Author Archives: sara holbrook

About sara holbrook

Poet/Author/Educator

April 19, 2005

Recess

Lunch with students at Waynesville Middle School. I told them about a story I’d heard on the radio driving down – about the schools in New York City where they were cancelling recess for elementary kids, not temporarily but permanently, as a way to help kids prepare for proficiency tests. The kids had lots of opinions – how much recess meant to them in elementary, how many thought they still needed recess once a day to run around, One wizened sixth grader, her brow crossed with a pleading, perplexed look said, “I had recess and I turned out okay.”

A message to legislative armchair curriculum directors.

Another girl told me the story of how she had moved away from another community and then went back in the summer and went looking for her best friend who had been living with her grandmother. But when she went to the door she found out that her friend’s mom had taken her friend away and no one would tell her where, her eyes broadcasting pain. When you listen to kids’ stories of their utter powerlessness against the whims of recess cancelling, moving around grown-ups, is it any wonder they get angry?

During the assembly one girl asked me a great question when I was coming down hard on the need to put precise details in our writing: “But don’t you kind of want to leave things open to the reader’s imagination?” We talked about how specific the writer needs to be in her descriptions in order to kick start the readers imagination. Good discussion.

I loved my visit to Waynesville because I actually got to talk to kids, which I don’t always get to do. Many thanks to all the teachers who prepared the kids and brought in great food. Special thanks to Kathy Hale for all her hard work.

April 17, 2005

MCTE Bright Ideas Conference

Now, this really is a bright idea — hold a conference for pre-service teachers that patterns itself off of a reading or english conference so that students get in the groove of being lifelong learners before they graduate. Let them see how cool it is to exchange ideas through poster sessions, to present and hear from their peers. That’s what the Michigan Council of Teachers of English has been doing in Lansing for over twenty years. This year there were over 300 teachers and students in attendance. Michael and I did a joint reading at the luncheon, something we don’t get to do as often as we’d like. Fun fun. And the poster displays on justice and equality prepared by the students were overwhelmingly impressive. Big thanks to Marilyn Wilson and Sue for all their hard work.

Home for a few hours and off to Waynesville, OH.
Who invented poetry month anyway?
Deep breath. Two more weeks to go.

April 16, 2005

extensions

Okay, I filed another extension on my taxes. Every year I say I’m going to get in under the wire and every year…but this year (with a lot of help from Kelly) was soooooo close.

Kelly was very motivated since she was working against a bigger, more important deadline: TODAY IS THE BIRTHDAY OF THOMAS JOHN WEIST, 9 lbs. 1 oz, 21 inches tall. I understand he has strong lungs and lots of opinions. A perfect extension to our family. Congratulations to Kelly, Brian and little Tommy’s two older brothers Ben and Danny. I will not get my hands on the little guy until next weekend, due to bad scheduling. I can’t wait.

So, Uncle Sam can wait a little, this truly important day belongs to Tommy. A new life begins with places to go, people to meet, things to do. Just think of it. And Tommy will always have a reason to celebrate on tax day, how many of us can say that?

April 15, 2005

Marysville, OH

Marysville, OH is home to (among many other things) a large Honda plant and the only (that I’ve noticed) Japanese language television station in the midwest making it a small town with an international flavor.

I remember growing up with very little exposure to the outside world, thinking that anything foreign was, well, so FOREIGN. From Yugioh Cards to Dora the Explorer, kids are exposed to so much more, which I can only hope will build more tolerance in the world.

Wednesday I visited East Elementary School in Marysville. It is a small school, located in what might pass as Marysville’s inner city. The library is at the hub of the circular layout, with walls open on two hallways, truly forming a heart of the school. The kids and staff were totally engaged in literacy through poetry. One fourth grade class had prepared a group performance of Wham-a-bama-a-one-man-band that really rocked the place. It was a good day, but at 3PM, I finally hit the jetlag wall and retreated to the hotel for an early night. Many thanks to Gail Jenkins for all her hard work.

Thursday I visited Raymond Elementary, a more country school on the outskirts of Marysville. This is an older building that has expanded more than once, the most recent time with a new library. When possible, this is just how I like to meet kids, in smaller spaces where we can really make eye contact with one another. We had a wonderful learning experience because the kids were SO well prepared by their teachers, in addition to coaching by librarian Pam Jones. I really appreciate everyone’s time integrating the author visit right in with the classroom goals (as was also the case at East and Mill Valley). Everyone was warm and receptive to the “foreigner” from Cleveland. Thank you!

April 13, 2005

morning walk reflections

I seem to be gaining back an hour a day in my sleep patterns — today I slept in until 4:30 AM. I’m kind of liking this early morning routine I’ve heard others talk about and have often been too snoozy to explore on my own.

what’s coming — Walked to the gas station to buy a bottle of water. Who would have predicted gas prices over $2 (or bottled water for that matter). I read in the China News that car ownership in China is currently at 20 million cars and this number is expected to soar another 100 million in the next generation. That’s going to mean a lot more guzzlers bellying up.

Somewhere I read that we have used up roughly one half of the earth’s finite oil reserves in the past 150 years, chugging like freshmen at a frat party. In my lifetime gas has gone from $.19 per gallon to $2+ and rising. What’s coming?

what’s past — yesterday, the librarian at Mill Valley told me that her husband and sons are dairy farmers. Another teacher commented that she loves to watch the cows come in for milking and she wished she could get her third graders to form such a nice, organized line as Kristi’s husband manages with his cows.
“You mean you have a real live dairy farm still?”
“Yes.”
“And you actually let the cows outside of the barn?” (as opposed to keeping them standing on concrete for their entire lives hooked to machines)
“Yes.”
I told her I was so glad to hear that. She told me that there were only two dairy farms left in her area, that she has two sons in their twenties. One likes the cows and one LOVES the cows, but with the way land is being eaten up in this area above Columbus for suburban sprawl, she doesn’t know how long the farm will last.

I hope the Chinese learn from some of our mistakes and don’t start ripping up all their train tracks, spending all their transportation resources on highways for all those new cars. Highways that rip the guts out of cities and separate folks into isolated economic camps, paving over all their farmland.

Lots of worms on the roads and sidewalks today, finding their way across asphalt. The story of us all?

April 13, 2005

Mill Valley Elementary, Marysville OH

Wow! Mill Valley did such a fantastic job of tying my visit directly into the curriculum needs of the school, I just have to talk about it. The halls of the building were lined with artwork and kids’ poetry generated in response to my books, which means when I arrived, kids were armed with questions so far beyond “what kind of car do you drive.”

Here are just a few that I remember off the top of my head:

Kindergarten teachers used my poem “I am to be” and had kids write on their own in response using this formula…Each student completed the sentence, “I am ______ with three facts about themselves and then they finished off with “I am not done, I am ____, where the kids speculated on who/what they will become. These single word responses written with their tightly gripped pencils were precious. Three other afternoon kindergarten students read their poems aloud during the assembly.

Second grade teachers used my poem “Soccer is the greatest fun” for a model to write “Second Grade is the greatest fun” as a group poem and then kids wrote individually, choosing a topic. Turns out football, gymnastics, biking and pizza are also the greatest fun. Writers used specific language to detail exactly why. Way cool.

There were other many other creative lesson plans in at Mill Valley (a K-4 building), I just didn’t write them down, reminding me ONCE AGAIN, I need to keep a notebook with me at all times. Maybe a couple other teachers can write here to explain their lesson ideas.

What a great day!

April 12, 2005

coming home on a jet plane

Coming home on a jet plane can be a lot more complicated than leaving on one. It is 3AM, I am back in OH and rather enthusiasitically jet lagged — as opposed to exhaustedly jet lagged which I will be at 3PM later this afternoon if I don’t get back to sleep.

I arrived home on Sunday, went to Stephie’s birthday party. Stephie is my daughter Katie’s daughter and she is four and very into Hello Kitty, her new sandbox, her new bike and the color pink. I spent a glorious day at home with my family and left at 5AM on Monday for a school in Marysville, OH.

My visit to Navin Elementary COULD have been disasterous — I was pretty tired. But as usual, the kids saved the day. We threw poetry back and forth and all around the room. The librarian, Denise, kept me on track and really helped make the day a success. Thanks to Denise and to every kid who looked up and smiled when they heard the word “poetry.” I needed that.

April 9, 2005

same same, but different

Caltex International School is one school with two campasses, Duri being the northern brother. The kids were so excited for a day of poetry, they managed to sit through two one hour sessions — one hour with me presenting and one hour with them writing. Ideas were just spilling out all over the place. After our poetry day the teachers participated in a workshop, then the day ended with a family night. It was a jam-packed day, more than I am used to, but after surviving that bus trip up there I had more than a little extra adreneline. In between school sessions I was treated to lunch and dinner at two different teacher’s homes. It is cool having school and home so close together that everyone can go home for lunch, even the teachers. Margie, the librarian, was so on top of things that by the time we had finished writing our poems, she had them laminated and posted. This morning it was back on the bus, lunch again with Rita and Lyle Molzan and then a short flight to Singapore. Tomorrow is the marathon 17 hour flight home.

Things I learned in Southeast Asia:

Don’t brush your teeth with the tap water no matter how many stars the hotel has.
Don’t pick up the fluorescent orange golf ball on the bathroom floor behind the toilet, it’s a moth ball, the odor is soap resistant and it will make your hands funky for a long time.
Doorways do not come one-size-fits-all in Thailand; when in doubt, duck.
Ants are more interested in non-food items than you would ever imagine – hair brushes, computers, earrings come alive if left on the wrong counter during rush hour.
Every hour is rush hour for insects in Indonesia.
Obeying traffic lights, lane lines and one way street signs is for sissies.
A smile and a nod goes a long way when you don’t share the same language.
Having a butler means having breakfast made and on the table at 7 sharp, having your bags carried to school and your bed made and a snack ready after school. I recommend one for everyone.
Teachers who teach at international schools are humorous, down home folks posted far away from home. The students are eager, class sizes are small and parents are involved. In a phrase, international schools rock.

April 7, 2005

Leaving Pekanbaru for Duri

Today we had our poetry jam at Caltex School – every student presented a poem with pride and more than a little attitude. Not only did every poet get rewarded with pounding applause, but each and every one received the highest possible score – two gongs! And when we were done, I was gonged out in a ceremony that began with a b-o-n-g and ended with the tricking sounds of the rain stick. I made a lot of friends at Caltex and hope to see them all again someday on the world poetry circuit. I left school with lots of thankyous to my host family, Rita and Lyle Molzan and boarded a bus for a two and a half hour trek to Duri. I don’t know if it was the tropical rain storm, the one and a half lane road with constant and passing traffic going both ways, the deep jungle valleys outside the bus or the two armed guards in the seat in front of me who really didn’t look old enough to handle fire arms, but I could tell right off this trip was to take me about as far as a poet can get from her kitchen table in Cleveland, OH. I arrived in Duri just in time for a great dinner with teachers and came home to my guest house, which comes with a butler. Neither one of us are quite sure how to communicate with each other, but he has a nice smile, fixed me a cup of tea and promised me breakfast tomorrow at seven. No monkeys here, unfortunately, too much of the rain forest has been burned and hauled away to make way for palm oil plantations. While I was at dinner an extended family of small ants or termites seems to have moved into my laptop. I’m hoping that they eat all the crumbs over night and take off for more promising digs in the morning. That or I’m finding a can of Raid somewhere. My environmentalist philosophies have their limits.

April 7, 2005

Sumatra

And another in Sumatra