Author: Catherine Flynn

I'm a literacy specialist at a K-8 school in Northwestern CT. My job is two-fold: I work with at-risk first grade readers, supporting them as they learn to read, and I work with classroom teachers, helping them improve and refind their literacy instruction.

SOL 17: By the Book

Catherine Flynn12 Comments

Every Saturday, my day begins with the New York Times Book Review over breakfast. One of my favorite features is “By the Book.” In this column, an author with a recent or upcoming book is interviewed about his or her reading. I’m always astonished at the breadth of reading of these authors. So many books and writers I’ve never even heard of! Still, I’m fascinated by the responses and each week come away with a list of books I’ll probably never read.

I’d always thought this would be a good format for a Slice of Life, and last year, another Slicer (sorry, I don’t remember who) thought so too. Now I’m going to borrow their idea.

“The New Novel” Winslow Homer, 1877 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

What books are on your night stand now?

I always have at least three books going at once. I just started Dava Sobel’s The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. In another life, I might have been an astronomer. Everything about our universe fascinates me. The jacket copy states that this book “is the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed the understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.” Dava Sobel is an excellent writer who makes her subjects engaging and accessible. Her book Longitude is one of my favorites.

See You in the Cosmos, by Jack Cheng, was just published by Penguin Random House. I have an ARC on NetGalley that I was hoping to read this weekend, but life got in the way of that plan. Maybe I’ll get to it on Tuesday during the blizzard.

My book discussion group is currently reading Dispatches, by Michael Herr. This first-hand account of Herr’s experiences as a war correspondent in Vietnam is brutal and unsparing, but written with the style and grace of a poet.

Speaking of poetry, I also have Billy Collins’s latest The Rain in Portugal, in the pile. Elaine Magliaro’s charming Things to Do is right underneath. I have long been a fan of Elaine’s poetry, and am thrilled for her that her first book has been published. I’m looking forward to sharing it with our Kindergarteners and writing “Things to Do” poems with them soon.

Finally, there is Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. This book is chock-full of ideas and ready to come to the rescue when I need one. There’s a section on “Getting Started,” “Character,” and more. I’ve been dipping in and out of each, and I’m sure one will show up here in the next few days.

There are at least ten more books beneath these, patiently waiting their turn. What books are on your night stand?

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17 & DigiLit Sunday: Blended Learning

Catherine Flynn9 Comments

                                       

This post is also part of “DigiLit Sunday,” hosted by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. This week’s topic is Blended Learning. Please be sure to visit Margaret’s blog to read more Digilit Sunday contributions.

“A human must turn information into intelligence.”
~ Grace Hopper ~

On an ordinary day in 1972, something very extraordinary appeared in the Resource Center of my elementary school. Two teletype computer terminals were installed, connecting our little school to the mainframe computer at the local university. A telephone receiver had to be positioned in an acoustic coupler (aka modem) to make the connection. After typing in a series of commands, the mainframe computer “ran” our program, and the result (usually a image of an animal created with Xs) was printed on yellow paper. Welcome to the computer age!

I would never, even in my wildest imaginings, have predicted that forty-five years later I would be able to sit at my kitchen table, pull up images of that miraculous machine, type these words, and then, with a single keystroke, send them instantly out into the wide world.

But here we are. And for all the news of hacking and worries about keeping our data secure, computers and technology have enhanced education in countless positive ways, and the possibilities for its use are endless.

As a literacy leader in my school, it’s essential that I keep up to date on developments in the world of literacy education. Blended learning is the most effective way for me to accomplish this. Attending a conference in real life is energizing. It’s always a thrill to meet one of my literacy heroes, and I love the being able to talk with other educators about their experiences face-to-face. But conferences are expensive and not always available.

With Slice of Life friends at ILA last summer.

However, thanks to the advent of webinars, YouTube, and TED Talks, I can attend a conference in my living room. I can usually replay key points for better understanding. Best of all, I can share with my colleagues and we can learn together. Follow up discussions often yield more insights and new ideas for application. Reading books and articles related to these topics only leads to deeper understanding.

Twitter and blogging is another key component of my blended learning life. Joining Twitter chats lets me have real-time conversations about a particular topic with other teachers. Through blogging, I’ve made connections and become friends with educators from around the world. These brilliant people enhance my learning and my teaching practice every day.

My experiences with blended learning have been essential to my growth as an educator. They have also been critical in helping teachers plan similar opportunities for their students. Opportunities that will nourish their curiosity and imagination, and give them the skills to prepare for a future we can hardly imagine.

Favorite Professional Learning Resources

  • Heinemann: A wealth of samples, webinars, podcasts, and more are available on this website
  • Stenhouse Publishers: Previews of new books, study guides, a newsletter and more are available here.
  • The Educator Collaborative: Led by Chris Lehman and many other rock star educators, this group, among other services, hosts an online Study Group series for a small fee that brings focused, topical PD into your school. (Or living room!)
  • The Two Writing Teachers Blog: In addition to hosting the March Slice of Life challenge, this blog and the incredible women and man who run it consistently post high-quality content for writing teachers at all levels.
  • Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: From weekly Twitter chats to week-long Summer Institutes and free Saturday Reunions, TCRWP is a goldmine of information and knowledge.
  • Good to Great Twitter chats are held every Thursday evening. Dr. Mary Howard and friends always have thought-provoking guests to spark the conversation.

This is just a short list of the resources available for online learning. What are your favorites?

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17: A Milestone

Catherine Flynn17 Comments

This is my 500th post. Quite a milestone!

Last fall I realized that, if I planned carefully and stuck to my plan, Reading to the Core’s 5th birthday, February 4th, and its 500th post could coincide. I liked the symmetry of this. The only problem was that Thanksgiving and Christmas lay between my realization and the big day.

It’s now March 11th, so I clearly didn’t reach my goal. Sometime during the week between Christmas and New Year, I had to admit that I’d never make it, and I became okay with that. Because even if the two milestones didn’t occur on the same day, both still marked a personal accomplishment.  And aren’t the numbers we attach to these milestones somewhat arbitrary anyway?

Still, I was curious about the significance of 500, so I did a little research. From Numbermatics, I learned that “500 is an even composite number composed of two prime numbers multiplied together.” It is also a Harshad number. This, according to Wolfram MathWorld, is “a positive integer which is divisible by the sum of its digits.”

This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, so I dug a little deeper. At Riding the Beast, I learned that, among other symbolic meanings, 500 “symbolize[s] the infinity for Irish.” I couldn’t find any confirmation for this, and it seems unlikely, given that “the Celts believed that everything happens in threes.” But the idea appealed to me, since one branch of my family emigrated from Ireland sometime in the 1800s.

My searching also led me to this information about the Triskele, pre-Celtic design that “stands for unity of the three” and “symbolizes the eternal life, the flow of nature, and spiritual growth.” It is also “believed to represent a tale of forward motion to reach understanding.” This is a much better symbol for what Reading to the Core is all about.

In my first post, my goal for blogging was “to have a conversation with literacy professionals around the country about reading and writing instruction today.”  After one year, I realized that my writing focused more on my “curiosity about the world around us and my passion to help all kids find their own true self, to find their own true core.” 

There’s no way to know exactly what I’ll be writing about next year at this time, or even what I’ll be writing about next week. What is certain is that it will be, in the words of E.L. Doctorow, “an exploration [where] you start from nothing and learn as you go.”

And thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17 & Poetry Friday: “Ode to a Blanket”

Catherine Flynn14 Comments

                          

Each month I look forward to Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’s Ditty Challenge. This month, Helen Frost challenged Michelle’s readers to “choose and object…[then] write five lines about the object, using a different sense in each line.”

Choose an object? That narrows it right down, doesn’t it? I decided not to obsess about this. I just went through my days with this challenge in the back of my mind. Sure enough, the word “blanket” came up as I was preparing a lesson yesterday. I instantly saw the possibilities with this word. Here is my Ode to a Blanket:

Clutching your satin edge, soft as a dog’s ear,
I wrap your sunny yellow self around me.
Cocooned inside, I breathe in the air of summer.
Night whispers are muffled as I snuggle deeper,
take the first sip of a dream.
Do you sleep with me? Or are you always
on guard, steadfast and loyal through the night?

© Catherine Flynn, 2017

Please be sure to visit Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty for the Poetry Friday Roundup. (Not sure what Poetry Friday is? Find out more from Renée LaTulippe here.)

And thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17: Currently

Catherine Flynn4 Comments

Currently…

Sitting on the sofa, my dog Lucy on one side of me, my cat Noodles on the other.

Watching a rerun of Blue Bloods.

Drinking a cup of tea.

Feeling relaxed and thankful that it’s almost Friday.

Wondering if we will have a snow day tomorrow.

Thinking about my mother’s upcoming 80th birthday party.

Mustering up the energy to clean the kitchen.

Knitting a fuzzy mohair scarf.

Later, I’ll be…

Reading Birds, Art, Love: A Year of Observation, by Kyo Maclear or See You in the Cosmos, by Jack Cheng.

Reflecting about a new reading unit a teacher and I are writing.

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17: An Afternoon Walk

Catherine Flynn10 Comments

After a drizzly morning, the sun came out and the afternoon air was fresh and inviting. Between bronchitis and the weather, I hadn’t gone for a walk in over a month. I hurried home, changed into my yoga pants and sneakers, then headed for the park. It felt good to be outside.

Here are some images, in words and pictures, from my walk.

winter weary dear
nibble on the stubble left
from last summer’s hay

This doe was not interested in having her picture taken!

shrubs begin to dress,
slipping on a halo
of golden green

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17: Life Lessons

Catherine Flynn9 Comments

Last weekend, like many of you, I was heartbroken to read Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s devastating essay in the New York Times, “You May Want to Marry My Husband.” Amy is dying of ovarian cancer, and this essay is a love letter to her husband and her wish for his future.

I am a longtime fan of Rosenthal’s wildly creative and imaginative picture books, including Duck, Rabbit and Exclamation Mark (!). Amy’s wisdom and humor are on full display in her TED talks and short videos. I love them all, but I think “Book-Filled House” and “Kindness Thought Bubble” are my favorites.

In “Thought Bubble: Kindness,” Amy asks viewers, “What have you filled the world with?” She reminds us that “more positive human interactions is central to a meaningful life.” It’s a reminder worth repeating and sharing.

With these words in my mind, I went searching for my copy of the completely charming Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons (HarperCollins, 2006). These lessons arise out of the steps of making and sharing a batch of cookies. Every negative impulse is balanced by a positive response, and in the end readers are filled up with love and wisdom.

And so it was that this book was sitting on my desk this morning when a first grade student arrived in my room with a very long face. He has struggled and made slow progress since the beginning of the year. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He explained that he’d had a run in with another student during P.E, and had gotten in trouble. I knew my lesson would be wasted if I just went ahead. So I pulled out Cookies and began reading. By the time we got to this page, he was smiling and agreed it would be better to be optimistic than pessimistic.

We finished the book and he was ready to learn. He worked hard and had fun reading the poem and book I had chosen for the day. A serving of kindness was just what he needed.

Thank you, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, for this and all your lovely book, and thank you for filling the world with your love and light.

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17 & IMWAYR: If You Were the Moon

Catherine Flynn10 Comments

                    11454297503_e27946e4ff_h          IMWAYR 2015

What does the moon do all day and all night? Laura Purdie Salas answers this question in her enchanting new picture book, If You Were the Moon. Cheerfully personified, the moon, spends its days and nights engaged in many familiar activities of childhood and displays many familiar moods. A spirited moon plays “dodgeball with space rocks” and peak-a-boo with Earth. The moon is helpful when it “lights a pathway to the sea” for sea turtle hatchlings. Salas also casts the moon as joyous, inspiring, and loving. When the moon sings “Earth a silver lullaby,” children will want to climb into bed to hear its song.

moon-cover_lores-300x293
Millbrook Press, 2017

Jaime Kim’s whimsical illustrations capture these different moods by creating a wonderfully expressive moon. The magical quality of the book is enhanced by a scattering of what could be stardust over every page.

For all its playfulness, If You Were the Moon is grounded in facts. On each page, Salas included informational paragraphs, written in clear, child-friendly language to describe the moon’s phases and tidal effects, theories about how the moon was formed, and more. There is a brief glossary, as well as suggestions for further reading.

This book is a must-have for any PreK or early elementary classroom. The spare, poetic text is a perfect mentor for children’s writing, and the factual portions of the book will generate many questions. A comprehensive Educators Guide is available here, and a treasure-trove of other goodies can be found here. If You Were the Moon will spark the imaginations of all who read it.

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts. Also, please be sure to visit Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers for more book recommendations.

SOL 17: Slicing Our Lives

Catherine Flynn12 Comments

                               11454297503_e27946e4ff_h        slide11

This post is also part of “DigiLit Sunday,” hosted by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. This week’s topic is Slicing Our Lives. Please be sure to visit Margaret’s blog to read more Digilit Sunday contributions.

“…trust me, I’m going to take you somewhere…”
~ Colum McCann ~

I love listening to writers talk about the origins of a story or poem. So often one random, ordinary moment becomes a magical trail through time and space that leads to a breathtaking piece of writing. For some reason, these recollections reassure me. Maybe it’s because my life seems so very boring and ordinary they give me hope that, if I pay close attention, I do have things to write about.

The harder task is finding the bigger truth in the small moment. In her speech accepting the Newbery Medal for Flora & Ulysses, Kate DiCamillo explains that writers “have been given the sacred task of making hearts large through story.” No pressure, right?

These thoughts were swirling through my mind this morning as my husband and I headed to a local diner for our weekly breakfast ritual. Sunday mornings are always busy and we usually have to a wait for a booth. Everyone waits patiently, striking up conversations with strangers about how cold it is or the UConn girls basketball team’s latest win. When we’re shown to our seat, I always face the door so I can continue to people watch. It’s a diverse crowd, with people from all walks of life sitting side by side, eating a meal.

Last week I watched an extended family celebrate a little boy’s birthday. His dad was a big, gruff looking guy, but I marveled at how tender and caring he was with his son. Today, a mom and dad talked and colored with their two small children while they waited for their pancakes. The scene seemed perfectly ordinary. And yet here were two parents, probably juggling many of life’s demands, spending time with their children, paying attention to them, and letting them know through their actions how much they care about them.

When writers sit down before a blank page or screen, we hardly ever know what insights will be uncovered. Maybe there won’t be any. That’s the beauty of writing. We’ll never find those truths if we don’t look for them. And so we return to the challenge each day. Seeking the right word. Searching for the perfect phrase or sentence, we lay down our thoughts. Like a chef choosing the perfect ingredients for a recipe, we strive to shape our thinking into something worthy and nourishing. It’s our way of telling our readers how much we care about them.

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

SOL 17: Becoming Smart

Catherine Flynn11 Comments

11454297503_e27946e4ff_h

“Now is the time to understand more, so we may fear less.”
Marie Curie

I was seven when I bought my first book with money I earned. My mother gave me a quarter every week for making my bed and picking my toys up each day. This precious coin always burned a hole in my pocket. I could hardly wait until our next trip to Hart’s Five and Dime.

This store was a mecca for me when I was a kid. I loved the bell that jingled when you opened the door. The air had a distinctive scent which might have been dust mingled with the comings and goings of a few shoppers. It was never crowded. The shelves were stocked with an eclectic assortment of household necessities: light bulbs, extension cords, dish towels, and soap. One aisle was devoted to yarn and needlework supplies. There was a candy aisle. And of course, a toy aisle. My sister always made a bee line for the Breyer horse models. I always went right to the books.

Near the back of the store, among rows of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, was a rack of Junior Golden Guides. These little books were almost square, about the size of a slice of bread. There was a Junior Golden Guide for what seemed to me like every imaginable subject. The first one I paid for with my hard-earned allowance was Seashells.

As soon as I got home, I raced to my room and assembled my collection of shells so I could use my prized new book to identify each specimen. I must have read that book a hundred times. Eventually I bought other titles from the series. Cats and Coins are the two that stand out in my memory. And so my life-long book buying spree began. I go through phases when I swear I’m not going to buy another book, ever, because I’ll never read all the books I already have. But then a favorite author publishes a new novel, or a new professional book comes out that I must read.

By Jessie Willcox Smith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Jessie Willcox Smith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This trip down memory lane began because of a statement made by Katie Wood Ray at the New England Reading Association’s conference last spring. I have always been a huge fan of Ray’s work. Her book, Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom changed my teaching. Her words have been front and center in my thinking ever since:

“We have to make ourselves as smart as we can be about our work so
we can be articulate about our beliefs.”

There are many ways we can “make ourselves smart.” Being observant and reflective as we spend our days with children is critical. So is reading the latest research from respected leaders in education, people like Katie Wood Ray and Vicki Vinton, Kylene Beers and Bob Probst. Reading the blogs of teachers from around the country, including many of us taking part in this writing challenge, is also key. These posts give us insight into how other teachers handle and react to the problems and issues we face in our own classrooms. When we realize we are not alone in our dilemmas, when we gather ideas and suggestions from other experienced educators, we feel more empowered to deal with the challenges confronting us.

Identifying my shells in my treasured Junior Golden Guide may not have been a milestone in world history, but it laid a cornerstone for a life of trying to make myself smart, a life of seeking to understand so I can do my part to make the world a better place.

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.