April 4 2014

Writing Marathon

Writing in the outdoor amphitheater

Joy is…

watching

sixth graders

write

create

relax

observe

©2014 Michelle Haseltine

All Rights Reserved

 

Our field trip included a writing marathon. 


The students 

walked around and 

wrote

Some wrote poetry, 

some wrote stories, 

some wrote about what they want to be when they grow up,

some wrote lists, 

some wrote comics…they all wrote. 

Students 

wrote in different 

spots

some wrote on a basketball court

some wrote in a tunnel

some wrote sitting next to a brook

some wrote in a football stadium

some wrote in a library

some wrote in a cemetery…they all wrote. 

©2014 Michelle Haseltine

All Rights Reserved

 

 


I wrote this poem while we sat in an underpass…


Blue lights

stand watch

footsteps echo

twenty steps (I counted)

connect

one side

to

another


Runners

Saunter-ers

Laughers


They walk

they look

they smile

and

they wonder…


What are they doing?


But no one asks

because

writers are observers 

recording life around us

in our

notebooks

with our

pens

and our imaginations…

©2014 Michelle Haseltine

All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

October 16 2012

A week…

Field trip

Field trip

I’ve been waking up at night with such feelings of guilt for not blogging more… or at all.  It’s been a week. I feel like a failure…until I think about everything else that’s been going on. I’m a work in progress. Since I last posted, we took our first field trip to a college, we wrote brain dumps, read our books, we continued with the read aloud, we drafted our first piece of writing, we attended the book fair…what else? Professionally, I spent some time planning to present at a national conference with my colleagues. (This is very exciting for me! I can’t wait!!) My hope is that  you’ll forgive me for the lack of posts.

Brain dumps. I’ll explain. If you write, you may be familiar with the concept of morning pages. I first read about them from the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron when I was in graduate school in the 90s. It’s stream of consciousness writing. There are multiple reasons for brain dumps. They clear our brains. They build our fluency and help us write more and write longer. The more we let go, the crazier our brain dumps can be. They can be used as ideas for future pieces of writing, too. Students are enjoying the brain dumps. In addition to using them in class, I use them when I’m upset or confused about something. Writing a brain dump for a certain amount of time (or until I’m done writing) often helps me untangle my mind and I’m able to figure out the root of my problem. I encourage students to use them at home as well as at school.

Here are a few photos of our week…

Brain dump page 2

Brain dump page 2

Brain dump page 1

Brain dump page 1