Celebration: It all adds up

Posted on May 9, 2015 by carriegelson

We all know that finding reasons to celebrate becomes even more necessary when there are lots of reasons to despair. Words have associations for me. Despair is a drain in a rainstorm. Celebration is light but full of energy. Leaps. Twirls and whirls.

Moment by moment. Tiny and full. We can choose to walk through our weeks gathering the energy to remain in the place to celebrate.

There is some sadness in my room. Some weighty things that are hard. But I collected the light and there is much that is joyful. It all adds up to many reasons to smile.

Sharing some of them here 🙂

We had a week of hiphop dancing with the brilliant Kimberly Stevenson from The Happening Dance Studio here in Vancouver. One morning I arrived at school to see an impromptu early morning rehearsal going on. Students all helping each other with their steps.

How I love the artists in my room. We have started hanging up our whale art inspired by the book Wild Ideas: Let Nature Inspire Your Thinking written by Elin Kelsey and illustrated by Soyeon Kim. Placed next to each other, we have a beautiful under the sea collage happening.

Buddy reading is always a highlight of our week. I caught this little guy mid bellow – the best kind of carried away laughing there is!

Here are my dancers! Showing me their silly just before our big performance. Dance teacher Kim is right in there with us. How we adore her!

Some little notes of gratitude for Kim 🙂

Flowers for Mamas.

Community. Posing with black and white hearts and a little bit of playground play on Friday afternoon. These pictures are for a thank you to Kim, our hip hop teacher which will be on our class blog.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

Celebration: Calef Brown Land

Posted on April 24, 2015 by carriegelson

This week I am thrilled to celebrate a very special visit from author/artist/poet/word-wizard/snail-inventor, the amazing Calef Brown! To say that we adore Calef Brown’s art and poems is an extreme understatement. We are ultimate fans! So much so that we have been working on creating what we have come to call Calef Brown Land: a world on our outside bulletin board that features creatures, flying machines, flora and fauna inspired by Calef’s work.

Calef’s book Dragon, Robot, Gatorbunny was the inspiration for many of these pieces We started drawing . . . And then we painted Creatures and such were cut out and collected. And then the building of Calef Brown Land began. It was admired 🙂 Because it is AMAZING! Full of whimsy, vibrant colours and all kinds of joyous charm. And then, today . . . Calef Brown, himself, was coming to visit! Books were ready (check out the top row) The schedule was set. Welcome signs were made. And then, we heard the shouts, “Calef Brown is here! He’s here!”

Staying in the room and calm went quickly out the window. Because today was the day! We got to visit with Calef Brown!

Sharing the mural was pretty special. But having Calef Brown share with us . . . Well, now, that was just full of wow! We talked about syllables and favourite words. Rhymes and near rhymes. List making. Word savouring. Rice paper. Tones. Inspiration. Silly. Colours. End papers and treasures under the book jackets. We got to ask lots of questions and found out many things like which came first – the poem? the word? the illustration? (Never the chicken or the egg in case you were wondering)

We watched Calef read poems (perfectly) upside down. And . . . recite multiple poems from memory. Most of his poems are stored in his head and he shared them with us, when the time was right, on multiple occasions. When the students had their recess break, Calef made each one a special note. (Yes, he really did this! I witnessed it!)

He also gifted a signed copy of his newest book Hypnotize a Tiger to our school. Calef got a little peek at my students doing what they do best: losing themselves in books! His books, of course, flew into hands and were shared together or devoured individually. In the afternoon, students got a peek at their individual notes. Lots of smiles all around 🙂 This week I celebrate Calef Brown’s generosity, creativity and time. His visit was very special for us, confirming our knowledge that book makers – readers, writers, artists extraordinaire are magical. They make the world extra everything! Thank you Calef Brown! This was a morning for the very important memory files. Filed under . . .

wordy wanderings

art meanderings

kindly offerings

Same number of syllables inspiration 🙂

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

Celebration: Fuel

Posted on April 17, 2015 by carriegelson

Some weeks are hard. They are made up of many chunks of challenge, of upset, of stress. Not all day, every day. But, moments.

Moments of frustration. Moments where we worry. Moments where we wonder. Moments where we feel drained.

When too many of those moments happen in one week, the balance is tipped. It isn’t a week where amazing outweighs the challenges. It is a week where deep breaths are well utilized. Where some soul searching happens. Where teetering on the edge of here and there helplessness is the way it is.

I don’t usually say it, because it’s not where I focus, but I work in a school with high needs, high vulnerability, high poverty and sometimes, it is really hard. This is not the most important thing about what I do. I teach children. Amazing, creative and generous children. We do amazing, creative, inspiring things together. Not in spite of the stressors. Not because of them. But along side of them. And the amazing things? They shine so brightly that they guide me home and pull me back to do it all over again. Full of energy and excitement.

Every so often though, I need to gather fuel. Fuel to recharge when there are lots of hard moments. This week, I celebrate that thanks to some sunshine, some impressive and supportive colleagues and the laughter and smiles of the children I work with, I found the energy to go looking for that fuel. And of course, I found it. Right there. Where it always is. All around me. Waiting to be noticed. Ready to shine the light.

Each little moment is full of the promise of many more. So breathing deeply, I celebrate each of these pieces of my week. The fuel I needed.

Next week?

I am ready for you.

Hurrah! Off we went on a walk through the neighbourhood on a geocaching adventure.

A group brainstorming ideas and key words for their writing. Asking passionate questions.

Miriam and one of my students experiencing the beginning to read stage with one of our Kindergarten buddies.

Some love notes for my birthday.

One child also told me. “I like old people.” 🙂 Well, phew. I guess I can keep this job!

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

Celebration: New Experiences

Posted on April 11, 2015 by carriegelson

Some days life can achieve the perfect balance of trying the things out there we haven’t yet done mixed in with a comforting dose of all that we know and treasure. Friday of this week was that day for our classroom.

We hosted a K class from another Vancouver school for most of the morning, through lunch and into the afternoon. For the little ones, everything was new! The bus ride, our classroom, the activities we shared and of course, all of us. They handled it all in the best 5 and 6 year old style. Frequent comments and questions were about the most important of things:

“Are we really going to get to play outside?”

“You have the best playground ever.”

“Do you have Elephant and Piggie books?”

For my students, there was joy in sharing what we know – our school and classroom, our beloved books, our playground, our lunchroom and our yoga skills. But, it was the different that made the day amazing. We had responsibility. We had to look after a little one whose entire day was new. We had to be in full out host mode. We had to care and be careful. We had to check in. We had to notice things. We were given a huge gift – the opportunity to do the giving – of ourselves and of our time. This is what I celebrate. Because watching it made me smile. Smile with pride. And joy. And awe. A beautiful day.

The wonderful Ms. Hales who brought her class to be with us shared their experience on her class blog and has invited us to come back to visit at their school!

A few glimpses into our day:

Buddy reading began within moments of their arrival!

Miriam led us through some incredible Earth yoga. Everyone was an instant expert!

In the afternoon we transformed our hands into birds and then our little buddies went back home. We can’t wait to meet up again!

https://twitter.com/Halessharon/status/586693563276066816

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

Celebration: Three years

Posted on April 3, 2015 by carriegelson

We have just begun the third term of our 2014/2015 year. Everyone is remarking that time has flown. It always does. Talk is beginning of next year. Who will teach what? What classes might we have? What changes do we want to make?

In my classroom community, a bittersweet feeling is beginning to settle. This term marks the beginning of the end. Many of us have been together for three years. More than half of my current students began as Grade 2 children in a Grade 2/3 class. They then moved into a Grade 2/3/4 as Grade 3s and now they are in Grade 4 in a Grade 3/4 class. Others are in their second year in the room. We are close. Really close.

We have experienced many things together. Memory making things that connect us. But it is more than mere moments. It is the transformations. The changes that we have all witnessed and can name. Little learners have grown into older learners and have found amazing things along the way. Some of us have realized we are writers. That words, our words, can be powerful. Others have become readers and need pages to read like others need air to breathe. Some of us have become leaders. Artists. The rational voice. Singers. Athletes. Some have learned to speak up and share ideas. Others are beautifully compassionate and caring. Some offer incredible perspective. Some are quietly wise. Some are trying to inspire change, to stir up community. Many of us are outspoken and passionate. Even quietly, most of us have realized we have opinions and that others want to hear them.

Yes, all of us are a little of all of these things but identities are being developed. It has been amazing to observe, to nurture and to celebrate this.

I should only be celebrating but I know that I will have many moments of sad too. I would love to keep these children in my room forever. Even though I know that the new students next year will bring their own love and their own amazing.

It has been a very special gift to teach so many children for so long. I may never have this opportunity again and I know it. All children teach me so much. These children have been particularly influential. This is my 20th year at this school and I don’t think I have ever been so full of change and possibility. Wanting the room to be full of learning and security for these children has pushed me to risk take and shift and reassess constantly. My learning has been perhaps the most rich.

So that I am not a crumpled mess in June when I have to say goodbye to my students, I need to begin now to find perspective. The perspective that we will carry each of us in how we move forward, knowing, that we are so very blessed to have been influenced so deeply by each other.

This is what I celebrate this week. Each child in my room and the journey we have all experienced together. I will hold these last months very close.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

Celebration: Camp Read

Posted on March 28, 2015 by carriegelson

Sometimes a day just must be celebrated with lots of details. Today was that day. It was Camp Read at my school. All day, all literacy, all the time.

There was an author visit. We got to do yoga twice. Once outside. We had buddy reading for a second time this week. Lots of independent reading. Lots of reading aloud. I mean, really, could this get much better?

Our day began with the magical book Dream Boats written by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Kirsti Anne Wakelin. This is a beautiful book to read aloud. It is lyrical and full of gorgeous images.

After I read the story, Miriam led us through some yoga experiences where we got to ride on our own imagined dream boats. Who says you need a boat to go sailing? Or even water.

We then got to go and meet author Dan Bar-el and listen to his engaging presentation. One of my students got to introduce Dan and then she spent the entire presentation in awe of his hilarious voices and dramatic retellings of his books.

“How does he do those voices? Really – how does he make his voice do that?!”

Such a fun and entertaining author visit! The children talked about it all day!

After recess, we had a very special guest reader come to our classroom. Our school secretary Sally came in and read us the charming book Library Lion written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

It was so wonderful to share the story experience with an adult who is very dear to us but isn’t often in the classroom with us.

After reading some of our current class novel Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles, we headed outside to read Silence by Lemniscates.

A book like this must be followed by some mindful, quiet listening. And then some yoga.

Sun salutations.

Growing “seeds”

Group balance

After lunch we read more books – one aloud – Papa’s Mechanical Fish written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Boris Kulikov – and many on our own.

We also had a visit from our little reading buddies. Which is always delightful!

This week, I celebrate a beautiful day full of literacy. A day that highlights that so many of our days are full of literacy. Surrounded by stories. Inspired by books. Definitely worth celebration.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks. Read all of the celebrations by following the links shared here.

Celebration: Spring Break

Posted on March 20, 2015 by carriegelson

I almost feel guilty celebrating true spring here in the Pacific Northwest as I know our rain is someone else’s snow and our blooming spring flowers haven’t even peeked through in some places but . . . I just had a two week Spring Break and I celebrate it. I had 6 days in Seattle with my family, some of it happily spent with my sister and her family. We also had time to just be, work in the garden, go for walks, appreciate the rain. It has all been slow and lovely.

I celebrate

Exploring different cities

Incredible views

Evening walks on the water

Lots of bookstore time. List making. Reading. Purchasing.

Library visits that go on for hours

Cousins, Uncles, Aunties and walks

And some things I have no pictures of but made my break just as happy:

Coffee, thick books and sweets (all at the same time)
Organizing my bookshelves
Winning the war with the weeds
Transplanted tulips that still bloomed!
Dreams of garden plans that might really happen . . .
Happy twelve year olds and their chitter chatter
Listening to an audio book with the family on long car rides
Two more days until my 18th wedding anniversary

Celebration: Nerding out

Posted on March 7, 2015 by carriegelson

Oh there has been a whole lot of amazing bookish things in this week. If there is a land of Nerdy-book-club-ish-ness, well, I have been wandering about within it. Quite happily. Actually wandering is not the word. Leaping. Whirling. Rejoicing. These words better capture it.

It began a week ago with the amazing Western Washington Children’s Literature Conference and it kept going until today at the eerie and exceptional Serendipity conference here in Vancouver.

I have been so blessed to hear brilliant and passionate words (and have many books signed by . . . ) from Kate DiCamillo, Yuyi Morales, Joyce Sidman and Matt de la Peña (all in Bellingham) and Molly Idle, Holly Black, Andrew Smith and Mariko Tamaki (here in Vancouver).

I also got to attend the first EVER nErDCamp Bellingham last Sunday!

And then of course, all kinds of #booklove happened in my classroom all week.

I have too many words but can’t seem to settle them. So much of this will be in pictures.

The Western Washington Children’s Literature Conference was so amazing!

I learned a lot from each presenter. One (or two) line take aways

Matt de la Peña: “You can’t be a great writer until first you are a great reader.”

Yuyi Morales: “At the library, there are books with art in them like in an art gallery. Some of them were made for people like me and my story.”

Kate DiCamillo: “It is a privilege to have anything at all to do with books. Words matter. Words don’t fail.”

Joyce Sidman: “Why share poetry with children? Poems can never be wrong. Some might be more powerful. They can express our “souls””

And Sunday was all about nErDcamp in the gorgeous Whatcom Middle School Library:

I spent some time twisting and turning trying to see this gorgeous space from every angle

Loved meeting with friends old and new and learning together 🙂

Thank you to the awesome Adam Shaffer for his Nerdy vision!

I loved bringing Viva Frida back for Miriam and watching her share it with little listeners

Today at the Vancouver Children’s Literacy Roundtable’s Serendipity, more wonderful words and many laughs. Many of the gems are too – let’s call them – “too YA” to share.

From Andrew Smith: “My code is the English language. Like a wizard I can put words together and make poetry. It is powerful.”

From Mariko Tamaki: “There is a third writer in a comic book – the author, the illustrator and the person who puts it all together. The collaboration is important.”

From Molly Idle and Kelly Chipponeri (Editorial Director, Children’s Books at Chronicle Books in San Fransisco): “The process of putting together a book and doing what is best for the book is about kind, creative and supportive communication.”

From Holly Black: “It is intensely personal and strange to write a book. Writing is often answering the questions that we come across.”

I loved the chance to talk education with Andrew Smith and to share the sunshine with Molly and Kelly and hear more about their collaboration.

A gorgeous day all around.

My students adore Molly Idle‘s Flora so they will be thrilled that I got our classroom copies signed!

And yes, I love all of this – the authors, the illustrators and the literacy love. But why do I love it so much? Because I can share it with my students.

Their book love is my book love.

Our passion for literacy is always, I hope, transformative.

Celebration: New views

Posted on February 21, 2015 by carriegelson

This week a bit of a theme seemed to emerge – seeing things in a new way or seeing things for the first time. I had a shortened teaching week due to a Pro D day in my district and travelling to participate in Pro D to the island so my learning “adventures” were a little more varied.

This is what I celebrate this week: new views.

#1 It was the third annual Nonfiction 10 for 10 this week. Follow the link to check out all of the lists shared. My theme this year was Change your perspective. This list featured my favourite nonfiction titles that allow us to think about something from a completely new or different perspective.

#2 Watching my students in buddy reading this week was lovely as always. But, as I walked around and listened in to the reading and the conversations, what really stood out was their leadership. My students have really become reading mentors. They are responsive to their listeners, they are monitoring for understanding, they are aware of attention span and they are asking amazing questions. I couldn’t be prouder.

#3 My students adore Calef Brown. We love his art. We love his wonderful poems. This week in art we made some images inspired by his.

Kids in @CarrieGelson ‘s class working with my Dragon, Robot, Gatorbunny activity book. Great drawings! pic.twitter.com/iAJJQkigLJ

— Calef Brown (@CalefBrown) February 19, 2015

I loved how some images were Brown inspired with such a lovely “child” twist. Like this sweet little moment between these characters below.

#4 These views were truly new views of the most beautiful and majestic kind! They are taken out my window flying back from Port Hardy Friday evening. I loved the tiny plane ride and the incredible views of mountains and coast line that we could see out the window. The flight back to Vancouver had no empty seats and many people were snapping pictures of these gorgeous scenes.

#5 The reason I was in Port Hardy was to participate in Vancouver Island North Teachers’ Association’s District Professional Day on The Whole Child. It was an honour to present the Key Note address and to be able to share my love for nonfiction picture books in the two nonfiction workshops I shared. The photo below is part of my book stack – upside down with sticky notes everywhere which made sense for me as I presented.

The North Island community was wonderful. While I had only a limited time there, I was touched by the stories that people shared with me and by the warmth in which I was welcomed. The beautiful landscape, the dancing and the drumming, the care and commitment of these educators . . . it was a wonderful 24 hours for me.

Celebration: The Book Cycle

Posted on February 13, 2015 by carriegelson

On the day when everyone is celebrating love – I am going to celebrate book love. How lucky I am to be surrounded by it!

It made it onto my Valentine envelopes

I get to witness it all week – in Reading Workshop, during quiet reading and most adorably, during buddy reading with the Ks.

This week we wrote about our classroom library and one little reader’s writing was a beautiful gift of celebration of how much we love books and how much I love books.

I celebrate it here:

I like that in our classroom library, we never say there is too many books because you can never have enough books!! Everybody likes every single book because we have so many memories like reading with our friends or this is the book I read when I’m sad. Ms. Gelson always book talks books which means she’s adding more books to the library which also means we have to make room. Ms. Gelson bought a whole new shelf for nonfiction!!! By the end of this year, we’ll be drowning in books

You know how there’s a butterfly cycle and a blah blah cycle and all the other cycles? Well let me tell you about the book cycle. Step 1: Empty book shelf Step 2: Mediumish filled book shelf Step 3: Almost full book shelf Step 4: Full book shelf and finally Step 5: Drowning in books because there’s too many books. Sorry – you can never have enough books! And that is the book cycle 🙂

Maybe that book cycle doesn’t fit your teacher. If not, make your own up. I mean – that wasn’t made up though. But back to the point . . . That book cycle sure fits my teacher. She’s a little bit book crazy as in goes to the book store everyday!

Here is the author of this incredible piece of writing with her favourite book! (She does read it when she’s sad. But also when she’s happy or mellow or tired or . . . )