Greetings everyone. Even though February is the shortest month, the winter drags for us in some parts of the earth.  It holds opportunities for celebration as well. So here we go:

Kevin is officially off to Japan taking full advantage of the February school break and just before he left, he made sure to offer up his sentence.

Off on an adventure, (No pictures this week)

Amy feels February’s  spirit of patriotism as she writes:

Patriotic feelings swell in the midst of Lincoln’s 200th Birthday Celebration.

And here’s her photo that I must have missed

Lincoln in Post-It Notes created by Chris Killham and displayed in the windows on the bridge that spans Jefferson Street.

Delaine is taking advantage of this month of celebration to bake:

To end my busy, overly scheduled week, I baked a simple berry cobbler.

I want a piece:

Ken, from the Middle Earth, may not be celebrating or feeling our winter, but as usual he offers up wonderful words and an image:

Kia ora Bonnie!

Here are my words:

Wanting grace-note roll or trill
From simmering kettle or steam boiler,
Lacking resonance with clear clarion shrill
From aileron blade or spoiler;
Diapason with its languid chiff,
Euphonious calliope,
Aeolian harp with plaintive riff,
Diaphanous vibrant canopy;
The fine aesthetic dulcet choice,
Tawhirimatea’s breath of life,
It yields the most mellifluous voice
On flageolet or flute or fife;
If you puzzle at this trite epistle
Ponder a while on the humble whistle.

Catchya later
from Middle-earth

And a link to Ken’s photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27480515@N06/3275545895/

Nancy was ready for this photo/text challenge and found herself way right back in the center of her heart::

Once again, despite my best efforts, my favorites subjects are the star of my DiS contribution.

And my HVWP bud, Eric joins us with a week focused on his teaching challenge,  Kindergarten.

As my first goal is to foster well balanced, independent and cooperative children, what do I say when a five year old child responds, ” She is my sworn enemy!”  while trying to resolve a conflict?

My guest host partner Anne, reminds us that even though many of us are enjoying a well deserved vacation, there’s tragedy in another part of the world and she shares:

This week was a really sombre one for me, as the full impact of the Victorian bushfires surfaced, with its death toll, housing loss, animal injuries and grazing land damage. (So, I hope that you will forgive me for not adding a photo)

As I come to the end and add something from my Photo-a Day Challenge, I thank you for taking time to share something here.

On the West Side Highway in the Passenger’s Seat: 45/365

How lucky for Kevin and his family to be jetting off to Japan and how lucky for me to host this week’s DayinS and Anne is rising to the challenge next week.(More details to come)

This week, maybe selfishly, I’m going to suggest that you send me a photo to upload along with your distilled text for the week.

It was about a year ago that D’Arcy Norman suggested that, we might challenge ourselves to shoot a photo a day for the year 2008 and share as many of them as possible.

“What’s today’s picture?”

He calls it “mindful seeing,” and explains in a post he wrote last January:

Mindful seeing is the process of turning off the filters, of seeing your surroundings unfettered and unobstructed.

When viewing the world without filtering, even the most boring and banal subjects can become wondrous and interesting. We are constantly surrounded by interesting things that we normally don’t see – textures, lighting, patterns, shapes, objects, groupings, even messages.

Photographers are often described as distancing themselves from their surroundings by “hiding behind a camera” or “viewing the world only through a viewfinder.” I see photography from the exact opposite side of the coin. By mindfully seeing the world around me, I feel as though I am seeing much more than I would otherwise. I see patterns, convergence, divergence, shadows, lighting, juxtaposition, and composition that are likely missed by others. That’s not to say that I am “better” than any other – just that by being mindful of what I am seeing, I am aware of what is around me. And when I am aware, I am better able to take an interesting photograph.

If you’re interested, the group’s still there, and  now there’s  the 2009 challenge.

Of course there’s Photo Fridays at Flickr where we’ve been sharing together since June and going strong.

I joined this challenge as of January 1, 2009 on my  photo blog, every day and  so far so good. What will I discover about myself?

I want to keep returning to D’racy’s quote to rethink my passion for capturing images.

So if this challenge whets your appetite,  get out our camera and capture something in your world with some of your wondrous words along side or just words is always welcome of course.

Cant’ wait to see what Kevin has to share with us, You can send me your photo in an email:

blkdrama@me.com and leave your sentence as a comment below.

Bonnie

Hi everyone,

Sorry I’m late, but I stalled today giving our DinS community extra time to share a bit of life and now, without further ado, here we go…

I was at a loss until yesterday morning myself, and I’m glad I was patient:

I wonder, if this guy will be extra busy on December 25th?  As I walked outside,early  yesterday morning, I was running late but  he and three relatives greeted me and challenged me to take the time to grab my camera from its warm space and here’s my reward!

It was great to see Gail in San Antonio for the NWP conference and then to vist her blog today and remember to listen to a great TTT podcast on digital media. It’s always a pleasure to visit her blog.

Despite all the gloom and doom around the economy, it truly is the non-material things that make the holidays a magical season.

Congrats to  host Kevin, for his Edublogs 2008 nomination for a blog we have come to love! Right?

Stuck in a time warp between one holiday and another, I have suddenly realized that there is just not enough time to get a major project (puppet theater) up and running and completed — 2009, here we come.

It was great seeing Cynthia In SA.  We got to write and photograph together!

Because Adair and Tommy LaRue are coming home for Christmas on Tuesday–yes, this Tuesday–Larry and I have spent the entire day cleaning and baby proofing the house–again.

Lisa is right to the point- a place we would all like to be now!

All right…Done!

Ken our resident poet, never lets us down and here’s the proof:

modest thought bringing
humble faith to those singing
of Christmas giving

Paul is sharing a Christmas memory as we get closer to the big day:

I was nine when I thought to myself, “Why does Santa’s handwriting look just like my mom’s?”

Matthew, (a double nominee for a ‘08 Edublog Award)  given all he is dealing with still makes time to share his bit  of fun and giving.

I’m in the process of moving, I may be changing jobs, but the most stressful of all is having to purchase a Secret Santa gift.

And last but never, least, Lynne who we  missed this year at the NWP in San Antonio.  I kept looking over my shoulder, hoping to see your smile. Next year? In Philly? My fingers are crossed.

Selecting poetry for an annual exchange with WP friends of over 25 years reminds me how important the Writing Project is not only in my professional but also in my personal life (and growth). Missed seeing NWP techies this year, but you are still a big part of my holiday fun.

So here you have it.  Thanks for joining me here with your memory gems. Next week we are off to share at Nancy C’s blog More details to follow….

Wait….Here’s Nancy for herself:

My blog’s identity crisis has been resolved, I think and I’m feeling good about being back in regular blogging mode!

Happy Holiday preparations,

Bonnie

What a great time of the year to guest host Day in a Sentence!  Holiday time.

I’m hoping that even with the craziness at school and the craziness with the stock market, December finds you enjoying this time of the year.

Feel free to take this moment to share some holiday reflections( or anything you like) with us.

It’s always a challenging pleasure to find your gems in my email, so send away and I promise to that everything up as early as I can on Sunday morning.  If life gets really crazy, feel free to send something even if you miss the official release.

And if you have a photo or two you are burning to share with our Photo Fridays group send it to us,

Can’t wait to hear from you,

Bonnie

I’m just beginning the Sunday task of reading through my Boil Down Your Day in a Sentence. It’s always daunting at first to create a platform to share the gold that’s been growing in my blog comments. As the Olympics come to a close, I am taking the plunge while there’s still water in the pool.

Some of our boilers have just begun a new school year so let’s start there:

We have Lynn (our hostess for next week), who is not new to teaching but middle school is her challenge this year.

A gaggle of seventh graders made me laugh all week.

Sounds like she is captured! I’m not surprised.

Illya is also returning to her teaching life and in need of acclimating to her school rhythm from leisure. I’m sure Illya, you are up to the challenge.

The hubbub of school life begins again as I try to find my rhythm between the comings and goings.

Sara touches on school life outside her classroom and that’s always tricky.

I vacillate between the euphoria of an all-new school administration who *gets it* about education, and isolation from my grade-level team, who don’t *get me*.

Rick shares a dilemma I remember well as a high school drama director.

The hardest part about coaching elementary school soccer is telling nineteen kids that they did not make the team.

And then we have the group who are using their last few days to enjoy and prepare for their classroom return.

Grace has had a busy summer in the world of technology, working with teachers at the New York City Writing Project in July and then as a learner herself. She is a passionate learner. BRAVO, Grace.

I absorbed a lot of helpful strategies related to scaffolding at the QTEL Institute which can be summed up in the words of Aida Walqui, “Amplify don’t simplify.”

If you haven’t clicked over to Stacey’s blog, now might be a perfect opportunity. She has created a mixed media piece using Smilebox.

Stacey shares a Shabbat dinner with us.

And even though dogtrax is still on blog vacation, he is resurfacing. Welcome back Kevin, we’ve missed you!

The proofreading process for a book about technology in the classroom (of which I am co-editor) is becoming agonizingly nitty-gritty with details but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m not sure where Elona is, but it sounds like her life is rich as she learns from her granddaughter Lauryn about early matters of the heart.

My week has been a delightful one because my granddaughter Lauryn, who just turned nine yesterday, has been teaching me about the world from her nine year old perspective. Did you know that the world would be a better place if all the boys lived in one half and all the girls lived in the other half. Boys are so annoying when you’ve just turned nine, don’t you know!

And even though Anne is not on summer break, it sounds like she’s had an amazing educational experience beyond the four walls of a classroom. Check our her blog for more details.

Spending time as a host to an Indonesian Islamic teacher was a rewarding one, and witnessing the look of sheer excitement on his face after riding around our wet paddocks on our four wheel motor bike, watching my husband shear a sheep and working with the young students at school made the effort all worthwhile.

And Ken seems to be focused on the reality of chocolate. What do you make of his weekly share?

DEANZ’s chocolate reality, digital fantasy, ideas of note to enact – but native or immigrant, heed the statistics, it’s death to the digital fact.

Kate seems to be taking a leap of faith, moving out of the classroom and back to her passion for theater. I can’t wait to hear more about her new challenges.

A new week, a return to the old days and a revival of an almost-lost love.

Oops, I need something.

I spent a fantastic two days working with my Hudson Valley Writing Project and remembering why I remain an HVWP born-again.

Here’s where we began our Visioning Retreat, working on a site mission/vision statement.

Thanks for making my hosting role so much fun. See you again and next week we are off to Lynn’s site. Check your email for further news and reminders.

Bonnie

Late Breaking News:

Tracey is holding on tightly to her last week of vacation and used her early Monday morning time to compose a sentence for us and here it is:

A few more days until school calls, in the sun, listening to music, words and phrases jumping out at me when they can, behind the keening of the cicada on the tree, confirming why I do what I do and how I feel at this time of year: excited, anxious, rising.

Hang on,.Jo has one more to add.  Her 39th birthday celebrated at her school’s open house.  Good thing for my I was an August baby and summer vacation lasts for us, until Labor Day in September.  I don’t know if I could give up my day.

I spent my 39th birthday meeting about 60 of my 107 new 9th- and 10th-graders, most of whom came with their parents to Open House.