When this blog began, Bailey Tuckerman Kent was an 8-week-old Bernese Mountain Dog living in the western mountains of Maine with his writer dad, Rich. These are their stories.... and don't forget, click on most photos to enlarge.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Mountain-Dog Ski at Minus Cold Degrees
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Winter Hike (34/60)
On Martin Luther King Day, we headed up Whitecap Mountain in Rumford for our first winter hike. The temperatures hit 28 degrees, the warmest it has been in a while. At the tree line we ran up against a snow squall, so not knowing what might happen with the snow, I decided to head back down. For the full album, click on this line.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
The weather & the writer's life
As I walk the streets of my neighborhood, the remnants of ice storms, rain, and early-season snow storms are everywhere. Pot holes in the asphalt and mounds of ice on the side streets create an obstacle course for drivers. At times, "walking" those streets meant hoofing through the snow banks on the side of the road. At home, $90 of sand made my driveway safe. Thinking back, I'm not sure I remember such a difficult stretch of weather.
Just these past few days I've been able to get into the woods to hike. Bailey prances when he knows he's about to go off leash, acting like a cow the first time she's let out of the barn in springtime. A bit of warm weather and a dusting of snow on the logging roads and snow mobile trails made the ice maneuverable.
Being stuck inside for most of the past 3-4 weeks gave me time to focus on an article for English Journal. The issue is about using sports literature in the English/language arts classroom; my piece has three parts. First, the article focuses on the ways athletes and their coaches use writing in team notebooks and journals to advance learning and performance in sports. Next, the piece addresses the ways athletes' writing serves as a model for how interest-driven "expressive writing"can be used in an English/language arts classroom. Third, I talk about writing across the curriculum or disciplines in an effort to create "the writing school." As straightforward as the article may sound, I struggled mightily.
Since 2005-2006, I've written extensively about athletic team notebooks and journals. Writing an original piece on this subject meant thinking about my audience: English teachers. Truth be known, English teachers make me nervous. I know… I am one, but still…
In the article I suggest that English teachers might like to adapt their journal-writing practices to include prompts about a student's part-time job, activities (e.g., chess club, student council), or sport. My premise is that writing about "the self"--especially a student's interests--should spawn more authentic and enthusiastic writing. I also believe, like so many writing theorists, that "expressive writing" is a powerful way to learn.
One of my worries is that some English teachers don't require their students to journal. But perhaps if those teachers hear that athletes like football players and ski racers write as a way to learn, that they'll think their English students should, too. It's worth a try.
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| "Route 108 Ice Rink": ice-covered road in Maine |
Being stuck inside for most of the past 3-4 weeks gave me time to focus on an article for English Journal. The issue is about using sports literature in the English/language arts classroom; my piece has three parts. First, the article focuses on the ways athletes and their coaches use writing in team notebooks and journals to advance learning and performance in sports. Next, the piece addresses the ways athletes' writing serves as a model for how interest-driven "expressive writing"can be used in an English/language arts classroom. Third, I talk about writing across the curriculum or disciplines in an effort to create "the writing school." As straightforward as the article may sound, I struggled mightily.
Since 2005-2006, I've written extensively about athletic team notebooks and journals. Writing an original piece on this subject meant thinking about my audience: English teachers. Truth be known, English teachers make me nervous. I know… I am one, but still…
In the article I suggest that English teachers might like to adapt their journal-writing practices to include prompts about a student's part-time job, activities (e.g., chess club, student council), or sport. My premise is that writing about "the self"--especially a student's interests--should spawn more authentic and enthusiastic writing. I also believe, like so many writing theorists, that "expressive writing" is a powerful way to learn.
One of my worries is that some English teachers don't require their students to journal. But perhaps if those teachers hear that athletes like football players and ski racers write as a way to learn, that they'll think their English students should, too. It's worth a try.