~Kimberly
I have such fond memories of alphabetizing words, dictionary in hand. I loved the way the dictionary was organized, unlocking the system on each page, the guide words at the top—the left word directing me to the word at the top of the left column; the right word directing me to the last word in the right column. I loved how the dictionary taught me that each word possessed a very specific pronunciation, history, and meaning. But most of all, I loved how the dictionary taught me to alphabetize.
~Kimberly
Back when I was in elementary school, the eraser was at once a tool for writing and a tool for printmaking—yes, printmaking! Essential tools were paperclips, stamp pads, and blank 3 x 5 cards in the back of my, now vintage, tin card file box, and a black-inky stamp pad. Somehow, there was always quiet time during my school day to imagine and create, especially in 6th grade when my teacher would put on Cat Stevens and let the whole LP play, both sides. I would carve little designs into my pink erasers with a paperclip untwisted to become an artist stylist. Once happy with the design, I would simply coat the eraser with inky black and stamp it on an unlined 3 x 5 card.
I have absolutely zero unhappy memories with erasers, quite the contrary! The color, smell, shape, feel of the pink eraser sparks all kinds of happy memories. Most important, I was not afraid to make mistakes as I learned to become a writer. The little pink eraser was by my side to help me alter mistakes. Mistakes in spelling. Mistakes in punctuation, capitalization. And more crucial mistakes too—mistakes in content.
Writing is a process that will always involve mistakes whether the writer is a student writer or a proficient adult writer. Each stage of the process is looking forward to the polished, final draft. Along the way, many changes will be made easily, thanks to the eraser.
The little pink eraser is the perfect partner of the pencil and has been for hundreds of years. We will always recommend student writers use the pencil as it is the best technology available to support learning this art form.
Increasingly in our world, we all know electronics have played a bigger and bigger role in our lives. With the advantage, comes a great deal of disadvantage we all are trying to mitigate, especially when it comes to our children. Blackbird and Company offers some terrific books that can take your students into the wonderful world of nature and adventure. While we, of course, strive to be outside in the great outdoors as much as possible—hands in dirt, feet on trails or wiggling into ocean sand—we can also inspire a love of nature and animals and a life of adventure through good books.
[Inside Cover, Flyleaf, Sara’s childhood edition]
Follow along as Sterling and his beloved dog Wowzer find a raccoon kit in the woods and bring him home. You will have quite a vicarious adventure and meet many enchanting animals in this true story set in the back woods wilderness of Wisconsin. Hear what life was like for a very clever eleven year old boy at the end of WW1 who grew a victory garden and was building a canoe in his living room!
Rudi Matt, son of the famed mountain climber Josef Matt, lives under the shadow of the very formidable mountain his father perished on while trying to be the first to summit it. This is a gripping coming of age story, where Rudi defies his relatives and sets about to conquer the mountain even though no one believes the mountain can be climbed. It is high adventure and set during a different time in a different culture. There are heart pounding moments in this book where you will feel your own fingernails biting the rock face trying to gain purchase!
Learning, no matter the subject, can be an awesome journey. The path can be filled with wondrous sights to delight the intellect and warm the heart .
But the opposite can also be true.
The opposite of an awesome journey would be an arduous one. The opposite of a path with wondrous sights to delight the intellect and warm the heart is one filled with brambles and thorns that discourage and weaken. On this journey, this path, learning is thwarted, the heart is discouraged, and some form of illiteracy is a common outcome.
As a native Angeleno, born and raised in Los Angeles, California, with rampant fires raging so close to home, I hesitated launching into our virtual campfire tradition. My great-grandparent’s home—one of the homes in which I whiled away many years of childhood—though no longer part of our family, was lost. And the loss tugs at my heart.
In this home, my imagination thrived. Great-grandma Garnet Jewel had an old desk that belonged to her father, Great-great-grandpa Carlisle, who, lore has it, was an avid letter writer. This desk, chock-full of luxurious vintage stationary, fountain pens, and cancelled stamps, became a happy place for me since GG Garnet gave me free range of its contents. Behind the desk, built-in bookshelves were practically splitting with the weight of classics, including a complete red-linen collection of Dickens.
I’m so thankful for the freedom I was given to bring shape to my little girl ideas. I’m certain that this rich environment of great books and old-school technology—pencils and pens and all sorts of paper—inspired me to engage happily in the art of writing. I’m thankful for that childhood home that contained great-great-grandpa’s books and desk and utensils to write. Writing, bringing shape to an idea is no easy task. I’m thankful too for Charles Dickens who continues to remind writers of all ages that nothing is impossible when it comes to creating an idea:
~Kimberly
The 5-week class format for our online Pages Music classes do not require reading, but do require learning to listen to, appreciate music. After a five-week exploration of The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, 9th grader, Kingsley, translated her observations of the music to haiku.
Birds chirp melodies,
Bees swarm, dancing with the wind,
Flowers bloom softly.
Snow melts, sun rises,
Bunny hops out of its burrow, swarm,
Stretching in the warmth.
Chilling winds whisper,
Snow melting in a warming light,
Nature’s song takes flight.
They dread in the heat,
Aggression fuels their play,
Burning sun above.
Heat stifles movements,
Unquenched thirst with every step,
Beneath the blazing sun.
Bounding through the fields,
Friends laughing and running wild,
Sunshine and laughter.
Frost brushes the glass,
Blizzard painting the landscape ,
Snow dances wildly. s
Candles twinkle bright,
Their warm light dances with joy ,
Soft snowflakes drifting.
Slipping fast on ice,
Annoyed steps betray my grace,
Snow piles up high, vast.
Chatter fills the air,
Autumn’s vibrant twirl,
Yawning with tired eyes.
Soft sounds fill the air,
Floorboards hum the lullaby,
A royal banquet.
Feasting with old friends,
Laughter echoes through the halls,
A royal banquet.
Back in 2010, in the throws of educating my four alongside at least two dozen other children, I constantly doubted the path I was forging. Doubting, that is, until being invited by a friend to the newly released film, Waiting for Superman.
The film’s title comes from a powerful memory recounted by education reformer Geoffrey Canada: “...one of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me ‘Superman’ did not exist…she thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us.”
This resonated.
This movie brilliantly reminds us that reform within the public system is happening in pockets all over our nation and leaves me grateful for those reformers. But it also leaves me with an image of all the children who will shrivel because they do not have Bingo Ball 78 glowing in the palm of their little hand.
The reality is that there are wide-open plains outside of the system waiting for Lewis and Clark—perhaps the sequel?
Reform Lewis and Clark style?
A voyage of discovery?
Yes, please!
As an educator, I for one, realized a long time ago I couldn’t wait for Superman any longer. I encourage my students to slip on the Superman suit before they begin each day, reminding them Alexie style: “The suit will save your life!” Geoffrey Canada’s mother may be right, Superman is not real, but every child has talents equal to Superman’s power—the gift of numbers, the gift of humor, the gift of words, the gift of song, the gift of compassion… an endless list.
One thing this film fails to examine is the need to move beyond the workforce preparation model of education by addressing the deeper individual needs that are ignored in mass education. How can we provide opportunities for our children to develop literacy, not to mention creative thinking, if we starve individuality?
When my daughter Hannah was 10 she began working at Debussy’s Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum on the piano. One afternoon while I was scrubbing pots and pans in the kitchen, listening as she delicately worked through each new section, I called out, “Is that the Debussy?”
“No this is mine.”
I dropped the pot back into sudsy water, quickly wiped my hands, and walked to the piano, “Your piece?”
“Yes.”
“Play it for me…” and she did, jubilantly, without hesitation. Hannah was composing.
When Hannah turned 13 things began to change. She began to depend on notes more than her ear. Simultaneous to her sight-reading ability moving into the bilingual realm, she became insecure with her creative voice. No amount of coaxing would console the teenage composer to come out of hiding. She wanted to create, but in her mind her ideas never sounded just right. Hannah became paralyzed by all the things we humans become paralyzed by.
Over the course of the next few years I presented opportunities and encouraged her to engage in the process of creating. I reminded her that creating something happens with little steps that begin with an idea, “Remember Da Vinci…’Art is never finished only abandoned’.”
~Kimberly
Visual art via the craft of graphic design exists in the world everywhere we go. Music, too, is often in the background of our daily world, whether in a store or on TV. Because both influence our daily lives, we should have a more active understanding of these two significant languages.
Because music and visual art are significant branches of literacy., learning about music and art will not only help us understand, but also help us help us appreciate the arts we see on a daily basis. Learning the history of both disciplines can help us understand what we see and hear.
Our music classes concentrating on the history of music—especially in the classical and jazz era—to help students develop listening skills, an appreciation for appreciation. The historical background offers insight that, no matter the era, music brings community together. It can be daunting for a student to listen to music for half an hour that has no words. But the goal according to teacher extraordinaire, Taylor, is “to have my students enjoy music and know what they are listening too.” Our classes have a required writing element but this is always tailored developmentally. Writing about music ties the languages together through translation. The class format will not require reading, but it will require listening to music inside and outside of class.
Anyone familiar with Blackbird and Company curriculum and our philosophy, know that we promote the pencil work of handwriting from Kindergarten forward. Master teacher, Taylor, points out out that writing is a core to English, and that the the rules of phonics, for example, are presented to our students starting day one. Art on the other hand is not considered a core subject (though it should be) and most people want a free form class, want fun with crayons! Taylor agrees that free form art is important for play, but insists we need to teach skills of art-making, “We don’t just set a child down with high quality art supplies and watch them create amazing art.”
When students have a creative idea but lack the skills to bring shape to that idea, a state of frustration blankets the student.
There is a mechanics to art—a way to hold the pencil and how much pressure to apply. We are taught small finger movements to handwrite. In art we are taught to use the arm to assist in drawing a line as opposed to fingers. Wrist and arm movements can assist in making bigger lines. Learning the mechanics of art is skill learning.
This year our Pages students have been learning art skills and techniques, settling down into the basic elements of art.
Students have had beautiful ideas inspired by the listening skills and appreciation of music. They’ve gained the confidence to make beautiful, important work, that is authentically theirs.
Notice the connection between writing music and art?
Think s l o w i n g down, actively observing, doing less but better, doing it well. Writing and music appreciation and art making—this all takes time.
It’s all important.
It’s individual work.
it’s your student’s IDEA.
The possibilities are endless.
Frosty silver snowflakes were drifting down from the skies. I was thrilled because we hardly ever have snow days in California. Everyone was super cold. Our teeth were chattering and our bodies were shivering, but we ran in excitement towards the small hill behind our houses. When we got to the top of the hill, we all fell on our backs in the snow and began to make snow angels. We moved our arms and legs side to side, while opening our mouths to taste the fresh falling snowflakes. After that, we decided to slide down the hill in our newly built sleds. There was a lot of laughter in the air.
Sometimes being a teacher is a lonely job, whether we are in the classroom, the hybrid setting, or homeschooling around the kitchen table. From lesson planning to assessing growth, juggling daily lessons and independent work, not to mention pouring heart into each little person, teaching is a demanding job. And the demand falls squarely on the shoulders of the teacher.
We are working diligently to provide you with support materials such as ELA Benchmark Tracking Worksheets, Yearly Planning Schedules, and, coming soon, plans to build these schedules into annual lesson plans—all this so you can have more time to join our online community, around the virtual campfire, and all year round here on the blog, on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
You are not alone!
