Dear WinkWorld Readers, 

Previously, I wrote about the scientific method which is being used in a rural school near us.  You might want to read this post before reading this update of that project.

Prairie Pedagogy: The Scientific Method

This project was started last September, and now I have a story to tell about a bromeliad and a geranium, which just would not bloom during the winter months, even though they were in the East and South windows with glorious sun light of the prairies.  I so remember Grandma Dora’s plants in Moville Iowa.  Every September she took her geraniums to the local little public library and plopped them in the southern window.  During the winter the plants grew to the ceiling and bloomed and bloomed. For decades I have tried to get a geranium to bloom during the winter: Nothing. In addition my bromeliads would not bloom like those of my friend, Julie, in CA.

This is what a geranium and a bromeliad should look like:

Here is my pitiful bromeliad.

Here is my geranium without blossoms.

If you read WinkWorld, you know that I love spending time  with 16 precious K-8 kids at Atall School, which is 50 miles from our ranch.  They are often the “din in my head & heart.”  This was a one-room school until a couple of years ago.  Now, the modular building has been divided, and they have a full-time teacher for K-3, another full-time teacher for 4-8, and a teacher for Special Needs.  I primarily spend my time with the students in 4-8; Missy is their teacher.

Here are a couple of photos of Atall School, which we took in the fall.  The prairies are now totally white; photos at the end of this story.

Missy has many professional and personal strengths, but one of the things which I notice about her is that she never loses track of the fact when the 8th grade students leave this little isolated school, they will more than likely need to go to one of several little towns near-by, necessitating a drive of anywhere from 30 to 60 miles, depending on the town and the location of each student’s ranch.

She is always looking ahead to make sure that the students are as prepared as possible for this eventuality.  For example, for the last several months, the students have been learning more about the scientific method, which will probably be used in various classes in secondary: Science class will use this approach, and certainly all inquiry based, research projects in the reading/language arts classes will spring from this approach.

Missy and I had a hunch that if I took the plants to the kids, they could get a blossom to pop. 

The best part of this story is that in November the students suddenly realized that they had not been watering their plants. So, without ever discussing it with their teacher, Missy, they took it upon themselves to add this one chore (watering the plants) to their rotating list of daily chores. Watering the plants was added to the Devices and Sharpener chores.

The kids have now taken care of the plants for several months. 

Their bromeliad has grown a “pup,” which is thriving.  I expect a blossom by May.

Here is the first blossom on the geranium plant.

Here is my pitiful bromeliad today.

Feb. 21, 2018 photos of Atall

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

The beauty of a blog is that you can read, whenever you have time or interest. The same is true for me, in that I can post when I have time and interest.  As a reader, you can always go to  WinkWorld News to find something which had been previously posted. 

I noted that in the previous posts, when I shared some of our treasures and memories, so many of you wrote to me individually and shared your personal experiences. Thank you.

Today, we are moving forward with some ideas, which I am exploring.  I will probably post several times in the next few days, and you can read whenever it is good for you. I am fascinated by Storytelling as Research and have started a bibliography. These are all new-to-me citations, since my latest book, “The Power of Story” was published in November 2017.   If you want to add other citations in the Comment sections or to me privately, I’ll compile and re-share at a later date.

Here’s the deal: I make. You take. 

Storytelling as Research Bibliography JWink 2.18

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

We tried something new when the blizzard was about ready to hit us here on the prairies. Hope you enjoy.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Recently, I posted some treasures* which we found while cleaning out boxes, cubbies, closets, etc.  Well, it continues: more cleaning means more treasures. 

1965

I found a journal of a trip to Saltillo Mexico with LaRee Roper Mayes, previously of Redfield, Yankton College, and now living in Rapid City. We drove a little 1962 light blue VW Bug. The night before heading South through Nebraska, we stopped at Wink’s Dad farm in Iowa, and Wink gave me an engagement ring.  The journal begins with that day….

1968-1975

Kids had blankies which they loved to pieces, and then Grandma Dora (Wink-side of family) would make another one.  Here are the remnants of one the blankies which had been cuddled to death.

1975-76

We used to have Family Council meetings on Sunday evenings; the duties rotated: Prez and Sribe.  The Prez led us through plans & chores for the coming week, fun time for the week, TV-time allotment, etc.  I found 3 hand-written notebooks of our minutes. When Bo was about 4 and still not writing, he used his pictures, numbers, and letters to record the minutes: Gotta love “emergent literacy.” Below this photo, I will “read” what he had written.

Emergent literacy translation.  Dawn gets $7, and Bo gets 1.75 for doing chores (picking up rocks).  Fun time will be a football game on the road in front of our home.  TV time: ?  After family council, we are all going for a hike into “never – never land,” which were “secret paths” along the San Pedro River in AZ. (I have no idea was the 5 is, which begins the minutes.)

Late 70’s mostly Benson Kids and a few Davis Kids.

1973-93

Dawn’s school scrapbooks, K-12, through undergrad, grad, year studying in Germany, and summer studying in Sevilla, Spain.   Dawn will be here in a month and can finish cleaning up those boxes–stay tuned, as I see another WinkWorld coming.

1985

In the previous WinkWorld, I shared the story of Willie Nelson/Julio Iglesias song and party which my friends at Davis Joint Unified School District had for me, when we moved to College Station, TX. They presented me with a California Teaching Credential; note the special signatures from the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, etc. 

1917

Copy of the original homestead papers for our ranch, signed by Cecil A. Richardson (my grandfather) and Woodrow Wilson (the president).  Actually, we found lots of homestead papers, and Wink has spent hours with that blue magnifying glass, reading the papers and telling me the stories buried in the old, old papers.

Finished cleaning? I hope. I have to get back to work…said the retired person.

*The previous post: 

So, This Just Happened

So, WinkWorld Readers, this just happened.  Wink has been cleaning out the garage and hauling in filthy boxes, which neither of us has touched in many years. My job is to see what is inside.  Today we have found treasures.  This will be more than some of you want to know about my life, but I suspect that there will be tidbits along the way for lots of you.

Some of you tell me that you think my blog is too academic.  This one may be too for personal for others. 

1995

I found all of the legal information of the time I sued the California State University system for paying a man more than I was paid. Toughest professional thing I ever did.  I even found my old journal, where I kept 3 years of dated notes whenever anyone (university administrator, colleague, union member, lawyer) talked to me.

1991, I found all of my TX A&M grades, verifications of degree plan, my written and oral exams, and the defense of the dissertation.  Think it is safe to toss all of these papers?

1985 -1991

In the days before blogs and even my previous newsletters, I used to write letters on an old PC and print on a dot matrix.  Some of you received those epistles from our days in AZ and TX. Before these, I used to write in longhand to a wide group of friends. Now, you almost have to be over 80 years old before I will write a real letter by hand to you.

1985-1988

During these years, I was a bilingual coordinator in the Davis, CA schools, and when I left, my friends/colleagues had a great party, where even the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent did a Willie and Julio Iglesias rendition of “Of all the girls I loved before.”  I found so many happy memories, poems, and photos.

1976 to 1985

During these years I was a wild and crazy Spanish teacher in Benson, AZ, and I loved to use authentic music in the classroom, so I have a wonderful collection of books, lyrics, and tapes. Some of materials spring from my days at University of Arizona and Guadalajara, where I learned of the wealth of folklore from Mexico.  I am beginning my search for the best home for all of these materials, but you must love them, as I do.

If any of my Benson friends know the Barrios family, I still have tapes of Barrios singing and playing corridos–verse, after verse, after verse. He would always say that he didn’t know the song, and then he would begin to play and sing. 

I even found notes and poems, which former students and friends had written to me, when we left AZ.  

Early 1970s

I found an old journal from the 1970s.

And, I found this one amazing memory.

Did I really take a journal into labor with me?  Apparently.

1963, The Coup d’état of Treasures: My high school Latin notebook from Mobridge High School. I even found a poem, which the teacher had written to me in the 1980s.

And, even better than my high school Latin notebook were the love poems I found which Wink had written me through the years.  Here is one example.

And, as I am finally finishing this too-long-too-personal WinkWorld, Wink just brought in another filthy box, but when I saw the old 1919 newspaper clipping, I said: No more–not now.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Dawn Doig is a former graduate student who was in one of classes in Mallorca Spain during a summer global education program.  Dawn has been an audiologist in Canada, England, Kuwait, and Saudia Arabia.  She is now teaching in Mongolia, and soon will be teaching in Cameroon. She and her husband, also a teacher, have a global perspective on the world. 

She has recently published 3 children’s books with Pen It Publications, LLC.  I hope you enjoy her writing, as I do.  I hear more books will be available soon.

Petra Pencil Pines for Pizza, Go Away, Shawn, and And So, Ahmed Hears.  In all three of these books, you will find a thread of kindness.  In addition, you will see that Dawn has a background, not only in mainstream classroom teaching, but also in counseling and education for the hearing impaired.

All three of her new books can be found on Amazon, 

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Recently I posted a blog about Robert Frost, in which I visited a school and read the famed poem, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. I will re-post that WinkWorld near the bottom of this posting.

What is self-selected reading?

“Free voluntary reading consists of massive, but not necessarily wide, self-selected voluntary reading.  This provides the bridge between conversational language and academic language (Krashen, Lee, & Lao, 2018, pp. 13 – 14).

A couple of weeks after I had read the Frost poem in that school, one student chose this book during self-selected silent reading.  The teacher quickly sent me this photo. Made my day!

Self-selected reading is the kind of reading we do because we want to.  It is often “light” reading, reading not intentionally designed to inform or make one a better person (Krashen, Lee, and Lao, 2018, p. 37).  

The earlier post is reposted below:

Jack Frost or Robert Frost?

Krashen, S.,  Lee, S., & Lao, C. (2018). Comprehensible and compelling: The causes and effects of free voluntary reading. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO/Libraries Unlimited.

Coming soon to WinkWorld soon: A review of this new book.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Often times, readers of WinkWorld will share with me privately and not in our comment section.  No worries, I’ll try to share the good stuff here, so you will not miss out on any treasures.

Such is the case of these readers from Hot Springs.  This photo was not staged to please us, rather their teacher walked out of her classroom to meet her students who were returning from their time in their school library.  This is what she found in the hallway.  She quickly snapped this photo before the students even looked up from reading.

Thank you, Koreen Hammel.  This photo tells us so much about you, the students, your school library, and your school.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Recently, I posted a short piece about Nadifa, and I’m thrilled that she has now been interviewed by a TV station, KELO, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Many, many thanks to Nadifa, KELO, and the colleagues at University Center (UC) located in Sioux Falls.

Below here, I am linking to  (a) the South Dakota University Center, (b) my previous post about Nadifa, and (c) the new interview of her which was aired January 26, 2017.

a) South Dakota University Center

b) My previous post about Nadifa.

The Harvest of my Career: And, a Refugee from Chad

c) And, finally the new KELO interview of Nadifa.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Lisa Westbrook, a colleague and friend from TX, wrote to me about her Mystery Red Books Bookshelf.  I had no idea what we she was talking about and asked her to explain. However, I could see that my new book was no longer hard-bound, but rather it was bound with a RED spiral.  (See following photo.)

I asked her WHY and HOW she did this.

WHY? 

She spiral binds books, which she loves so that she can highlight and write more easily in the book.  Thank you, Lisa.  I had never thought of doing that with any of my fav books.

Lisa has been working on storytelling with her son, so that he can make sense of his Algebra class.  She found the following sentence buried deep within one of my paragraphs and said that it make sense to her to help her continue.

“The learners’ language, experience, and culture were the tools used to build literacy; talking and storytelling were central to the process” (p. 63). 

I have asked her to share their storytelling process, if she creates anything which really works for her son.

HOW?

Lisa simply goes to a OfficeMax-type-store, and they take the binding off and put on a spiral.  This made me wonder if maybe some libraries and school districts might offer this same service.

I hope you will let us know if you have found other ways to add to your own Mystery Red Book Bookshelf.

I asked Lisa why she used the word, mystery, and it is because on this bookshelf it is a mystery, which book is which.  And, obviously all of the spirals are red.

If you create a spiral book, I’d love to have you share it with us. Thank you.

In answer to a couple of questions, previous WinkWorlds can be found at

WinkWorld News (button on the left of my main page)