part of the fruitcake visits though, were that Mary & Charlie (who were childless) collected Cracker Jack toys and my brother and I were treated with grabbing a handful of these fun little toys. Of course my favorite was when I grabbed a ring, oh the special plastic bling! Mary was from a farm outside of Knoxville, TN. I remember us visiting her elderly aging parents and being taken to my childhood dreamland on the farm. I loved chasing the chickens, going to the pig pen, petting the goats, feeding the animals, etc. I always wanted to live on a farm and would beg my dad to consider buying a farm once he retired from the Navy. Well, that never happened, The farm was sold to make way for the big new highway back decades ago. Coincidentally, my uncle and aunt bought their home not too far off that highway and for years going to visit them, taking the new fancy highway, kept those farm visits and the fruitcake gifts alive in my childhood memories each time we passed and looked with sadness to where the farm once sat. Claxton Fruitcake for me is more than just all the yummy fruit and nuts!

Dance of the Day

The bright orange and red sky descended high from the sky down to the tops of the hills. The hills appeared dark gray, almost black, fading into the ocean waters. The water’s edge was barely defined from the hills’ horizon by soft bluish gray waves. As the waves came closer, they were more defined by layers of softer blues, darker blues, and then closer to shore, a greenish gray with the orange sky reflecting, making it look like a wave of fire in the water as it approached the shoreline. To the northwest of the horizon in the far background, a very bright yellow orange ball was about to drop behind the hills. As more waves gently rushed to the sand, the bright yellow orange ball dropped further behind the hills, growing smaller as it dropped further. Rippling white water waves flowed up to the shoreline. The vast body of water was marked with surfers’ silhouettes paddling out to catch the next big wave. In the distance the yellow orange ball stayed in the same place, but gradually became smaller and smaller as each wave sprayed the shore. Then, at one moment, the yellow orange ball was gone, it had dropped behind the hills completely out of sight. Above, the bright orange and red sky had softened to hues of pink, fading into soft gray and blues at the hills‘ horizon. The glorious sunset had faithfully delivered its daily dance and announced that the day had ended and that the evening was beginning.

Catch a wave...

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Blackberry Ice Cream and Ladybugs

Saturday found us driving on the country roads of Monument in the Cabrio, top down.  The Colorado sky was pure blue, painted with brilliant white clouds, and the bright sunshine felt warm and welcomed in the higher elevations.  We came across a little main drag cafe' of sorts, featuring homemade ice cream.  I got a single blackberry cone, yep blackberry....it took me back to when I was about 5 or 6 living in Glen Burnie, MD.  My folks would always stop at an ice cream parlor when we were out and about.  I always got blackberry.  The summer fruit and blend of cream is the perfect combination.  Enjoying the Colorado day was only enriched when a ladybug landed on the lens of my sunglasses. Life was just perfect at that moment, and again a reminder of how much I love Colorado, this place I call home. 

New Look at Books

I cannot ever walk directly through the door at Barnes and Noble, I must stop and look at all the sale books in the entry foyer first.  Two books immediately caught my attention today,  one about "Daddy" and another about "Granddad".  I don't have grandchildren (yet) and neither my dad or father in law are with us anymore.  I wished so badly to have a reason to buy these colorful, whimsical books.  Next, I found myself browsing the bargain stacks and once again drawn to children's books.  My heart dropped to the depths of my stomach, and literally, I felt a tear slide down my face.  I felt very sad realizing I will no longer be buying books for the children of my school library.  My personal finances will allow me to buy limited quantities for my classroom, but never again like the quantities afforded me as the teacher-librarian for 11 years at Ames, even on a tight budget, a budget that allowed for new titles to lure the kids to read. I am going to miss this so much.  It took great willpower to avoid going to the back of the store where the children's section is....that would have caused me even more sadness and pain.  I wonder if I will ever be able to walk into the Tattered Cover again, or even The Bookies?  I am going to need some serious therapy to get through this void that is facing me as I transition to my new teaching job. 

Social Bookmarks

I can't say how many times I have gone to colleagues' Delicious Bookmarks for links for web sites. I have had creating my own Delicious account on my "to do list" for at least a year now. Given that setting up a social bookmarking network is a requirement for my Learning2oh class and the fact that our building is closing, and there is a need for others to access the links on the pages I maintain on our website for our students and staff, I have finally developed a Delicious account.
Unlike with my many "Favorites" list on various computers, this makes all the academic, personal, and professional links a breeze to access. Keeping up with the folders under Favorites was quite tedious, Delicious is quick and easy. I especially like that I can have my academic (for students and staff), professional, and personal links all on one interface. The ability to "share" or "not share" is especially a feature I like and will use, and all will be organized and easily assessible at the click of a key!
Tagging in Delicious would be an ideal activity to instruct and engage students when we are doing research and trying to get a grip on moving from broad topics to more specific.

Writing by Students Via Wikis

Now that several weeks have past and I have incorporated more writing opportunities for students to post writing on the ILC wiki, it is becoming a more routine tool to use. Along with a teammate, I have posted sentences which the students are to rewrite correctly applying correct puncuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. (much like the DOL of the past). Although appearing a simple task, using the wiki to post incorporates a couple of more skills, specifically we have noticed, reading carefully--especially the directions. Keyboarding, which only improves by writing, is also integrated. Many kids don't like grammar and mechanics, but being able to post and immediately see their work definitely engages them. However, I learned quickly that how I set up monitoring the posts is important...or they can just look at everyone else's edits and copy. Also, engaging or not, the need for grammar and mechanics or not, these activities are not necessarily the best use of this tool. A more exciting and more purposeful use of the wiki was when I downloaded an image from an old Sears Catalog advertisement for a bicycle (using digital primary sources from LOC's American Memory Collection) directing the students to review it carefully, reflect and use their inferencing skills to write about it. This activity allowed for them to reflect on each other's comments and respond again. We will keep experimenting and "write on"!

Blogging….and Authentic Writing

I have participated in live blogging with my colleague’s students. Live blogging is moderated by the administrator (my colleague) and the students know my wiki and blogger name so they are aware there are more than just the students themselves blogging. The administrator screens the comments and questions prior to allowing the post to go online. To some, this may seem squelching freedoms, however, this is a relatively new tool and learning how to do this appropriately, academically, and ethically is a learning process. The students want to see their responses posted, by participating in a live blog, it encourages them to think and organize prior to writing and posting….just the same as when they are in the writing process on paper.

I first set up a blog for personal use quite some time ago…last summer I am thinking. I set it up and then realized I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it! So, that was abandoned. In recent months, after reading more blogs, both personal and educational, I started to envision the purpose of my blog. We are very focused on literacy in my building and have established a goal that 100% of our staff will be involved in writing, along with our students. I often feel my writing is personal and I don’t want to post it for the entire world to see. I have done my part working towards our school’s writing goal; however several times on paper to only be set aside in a hiding place. This has all jolted me to realize my procrastination (fear) had to come to an end. Finally, last month I took the plunge and started to be brave enough to post some writing. Also, having to meet the 2.0 class requirements, more pushing, I have to do this!

Deb’s Dabbles at least for now, will be both personal and educational posts.

As for incorporating blogs into my educational environment, I see students from kindergarten through the fifth grade and for very short periods of time. I am able to connect beyond the time constraints with the 4th and 5th graders as they are using wikis in the classrooms. Given where we are right now (CSAP and eventually more MAP assessments coming quickly) I would like to develop a blog for interested students to participate in over the summer. I am thinking we can discuss a couple of books to read and respond to, and also do some blogging on current topics. This would encourage reading, writing, and thinking; and equally as important, let us keep connected over the summer (as we are all going in different directions at the close of this school year).

I know I need to further think out the management of this and welcome ideas and thoughts which will help me achieve this.

Piece of History-- Embracing Change

I think school librarians and all educators will be inspired by the reflections from a librarian who got to attend the inauguration last week.

Skepticism or Practicing What I Teach

Each morning with the news on as we get ready for work, my husband acts as a commentator of the commentaries on the TV. Like someone reading a newspaper article aloud, sure you want to hear what they are reading, I have just grown to tolerate it, or more honestly ignore it.

This past week he has had quite the list of comments on Obama and the inauguration. He will tell you he is a voter of issues not parties, but that is not true, proven by his comments. I wish he would just get over the fact Obama is now the Commander in Chief and move on. One afternoon as we running about for errands, he engaged me in a conversation about the cost of this inauguration as compared with Bush's back in 2004. He was very persuasive, very knowledgeable and conversed with great confidence and examples to support his position. I began thinking this would be a great blog topic especially after our live blog at school on January 20th. Several students addressed the cost of the inauguration and wondered why we are still spending on the war for example, and why all that money on inauguration events?

I tend to take shortcuts and do lots of things and quickly. Needless to say, the end result is often full of mistakes only having to be done again. Preparing the discussion in my brain I decided to research the costs of inaugurations. It was only a matter of time after browsing and reading that I decided to abandon this idea--another media myth. The end result? Skepticism made me practice what I teach.

Remembering on Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday

Each year when Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered by the holiday we have today, I find myself in deep reflection of what all of this means. I remember at the end of 6th grade the big news was schools would be integrating. Many of my friends would go to school south of where we lived, which had been the “white school”. I would go north a bit to the “black school”….Frederick Douglass Jr.Sr.High. It wasn’t just that many of us would be divided between boundaries and schools, but many of my friends’ families literally pulled up roots and left Maryland to move to other southern states that had not yet followed integration, to avoid being immersed into having to send their children to integrated schools.

The first day of 7th grade I remember looking down at my feet—trendy penny loafers with socks (I could just die, but my mother would not yet let me wear stockings) and standing off with my white friends from 6th grade. We were going to miss the friends who moved…especially Lisa, her parents had horses and we were often invited over to ride. Many groups were gathered all about as friends do, and clearly there were the black groups and the white groups (only to be followed in time to come the “greaser groups”, the “collegiates”, the “farmers”, etc).

I didn’t really get it…what was all the commotion about? Up until 6th grade I had been traveling and moving about as a Navy brat…did I miss something?

I was excited about going into junior high and with grades 7-12…cool! I joined band and this was probably my greatest passion for a few years. The Douglass Marching Band under the direction of LeRoy Battle was famous, or had been famous at least up until the school integrated.

For the first couple of years most of my teachers were black….and damn hard as I recall or honestly perhaps I was just not a strong student. I have remotely kept up with Mr. Battle over the years; He is now in his upper 80s. He had a jazz band that made the club circuit for a long time, he was a Tuskegee Airman, and he has authored two books….only a few things I know about this remarkable man and teacher. He pushed us so hard, I never valued that then, but when I reflect, how fortunate I was. Mr. Stephenson, Mrs. Pinkney, Mrs. Goldstein, I remember all those 7th grade teachers…..they were pretty strict and had very high expectations. Clearly, that being said validates that they influenced my education, and how lucky I am.

I rambled a bit off topic…I don’t ever remember any friction between the races in school, I don’t remember any name calling, at least in my circles of friends. I do remember when I started at Douglass there were about 25% of us that were white, and 75% black (isn’t it funny how statistics that are buzzed about stays in your brain?) and by the time we graduated….oh I don’t know, who cares what the ratio was. There were 123 of us and we all knew each other, if not as a good friend, at least by name so we could say hello when we passed in the hall.

My dad was from Georgia, my mom is from Tennessee. Since we were now in the states, and my dad about to retire from active duty, Maryland was going to be our home. So, we went to GA often. As we drove south and stopped in the Carolinas I do remember the signs at gas stations over the bathrooms and the drinking fountains marked “whites only”. In my dad’s small southern town, one of my uncles had a filling station and we would go there as kids to get a bottled pop and hang out. There were not just the signs for “whites only”, but a sign with an arrow directing “colored” towards the back. My Granny had a “woman” who came in to help her with the cleaning and laundry in her home. I think I only caught a glimpse of this woman; she stayed and worked at the back of the house. When we would go into town with my dad, we would pass an ice house and I remember seeing the black workers sitting on the dock off by themselves. There was a cotton gin across the street….I had read about Eli Whitney and remember feeling happy that a cotton gin was there because when I envisioned slaves working in the cotton fields, it tugged at my heart. We also spent hours at the swimming pool with my cousins, and it was for “whites” only. So my ignorance of what was happening in our nation was subsiding and I was getting educated on the realities of the civil rights movement.

We lived only about 20 miles outside of DC…if you were to get on Pennsylvania Avenue and head east, it will bring you to my town. Watching the news at night was a ritual in my home. I grew up keeping pretty aware of national and international events. When King was assassinated we were glued to the TV for several days. When events happened in DC, it was like it was happening in our backyard. The Poor People’s March was King’s last organized event before he was assassinated. When the Poor People’s March ascended on DC and Resurrection City evolved, one of my teachers, a National Guard Reservist, was called to active duty. We kept very close to the TV to watch how the mall had become a home for the protesters. It was devastating to see the beautiful mall converted to a city of tents immersed in mud due to the rains. This brought the seriousness of fighting for equal rights more real than ever. Bobby Kennedy was then killed. The footage on TV of the ransacking and looting that followed the closing of Resurrection City left me not just feeling sad but now frightened.

My journaling about this is not especially unique, but it is mine….my memories, my emotions, mine. I don’t want to ever let it go, I share with students each year at this time, I share with my sons, and I choose to remember because this is such a significant piece of history that should never be forgotten. I continue to have great hope that we can be tolerant of differences and always strive for a better society, a peaceful world. Tomorrow’s inauguration of Obama is tangible evidence that our nation has grown. Whether we voted for him or not is not important…what is important is that we move forward together with unity.

For more information on The Legacy of Resurrection City:
http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/08/1968_resurrection/