Language, Literacy, and Storytelling – Part 3

A Teacher's Reflections

In Part 2, I shared worrisome statistics about children who enter school excited to learn to read, and the dramatic drop-off when they are not exposed to books and hearing words.  I talked about the next step, engaging children in both conversation and thinking – writing picture stories.

Part 3
There is proof in the pudding down the road.  Language, literacy and storytelling makes a difference, and not just with children.  Well, there’s more. Adults. That proof is in the high quality of Cuban cigars. It’s a great story, one of my favorites.

Reading aloud never gets old. It weathers time and generations. For adults, when we are read to, we listen, think and feel. And, we have to stretch our brain. When we only hear the words it sharpens our mind, and our performance is much better.

The Cuban cigar industry understood this. That’s why they make…

View original post 467 more words

Bisterne Scarecrow Festival Trail 2018

Too good, too much fun to resist reblogging this post!

derrickjknight

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED

This afternoon Jackie and I followed:

Pokestop carries a Pokemon.

I just squeezed The Bisterne Royals into one frame.

Worzel is in trouble with Aunt Sally required a couple of shots, one from across the road.

We surmised he had been on the tiles with his next door neighbour who was Half Cut.

Head over Heels about Scarecrows also required a vantage point on the opposite side of the road.

Intergalactic Beastie Boys were suitably attired.

Rusty Diesel Engine is a reincarnation of other trains in previous years.

As happy as a Pig was made from a hay bale.

The stretch of Oh Look, there’s a Dragon required two frames,

and its recently hatched baby warranted her own.

Scary Crows lurked beside each other in the trees.

Baked Beans on Coast has to win any pun competition,

and the tins in…

View original post 153 more words

Cyberspace has done it…

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficent means for going backwards.” – Aldous Huxley

“I know there’s a proverb which says ‘To err is human,’ but a human error is nothing to what a computer can do if it tries.” – Agatha Christie

 

Cyberspace has done it

 

Cyberspace – has eaten my poem

Two pages- copy, sans paste

Without a trace

The shortcut copied

But wouldn’t paste

Said nothing was there

 

Anger at an inanimate object

As useful as catching waves

Yet time away might save it

From my temptation to destroy

That which stole from me

 

So patiently it waited

Fumbling to copy it all

No, of course it wasn’t – being

Extremely technically challenged

Can’t I just blame the new PC?

My MAC, saved as I typed

 

This old dog – slow but steady

Never wins the race

Technology I’ll never conquer

It keeps me in my place

Humble, frustrated and confused

 

In the deepest despairs of

Cyberspace, my ire is raised

About to trash it, not my fault

When technology is granted

A royal reprieve – F.F.T.T.

Feline Focus Therapy Training

 

 

In the immortal words of

E.M. Forster – “I don’t know

What I think, till I read what I said”

Two pages, a poem in the ether

No ropes to pull it back

I stare at a blank page

 

Bisous,

Léa

 

 

for the record

Originally posted on 07/04/2012by Léa

“All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.”
– Mae West

for the record

she keeps her

book

near the bed

neatly listing lovers

she has known

they wonder

does she grade

on the curve?

 –

Bious,

Léa

Global Restructuring

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading.  Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.  Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.  It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”  – Christopher Morley

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.  The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary.”                              – Albert Einstein

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”                     – Albert Einstein

Global Restructuring

I

The young man

Stands expressionless

In front of the shoppe

That sells toys and gadgets

Hawking the plastic pistol

Shooting uniform translucent opals

En mass

II

I sigh

Remembering

The child who danced

And twirled with glee

Waving the tiny looped

Magic wand

Christening each wonder

As she creates it

Biding sweet release

Bisous,

Léa