Librarian Without Walls

I have been putting off an essay about place that I need to write for remote 8th graders. I gave them the assignment and promised to do it, too - and to share the results. But instead of beginning my essay with an observation from the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, I’m sitting at a round table in a corner of Kate Naughter’s 6th grade ELA class. writing the first draft of this in my favorite kind of notebook - Moleskine - using an inexpensive fountain pen I bought online a few years ago. Most of the students are writing, too, and Melford the turtle’s aquarium hums and whirs on the counter under the windows across the room. Two students near me can’t stop whispering, but others are writing, using pencils and paper. Every student has a school-issued chromebook and there is a constant push for the use of more digital tech. And I suppose that’s only appropriate, given our cultural moment, but I still crave the feel of a pen in my hand and the comfort of a good notebook. This is a war

 Ms. Naughter's sixth grade ELA students recently completed a New Year poem inspired by Naomi Shihab Nye's " Burning the Old Year ." We decided to show students how to use Adobe Spark to add images and music to their poem. I promised to write a poem based on the assignment and use it as an example for what students might do with their own poems. Check out the result: "New Year Resolution"