My students are Looney-Toons

Wow, today is totally the worst Monday ever!!!!

I had to threaten three young men with straight-jackets..... they took me up on the offer, now where do I acquire some of those???

My kids had this for a warm-up today: Fully DESCRIBE a place that you know very well. Explain it so that your reader will also know it very well. Include as many sensory details as possible, when I read it I want to feel like I am there. You have 8 minutes to write.

Check out some of the cool things I got in response:

• "It smelled up there, a thick warm smell of wet cardboard, sawdust and cedar. Magic smells like that I think."

• "A place I know really well is my room, because my room is me." -T.G.

• "...it's cozy there, so much so that you normally trip over something on your way to sit down..." -A.H

• "There's a place I visit with my grandpa, the trout fear us there, as they should...our fishing poles are our weapons, and the trees and rocks our shelter as we sit there." -K.Y.

• "My old bedroom in Germany had a window that could open whichever way you'd like, in the middle of my slanted ceiling, on the left side of the room. " -C.C.

• "The park. No, it's not that kind of park with the swings and the jungle gym. It's the park with the green grass, flowers blooming and the sidewalk leading down by the river that takes you under the bridge..." V.C.

• "At the end of a dead-end street there is a forest filled with clovers, vines, flowers and decidious trees. In this forest there is a small path running through it, up and down. Near the end of the path is a large slope that leads to a flat by a big flowing river...." D.M.

This will be a super awesome week. I'm sure of it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have much to be thankful for! (Here's the short list:)

-hot rolls fresh from the Amish farm down the road
-my momma did some of my laundry this week
-My grandfather rolled his pick-up and although the truck looked like an accordion the man walked away just fine.
-my dog loves to snuggle me, I love to cuddle, we're the perfect match
-I have a stack of brand new books, the bindings yet to be cracked, stacked next to my bed and four more wonderful days off
-my little brother, who is 13 and still thinks I'm cool, rocks at everything he does and I'm so proud of him.
-I have over half a box of Lucky Charms left to eat this week.
-my family is safe and happy and healthy
-I have new, cozy slippers
-My house has HEAT (it hasn't had any lately)
-I am loved.

breakfast.....

I toasted a pop tart today.
In the toaster.
For the 1st time in just over 14 years.
It wasn't in the toaster oven.
It was in the pop-up kind of toaster, the one
with the evil, squiggly, red lines that melt frosting.
And the springs that sometimes stay stuck in their down position,
until the frosting catches on fire
and black smoke comes seeping out of your windows and your heart
and you hear the screams of fading memories as your world goes up in flames.

The pop tart was strawberry. And not that good.

Start.

Start now? Or start at the beginning? Starting at all is usually a problem. It’s easier to start now, then it’s possible that the beginning might be forgotten…but, without the beginning is the now really all that worthwhile? I clearly remember the beginning, but I choose not to think about it. Those are two different things, you know? Admitting that you remember is only the first step, you have to choose to think about it to really understand it. It’s the It that I usually like to pretend never happened. The one “oopps” in my seemingly perfect life that I choose to ignore. No one expects such things from a person like me, and when they hear the truth they generally turn away, disgusted. I understand, because I feel that way about myself sometimes.

“Start to forgive.” That’s what Dr. Darcy tells me on Tuesdays when I’m forced into her office by my mother. It’s like a battle. My mom driving, me resisting, I wish I could brace my feet against the door frame of the car and wait for her to push and pull me through the parking lot like a donkey. I feel that unwilling. I wonder what they would do if I let out a loud, braying “he-haw” as we sat in the waiting room. Mom would probably have me committed.

Starting over would be easier if I had someplace else to go. Not that I want to run away, but doesn’t it sound much more pleasant? “Kara moved to California to make a clean start.” That’s the kind of big steps I feel are necessary when one starts over. It’s hard to start over, to start fresh, in dreary, central NY. Especially this time of year when everything is gray and bleak and cold.

Start doing something. I’ve been told over and over and over and over. Mike, my brother, says this a lot. He says it’s why he plays sports. To stay busy and focused on things that don’t really effect his life. Easier said than done. I have started to hate that word “start”. I don’t want to start anything. Why should I get to start when everything else seems to have stopped? All I can think about are those shiny, silver paddles and the flashing red lights.

“Start it! God, start it. Please make that machine start his heart. Start it! Start it!”

Stopped…

This is the Start

For our first assignment for the Ink Peppers our fearless leader D. gave us words with which to begin our stories. I'm stuck with 'start'. I'm stuck on 'start'. I'm just plain stuck.

So I think I will cheat. :-)

Today's warm-up in my classroom might be this:

Begin a story, poem, paragraph, song, etc. with the word START, then keep writing.

HELLLLLLLLLO

6 Word Memoirs.....SIX words?!?!?!? I only have 6 words to explain and introduce myself to all of you new, crazy, weird, strange, judgmental (?), SCARY people?!?!!

ok................


My butt still hurts from falling.

Ink Peppers Unleashed

And so it begins. All members of Ink Peppers (a super cool group at my school) are expected to begin, maintain and regularly write on their own BLOG. So, here's mine.