Dear WinkWorld Readers, recently I was asked by a colleague if I had anything on storytelling: Yes.

You may remember in December, I laid out my Spring 2019 writing plans, and one of my goals was to share with all of you when someone asks for some content, which might be hanging out in my computer. Here we go…

In what follows, I have placed a visual Table of Contents (TOC) which my friend, Missy Urbaniak, made as a surprise for me about a year ago. These are the titles of the chapters in The Power of Story. 

The visual TOC of the chapter headings is followed by some live links about storytelling, which my colleague (and you) might enjoy. Finally, I will close with an image of the complete visual TOC of The Power of Story, which Missy also made for me.

In the next WinkWorld, I will copy/paste the story of our fall 2018, which Dawn, our daughter wrote about in her DewDrops.

Dear WinkWorld Readers, this is the type of day which gives prairie winters a bad name….

However, I am happy to have a some new post-Christmas books sitting around, which are giving me a lot of pleasure.

Some of these books are not new for me, but I just happen to be re-reading them. You will notice a few of Wink’s books here, too.

In addition, here are a few more books which I am reading..

“Down at Angel’s” is the story of a man, who lived in Mobridge, South Dakota, where I lived as a little girl. I remember him well. This is a story about accepting and respecting differences, as the children in the story love Angel, even though some in our little town found him to be “different.” This book was written by Sharon Chmielarz, who was about my age, and her book was way ahead of its time. Sharon, this is a terrific story: Congratulations.

“El Norte” just arrived today, and it came as a complete surprise. Carrie Gibson mailed it to me; she will be sharing at the Tucson Festival of Books in Tucson in early March where I will be moderating a panel of authors. Carrie is one of those authors. I have never met Carrie, but I can see that we share many interests. I believe her latest book is entitled, “Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day.” Thank you, Carrie. I very much look forward to meeting you and reading your books.

Denny Taylor of GARN Press wrote this little treasure. I read it in one sitting, and I was absolutely thrilled to read more of four of my heroines: Yetta Goodman, Maxine Greene, Louise Rosenblatt, and Margaret Meek Spencer. I plan to read this one more slowly again, and hopefully I will share more on WinkWorld.

I have followed Jane Tompkins for years and love her thinking and writing. Recently, she and I began writing to each other on social media. Our lives are very similar and yet simultaneously, very different. This is her latest book, and I am looking forward to reading it.

I have not read all of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I have many friends who have talked a lot about her with me. This book arrived a couple of days ago, and I look forward to learning more about her life.

I just finished reading “Unsheltered: A Novel” by Barbara Kingsolver. Oh, the magic of beautiful language in a novel so rich and deep that I will re-read again later this spring.

Kingsolver.com

Kingsolver books

But, books from grands, of course, are the absolute best.

Happy Reading to us all in 2019.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,  

In the photo above, you can see that I am enjoying one of my fav things: Reading to kids.

During the last few months, I have not shared as much as usual on WinkWorld.  As some of you know, my husband, Dean, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September. His medical treatment has been excellent, and we are optimistic and looking forward to 2019.

I have been working on three different writing projects with colleagues, and I plan to begin sharing short pieces of our writing.

First, Missy Urbaniak and I continue to write about Prairie Pedagogy.  I am not sure what will become of this project, but we are helpless not to capture it, as we still have 6 vibrant little one and two room schools in our very large rural county.  

Second, I remain so curious about the Research of Storytelling (RS), and who knew that one day there would be a methodology with that name?  Dawn Wink, our daughter, has fallen in love with narrative inquiry and Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN).  We are presenting some of our ideas at UNLV in February, and we will share some of it here on WinkWorld.

Third, Le Putney of UNLV and I continue to develop our ideas of Vygotsky, and will be sharing those ideas via newsletters, as we want tired teachers to have access to complex thoughts of our guy, Lev Vygotsky.

Some Other Little Changes on WinkWorld

I often am contacted with specific questions by colleagues, which I try to answer individually.  I have decided that I will share some of those responses on WinkWorld, also.  As I have so much “stuff” languishing away in my computer, and I would rather share with those who need it. (A citation is always appreciated, and the individual citation can be found way at the bottom of each page of my webpages.)

For example:

Tania Ramalho of SUNY Oswego on Lake Ontario in upstate New York has been using my Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World. She has shared her reflections and those of her students with me. Thank you, Tania.  She particularly focused on Chapter Two, What In The World is Critical Pedagogy?  She liked the various examples of problem posing and the Freirian model of: To Name, To Reflect Critically, and To Act. 

Below I am posting my favorite photo of Tania; this is followed by some of the topics which Tania and I discussed on email.

Chapter Two (2011, pp. 45-46) begins like this, and then a series of problem posing examples are found on the following pages of the book.

Tania, below I am posting other information on problem posing, which comes from the 3rd edition, not the 4th.  Maybe you and the grad students will find it useful.

Critical Pedagogy 3rd Ed – Problem-Posing Activity

Here is a power point which I created for those pages.  All images won’t make a lot of sense, but Tania, I know that some of this will work for you.

Now, meet dear Hannah McAnespie.

Hannah teaches a class at University of the Redlands in CA, and she recently connected with her comments on functional, authentic, and critical literacy.  Here are some of the things which we discussed.  Help yourself, Hannah and anyone else.  

What is literacy? 

What is literacy?

What is literacy? What are literacies?

Still with me, WinkWorld Readers? This post is a bit longer than usual for WinkWorld.

In addition, in February and April 2019, I will begin giving away my professional books, which I love, but am no longer using. Stay tuned.

One last tidbit:  WordPress, where I create my blog is moving to a new editor format, and I intend to play with it during the holidays.  I do not know if the appearance for you will be any different, but it is for me in the creation stage.

I’ll be back in the new year. Hope your holidays are fun, and/or peaceful and restful.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

As you know, my blog tends to be anything interesting, which is happening in my life.  Sometimes my blog focuses on the personal, and sometimes on the professional.  However, during my career, I found that I was not able to separate these two aspects of my life:  Who I am as a professional is informed by my personal values, experiences, and perspectives, and visa versa: Who I am as a woman is informed by the those books I have read and written, my professional experiences, and my dear colleagues.  When I first started teaching (1966, near Philadelphia), I thought I was to keep the personal and professional separate, as my teachers/professors had told me that I should. I clearly remember hearing: “Don’t smile until Christmas.”

Fortunately, I came to understand that this notion might be a bit gender-centric.  For sure, I had learned it from dear men teachers and mentors.  Somewhere about mid-career, I finally came to understand that I know nothing about being a man, but I sure know about being woman, and at least for me, the personal and professional are integrated holistically. I had to be me, and this meant, loving the kids. When I taught teenagers in AZ, I remember I started to realize that the kid who was the toughest to love, needed it the most. These personal discoveries had a profound impact on my professional career.

WinkWorld Readers, yesterday when my fingers wrote that previous paragraph, I did not know it, but simultaneously our daughter, Dawn, was creating a video “TED Talk” for a class she is taking on Women as Leaders. Dawn only has two more classes to finish the course work for her PhD, and her dissertation is conceptually well-organized already.

When I watched this video later in the day, I had to smile as she was creating a video of the personal/professional conundrum, at the same time that I was writing about it.

Hope you enjoy her video.

#proudmommie

Dawn’s “TED Talk” video posted below.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

I confess, I am a podcast nerd.  I have been planning to share with you some of the podcasts, which I listen to regularly, but the purpose of this WinkWorld is to share only one of them with you: “Check This Out With Ryan and Brian” available from iTunes – Apple, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, and any place where podcasts can be found.

It focuses on innovation and all-things-education for teachers. Brian Briggs and Ryan O’Donnell are the two teachers, who created and operate this podcast. Brian and Ryan strike me as energetic and passionate teachers and learners–who also are very hip.  Meet Ryan and Brian.

I have never met Ryan, but I have known Brian since our Davis, CA days when Bo, our son, and Bryan were teeny-bopper best buddies. Meet Bo and Brian in junior high school, when Bo was running for a class office.

Later Brian was in the teacher credential program at California State University, Stanislaus where I taught.  I continue to stay connected with him, as we do share an interest in all-things-education.

I am honored that Brian shared on the podcast his perspectives on our many connections. In the following podcast on gratitude, (Giving Thanks #97 episode), they are discussing the importance of gratitude and reaching out to others who have touched your life. Brian mentioned a high school teacher, Don Harman 10 minutes into the podcast, and me, 16 minutes into the podcast.

If you want to listen to this podcast, click here.

 #PodcastEDU 

Ryan and Brian discuss how gratitude changes you and your brain. 

Brian and Ryan know that students are changing, and that educators need to change with them.  Their work is free professional development on innovation in teaching with technology.  They recognize that some teachers welcome change, and others are more cautious.  They also are aware that the majority of teachers are somewhere between those two extremes.  

I know that Brian and Ryan are very involved with Cue.org which is a nonprofit community of connected educators focused on improving education for all learners in CA and NV.  If you do not live in those two states, do not worry, as I follow them online.  Their goal is to inspire innovative educators.

Fall Cue 2018 

The Biggest Little Conference on the West Coast 

In this podcast, Ryan and Brian, are reminding us to reach out and tell someone how much we appreciate them.  I appreciate each of you taking time to read my musings.

Dear WinkWorld Readers, 

We have just returned to the SD ranch from AZ, and I was not sure what I should write about on WinkWorld–until I glanced at the books on my desk and my night stand.  In what follows are some thoughts of what I have recently read.  Here we go.

First, my colleague and dear friend, Janet Towell, sent me a  book to read; her mother is next on our list of readers.  Here is Janet when she visited us and our Little Free Library.

And, here is the book which she sent me to read, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.  It is a fast and painful novel. The characters are powerful, real, and unforgettable, but keep your tissue close.  Basically, it is a love story between a mom, with many challenges, and a daughter, with different challenges.  Janet, I think I thank  you.  My heart was hurting as I read, but I couldn’t put it down.  Dawn, you are not allowed to read this one.

I also found a copy of Frank McCourt’s Tis: A Memoir in a Little Free Library in Tucson, so I reread it. I had forgotten his writing style.  I promise you that you will hear his Irish lilt and laughter when you read it. 

While I was in Tucson, I went to visit the Worlds of Words (W0W)* at the University of Arizona.  Kathy Short, who created this magical place did a talk on recent trends in literature for little kids and teen-agers.  It was fascinating, as she did a book walk through 10s of books.  And, I wanted them all. I limited myself to 3 children’s books–the first is My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald & Freya Blackwood (an Autralian book).  If you have kids in  your class, who are new to our country and do not know English, I highly recommend this book. In the story, the little girl is such a happy, free-spirit in her home country. Her Auntie calls her, Cartwheel.  However, when Cartwheel comes to her new country and does not understand English, and all that surround her seems so foreign, little Cartwheel withdraws in sadness and cuddles with her blanket from home. Eventually, a little girl in class befriends her, and little Cartwheel re-emerges with a new blanket, which is as warm, soft, and comforting as her first blanket from home.

While I was at WOW, Yetta Goodman sent a whole pile of her books for sharing.  I tried really hard to let all of the teachers go first, but finally I just had to jump in–and, there I found a copy of Jane Tompkins’ A Life in School: What The Teacher Learned.  I used her writings with teachers in the 90s.  From Tompkins, I learned about the dangers of the pedagogy of performance and the pedagogy of the distressed.  Rereading this book is like visiting with an old friend.  And, I love having a book from Yetta. 

While at WOW, I learned of The Day War Came by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb. This books tells how childrens’ lives are shattered when war comes. If you have refugees in your class, I highly recommend this book, and I think all of us can learn from this book. See the picture of the empty chair?  The little girl in the story is not allowed into class, as there are no empty chairs.  Eventually, a little boy brings a chair from home.  This book is based on a true story, which triggered hundreds and hundreds of people in the UK to post images of empty chairs.  #3000chairs 

I bought a copy of Turning Pages: My Life Story b Sonia Sotomayor.  In this childrens’ book, Sotomayor tells how words, books, and libraries were central to her bilingual life. Finally, she tells how the law books were stories of real life people who need justice. 

Carol Edelsky also was at WOW, while I was there. It was great to spend time with her. In 1991, she wrote a book with THE. BEST. TITLE. EVER.   She has later editions, but this is a photo of my original book.  And, yes, I added the roses and the baby-in-balls photo.

Carole recommended that I read, The Overstory by Richard Powers.  OK, will do.

Thank you, Dr. Kathy Short and team of Worlds of Words at the University of Arizona.

*

Worlds of Words: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

In the previous issue of WinkWorld, I told a story about the idea generator (see bottom of this post).  Since that time, I have been searching and searching, as I had a vague memory of having written about it sometime, somewhere.  

FOUND, finally in my first edition of Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World, 1996. 

On pages 99,  I found this story of the idea generator.

Here is what my old, and much-loved book looks like today.

Here is the back cover.

I see Amazon still has new and used copies for sale for about $15.  Amazon is a complete mystery to me: Where are earth do they still get new copies, as it as been out of print for years?  And, how do they figure out their costs? The most recent edition of that book (4th) is usually so over-priced on Amazon. However, this issue of WinkWorld is about the idea generator–and, not the cost of books.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

In a previous WinkWorld (posted below) I mentioned the idea generator when writing about Lisa and Chyllis and the Becoming a Better Me project.  I have taught this idea many times, and I know exactly where I was the first time I ever heard Steve Krashen mention it, but suddenly I wanted to find his original citation.  I couldn’t find it; Google couldn’t find it; it was not on his web pages, so I sheepishly emailed him and asked for the original citation.  Hours passed. No response.  Finally, Steve wrote back when he realized that he had never written about it–he had only spoken about it.

The idea generator is just that:  You walk around for months trying to solve a problem, and it feels impossible.  However, the ideas are incubating; they are cooking; they are jostling around in our head unconsciously, and suddenly, Bingo!  Someone says something, and your brain shoots out the answer to your problem. 

Well, I don’t have the citation, but I do have a story.

It was 1986, Davis, CA, and Steve Krashen was speaking to a packed room of teachers. There I was in the center of the first row–not wanting to miss a single thing.  I was armed with a pen and my yellow legal pad. 

I had been agonizing for weeks about a Title VII grant, which I needed to write for Davis Joint Unified School District, CA and felt I shouldn’t even go to hear Krashen speak; rather, I should stay in my office and write that blasted grant.  However, sometime during the course of his presentation, he must have said something, which really connected with me, because Bingo!  My idea generator ignited, and I started writing as fast as I could.  The ideas were pouring from my head to the yellow legal pad, and the grant was finally being written.  I wrote pages, and at a certain moment, I noticed the room had become very quiet. 

I glanced down at the floor from my writing, and there were two shoes directly in front of me.  Two men’s shoes.  I looked up, and Steve said to the crowd of teachers: “And, that, my friends is what happens when the idea generator takes off.”

Incidentally, Steve that grant was later funded for the Davis Joint Unified School District. Thanks.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

If you are a reader of WinkWorld, you know that I promised a story about the idea generator for this issue, however it just seems like it is time to re-post the following story.  

I don’t know what the future holds, but I know a bit about the past–particularly my own experiences.

Idea generator: It is written and in the queue to send soon.

Critical Pedagogy 4th Ed – Pivotal Experiences

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

This one is mostly for teachers and teacher educators.  You may remember my former student, Lisa, who read 2, 648 picture books during the last school year.  This activity triggered the idea generator* for another former student, Chyllis.

Chyllis and Lisa had never met each other, although they both went to CSU, Stanislaus for their masters degrees, and they  both lived and taught near Turlock, CA, although during different years.

In the following post, I will first re-post the blog about Lisa reading so many picture books, and then I will post Chyl’s reflection and her follow up activity with her present graduate students this year at UNLV, where she is now teaching.

Lisa, You Read 2,648 Picture Books This Year? Tell Us More.

Chyllis Writes To Lisa

In what follows, Chyllis shares the letter which she wrote to Lisa.

Dear Lisa, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am from the Turlock area, I taught at Waterford Middle School while I was completing my MA. Now one of my doctoral students from UNLV is a new professor at Stan State. It seems there are lots of connections for us.

Chyllis’s Project: Becoming a Better Me

I was sharing with Joan that this semester I am requiring my MA students to do a personal project, called: Becoming a Better Me. Your story about the picture books prompted this assignment. Additionally, I am doing the assignment with my students. Most of my research is in mentoring and disciplinary literacy. My deficit is children’s literature, so I am reading at least one picture book a day as my project. I shared my project and Joan’s page with your interview with my graduate students.

The following is one example of a project which you inspired. Thank you.

Brenda, Chyllis’s Grad Student, Describes Her Project 

While teaching preschool I read many picture books and bought even more. Since I have many picture books I’d like to read all of those books and find new ones to read. I teach seven resource classes a day, so I can read seven picture books a day. The books that are well received will find a place in my classroom library the rest will get one more chance with a different class and if they don’t excite the students they will be culled.

This “reading picture books” aloud will bring me back to my love of reading, expose all of my students to read alouds, and create an exciting classroom library all at the same time. I will compile a list of each book chosen and share with not only my follow class attendees, but my work colleagues as well.”

Chyllis Continues Her Letter to Lisa

Lisa, thank you for the inspiration and motivation.  I would love to have you virtually attend my class if you would like, and we meet on Tuesdays from 4:15 pm – 6:45pm. If this is of interest to you, please let me know and we can set it up. 

*So, what the heck is the idea generator?  Be sure to read the next issue of WinkWorld in a few days.