Month: July 2020

July Open Write

Denise Krebs

Saturday, 18 July 2020 – Rondeau with Mo Daley

Our Final Trip Home

Awaiting our final trip home
Enduring months of the unknown
We’ve been here seven years so great
Always knew the expiry date
A seizure has gripped us and shown

A pompous plague pens a new tome
We will sacrifice to atone
And appease the curse to create
Our final trip home

Have we now reaped what we have sown?
How long before we will have grown
Beyond this harbinger of hate?
I yearn to stop and end the wait
Our final trip home

Sunday, 19 July 2020 – An ode with Tracie McCormick

Ode to Ginger Spice Cookies

Oh, ginger spice, you bring joy to life
Your honest and prodigious flavors yearn
To share their beauty and reduce strife
Thank you for your irresistible warmth.

Oh, ginger spice, your flavors dance on my tongue
Sweet, salty, biting hot and spicy
Your flavors blend so fine, but remain unsung
Rivulets of deliciousness flowing within.

Oh, ginger spice, how to describe your color?
brownish-red, bronze, chestnut, copper–
Those are not quite right–they seem a little duller
That’s why you have your own exclusive eponym.

Oh, ginger spice, you are covered with cracks
and crevices, dipped in sugar and teeming with
reasons to overindulge. My healthy eating slacks
As I enjoy one, two, three, four, five, six…

Enough for everyone…

Monday, 20 July 2020 – Ghazel form by Mo Daley

The Jar of Oil

My husband is dead, now what?
My sons will be sold to pay my debt–(the jar of oil?)

Elisha help me, please? What should I do?
What do you have? Nothing, but the jar of oil.

Go borrow jars from all the neighbors
And with them put the jar of oil.

Get a stack, a heap, a mess, a pack,
Get a bevy, a bunch, a load, a lot–the jar of oil.

Then fill them up. Fill them up?
Using what? The jar of oil.

So she and her sons went into her home
Nestled in, the doors were shut–the jar of oil.

She poured and kept pouring into each vessel.
The boys fetched another (This is nuts!)–the jar of oil.

When all the jars were entirely full
the copious cascade cut–the jar of oil.

Elisha simply directed, Go sell the oil.
Pay your debt, live from the glut–the jar of oil.

God’s specialty is filling to abundance what is empty.
In 2020 Denise was emptied to her gut–the jar of oil.

II Kings 4:1-7

Tuesday, 21 July 2020 – Monotetra by Tracie McCormick and Mo Daley

John Lewis

Racism’s scars and stains knew he.
Bloodied, unafraid, fighter free
Forging Beloved Community
Gift of esprit, Gift of esprit

The ‘Conscience of Congress’ is right
Which others will take up his fight?
Remain hopeful, not take to flight
Even at night, Even at night

The menace of his later years
Just one more foe he had to clear
Remained unconquered through our tears
Courage not fears, Courage not fears

John Lewis, determined tower
The unbowed master of the hour
Strong, but gentle as a flower
Rest in Power, Rest in Power

I was inspired by this article: “‘Invictus’ was among John Lewis’s favorite poems. It captures his indomitable spirit.” I incorporated some words from ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley, and some of John Lewis’s words, as well. Here is another joyful video to watch today, a tribute to John Lewis from Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste.

Wednesday, 22 July 2020 – Praise Poem with Brian Glaser

1
There’s a story in this place
A story no one told me
My ancestors
My teachers
My textbooks
Were whitewashed tombs
The Greatest Generation
Family vets came home from war
bought houses in the suburbs
and graduated from college
Thanks to hard work and persistence
Why didn’t they let me see
the decaying and decrepit
bones inside the tomb?
Family vets came home from war
bought houses in the suburbs
and graduated from college
Thanks to the GI Bill that
worked primarily for white veterans

2
Bill Barr, you are wrong when you said,
“Well, history is written by the winners,
so it largely depends on
who’s writing the history.”
We’re done with that.
The introductory essay
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
in The 1619 Project won a Pulitzer.

3
Story, come anew
Story, come afresh
Story, call us onto your lap
Hold us gently and whisper truth into our ears
And if we don’t hear it this time,
slap us upside the head
Tell us a story to retell to ourselves
A story to tell and retell
to future generations
We’ll be better ancestors
Better teachers
Writing better textbooks
We’ll break the unspoken
Racial contract, the one that denies
All people are created equal
Come quickly, Story

For five days, each month, I write with other teacher-poets at EthicalELA for Open Write. Read more about it or sign up here.

Currently Just for Today

Denise Krebs8 Comments
Slice of Life at TwoWritingTeachers.org

My life this Covid-19 summer has been so weird. I’m not used to staying in Bahrain for the summer. Usually we travel to the U.S., so I’m just finding my way. I need to be working on a TESOL certificate program, so I don’t lose out on that opportunity, but I haven’t yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, here is kind of a “Currently” post, but tomorrow will no doubt be totally different! Here are just a few chronologically-ordered snippets from my day at home:

Read about What Evangelicals Mean with “Family Values”

This was such a powerful and important article for me to read today. “Is evangelical support for Trump a contradiction?” In fact, I bought Kristin’s book after I finished reading the interview.

Started reading Mary Trump’s book

I’m not sure why I started reading it, but my husband bought it and I downloaded it on my Kindle and then got a little hooked on the sad birthday party for her aunts that was held at the White House.

Made Vegan Vegetable Fricassee on Cauliflower Mash

Oh, my this was so delicious! Surprisingly, the mashed cauliflower tasted a lot like mashed potatoes.

Called two friends’ mom
Today was Day 14 of the 30-Day Kindness Challenge I am doing with some friends from school. Some days I am not able to accomplish the prompts, but today it was a sweet idea I was excited and able to do.

I asked one of my friends (of two sisters) for her mom’s Whatsapp number. I then texted to warn her I wanted to talk to her. Later my husband and I called to bless her by telling her all the good things she would let us shower on her about her sweet daughters. My husband said a prayer for them, and we hung up. It was a delightful time that took just a few moments but made everyone happy.

Listened to a chapter in Becoming

Listening to this helps me stay sane and miss the Obamas.

Made three spice mixtures

I was planning my meals for the week, and spices have such a huge part now since my genius hour project using spices! I made 5 Spice Mix, shawarma spice mix, and a masala for Arab cuisine (photo).

Instead of using them whole, I decided to grind them for this recipe.

Each of my days seems to be equally unique and varied.

What are you up to these summer days?

Week 5 of #8WeeksofSummer – Spring Technology

Denise Krebs2 Comments

This post is week 5 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators.

What technologies enhanced / reduced your effectiveness this past spring?

Enhanced
Flipgrid – Though I had an account for Flipgrid since it was obtained by Microsoft, I had yet to use it with my students. We got started right away in March, and it became a favorite of mine and many of the students. Everyone participated. It was great to see and hear the students. It gave them an authentic chance to practice speaking English. I appreciated not having to download videos to watch them. The platform is excellent and has lots of great features.

Screencastify – From the first day of our remote emergency learning, I purchased Screencastify. It was a simple way to create teaching videos for students and to teach my colleagues how to do tech things that I normally would show them on our computers in person.

Zoom – This was a new program for me, and now it is so familiar. I have seen improvements over the months. There are a lot of benefits. I love the breakout rooms and chat feature. A lot of discussion and collaboration can occur remotely through Zoom.

Kahoot – So many apps gave free upgrades for the time schools were closed. It was a really good idea. We needed ideas. We test-drove a lot of apps. This one was really fun for students, and it was great to have the premium version. They will get some customers when the free version expires, but in the meantime, they helped a lot of people.

Reduced
Our student information system – I won’t name it, but it was weak. When we all began to use it, students began posting assignments and we had to collect the same. It was then we realized its weaknesses even more. It reminded me of an old html website we used to build in the 20th century. Clunky, cumbersome, slow, missing so much potential. Every time I used it, I longed to use Google Classroom, where students could complete assignments on Google Drive and just turn in the link. Instead, on our system, I received assignments . Then I couldn’t view them until I downloaded them. Some assignments (like pages in a book we created together or pen pal letters to be shared to Arizona) I needed to upload to Drive. There was so much wasted time and bandwidth for everyone. I was happy to see that our school has adopted Google Classroom for the fall for all grade levels.

Padlet – I was disappointed to learn (two years after the fact) that Padlet had put a limit on the number of walls you could make on this old Wallwisher site. I hadn’t used it very much before, so when I rediscovered it I jumped in and used it for several lessons and recommended it to others. Sadly, new users had a limit of three walls, so they quickly exhausted their usage. Unlike so many of the educational tech companies that gave free access during the pandemic, Padlet did not. It didn’t take long for me to exhaust my six walls. Then I went back to the less robust but very helpful Lino.it app. It has seemed better to me after my springtime experience with Padlet.

Tumblebook Library – This is an online library program that our school has  subscribed to. We were using the program before the shutdown and we continued and expanded our use after the shutdown. We signed up all our students for the Tumble Tracker, where we could assign books and quizzes and see when our students read the books. It had some weaknesses, but we used it for some assignments. Sadly, instead of improving the weaknesses, they just stopped the Tumble Tracker. They replaced it with a much less robust assignments feature, which has no way to track students or differentiate the assignments. The more I got to know this program, the more of a disappointment it became.

How about you? Which technologies enhanced or reduced your effectiveness last spring?

All the Colors

Denise Krebs

Today is Thursday, Day 135 in Bahrain’s coronavirus time, and day 100 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

On May 20, 2020, I learned about The Isolation Journals and joined in on Day 50. The next day, Sky Baynes had us write a “to feel” list. I made a “to feel” wheel for my journal that day.

When I saw Suleika’s prompt today, it seemed like a complete colorful circle for me in The Isolation Journals: “Reflect on all the colors that make up your emotional palette–from the brightest neons to the drabbest grays. Examine the different hues and shades that occur each morning, midday, afternoon and evening. Write about how they’re playing out on a canvas, how they work together to make each day a painting of its own.”

Instead of writing, I painted a picture of my emotional palette. It has all the colors in my paint box, from the inquisitive, inspired, strong and valued yellows to the appalled, revolted and infuriated reds. It has the lonely isolated and exposed blues. My painting and life during this time is a joyful, frustrated, amazed, peaceful, powerful, and excited rainbow of isolation with a shadowy covid flower right smack dab in the middle of every single day.

I was delighted to learn that The Isolation Journals will continue, one prompt per week. If you are interested in joining, visit Suleika’s website here to add your name to get the emailed prompts.

 

Dealing with Loss

Denise Krebs

Today is Wednesday, Day 134 in Bahrain’s coronavirus time, and day 99 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. Today’s prompt by Stacy London is “How do you get past pain? How do you let go of the illusion of control? How do you find meaning?”

Usually it takes me some time to give up control of my emotions. I’m a great non-crier. I envy my friends whose tears flow like the tap. When I feel grief and loss I’m often surprised with it because it sometimes happens years after a death or heartbreak. Then I can have a cleansing cry and deal with some of the pain. Writing helps. I have found poetry writing with the Ethical ELA group has been healing and exposing me to feelings I didn’t know I had. 

In the fall of 2018, I lost my sister-in-law after a two-year battle with cancer. The next month, my own oldest sister died suddenly of a heart attack while hiking. I didn’t fly home for either death, and that made it harder too. So I’m still dealing with those losses.

Now with coronavirus there is more loss. Loss of life, in our dear Dr. Solomon, and loss of livelihoods, loss of visas, loss of homes, loss of time with friends, loss of healing relationships and church dinners and so many losses, losses, losses. It is getting sad and burdensome to be home so much. Because it’s our last year in Bahrain, I also have anticipated grief. It’s already starting, too. There are losses of our “lasts,” which are not really last because they don’t happen at all  (like our last Easter sunrise service and our last ARS high school graduation).

As is my modus operandi, most of the time I’m just fine and carry-on, brave and productive. However, I’m sure I’ll have some retroactive grief to deal with in the future.

My Idea of Fun

Denise Krebs8 Comments
Slice of Life at TwoWritingTeachers.org

Today is Tuesday’s Slice of Life Story Challenge, Day 133 in Bahrain’s coronavirus time, and day 98 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. Today’s prompt by Adam Grant was to determine my “fun age” based on what I love to do to play.

I laughed when I read the prompt sitting at this dining room table / office desk. It is full of supplies for fun (and a few for working). There is no more school this summer, so some of us church school teachers started a Zoom Bible summer camp so we can hang out with kids (and, of course, bless them with something to fill their days! No one is traveling to their home countries this year.)

I need to get to work on a certificate program for which I received an extension to complete. Instead, I find a lot of fun things to fill up my days–besides reading and writing and cooking, I love to paint and sketchnote, to create from throwaways, and be inspired by creations I see from others. I have a small collection of cool little toys that I like and I know kids would like too, so they are always at the ready. I am the first to volunteer in group situations where a volunteer is needed. When anyone wants to play a game, I am always eager. Sports–let’s play! Especially volleyball and softball.

It is easy for me to determine my “fun age.” It must be around ten. (I’m sure I would love to play tetherball right now too.) I loved being in fifth and sixth grades, and that is when I first wanted to be a teacher. I have made it a career to spend my days with children. I have several reasons for being a teacher, but certainly one of them is that children make life more fun. I love learning their games (like the cup song from Pitch Perfect) and teaching them my old games (like double Dutch jump rope).

Another part of today’s prompt was to ask your friends what their “fun age” is. Do you love drinking and dancing? Do you love knitting and bingo? Thinking of what you love to do for fun helps you determine your “fun age.” You get the idea. Then you can compare notes with your friends and find some new “fun” to have with those who are similar fun ages.

Here was another fun thing that happened this morning. My husband called me and told me a package came from the U.K. (I am sure he thought I had ordered something and paid some exorbitant shipping charge.) I knew what it was:

What’s your “fun age”?

P.S. Here is today’s prompt from Suleika on Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Anyone else struggling to find work-life balance while stuck at home? This has been my constant challenge, but since quarantine, any divisions between the two have been erased. I know this is a formula for burnout, but in the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to make a more concerted effort at taking time to have fun. I’ve been playing lots of Scrabble and, when I want a particularly simple diversion, I grab a lovely set of wooden pick-up sticks, toss them on the patio, and feel transported to childhood again. I’ve also re-upped my dedication to over the top pranks (Jon—watch yourself). This makes my “fun age” pretty confusing—somewhere between 80-year-old grandmother and 8-year-old boy. Today’s prompt from the Wharton professor, best-selling author, and TED speaker extraordinaire @Adamgrant has me reconsidering what these moments of fun might reveal about me—but more than that, how they connect me to the people I love. Day 98: ADAM GRANT I used to think a real friend was someone you talked to every week. Now I see a real friend as someone who’s there for you even if you haven’t talked in a year. Deep connection can exist without frequent communication. As I’ve reconnected with friends over the past few months, I’ve noticed that the most joyful interactions are with the friends whose idea of fun brings them back to the same mental age as mine does. My idea of fun is racing Mario Kart, playing Ultimate Frisbee and ping-pong, reading Ender’s Game, a game of Anagrams or Clue, watching Batman Begins, and going to a water park or a trampoline park. That makes my “fun age” approximately nine. If your idea of entertainment is drinking and dancing, your fun age clocks in around 19. If you’re more excited to knit a sweater and play Bingo, your fun age is about 93. If your dream day is driving in a red convertible and going on a date with someone half your age, your fun age is midlife crisis. Your prompt: Figure out your “fun age,” meaning the common age of those who enjoy the same activities as you. Invite some friends to do the same, and then compare lists. You might discover some new ways to enjoy your time with old friends. #TheIsolationJournals

A post shared by Suleika Jaouad – سليكة جواد (@suleikajaouad) on

Ode to My Loveseat Recliner

Denise Krebs2 Comments
Staying sane listening to Michelle Obama’s Becoming.

Oh, my dear loveseat,
I see you there with your
Caramel chestnut suit
Of faux suede
Fitting perfectly around
Your well-placed rolls.
Rolls just where I need them–
The lower back bump and
The pillowy paddings at my
Neck and head.
You are a felicitous fit for me.

Thank you, loveseat, for your
Gliding recliner mechanism
That works without a hitch
And allows me a variety
Of positions–upright,
Leaning at a 100-degree angle
And fully reclined, at peace
Like a pearl in a shell.

How many hours have I spent resting
And living here with you?
Thank you, my friend,
For you are not just a recliner.
You are a caring, comforting,
Supporting, and trustworthy friend.
You hold me while I read,
Chat with my family across the sea,
Discuss issues of importance,
Shout at the nightly news,
And cuddle with my husband.

Oh, my dear loveseat, I see you there.
Thank you.

Today is Monday, Day 132 in Bahrain’s coronavirus time, day 97 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. Today’s prompt is by Lisa Ann Cockrel: “Picture the chairs that you sit in on a regular basis—at home, in public, comfortable or uncomfortable. Now pick one of those chairs, and write an ode to it, considering the physical and emotional sensations it evokes.”

Addressing Implicit Bias

Denise Krebs4 Comments

This post is week 4 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators.

What do you consider when addressing implicit bias at your school?

I have spent seven years in the Middle East in the small country of Bahrain. In any new place we begin to call home we learn of new explicit and implicit biases the community holds onto. Coming in as an outsider, the subtle biases are easier to recognize than the ones I grew up with and are so deeply embedded inside. However, there are still universal biases I know are in myself and others based on age, race, ability, nationality, health.

When I stop to re-read the question, I see something I hadn’t noticed before, “What do I consider…” That got me thinking again. It’s imperative for me to consider the fact that implicit bias in me and other people is implicit–it’s unconsciously there, so I need to explore my own biases, making them part of my  conscious thinking. To bring it to the forefront, so I can at least begin to deal with it. Even that though, I might say that I believe in justice for all and equality, but unconsciously I don’t realize that the system and I are enforcing different values.

The same process of exposing biases can help my students and colleagues  navigate and find their unconscious biases and bring them into their consciousness so they can deal with them. I can ask questions and invite a safe discussion place to help others explore their feelings that may get in the way of them treating people as individuals, each with their own right to equity and justice.

  • Tell me more about that.
  • How did it make you feel?
  • How do you think it makes the other person feel?
  • If that happened to you, how would you feel?
  • Why might that person have done or said what they did?
  • How can we better understand each other?

As a teacher, I need to be more aware and passionate about standing against explicit biases, the small acts and comments that show up in my classroom. They are teachable moments, and I need to make sure students know that someone is noticing and challenging their biases.

Just some thoughts today. It was a good prompt, Penny, and I will revisit the topic before school starts in the fall.