by Alice Nine | In My Classroom, Literacy |
Students often use the wrong homophone, to or too instead of two. Or they misspell it, tow being the most common misspelling. Several things make this misspelling likely to happen. The w is silent The consonant team tw is not very common The vowel team ow is common,...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
Seamus Heaney, described by Robert Lowell as “the most important Irish poet since Yeats,” was perhaps the best-known poet in the world in our age, a master story-teller, the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature. From “Digging” My...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
The sky is summery, the wind is nippy Trees have donned their garb of spring Arrayed in brilliant color, flowers are nodding That’s what it’s like on this April day a poem for April 2016 National Poetry Month, a literary celebration inaugurated by the Academy of...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
Cold melts away Sun rises earlier Grass grows green Leaves unfurl Blossoms lift their heads Daffodils dress in yellow Crocuses in purple Tulips wave red, yellow, pink Robins pull worms Songbirds sing Squirrels scamper Summer’s coming Writing about my writing Why...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom |
Paint to me is part of story telling, whether brush strokes on canvas, transforming walls or giving a new lease on life to a vintage beauty. Rachel Ashwell My granddaughter, a high school senior, motioned me over beside her on Sunday and complimented my outfit (made...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
During her middle school years, my daughter, inspired by Isaiah 40:31, composed the following poem. I saw an eagle Soaring above the land Looking so free Compared to a man. His strong wings were spread As the gray clouds grew In stormy wind Without fear he flew My...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.31. SUNRISE SUNSET . . . the bookends of my days . . . Watching the sun rise and set from a window in the sky is a normal routine in my life. You see, I travel thousands of...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.30. “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Leonardo da Vinci Da Vinci’s words seemed to leap from the page of one of those...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No. 29. Dishwashing is a slice of life common to most of us, right? Well, it was the subject of my casual reading the other day. Yes, you read right. Your eyes did not skip a line. I was reading about dishwashing. You see, I downloaded a forgotten book (read...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom |
#SOL16. No.28. Melted snowflakes Maple-wood smoke Hints of cinnamon, cardamon, cumin In the mysterious Old Country That no one knows anymore Every winter a hundred years long Every spring a miracle Water like music, music like water In the Old Country Whose name and...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16, No. 27. Easter Sunday 2016 I am he who lives, and was dead, and Behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. Revelation 1:18 This I believe. A foreboding darkness Covers the land Jesus hangs On a cross As life ebbs He cries It is finished Bowing His head He dies The...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16, No. 26. I have been following Mark E. Weston’s Heartland Series, stories from his boyhood. His writings are making me pause and remember. So for my slice today, I’ve written a poem remembering Easters of my girlhood. My title, Easter Past, borrows...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.25. Yesterday, I published a memory from my first grade year — “The Day My Teacher Died.” Today I am writing a piece that is a snapshot of my thinking as I crafted it. However, before I begin unfolding my thinking, lest my narration...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.24. Prologue: This is my true story. The account is completely accurate. Names have been changed and a detailed added, but I will share more about that tomorrow when I write about the writing. The cat. It was a big marmalade cat. When I see a marmalade cat,...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.23. It is the very error of the moon. She comes more near the earth than she was wont. And makes men mad. William Shakespeare, Othello Sharon and I sit in the Brian Center dining hall with Mick, waiting for his dinner tray. Mick, in the final stage of a...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.22. I My granddaughter (MZ), a high school junior, dropped into our kitchen unannounced on a Monday evening, full of life and energy as only that age is. The dropping-in is normal since we are neighbors and our back yards run together. We chatted and I...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, Literacy |
#SOL16. No.21. I read, and I laughed, and then inspired by Alan Wright’s SOL16 Day 20 post, I took out my dictionary and wrote. It was in the time of the year when trees are about to leaf that he came home on leave. We talked and I asked if I could leaf through...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.20. EN, my not-quite-5-year old grandson, dramatically tells Mommy that a spider is on the bedroom floor. Mommy questions about the exact whereabouts of said spider and heads up the stairs with determination. EN plops onto the couch, gives Mommy a huge...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom, Literacy |
#SOL16. No.19. True story! Once I watched the sun rise in the west. The sun had barely set and dusk was descending when I boarded a commuter flight out of Portland. I was on my way to catch a cross-country red-eye out of Seattle. As we lifted into our takeoff, I...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.18. TS and NC (12- and 10-year-old brothers) have been learning about safety—water safety, bicycle safety, hiking safety. While reading about safety protocol for hiking in a woods, they got into a discussion about ticks. The tick talk included information...
by Alice Nine | In My Classroom, Literacy |
#SOL16. No.17. “To laugh often and love much” has always been one of my favorite quotes. I’ve seen so many different versions, including one written as prose, and wondered how that could be. And I’ve always thought they were the words of Ralph...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.16. Some call me a frequent flyer. Others call me a road warrior. American Airlines says I’m Executive Platinum. All I know is that I spend a lot of time in airports and airplanes, traveling to work with schools across the country. The records show...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom, Literacy |
#SOL16. No.15. In my back yard, a lone snowman stood, quietly smiling. Though temperatures were getting colder, he kept smiling. When the wind blew hard, he still smiled. Maybe it was Mandi’s red scarf around his neck, or Mike’s black sock hat on his head,...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.14. Engines roar. We rise to the west. Water becomes clouds, Clouds become water. Where ocean and sky meet, I do not know. –On a winter departure from Santa Anna, Orange County, CA Slice of Life Read more about a slicing life and a great community of...
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