This I Believe...

This I believe... Have trust in the Lord, yourself, and others.



Growing up in a large Catholic family, I have always known I am never alone, I have grown up trusting the Lord, believing in myself, and putting trust in others.  Never has my belief been tested more than in the thirteen months I spent living and teaching in Suji, South Korea.



My Korean Air flight touched down in Seoul on the soupy, misty, cold night of January 12,  the tenth anniversary of my dear grandmother's death.  I could feel her presence, and could almost hear her whispering in my ear, "I'm proud of you, Brittany Ann. You can do this." I took a deep breath, slung my LL Bean travel bag over my shoulder and walked confidently off the plane. This confidence led me through customs and into the myriad of Koreans busily scurrying like ants around the airport. I could hear an unfamiliar buzz, the sound of language I did not understand.  I trusted I would find my job recruiter as soon as I passed though the doors.  I started to doubt this when I saw the sea of beautiful dark skin and ebony hair.  Thankfully, I was easy to spot. The hour ride from Seoul to Suji was filled with chit-chat about the weather, my flights, and what the next few days would bring.  I did my best to fight the jet lag and the thirteen hour time difference. My body was begging for sleep.  I felt as though I was in a foggy dream.  On the ride, I silently thanked God for Brandon and his kindness.  I can do this, I thought to myself. 


As I entered my new apartment I instantly knew the spacious two bedroom apartment I had fabricated in my mind was now more like the size of my kitchen in Maine.  I hid my surprise and disappointment and exclaimed how much I liked my new home.  Brandon graciously said good-night and shut the door.  And there I was.  Alone.  No phone. No food. No money.  I had my suitcase, my journal, and myself. I curled up into my scratchy twin bed sheets and I cried myself to sleep, convincing myself I had made the right decision. I ached to hear my mother's voice and her reassurance that this adventure was the right decision. I drifted off to sleep in prayer, praising God for this opportunity, and begging him for strength for me to get through the lonliness that filled my heart and spilled over into every fiber of my being.   The prayers that passed my lips were not the Our Father's and Hail Mary's I prayed as a child.  No, I was pleading and begging my Heavenly Father to hold me, to pull me close to him, and help me feel His Love. 

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Gasp.

Ouch.

Crunch.

Creak.

Whir.Whir.Whir.

Please Start.

A beautiful January morning in Shin Pond, America!

I am amazed at how we adapt to mother nature.

There is a 100 degree difference between today and the day I married Elijah.

Crazy.

Thank you, LL Bean and The Northface for making winter gear to keep me

 warm on mornings such as these.

Dear July,

 I miss you.

Launching the Notebook

With the start of ERL 590, I've been meaning to start my own writer's notebook.  I want to be a writing teacher.  I want to show the students I work with that, I too, am a writer.  I have been thinking about writing my way through Lucy Calkins Units of Study grades 3-5, so when I go into classrooms to work with teachers and students, I have a few entries in my notebook that are similar to what the students have been writing about.  I still want to do this.  I have a little secret, I have a really bad habit.  I have all these great ideas, and then I lose my follow through.  It's tragic.  How am I supposed to make a difference, if I can't follow through?!

Another great example of my effort to be a writer is me scouring through my professional library. I brought every book home that would help me be a writer.  I named all ten to fifteen books in an earlier post.  I thumbed through them, but I hadn't really started any.  Until yesterday.  Thank you, God, for giving us a snow day. :)   Thank you, Aimee Buckner for writing Notebook Know-How.  I picked up Aimee's book and read what Ralph Fletcher had to say. I was hooked.  After reading the first two chapters I grabbed my writer's notebook and got started.

In Chapter 2 Amy shares some of her strategies for beginning notebook writing. The first strategy she gives is History of a Name.  The mentor text she lists for this is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes (1996).  

So, yesterday, in my notebook I tried writing about my name.  I even called my mom to ask about my name!

Here goes...

Brittany Ann

My mom's first choice for my name was Duffy-Ann.  When she decided to keep her maiden name, Duffy, she knew my name could not be Duffy-Ann Duffy-Stanley!  My mom is a devout Catholic, and one of her favorite saints is St. Ann.  So, when Duffy-Ann was off the table, my parents went searching for my first name to match with Ann. They chose Brittany. 

Brittany was chosen after Brittany, France. France, you ask?  Why Brittany, France?  Well, interestingly enough, St. Ann is the patron saint of Brittany, France.  Another interesting tid-bit about me is, I was due to arrive into this beautiful world on July 26, 1979. July 26th just happens to be the Feast Day of St. Ann.   Did you know tradition refers to St. Ann as being the mother of the Virgin Mary? I'm named after the grandmother of Jesus!!  How awesome is that?!   

I have learned St. Ann was married to a man named Joachim. After twenty years of marriage,  they still were not able to have children.  It is said that Joachim went to the desert to pray and fast.  An angel appeared and assured him that he and Ann would have a child.  They were to name her Mary and give her to God.  It is said that Ann did not know where Joachim had gone, in despair of being barren she called out to God and asked him why she was born.  An angel also appeared to Ann and revealed to her that she would soon have a child she would name Mary.  St. Ann is the patron saint of mothers and grandmothers.

I liked being Brittany Ann Duffy-Stanley for thirty years.  I'm pretty sure I was the only Brittany Ann Duffy-Stanley on the planet, a hyphenated name helps with that. :)   I do have someone named after me, although I don't know her. An acquaintance of my father liked my name so much, he named his daughter Brittany Ann.  I loved my initials spelled BADS.

On July 10, 2010 I married my true love, Elijah Arbo.  I am now Brittany Ann Arbo.  My initials for the rest of my life are now BAA.   Would you believe my favorite animal is a sheep? 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This little exercise has made me more conscious of names.  I will hopefully be a mom in the next few years.  I want to be sure that I choose a name for my child with meaning, just as my wonderful parents did. I am excited to report that the girl's name we have in mind has a strong history in Christianity as well. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Namesake



St. Anne with Mary
Photo credit:
http://www.chotkis.com/catholic-chaplets/chaplet-of-st-anne.php

Brittany, France



Photo Credit:

    http://www.westernfrancetouristboard.com/brittany.html

                                                          

References:

http://www.saintanne.webhero.com/index.html



A Prompt from The Pocket Muse

Write about a friendship you failed...

Click. I hung up the phone. And just like that I knew I had just made one of worst decisions of my life.

We made plans over a week ago.  She would meet me for dinner on the Island.  She and Janessa were hiking in Acadia for the day.  "I'll call you around three," she told me. I knew I shouldn't had left our little "send off dinner" so close to her departure date.  She was actually doing it, I couldn't believe it.  In just a week she would be on a plane to Africa to join the Peace Core.  I couldn't find the words to tell her how happy and proud I was.  She was off to make a real difference in this great big world. Well, three o'clock came and went as did four, five, and six. "Time must have gotten away from them," I kept thinking to myself. That's the thing with the Ryan girls, we always made plans...and they were always subject to change.  We had played this game all through high school and college.  Flexibility was the name of the game.  It just worked for us, until I met Matt.

Matt was punctual. Matt made plans weeks in advance. He had a schedule, he stuck to it. Spontaneity was a challenge for him.  I swear we had to "plan" spontaneous events! I'd tried suggesting whimsical ideas to him before, I didn't get anywhere but frustrated with his ridiculous responses about why we couldn't do what I suggested.

So, when five o'clock rolled around, it was decided we would join his crowd for dinner.  It was obvious to him my girls had bailed on me.  He'd be damned if we were just going to sit around waiting on a phone call.  I took my time getting ready.  I had a nagging feeling Jill would call with an outrageous tale about what kind of shenanigans she and Janessa had gotten themselves into. I smiled just thinking about those two yahoos, I secretly wished I had just gone with them for the day.  
 
 "Brit, let's go.  It will take us at least ten minutes to get there, and we still need to pick up Mark and Sue," Matt barked from the kitchen.

Of course, dinner reservations were at 7:30, but we had to leave at 7:00.  We needed to be at the restaurant at least ten minutes before our reservation.   I slid my arms through my autumn kissed brown LL Bean fleece and zipped it up in anticipation of the brisk October evening. 

Rrrrring. Rrrring.

I froze in panic. What now?! Answer the phone? Walk out the door? Could it be Jill?  Mark and Sue? All of these thoughts flashed in my mind as I made myself run to the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hee, hee...Brittany?"
"Yeah.  Jill, where are you?"
"Hahaha, Pittsfield!"
"Pitsfield!? I thought you were hiking on the Island today."
"Well... we changed our minds."
Her voiced trailed off as my mind raced about what to do.  I could feel Matt's piercing eyes burning a hole in the back of my head.
"So...what's your plan?" I asked.
"Well, can you just meet us in Bangor for dinner?"
Long pause.  Ordinarily, yes.  Yes, I could meet you in Bangor even though you are three and half hours late calling me. But, you see, I've met someone who doesn't find this little thing we do even a tad bit amusing.  He made plans for dinner two hours ago, and I have to go with him.
"Umm...," I stammered. "Jill, I really can't. I didn't hear from you, so I didn't think you still wanted to get together. Matt and I made other plans.  I'm so sorry."  I held my breath in anticipation of her reaction for my out of character response.
Silence.  Silence is what I got.
"Well," she answered in an unfamiliar hurtful, snappy tone, "I'll guess I'll see you in a couple of years." 
Her words cut me deeper than any knife ever could have.  Guilt, sadness, and regret filled my voice as I slowly choked out, "I guess so."

I hung up the receiver, followed Matt out the door, and walked out of my best friend's life.

Improving Student Writing

Chapter one reminds us of how complex writing is.  When I begin to think about writing and all its complexities, my head begins to spin.  When I want to write about writing I echo the authors of BWM when they say, "the writer doesn't always know before hand how to begin, much less to proceed, (p.9)."   I believe it was Mel Levine that once said, writing is the greatest orchestra the mind will ever conduct.  BWM says writing is hard because it is a struggle of thought, feeling, and imagination to find expression clear enough for the task at hand (p. 9).

As a teacher of writing and a supporter of teachers who are teaching writing, these are some of the big nuggets I'm walking away with from chapter one:

• Writing is something writers are always learning to do (p. 14)
• Analyze, not critisize--error marks the place where education begins (p. 14)
• Teachers need to build common expectations of good writing
• Educators need multiple strategies for teaching writing (p. 15)
• We need fair, authentic writing assessment (p. 15)
• Firsthand experience with the practice of writing can help a teacher recognize the kinds of problems students have in improving their writing (p.16)
• Writing can support all disciplines (p. 16)
• Find a core group of teachers who write and who are enthusiastic about it (p. 16)

So What?!
So what do these challenges and nuggets mean for me?  How can I help our school address these challenges?    We gather as a K-3 PLC with a focus on writing once a month.  I know it needs to be more, however, teachers are involved in other PLCs as well.  So... where to begin, starting with common expectations of good writing would spark for interesting conversation.  I need to learn more about our teachers as writers.  Do we have teachers who write consistently and who are enthusiastic about it?  If we are not a community of writers as teachers, can we foster a community of writers in our classrooms? 

I feel like the more I read about writing, I only have more questions and less answers. :) 

Why Writing Matters

I'm excited to get into Why Writing Matters.  So many of my graduate courses have focused on reading, language, struggling learners, and coaching teachers.  I have yet to take an in depth class on writing. I hope Why Writing Matters will jump start me to dive into the many professional texts I have collected as part of our professional library. Some of the texts that are nestled beside me as I write this are: Teaching Middle School Writers (Robb), Craft Lessons (Fletcher &Portalupi) Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature K-6 (Dorfman & Cappelli), Nonfiction Mentor Texts (Dorfman & Cappelli), Inside Notebooks (Buckner), Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons for Our Youngest Writers (Horn & Giacobbe) The Art of Teaching Writing (Calkins), and Launching the Writing Workshop: Grades 3-5 (Calkins). 

I appreciate how Carl Nagin and the folks at the National Writing Project give us some history about writing in their introduction.  I found it interesting that writing has been such a national issue since 1874.  It is good to see that in 136 years the "crisis" is now labeled a "challenge".  Way to go America! :)

The good news is, is that we have recognized writing has been forgotten. Now there are organizations established such as The National Writing Project and NCTE that are supporting research and transferring exemplary writing instruction into many classrooms across the country. 

The questions the book will be addressing will certainly help me as I further my knowledge of writing, writing process, schoolwide writing programs, and professional development for teachers.  The questions I'm excited to think more about and bring back to our teachers are:

• Why does writing matter?
• What does research say about the teaching of writing?
• What are some features of an effective writing classroom?
• How can writing be used to help develop critical thinking?
• How does writing fit into learning across disciplines?
• What does a schoolwide writing program look like?
• What are fair ways to assess writing?

It's more than frightening to know how essential writing is to the developing minds of our children, and yet a recent study quoted in grades one, three, and five only 15% of the school day was spent in any kind of writing activity.  It is not surprising many young adults have trouble with critical literacy skills.  Where are we spending our precious minutes in our day?   I once knew a teacher that spent at least 10 minutes of her literacy block giving directions on how to do a packet of worksheets.  10 minutes a day = 50 minutes a week =  almost 3.5 hours a month = almost 24 hours =  almost 3 school days by the end of the year.  Think about what we could do if we replaced those worksheet instructions with a powerful writing mini-lesson!

I am looking forward to sharing new information from this text with my colleagues as well as my principal. 

Taking the first step is always the most difficult...

I think 2011 will bring many firsts.  My first full year of being a wife, my first online class, and my first "blog".  

In the next couple of days I need to be thinking deeper about "Writing is..." and "What we believe..."  This class will certainly help me be a more reflective thinker as well as become more articulate.   Saying I'm nervous about this class would be an understatement.