Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Twelve Bar Blues by fifth Graders

                                                          Thank you and homage to "Good Morning Blues" by Leadbelly


All the ice cream shops are closed
All the ice cream shops are closed
Because it is still wintertime!

Village Scoop opens in March
Village Scoop opens in March
But it's still February!

February is taking forever
February is taking forever
I want ice cream right now!

My mom won't let me buy things when I want
My mom won't let me buy things when I want
All the stuff ..thrown in the trash

My mom won't let me purchase things fast
My mom won't let me purchase things fast
All the things I need I just don't have.

World, all polluted, what will I do?
World, all polluted, what will I do?
Let's go pick up some trash yah!

People throwing trash everywhere
People throwing trash everywhere
Let's go clean oh let's go clean!

Kobe Bryant makin' buckets
Kobe Bryant makin' buckets
81 points against the Raptors

Gettin' up early, kinda makes me angry
Gettin' up early kinda makes me angry
Don't like it in the mornin'

Gotta get up it's 6:30
Gotta get up it's 6:30
Everyone gotta get ready to go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVKuVw-X_c8

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Vacation Reflection

I never expected to have such a wonderful vacation.  I expected to relax and read and knit and reflect on what is good and right and learned.  I did not expect to have such an amazing time with people I reconnected with after a long time..

Let me first share my time at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  I found out you can get in free if your name is Isabella!  I had a lovely time with my old friend from college at the museum.  I was sad to see how many paintings have been stolen from there, they just leave the frames there, without the paintings in them.  It makes me so sad to think that no one will ever see those paintings again.  We had a great lunch at the new restaurant in the museum, and we talked and talked and talked..I hope you all have friends that are that good to you, and listen to you so well and love you as much as my friends love me!

The next day I met a friend for lunch and wandering around another museum in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts.  We saw a photography exhibit about families..there are so many different kinds now, it was divine!  We saw the Murakami exhibit, and we also saw the Escher exhibit which was my favorite.  How he managed to do those incredible pictures with all the animals coming and going, all the birds coming and going, was just amazing.  I loved the hands drawing themselves also, and the waterfall that comes up the castle and then comes down again..wow..

The next morning I had coffee at The Thinking Cup, my favorite coffee shop in Boston.  I met one of my students from some years ago, who now attends Emerson college.  What a talented and mature young man he is now..and what a delight to spend some quality time measuring our lives in coffee spoons together.  That afternoon I saw my mentor who I had not spent time with since the 1990's.  What a joy that was!

So- I didn't travel far, but I spent many hours of joy and delight traveling through the minds of so many of my favorite people, and learning about some new art.  I am refreshed and ready to work again, until the next time we break.  I hope you all had a restorative and joyful time as well and I look forward to hearing all about your travels and your new learning in different places, times and all.  Take care and talk to you all soon!

                                                           Murakami!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Down By The Riverside

As usual, here are some new versions of "Down by the Riverside"

Make The World a Better Place…
Gonna plant some flowers everywhere
Starting in my hometown (x3)
Gonna plant some flowers everywhere
Starting in my hometown
And make the world a better place
I ain’t gonna watch people litter no more (x8)

Gonna pick trash I find on the ground
Starting in my hometown (x3)
Gonna pick trash I find off the ground
Starting in my hometown
And make the world a better place
I ain’t gonna watch people litter no more (x8)

Gonna be kind to everyone
Starting in my hometown (x3)
Gonna be kind to everyone
Starting in my hometown
And make the world a better place

I ain’t gonna watch people litter no more (x8)

Gonna plant a nice flower bed
All over our York Maine
Gonna plant a nice flower bed
All over our York Maine
And make our people glad

(I’m gonna help clean up Earth
I’m gonna help clean up Earth
I’m gonna help clean up Earth
I’m gonna help clean up Earth)

Gonna play some nice music
All over our York Maine
And make our people glad

(I’m gonna help clean up Earth
I’m gonna help clean up Earth
I’m gonna help clean up Earth
I’m gonna help clean up Earth)

Gonna clean up that pollution
All over our York Maine
Gonna clean up that pollution
All over our York Maine
And make our people glad


Singing for Change...enjoy this fabulous version of the song..

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The Bingo Reading Challenge

Every winter our fabulous librarian at YMS gives the school a reading challenge, to read a certain number of books designated by her on a bingo sheet.  If you read a lines worth of them, you are entered into a contest to win a prize in June.  This is the third winter that our librarian has put out this challenge to the teachers as well as the students, and this is the third winter I plan to read all the books on the Bingo page.  So far I have been delighted by the selections I have read:  a multimedia biography of E. B. White with amazing stories, wonderful photographs and delightful quotations, a fabulous book in verse called Garvey's Choice, by Nikki Grimes, that tells a story about a boy who feels he is different from everyone else, and a book about a runner by Jason Reynolds, who is a great poet and writer, who learned writing from listening to rap, and who has blown up in the last several years and won every prestigious award for young adult literature that exists as we know it.  Just to name a few.

Let me leave you with a quotation from Patina, by Jason Reynolds:  " Folks who try to do everything are usually avoiding one thing."