Magic Moments

Getting lost in Tamara’s rich poetry

Bubbling with Robyn’s enthusiasm

Singing to Beatrice’s music

Weaving baskets with Marissa

Adoring Colleen’s paintings

Laughing at Kristi’s Lilikoi

Crafting Jeanne’s books

Living Doreen’s culture

Joking about Shawna’s fertility
Inhaling Cecilia’s coffee

Admiring Jessie’s knowledge

Hearing Debbie’s whales

Praying for Jeannine

Lehua Reflection

Looking back on these three intensive weeks, I feel I’ve grown.  Both as a writer and a human being.  Paintbrush in hand, I’ve been nurtured to bring life to my experiences.  For the first time in quite a while, I’ve found joy in writing.  Amidst all the expectations for  foot-noted research papers and peer-reviewed expository texts, I’d long since taken any pleasure in writing.

Given the current emphasis -both in HCPS and Common Core- upon expository and academic writing, I fear that our students are also being deprived of this bliss.  How can we as teachers balance “fun” and “creative” writing with the college-bound demands of academia?  Where can I find time to slip in a bit of poetry writing or narration of personal events?   I already feel pressured and overwhelmed by all we have to cover;  how can I force in even more?

And therein lies the dilemma of teaching:  how do I teach the curriculum required by state and school while still finding time to include elements of enjoyment?  If I had all the answers, you’d all be buying my book. 

A Hilarious Article Regarding the Oxford Comma

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/06/30/137525211/going-going-and-gone-no-the-oxford-comma-is-safe-for-now?sc=fb&cc=fp

A Day in the Life of Kokoro

5:30AM Start working on Daddy so that he gets up to feed me.  Commence loud, incessant meowing and carefully- placed licks on his forearm.  Walk over his body a few times putting all of my seventeen pounds on the soft areas.  

6:15AM Oh Boy, breakfast!  I hope it’s wet food today!  Waddle down the stairs at lightning speed.

6:16AM  Nope, dry food again.  But I eat it all anyway.

6:20AM  Vomit on the carpet to show my disdain for dry food.

6:30AM  Had trouble going to the litter box and accidentally dragged a piece of feces onto the kitchen floor.

6:35AM  Spend the rest of the morning hiding in the closet from Mommy so that she doesn’t punish me for the feces.  Sometimes I get a time out in the pantry and no one will let me out no matter how loud I howl.  

7:00AM Whew, coast is clear!  Mommy and Daddy have gone for the day.

8:00AM-12:00PM  Lie on Mommy and Daddy’s bed and nap

12:00PM Get bored.  Waddle downstairs and see what items have been left out for me to dismember.  Today I decide on the kahili Mommy made last week at City of Refuge.

 1:00PM-2:00PM Spend time pulling out and chewing on each feather of the kahili.  Got to be thorough.

2:00PM Leave some surprise for Mommy and Daddy to clean up; vomit is my favorite.

3:00PM  Go upstairs and pretend to be sleeping.

3:30PM Mommy and Daddy come home.  Make exaggerated display of yawning and coming downstairs.

4:00PM Start begging for dinner.

4:30 Weigh down Mommy or Daddy’s lap so they don’t forget to feed me.  See if I can trick them into giving me treats!  Sometimes they’re stupid enough to give me a treat just for getting off their laps.

6:00PM Dinnertime!  Unless I convince Daddy to give it to me early, which I do on most days.

6:15PM Join Mommy in the kitchen.  Too bad!  She doesn’t usually drop table scraps.  If only Daddy were cutting up a Rotisserie Chicken... He always shares.

7:00PM Sleep off the big meal.  Maybe on my back in the middle of the living room floor.  Not interested in Mommy or Daddy anymore because they have nothing more to offer me.

8:00PM Bat and hiss at my annoying little sister when she tries to play with me.

10:00PM Mommy and Daddy go to bed.  Make faces at my sister trapped outside the glass door.  Smugly climb up to bed with Mommy and Daddy.  

10:15PM Cuddle under Mommy’s chin and go to sleep.  Ready to start the whole routine again tomorrow!

Annotated Bibliography: Exploring the Effectiveness of Templates

Askov, E. N., Brown, E. J. (1989). Templates for literacy: Manual evaluation. The
  Pennsylvania State University:  University Park, PA.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

This study was conducted by Eunice N. Askov, Ph.D and project director of the
Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy; a subsidiary of the College of Education
at Pennsylvania State University as well as Emory J. Brown, Ph.D and
consultant.  Research was done to determine the effectiveness of using
templates, specifically the Templates for Literacy Manual, to improve reading and
writing, as well as other computer skills.  Although this research was conducted
in 1989, the data is still valid and could easily belong to populations tested today.
The three 18-week studies were conducted at adult literacy programs in New
York City; Salem, Oregon; and Weirton, West Virginia.  Findings of these studies
indicate that students reported that their reading and writing skills had improved
at least in part due to the use of word processing templates designed to improve
writing.


Benay, P. (2008). They say, "Templates are the way to teach writing"; I say, "Use
  with extreme caution.". Pedagogy, 8(2), 369-373. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.


Phyllis Benay, who earned her Ph.D from the University of Massachusetts, is a
professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of the Center for Writing at
Keene State College; she is also a 15-year teacher of Expository Writing classes.  
The intended audience of this article is educators and administrators in writing curricula.  
This article was published in 2008 and therefore weighs in on current, heated research
regarding this topic.  Her background information was collected while teaching at Keane
State College.  Benay reviewed Gerald Graff’s recent academic text They Say, I Say,
which strongly advocates for the use of writing templates to teach students complicated
elements of writing.  Benay finds this text “useful and seductive,” because it highlights the
maneuvers skilled writers use but makes them seem overly simple.  Benay also insists
that writers need to intrinsically acquire these skills through the development of their
processes; many fledgling writers will not learn to make these key intellectual moves on
their own.


Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C. (2010).  They say I say:  The moves that matter in
  academic writing (2nd ed.).  New York, NY:  W.W. Norton & Company.


Graff, an English and Education professor at the University of Illinois Chicago,
 has served as the President of the Modern Language Association and has
published several books for educators.  Birkenstein, an English lecturer at the
University of Illinois Chicago, is co-director of the Writing in the Disciplines
 program and has also published essays on writing.  This text was written for
educators and administrators in an attempt to reform the acquisition of writing
skills.  The second edition of this academic text was published in 2010 and
thus offers timely information on this controversial issue.  Background design
and implementation of these methods were piloted at the University of Illinois
Chicago.  This scholarly text offers a number of useful templates applicable to
a variety of writing situations that are intended to elevate students’ writing.  
Graff originally wrote this text in an effort to invite students into the written
discourse surrounding them and teach them several formulaic devices designed
to make their writing more sophisticated.


Street, B. (2004), Academic literacies and the “new orders”: Implications for
  research and practice in student writing in higher education, Learning and
  Teaching in the Social Sciences 1(1), 9-20. doi: 10.1386/ltss.1.1.9/0


A Professor of Language in Education at King’s College, London, Brian Street is
an established figure in his field.  His intended audience consists of researchers,
educators, and curriculum specialists, and policy makers at the higher education
level.  This research was published in 2004 and therefore is relevant to the
ongoing debate rethinking the instruction of writing at Universities.  A research
project was conducted in the UK that measured student perceptions of the writing
process using the New Literacy Studies proposed by the author.   Research findings
indicate that due to the large numbers of “non-traditional” students enrolling in
Universities, our society needs to shift the paradigm of education to include new
academic literacies.  In order for this to occur, we need to expand our definition of
literacy to redefine it as a social practice in use rather than in theory.


Sun, Y. (2007). Learner perceptions of a concordancing tool for academic writing.
   Computer Assisted Language Learning, 20(4), 323-343.  
   doi:10.1080/09588220701745791


Yu-Chih Sun, a professor at National Chaio Tung University, Taiwan, has
published other academic papers regarding the importance of linguistics in
technology and education.  The intended audience is the larger academic
community of educators, writers and policy makers at the university level.  This
study was published in 2007 and adds more data to the ongoing debate
scrutinizing the use of scholarly templates.  The research followed a group of
twenty graduate students at a research-oriented university in Taiwan.  The
author believes that academic templates can effectively scaffold complex
rhetorical maneuvers in writing and make them more attainable. Findings
indicate that participants had a positive reaction to the use of the Scholarly
Writing Template and that the academic template had varied effects on the
level of writing.


Using templates to promote SOSE. (2000). Ethos Annual, 8, 39. Retrieved 
  from EBSCOhost.


The Primary English Teaching Association (PETA) is a national collective group
 based in Australia that supports primary school educators in teaching English
and literacy across all areas of the curriculum. PETA published the book Writing
in the Curriculum: Frames to Support Learning, which is the focus of this article.
The text was written by Maureen Lewis and David Wray, who have written
several books about literacy and literacy teaching.  The intended audience of this
article is probably primary school educators given that the featured templates
were of elementary school level.  This article was published in 2000, but the
information discussed therein is still relevant to current debate.  Presumably, the
 templates discussed have undergone trials in Australia.  Authors argue
that the hardest part of writing is getting started, and that templates provide
support for this specific problem. Emphasis is also placed on templates designed
to foster critical thinking and inquiry.

Iambic Iceberg

Where jagged mountains kiss the sapphire sky

Around a turquoise lake of frozen glass

The sunshine smiles between the angel wisps.

A-waiting to take flight on wings of wind

Upon the surface stroll the lazy beasts

From glaciers old as time they once did roam

The scent of pine trees dances on the breeze

Enveloped in a cloak of evergreen

The birds and ground squirrels chitter in protest

While underfoot coarse gravel softly groans

Beneath a shiv’ring sea of breathless ice

Trespassers shall their welcome not abide

Intimate Moment

It had been decided.  Robb and I had decided to get married and were busily planning our fantasy medieval wedding.  We’d visited my uncle the day before and selected THE ring;  a beautiful marquise-cut diamond alive with fire was nestled in a serpentine band of glittering jewels.  Robb jokingly tried to give me the ring with a cheesy proposal:  “And the nominees for Best Fiancee are....  Jessica Alba, Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, and finally Jessica Winter!”  My maiden name hung drily in the air. 

Needless to say, I found this proposal unacceptable.  I told Robb he would have to do better or I wouldn’t marry him at all.  In his usual style, Robb tested out a few other doozies and botched proposals, none of which made the cut.

On our last day in Wisconsin, we planned a visit to Robb’s sister’s house in Madison.  My parents had come along because Robb and I were looking at wedding venues.  As we began to say goodbye, Robb looked deep into my eyes and I knew he was about to make a serious proposal.  I couldn’t believe he would be so brave to do it in front of my parents and his sister’s family;  for an introverted nerd, this would be quite an audience!   

I don’t remember exactly what was said, but it was something to the effect of, “These past five years have been the best of my life.  I can’t imagine a future without you.  Will you marry me? And make me happy for the rest of my life?” 

This was what I had been waiting for.  Joy fell from my eyes in a stream of lavender rain.  My mom attempted to subtly photograph the event while all the ladies in the room blinked back tears.  

“Yes.”  I replied.  “I knew you could do it.”

He slipped the dazzling platinum onto my finger and we embraced in a circle of light.  My ears could not hear the applause that filled the room.