Mylan Park–West Virginia–turkeys welcome.

Sara and I have just returned from a two day visit to Mylan Park Elementary School on the outskirts of Morgantown, West Virginia.

We came at the behest and hard work of Sara’s college roommate Suzanne Smart whose last name is very apropos. She’s got to be a pretty sharp cookie – she brought us in didn't she?

We spent our first day conducting some teacher workshops in the library in the morning followed by a couple assemblies with the students in the afternoon. The second day we lead some writing workshops in the classroom. The students were some of the  most eager to learn that we have come across and we are hoping that this is just the first of multiple visits we make to this great community.

A cornerstone for families in this area is The Shack – a community center extraordinaire where Suzanne functions as one of the big wigs. It was through this organization that Suzanne was able to put together the logistics to get Sara and me into the school.

After our visit in the school we  had the pleasure of headlining a family literacy night which included a lasagna dinner and a gymnasium populated by free range toddlers. The day before when we swung by the center to get a lay of the land in anticipation of the literacy night we surprised some of the kids we had seen in the school as they played basketball. They were bug eyed excited to to see the visiting authors outside of the confines of school walls. One mohawked fourth grader exclaimed incredulously “What are YOU doing out here!.” as if the visiting authors are stored in the principles closet between appearances.

Well, thankfully we were allowed to roam free during our stay in the Morgantown area – not too unlike the flocks of turkey we saw wandering the hills on the way to school. I hope we manage to migrate back sometime soon.

Lanier Elementary - Dallas, Texas

Sara and I did a quick trip to Texas at the end of last week to visit Sidney Lanier Elementary School in Dallas. We visited classrooms and also worked with the teachers in a PD session after school. This was all made possible by the energetic and smart school reading specialist Kia - who I first met last year at a conference I was speaking at in San Antonio - and her principle Mrs. Peraza.

Here's a short video from our visit.

Hawken Middle School

Spent two fantastic days at Hawken Middle School where we worked on writing about change and revolution. Here’s a short vid.

Hawken Middle School–Cleveland Ohio

Kutztown Middle School

Every now and then I get to visit a school that makes me extra glad for what I do. Kutztown Middle was one of these schools. All the kids were prepared for my visit – which means they actually knew I was coming, they even rearranged the school day schedule in order to make sure i had ample time to work with the kids.

Special kudos to Miss Mancini for all her hard work to bring me to this little town outside of Allentown, PA.  Sara and I always say – we can tell what kind of visit it is going to be three minutes after stepping into a school. Outside I could smell the cow pastures nearby – but inside I found a fresh and bright learning environment – no doubt fostered by the principle James Brown – I felt good!

So here’s a short video from the visit and good luck to all the eighth graders participating in the anti-bullying poetry slam whether as participants or audience.

 

Measure twice – cut once…

Just back from Chicago where Sara and I spent three days visiting and working with the students at Deerpath Middle School. Our first day was the day after Halloween so I think there was a bit of a blood sugar spike that we were contending with during our assembly and subsequent workshops – but we still got some great work done and I think the kids came away with some ideas to improve their public speaking and to make their writing more concise and precise.

The teachers had our book Outspoken (which we learned upon arriving home has gone into its fourth printing) and we worked from this and our new one High Definition. Sara and I took the divide and conquer approach – here seeing students in a lecture hall and me seeing the other half for workshops in the library where we wrote definition poems.

Between sessions the technology teacher grabbed me and asked if I had any ideas on how he could incorporate poetry into his classes. How cool is that? Coming from a manufacturing and engineering background myself I was happy to talk to him about how to do just that, writing vocabulary poems, infomercials, obituaries and other text types to teach the terms behind the physics of making a two liter bottle powered rocket or a gravity powered Lego car.

While chatting with this teacher I learned that he once had taught woodshop. Now the community of Lake Forest is a more than fairly upscale suburb north of Chicago proper. It seems that the woodshop class was discontinued because as one parent had explained to this teacher, “We hire people to do work like this.”

This teacher wasn’t complaining to me – we were just shooting the breeze but I’m afraid that perhaps this parent had missed the point and coming from a family that has never been afraid to get their hands dirty, bends or cut metal, dig a ditch, or do their own brake jobs I was a bit worried by the inference.

Would this parent ever walk into a board, court-room or onto the trading floor without a plan, a blueprint perhaps? Would he or she not make sure she had all the tools necessary to complete whatever project they were working on readily at hand? Would they not measure twice and cut once? It seems one of alums of this school, a Mr. Dave Eggers, understands the lessons he learned back in the day when woodworking class was still offered. Returning recently for a classmate’s 40^th birthday party also attended by the tech teacher – he let said teacher know that the lessons of working from an outline, understanding the need to sequence steps to conserve materials and to work toward a finished project even when the end was still far off in the distance all lessons learned or made practical by the now defunct woodworking class had helped construct the writer/person into which Eggers had grown up .

Now I know there are no ovals on the standardized tests that ask the difference between a crosscut saw and a bastard file, just as there are no essay questions about how to make a reed for a bassoon. But aren’t these talents transferrable into the “real world” of finance and law? I’ve heard parents defend their schools athletic departments because of the life lessons learned by the participants – don’t hands on trade classes offer at least as many experience points as a lacrosse field?

By the way – one of the best woodworkers I have ever met, a hobbyist who made beautiful grandfather clocks, tables, chairs, and china hutches was a guy I used to house sit for. Of course his day job did require him to work with his hands so maybe he already had a proclivity for manual labor – he was the chief surgeon and head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic.

Eastlake Middle School

As promised – here are a couple vocabulary word infomercials written today by 8th graders in Eastlake Ohio.

High Definition Book Talk

The English Companion Ning is a really cool online community dedicated to English teachers.  Well, later this month their book club will be discussing my and Sara’s new book: High Definition. How excited are we about this?

We’re THIS excited

 

Click on the NING link above for more info.

High Definition: Vocabulary-Building Strategies Across Genres and Subjects

Available as of TODAY!

There’s no Bizness like Po-bizness.

“It’s dangerous writing a poem.”  So said Nick, at Sharon Elementary school.

The last two months have seen quite the whirlwind of activity here in the Salinger / Holbrook household. Trips to Morocco and Abu Dhabi followed by teacher workshops in Tempe Arizona at ASU after which Sara headed to Seattle and I came back to the Erie shores to visit some schools here in the Highland District of Medina (pronounced Me – Dye – Na as opposed to the Arabic Ma –Dee- Na) Hinckley and Sharon.

Next up we get on a plane at the rooster insulting hour of 6am – which means being at the airport @4am – to head to South Korea and then Shanghai, China to round out our overseas adventure for this winter.

In Tempe we keynoted at the 40th annual Language and Literacy Conference at Arizona State University. We had lunch with our good friend, ex wrestler, current professor and cowboy poet, Dr. Jim Blasingame at a joint called Mucho Gusto. There I partook in the Big Ass Burrito (actual menu item – Sara had the Half Ass portion) along with some of the best guacamole I have ever consumed! The teachers at the conference were receptive and enthusiastic - much more eager than I was to get up before 5am to catch a plane back to the frozen north coast the next morning.

Back in Ohio I flirted with snow days while completing a three day residency in the Highland Local Schools. Each morning I checked the scrolling lists of closed schools and each day – much to the chagrin of students and teachers alike - the school I was headed to was open. We spent three days writing definition poems which was a whole lot of fun and I was glad to get the sessions in sans any weather delays.

In the midst of all this I also drove to Ann Arbor Michigan twice, to drop off and then pick up our foo foo dog Suzi Creamcheese to get her freak on – hopefully resulting in some puppies this April.

So – writing poetry is some pretty dangerous business – who knows what will happen once you start? You might end up on a plane to Shanghai, driving a dog to Michigan, staring at a plate of kim chi or eating a burrito as big as your head. I’ll tell ya this, It sure beats working for a living!

Defining moments…

Had a fun and fruitful visit with the 5th graders @ Apex Academy here in Cleveland. We got a jump start on their winter break take home packets by writing some definition poems for a list of words contained within said packets. 

Good sessions even though the holiday break was peeking from around the corner trying to distract us. Special thanks to Ms. Coleman for having her kids prepared and for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Well Defined Vocabulary in Rhyme.

It's official!

Well Defined Vocabulary in Rhyme - is published.

Actually it came out at the beginning of the week - I was hoping the publisher would have the Spring catalog up @ their website, but that is still coming. I know it's not really spring out there - but the publishing industry is always a couple months ahead of the calendar I just received my April issue of Bicyling magazine.

Anyway - I think the book came out really well. Well Defined that is - the April issue of Bicyling magazine isn't too shabby either - but I really don't have a vested interest in that publication...

New Book

Received an advance copy of my new book from the publishers today.

I don't know - though - when it'll hit the streets. Probably not in time to be a stocking stuffer - but still it's exciting to have it in my hands - and it looks pretty good too.

Now we wait for reviews.

Defining moments...

Received
a PDF of my new book coming out this spring.

This is By Definition, Vocabulary in Rhyme a book to be published by the Wordsong imprint of Boyd’s Mills Press – they’re the people who do Highlights – you know the magazine in all the pediatrician’s offices.


I’ve got to say – it looks pretty good and I am excited. The illustrations by Sam Henderson are great. It takes so long for this process though – almost two years, that I was able to read through the pieces and really can’t remember writing some of them – but they made me chuckle so I guess that’s a good thing.


Here’s one with its illustration for ya.

Well Defined

Starting to get back to the daily swing of things.

Thanks to all for your support.

I've got a couple back burner projects bubbling over to the stove front so of course I spent this morning working on something that is still far off in the future as well as not really my responsibility.

A book of (hopefully) humorous poems defining SAT level vocabulary words penned by myself and illustrated by Sam Henderson is due out from Boyd's Mills Press this coming spring. It is almost a two year process from acceptance of the manuscript to the book hitting the shelves.

The publisher has been keeping me in the loop on the project and even took my suggestion for an illustrator - this is surprisingly very rare. I know a whole lot of writers who never see the artwork for their manuscript til the galleys show.

Here is a possible cover for the book. I took the liberty of coloring and adding text to Sam's drawing - so it is by no means the official artwork that will be used - just a shot in the dark on my part.

An here is one of the poems:

Insidious

sneaks under the door
little by little by little
spreads across the floor like morning fog
he’ll stick to your shoes
and follow you like a little brother
that can’t be shook
he’s that tickle in the back of your throat
when you absolutely must be quiet
the smell of turpentine
cheesy song you can’t get out of your mind
he’s nothing but trouble
but he takes
his time