Relaxing

I feel like this big buy that we saw at the zoo a couple weeks ago. I made it! Turned in my portfolio on Wednesday with all my writing, reflections, book review and an action plan for the school year. We all then went out to Cafe Berlin for a yummy lunch celebration - must remember to put strawberries in my salad at home. Delicious!!

Today I'm going to tour the new elementary school with a friend. I'm excited to see it!

Happy Friday from a much-relieved-and-not-stressed-anymore,

Ms. Hagen

Homework...again!

Wow! I might have to stay up past 9pm tonight - presentation tomorrow and my portfolio due Wednesday!

To Do List:
1. Revise two pieces of writing
2. Write a reflection on a book I just read
3. Make copies of presentation
4. Write an overview of my portfolio.

(to do lists look happier in pink)

OK. Must stop writing to you and do my work. I am using one of your laptops (#1) and you're right. The cursor does jump around. I suspect that is because I keep bumping the mouse. My laptop has a virus; can't wait to get it back! Although perhaps if I added some cute stickers to this one I'd be more in love...

Happy Monday from a frazzled Ms. Hagen

School supplies

We have to go shopping today for a birthday present for one of the kids' friends today. I've been trying to avoid the school supplies sections of the stores, but I think today might be the day. It is always so exciting to see the new binders, notebooks and folders. Shelf after shelf of paper in all varieties, clean, new and fresh. And the pens. Ahhhh. Row upon row of new ink in a variety of delectable colors. I'm smiling just thinking about it. Maybe I can just peek a little. After all, I will have TWO kids in school this year; I should definitely get prepared. Where do we go? Walmart? Target? Hmmm. And then there are places like Michael's, Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store. I think my heart rate just jumped a little. I'll let you know what I find. :)

Happy Sunny Saturday!
Ms. Hagen

Amazing week!

Ahhh. I have just spent four days in heaven. Well, heaven for me, anyway. I have had my first week of class in the Missouri Writing Project, and it has been incredible!

We start out each day journaling - our facilitators (teachers who are learning right along side us)provide topics, or we can write about whatever we want. What a luxury to have 10 minutes of time to just write without feeling guilty that I should be taking attendance, checking in with absent kids or doing some other task for school.

Then someone presents the daily minutes, where they review what we did in class the day before in a fun format. There was talk about how this practice might work in the classroom. Maybe a weekly overview?

The main part of the day is where someone presents a Round Table discussion/writing lesson. So far we've done interviews and written oral histories, we revised common stories and revised them to send different messages (I did Sleeping Beauty and had the princess rescue the prince), and today we did several fun activities - you'll have to wait until school starts to see them.

The biggest highlights so far have come during our afternoon activities where we have done things to bring social justice into the classroom. One of them I'm going to save for school, but I'll tell you about today's. We went out to Lenoir, to just sit and talk with someone who lives there. I was really nervous about this activity. I kept imagining interviewing a person who couldn't hear me even though I was yelling, and that person being very angry about the whole thing. My experience was NOTHING like that. It was amazing!

I met a woman named Norma who I'm guessing is in her 80s. She used to be a teacher in a one-room school house in rural Missouri, and then she got married and traveled the world. Her stories of the travels and projects that she and her husband did over the years were so interesting. I was transported to India, Liberia and the Czech Republic. And, it didn't stop when they retired. She and her husband continued helping people in the Appalachians, in Arizona and even in Alaska. I was so inspired to travel and lead as rich of a life as she has. Now I will write up my interview notes into a story. I am so grateful for this experience and can't wait to hear everyone else's stories too.

My last little nugget is that this week we read and talked about the book Life is a Verb (you know that book by the woman [Patti Digh] who loves Johnny Depp as much as I do?). I hadn't quite finished it, so I read the rest this week and it was SO GOOD!!!!

I am loving my summer. I've been writing and reading and having great conversations with friends, and swimming and lounging and painting and loving my kids, and just being happy. I hope you too are having a rejuvenating summer. Ms. Selby, our new principal, sent us an email this week saying she hoped we were resting and having fun because she needs us back 100%. I extend my wishes to you and say also, I need you 100% too. Bring your experiences, your noticings and your wonderful brains. It's WAY to early to say I can't wait to see you, so I won't. Live, laugh and have fun!
Ms. Hagen

What to write about

Happy Sunday morning to everyone! I'm a little worried that our pool plans may be put on hold the way the sky looks this morning. It was pretty an hour ago when a pink glow spread across the blue. Now we just have gray dotted with darker gray, and I can hear the far-off rumbles of thunder.

Tomorrow starts the Missouri Writing Project. I was having nervous heart palpitations this morning thinking about it. The class will be full of people I know, which is great, except when it comes to sharing writing with them. If it's a bunch of strangers, then who cares if my writing is good or not? But with my friends, I feel a lot of pressure to write something meaningful. You know about this, don't you? It's the same pressure you all feel when sharing your writing in class. It's nerve-wracking!!

So, here's what I did to help myself. I sat with my journal (just like Dumbledore's penseive) and wrote down a list of topics I care about. Then I sat and listed possible formats I could write in. Here's my list:

• adopting needy kids from other countries as "better" than adopting needy U.S. kids
• school lunch
• materialism, consumerism
• advertising
• minimalism
• owning stuff vs. stuff owning you
• downsizing
• our new house
• my kids - the 5-year review
• my kids' birth mom
• raising kids: competing theories of how to raise "good" kids
• what are "good" kids???
• the negative impact of rewards & punishments

And, then my list of types of writing:

• poems
• essays
• articles
• short stories
• descriptive pieces
• letters
• editorials
• blog posts
• newsletter articles

Look at that! Totally enough material for class. After all, it's ONLY 8 DAYS LONG! I felt so much better after seeing these lists. Writing does that for me - it pulls the fear out of me and lets me look realistically at whatever is scaring me. Usually, I realize it's not as bad as I think. Or, if I see that it is bad, at least I can begin to see a path to a solution.

Happy Sunday to everyone!

Ms. Hagen

MWP Assignment #1

Monday I begin the Missouri Writing Project, the 2nd class I'm taking. It's focus is on writing for social justice, and my first assignment is to write a poem, based on "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes. I think I have several poems of this style floating in my head, but here's the first one:

I, Too, Paint America

I, too, paint America.

I bought the nice house
With neutral beige walls,
A Design to Sell paragon.

But I dreamed
Of airy blues and greens,
Pops of fuchsia and orange.

Tomorrow
I'll take my brush
And personalize my home
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Anyone could live here"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see my home is alive,
Not a set behind the mask of a television screen,
And be ashamed.

I, too, am America.

Lynn Hagen
July 2010

So, I'm very excited about this class, the prospect of two weeks living as a writer, creating everyday. Yes, it's a little daunting too - that little voice in my head saying, "Is it good enough?" keeps creeping in. But, you know what? I'm going to step on that little bug. I'm going to live out loud in my writing whether it's good enough or not.

Happy live-out-loud Friday! Enjoy each moment of this day!
Ms. Hagen

Yes, I'm still here!

Ah, vacation! Four days of sun-filled bliss. We rented a condo down at the Lake and swam and played outside and had tons of fun. The kids LOVED the pool at the condo, which most mornings we had all to ourselves. They chased each other around, jumped off the sides and played for hours (I read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which I thoroughly enjoyed for many reasons!). We also went to Big Surf and had a blast. They swam in the little four-foot pool with the green and orange slides (#1 son and my nephew), and the girls paddled around the steps (thank goodness for life jackets!) The wave pool was also a surprising hit. The boys dove straight into the wave, were knocked down repeatedly, came up laughing and dove in for more. They were not the surprise! The princesses, who shrieked at getting their faces wet in other pools, waded out after the boys and had to be fished out, called back, and reminded repeatedly to stay safe. Go figure!! We ended our day their with ice cream treats from Sonic (a first for my crew!) and then snuggling in at our cozy condo to watch TV. My son thought he had gone to heaven!

Today the kids and I joined our daycare's field trip to the zoo in St. Louis. It was only 98 outside!! We saw tigers, zebras, monkeys, snakes, gorillas, lions, prairie dogs and so much more. The big hit was the pool of sting rays. We got there just at feeding time (little white fishies for lunch) and got to help. I thought this would be a breeze. I was instructed on how to hold the little morsel in my hand, flat along the surface of the water and just let the ray glide over my hand and suck it up. Brave Mommy would demonstrate for her children how this was done. Ha! I chickened out every time and yanked my hand back as the menacing black and gray beasts swam near (Have you seen a sting ray up close?? They're BIG and SCARY!!).

Yea, so my six-year-old fed them no problem.


Needless to say, my house is very quiet tonight. I think I have officially worn out the Hagen children; all of them are snug in their beds soundly sleeping.

Happy very exhausted Thursday!
Ms. Hagen

Tidbits!

Books: I'm almost done with Hush by Jacqueline Woodson. If you liked Zach's Lie, you'll find a lot of similarities. This is the story of a family who goes into the witness protection program because the father witnessed a murder. It really lets you feel what it would be like to wipe out your whole past when you didn't want to do that.

Next on my list - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

On the nonfiction side - Still meandering through Life is a Verb (with my kindred spirit friend Patti Digh); reading several parenting books about how to raise creative, caring, thinking children (a lot of it applies to our classroom too).

Painting: I know this isn't part of my reading/writing life, but I love to transform spaces, so I thought I'd let you know that I have painted my kitchen, familyroom and bedroom. As daughter #1 said, "No more desert! Now we're living in the sky!" Yes, the tan is gone, replaced by an airy light blue. I'd show you pictures, but Sally Princess Hagen chewed up my camera cord, so I have to get a new one.

All this transformation at home (and the book Journal Bliss) has me thinking about transforming our classroom. What if I took down all those store-bought posters and we used your art / writing instead? You made beautiful poems last spring. I think it would be better. More us.

I hope you're all having a fabulous vacation. Seven days left of summer school and then freedom for all! Enjoy!
Ms. Hagen

Technology...

Technology reduces empathy and dehumanizes us. Just read that recently. What do you think?

Capturing Memories - the 4th

The 4th of July was panning out like most holidays - we went to my sister's for bar-be-que; the kids played outside with their cousin while we oohed and ahhed over my niece, who is almost 4 months old. After supper we headed out to the driveway armed with packages of red, blue and green sparklers. By the 2nd box, the fear had faded and the kids were dancing around fighting off mosquitoes, being Harry Potter with magic wands, and laughing like crazy at their own silly games. The boxes dwindled and the sky paled to a soft gray. We caught a glimpse of a few neighbors' fireworks, but it was already 9:00 and time to go home.

With windows open, we drove back to our house, less than a mile away. Booms, bangs and sizzles filled the night air. The kids were in awe. They'd always been asleep by the time the real fireworks began, so tonight was magical. As we drove down our street towards home, fireworks exploded in showers of pink, green and white above the rooftops. Freak's little voice (from Rodman Philbrick's Freak the Mighty) shouting out chemical compounds as the fireworks burst in the sky, filled my head, mixing with the "Awesome!" from my backseat. The kids scrambled from the car and ran for the upstairs deck where we were treated to a spectacular display. We could see Fire in the Sky at the Hearnes Center in the background, while our neighbors provided a most impressive show. Their competing shows echoed through the night with a shower of blue off to the south, an explosion orange and green to the north, a burst of pink sparkles directly ahead. My three little cherubs shrieked in delight and clapped their pudgy hands hardly noticing the dogs who circled their feet surely thinking this excitement was for them.

With a grand finale of fireworks at Fire in the Sky and a few final bursts from our neighbors ending the show, I scooped up my babies and ushered them inside. I'm sure their dreams exploded in red, white and blue, while the echoes of bangs faded into the black night sky.

Happy 4th of July!
Ms. Hagen

Summer...

July 1st. The last day of my class. My project is done - presented yesterday. I have 8 pages left to read of my assignments, and then I have two full weeks with an open schedule - time to have fun with my kids, do some painting at my house, finish the little dirt pile in the back yard into a flower garden. Time to just go for a leisurely run, to linger over my morning coffee, time to curl up with the books I brought home from our classroom shelves.

How lucky are we to have summer vacation? I think about all those people with year-round jobs that are so busy constantly and never get a big break to recharge their batteries. They work and work, having lots of luxuries like fancy cars and big houses, but not the luxury of an afternoon at the pool just hanging out with their kids. I think about people who are living in poverty, with illness or violence in their lives, those who never get a break from the hard lives they lead, never get any kind of vacation from the burdens they carry. The worry is always there, nagging them even if they can forget it for a while.

I wonder how much richer all of our lives would be if we could somehow share the load, each of us using our talents to help our world be a place where everyone has what he or she needs and gets the summer vacation, the true relaxation, that we all need.

As I pulled books from the shelf yesterday, I wanted to find books about kids your age that will help us see the lives others live. I want to read about kids in the past, kids in the present, kids from other countries, kids from other worlds right here in the U.S. My reading list for right now includes the following: Schooled by Gordon Korman, Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams, and Hush by Jacqueline Woodson. I think I'll start with Hush. I'll let you know how it is.

I hope you are enjoying a vacation of your own. Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, find some space to breathe this summer, to just be for a while.

Happy July!
Ms. Hagen