All Saints Day 2023

 

Having become an Episcopalian in college, I started my observation of All Saints Day in the 1980s in Tuscaloosa at Canterbury Chapel.  Each year I was delighted to learn about saints during the parade of saints the Sunday School children put on.  Then, I got a little older. I had friends and family pass away. I realized that those people I knew were also saints for me.

At St. Thomas, we read a list of people who had passed away during the last year. The service continued with the tolling of a bell that was  both solemn and hopeful.  I decided that I would make a list of my own personal saints who have gone to heaven. 

Friends of Laurie

My boss and friend, Chiquita Marbury, passed away in November 2004.  An early adopter of technology, she was also a passionate mentor and an excellent leader for the Technology in Motion team.

Tim Cooper, a friend from Canterbury, who was taken way too soon by lung cancer. Tim lived his best life all the time, but truly embraced it when he got his diagnosis.

Elizabeth Kent was a true Southern lady. Talented in cooking, gardening, and other arts, Elizabeth tried to teach me to knit.  Let’s just say that she is a saint for trying, but it was not to be.

The Rev. Ray Pradat was often a supply priest for us at Canterbury. I knew exactly what to do when I was a chalice bearer when he served.  He also delivered Meals on Wheels in Tuscaloosa until much to his chagrin, we started delivering him meals.

Gary Demore was married to my best friend, Luanne, for 25 years.  After Gary retired as a Methodist minister, he continued to send out a weekly reflection to his “special” email list.  He and I shared a love of writing.

Woody Zeigler was a true legend. Just this week as the church was preparing for Lobsterfest 30, someone asked why a certain electrical connection was the way it was (not right). The answer was just a sighed name, Woody. 

Most people think of Cecil Hurt only in connection with Alabama football and basketball, but he was my college boyfriend.  He was great at anything he wanted to do—wooing me, writing intelligent sports articles, and remembering everything he read.

Cindy Whitcomb, an administrative assistant at UWA was my friend from my first day on that job. She helped me complete all my new employment paperwork and would answer any question I had.  Cindy was an angel on earth and I am thankful that I got to know her.

Family of Laurie

Let me start this section by stating that I didn’t have a family member die until I was 27 years old.  I was blessed to have great-grandparents and grandparents for much of my life.

Arvie Scoggins, or Ma (pronounced Maw), was my paternal great-grandmother. She could cook true southern fried chicken, buttery mashed potatoes, light as air biscuits, and wonderful cakes.  I remember several years after she passed away in 1995 that we ate the last of her pear preserves and we all fell silent for a moment.

George Scoggins, my great-grandfather Pa, was not a person I was close to. He seemed gruff and grumpy all the time, but I did notice how much my grandmother was her daddy’s girl.

B. F. Babb, my maternal grandfather or Papaw, was a country Baptist preacher who took me fishing and let me feed the cows at the farm and pick strawberries.  I remember being terrified of his toupe that “slept” in the guest room on a beauty shop Styrofoam head.

Dororthy Babb, my maternal grandmother, or Mamaw, as all the grandkids called her. She cooked with love and always had a life saver in her purse during preaching at church.

My aunts on my mom’s side, Winona, Linnie, and Jane, were also a big part of my growing up. I would visit them for a week or so each summer.  They all offered different things that I needed. Winona—encouragement in my studies; Linnie—all things fancy including earrings, bracelets, and clothes; and Jane—unconditional love and an adventurous spirit.

On my dad’s side both the uncles that I grew up around, Doug and Steve, took me on some great adventures from riding motorcycles, going fishing, hiking in the North Georgia mountains.  I also remember that they talked to me like I was an adult, not a little kid.

Edgar Fowler Sr., my Papaw Fowler, loved me so much that he didn’t even get mad when I put red, smiley face stickers in the shape of a heart on the door of his truck. Yep, right on the light blue paint. He loved to talk and I wish I had been a better listener.

Katherine Elizabeth Scoggins Fowler, my Grannie, was always my person. I was born about a year after my Uncle Bill was killed in Vietnam.  Grannie taught me to be resilient and to love with abandon and to listen to my heart.

Edgar Fowler Jr. my dad, was taken from the earth way too soon, but in the time he was here he loved me and he told me that all the time.  He was proud of my degrees and my jobs, but he was proudest of the person I had become.

These people are saints to me and I mean to be one, too.

 

 

 

Sawyerville Summer Learning Take Two

 July 2, 2022

 

This past week I spent my second year at Sawyerville Summer Learning Camp in Greensboro, Alabama.  What a difference a year makes!  Last year after the first day, I was exhausted and overwhelmed. This year I was energized and excited to come and spend two weeks teaching math to students who had just completed kindergarten. 

In my preparations to serve at Sawyerville for two weeks this year, I went to the Dollar Tree or several of them in Huntsville to purchase supplies for my classroom.  I spent $150 in the Dollar Tree on Whitesburg alone.  Dry erase markers, mini solo cups, plastic bowls, muffin tins, small tongs, puzzles, bingo dot markers, playdough, Sorry, Chutes and Ladders, Guess Who, and Candyland, pipe cleaners, pom poms red, blue, and white plastic jewels, coloring books, storage baskets, reusable bags, red, blue, and green plastic ware, plastic baggies, and so much more.  I wanted my room to have all kinds of things to improve their math skills and to have things to play with. Sunday arrived and my education adventure began with my three-hour trek to Greensboro. Arriving at the school at about four in the afternoon, I drug in all my supplies like I was moving in to start a school year not a two-week summer program.

As luck would have it, the rising first grade class only had four kiddos in SSL this year.  I was happy to have an abundance of stuff for them to use to learn math.  The first day I gave them some basic activities to see what they already knew.  I also had notes from the two teachers that had been there the first two weeks.  This information was helpful, but I wanted to shake things up a bit in Ms. Fowler's math class these last two weeks.

Reflecting on my first week I have many more insights into teaching and learning that I hope to bring to my professional development sessions this year.  I can’t wait to see what next week brings!

PS Pack playdough and crayons for training teachers this Back to School season.

• What I Learned at SSL This Week

  ·      Everyone likes to count even if he is not very good at it.

  ·      Touching things to count them makes the connection between concrete and abstract.

  ·      Having a variety of activities and materials helps people learn.

  ·      Being prepared makes the hour of math teaching go by much faster.

  ·      Enrichment in the afternoons should not be a repeat of the same things the kids did in the morning.

  ·      It is difficult to teach someone how to do a puzzle if they have never seen one or felt puzzle pieces.

  ·      Playing with playdough makes everyone happy—kids and adults.

  ·      Coloring books are fun especially when there are a variety of ones to choose from—Mandalorian, Spiderman, Toy Story, and Minnie and Daisy.

  ·      You can guess what age a kid is by checking out their permanent teeth.

Kids Say the Darndest Things—Quotes from Week 1

·      You mean you bought all this stuff for us?

·      You gonna play with us?

·      You like to color, too?

·      Oh yeah I can skip count 2s, 5s, and 10s.

·      Oooh how you write English like that?

·      I love Go Noodle. Let’s dance some more.

·      I can have as many stickers as I want to make this collage?

·      It’s hard to take turns because I am just so excited to play a game.

·      I love cutting out hearts and stars from playdough. It’s the best!

Finally an acrostic poem celebrating all the learning we did last week.

Learning Joy

 

Listen to what kids say

Engage kids with a welcoming learning space

Ask kids what they like and what they like to do

Relate to kids’ ideas, joys, and struggles.

Notice how the kids think.

Imagine a different way to do things.

Narrate the learning process. Tell a story.

Give kids lots of love and positive reinforcement.

 

Jump into all kinds of learning experiences

Overwhelm the kids with fun things to do.

Youngsters learn from all kinds of activities.

 

 

Days 1-3/100 Days of Poems  #100dayproject

Celebrating Nashville 

Noticing the blue sky, feeling the cold wind and hearing the music in the streets

Ambling around downtown absorbing the culture of the Music City

Singing along with country hits in the Country Music Hall of Fame

Having fun people watching on Broadway in brand new boots and cowboy hats

Visiting the Frist Art Museum to see On the Horizon mixed-media show by Cuban artists

Investigating architecture of Tennessee’s state capital, the art deco, the classical, the honky tonk

Listening to live music at two venues with girls and guys with guitars

Looking at the Predators home at the Bridgestone Arena amid the many golden jersey clad fans

Eating chicken and waffles, Nashville hot chicken, barbeque and fixins’, goo goo clusters

 

Sawyerville Summer Learning Day 1

 

Sawyerville Day 1

In June 2020, I was ready to serve as a teacher at Sawyerville. Excited to be stretching my education skills, I was assigned to teach science to third graders. Throughout the shutdown spring of COVID, I was eternally optimistic that God would find a way for us to share His love with the kids of Hale County, but it was not to be. Working with kids face-to-face in Greensboro was not an option last year, so the creative minds of the Sawyerville staff from the Diocese of Alabama found a way to deliver Camp-in-a-Box (a box full of books, math activities, outdoor games plus school supplies) to over 100 campers last July.

This year was my year. Contacted in early February, I volunteered again to work with elementary kids for a week in June to help improve their reading and math skills.  I took vacation to do it.  I looked forward to it for months. I thought I was ready.

I was not. Having worked in this county previously with the Inservice Center of the University of Alabama and with the University of West Alabama, I truly thought I was prepared for this amazing opportunity to share God’s love in a way that would make a difference to these kids and this community.  I understood that there was poverty.  I knew there were many students who were grade levels behind in reading and math.  I appreciated how different things would be in Hale County just thirty miles south of Tuscaloosa. I was wrong.

Since I had not been at Sawyerville for the first three weeks of the session, I had a steep learning curve on my first Monday morning.  We started the day in the lunchroom with the kids after they finished their breakfast and cleaned their tables. We took our first group to our classroom.  First mistake—I didn’t have my list of kids with me, but, thank goodness, another teacher told the kids who usually went to Ms. Callahan to go with me.  Next mistake—I tried to pronounce their names using my knowledge of phonics. The creative spellings threw me for a loop. Nope, I had to ask them to say their names for me.  Mistake number 3 was that I gave out the workbooks they had been using for the previous weeks without knowing what they could and could not do. I asked them to turn to the last page they had completed and to explain to me how they got the answer to the problem 70-39.  Everyone had 21 written down, but not one student all day could explain how they got that.  This all happened before 9:00 am.  I knew it was going to be a long day.

 

Because of my job as an education consultant, I often have to prepare for a lesson on the fly.  This skill served me well at Sawyerville.  I quickly abandoned the workbook plan and found ten frames and counters in my math box of manipulatives. (cards with ten boxes and circles with red and yellow sides See picture).

We started again from the top.  What was 6 + 7?  They counted on their fingers. I asked them to use the cards and counters to figure it out. They obediently put 6 red counters and 7 yellow counters on the card and still counted on their fingers.  Because I am a teacher, I revised my directions.  First, we did the problems by counting on our fingers (so the sum couldn’t be more that 10); then, we used the counters. For some kids, this still did not make sense. The teacher in me kept trying to show students ways that the numbers made patterns.  Since I had five groups, I am sure by the time group five got to me just before lunch that I had at least figured out a better way to teach them math than going through the workbook.

After lunch was creative writing and art, both of which I love. I was sure I could engage them in a fun lesson. I used a sentence frame for my first writing assignment:

My favorite superhero is _________________________ because _____________. And then they were to draw a picture of the superhero. 

It broke my heart when they didn’t know any superheroes. I had to make a list on the board.  I hoped that once they saw the list they would have a better understanding, but no.  I realized that these kids didn’t have Disney+ and hadn’t been to the movies in over a year.  I was disappointed in myself that I didn’t think the assignment through.  However, the kids had fun writing their sentence and drawing their superhero. All of them wanted me to come admire their drawing.  I marveled at the Superman, Batman, and even Captain America drawings, but I was sad that these kids didn’t know Black Panther or Wonder Woman. This made me vow to make better connections between content and background knowledge whenever I am working with students in the future.

Um - are we done with Monday yet? No, not yet. The other activities that my students did with me in my room were computer games for reading and math.  They were using two sites that I gave out to teachers over 20 years ago—Cool Math and ABCya.  Now, I know there are good things about these sites, but there are so many more engaging sites out there.  I helped them get logged on to the computers and find the game they wanted.  That first day, two boys challenged me to a jet ski race that had addition facts.  I took the challenge, but just barely won, because my reaction time for finding the correct answer was not as fast as theirs.  They were impressed that I won, so then other groups of kids challenged me.  Ending the day with friendly competition was fun.

Exhausted as if it had been my very first day of school in 1991, I drove back to Tuscaloosa and took a two-hour nap.  When I woke up, I called my friend Kay, a retired elementary teacher, and said, “I am coming over because I need help.” I had printed some handouts that I thought were on the correct level (2^nd-3^rd) grade; however, Kay nixed some of those because they were too hard or had too many problems.  We talked to our friend Beth, who loves teaching math, and she gave me some good ideas for using the ten frames, cards, oral problems, word problems, and more.  I felt better prepared for Day 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 100 of #the100dayproject

On January 31, 2021, I started the 100 Day Project because I saw a Facebook post from my friend MaryAnna Hudson Brown about it. I looked it up online and found out about it.

So at first I thought I would write a short poem or paragraph everyday, but then I was unsure if my observations would be artistic or not. In January I had a huge problem with my writing being either blocked or forced. I read an article by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, that suggested trying a different outlet for creativity if you get stuck in your usual mode of expression. I was blessed to be raised in an environment conducive to being creative--writing, drawing, painting, dancing, singing, were all valued in my family. Somewhere along the way, I lost that part of myself and I used this project to find it.

Taking a really big step for me, I committed to drawing/doodling animals for 100 days. I looked up YouTube videos and began to draw animals. I realized that I was going to share the “good” ones and the not-so-good ones on Facebook for all to see. That made me more nervous than sharing my writing with my online writing group. I had decided to challenge myself to doing art everyday for 100 days and sharing the journey no matter what.. Here are some of my first drawings. I sent lots of hand drawn valentines to friends far and wide. The recipients loved them; I am not sure if my drawings were that good or if everyone just loved getting snail mail during Covid times.

I kept at it and learned to draw other things, too. Here is one day (33/100) where I had some successes and some not quite yet drawings.

I went to Tuscaloosa in March to check on my mom and to reconnect with a retired teacher friend. My friend Kay and I have been friends since the day my nephew Luke was born during one of my technology classes. She and I had a three hour lunch where we caught up on each other’s lives and shared our writing and art. Kay told me about watercolor pencils so I had a new medium to try. After getting a bit carried away with purchasing supplies, I started drawing then watercoloring my artwork. This day filled me with determination to keep doing my art and keep writing. Thank you, Kay, for your encouragement.

One day while I was scrolling on Facebook, I noticed a link that a friend from Tuscaloosa had liked--It was called Tiny Tattered Houses with Jennifer Chamberlin. For just $15, Jennifer would do an online class for three nights in a row to show over 5000 of us how to create our own Tiny Tattered Houses with paint, paper, glue, and more. In my thirties, I had been an avid scrapbooker and missed doing this kind of art and layout, so I got my debit card, paid my $15, and signed up. I wanted to do the house from Anne of Green Gables. I had a copy of the book that I had purchased to create this project with. However, I got into choosing lots of great quotes from the text and using them as my background; I was agitated when I realized that I would be covering up these great quotes with my house.

 

I ended up rethinking this project probably because I was OVERTHINKING it. I thought I wasn’t doing it “right” and I was about to give up. Then, Jennifer, the instructor, reminded the audience to do what makes you happy. She was teaching techniques not a paint or collage by number class. This freed my mind and creativity to do what I wanted.

I made three lovely fairy tale houses instead. I learned to use some common elements for the series and had a delightful time planning and creating them. I learned from this first class that Jennifer and the Maker Bees are invested in sharing the process of expressing creativity without having to make everyone’s project look exactly the same. Here are my tiny tattered houses--Jack and the Beanstalk, The Little Red Hen, and The Honey Princess.

I felt exhilarated after I posted these houses on Facebook on day 68/100 of the project. I gave them to friends and family as little bits of myself. After doing these, I began to spend each evening watching television and creating tiny houses. I learned to paint paper using acrylic paints and art/copy paper. I loved the process and made paper everyday for several weeks.

  

I loved creating these little pieces of art and sharing them with others in real life. I have given tiny tattered houses to my friends and loved ones; they have responded with lots of compliments. I have rediscovered joy in creating art! I appreciate Jennifer Chamberlin and her group of maker bees for their inspiration and support along this journey. Check out her website here for classes https://www.themakerbeehive.com/classes

I continued my search for ways to express myself by doing more of Jennifer’s classes from her The Maker Behive website. Feeling bolder and braver, I created word birds, dragonflies and Night Watch from Jennifer’s videos. My favorite creative outlet lately is that Io paint my own paper and to use a Gelli plate to design unique paper.

I understood as I began sharing my art in real life that my writing was just the same. Somewhere along the way I had lost my confidence that I had anything important to say. Following the discipline of #the100dayproject helped me to find my creative spark again. I am forever grateful that I accepted this challenge from MaryAnna Hudson Brown way back in January. I plan to start my #100daysofwriting on May 21 to keep my creativity bubbling up from my soul.

A Voice That Yearned to Be Heard

A Voice that Yearned to Be Heard

Laurie Fowler

My dad loved words and loved language and loved reading and loved storytelling. His dream was to be a college professor, but his life took a turn when he found the exciting world of newspapering. “They pay me to read the paper,“ he boasted, after securing a copy editor’s position.

His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

My dad moved on from being a copy editor to a reporter to managing editor to editor and publisher to vice president of a publishing company. However, he would always wait until the deadline loomed to finish his writing because being pushed to finish and being pushed to be a better writer was a part of him that couldn’t be undone.

 His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

With a passion for life, community, and justice, my dad chose precise words, constructed lyrical sentences, and wrote eloquent paragraphs that became stories, columns, and editorials.

His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

My dad was a man who wrote his opinion in editorial pages when it wasn’t popular-- about the death penalty, government corruption at the local and state level, why he was a yellow dog democrat in a very red state. 

His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

My dad stood up for what was right even if it cost him a job, or made him unpopular, or made him vulnerable. His was a voice for the downtrodden or wronged.

His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

My dad’s columns were love letters to his family. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, really family celebrations of all kinds were his subject matter and we were his characters.  His insightful words told stories of our family’s triumphs and challenges focusing on what really mattered.

His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

My dad had a great American novel in his brain, but his lungs gave out too quickly for him to write it. The world is less vibrant without the stories he had to tell. 

His was a voice that yearned to be heard.

Teaching is hard work

What works? Economics teachers who talk about seasonal employment give examples of Christmas retail and Christmas tree lots; this real world connection makes economics real to students. World History teachers connect current events to the history of trade in Africa.  Where are the new markets for the US and China? Africa and Asia are the most open territories.  U.S. History and Government teachers discuss impeachment either in terms of Jackson and Clinton or in terms of the current push for Trump’s impeachment.

What doesn’t work? Speed discussing topic that the kids have no connection to, learning a difficult topic independently on devices with no teaching preceding it, or showing a video on Jane Addams and Hull House when kids don’t know what social work or social problems of that time period are.   Maybe reviewing with Jeopardy! is great for some kids, but there are definitely students not paying one bit of attention to the game or the questions.

Teaching is hard work and apparently some teachers have forgotten that.  Teaching is hard work because everyone who has attended school thinks they know how to do it.  Teaching is hard work because kids have tons of ways to ignore the teachers. Teaching is hard work because kids have trouble reading. Teaching is hard work because parents expect all kids to make straight As.  Teaching is hard work because class sizes are big and classrooms are small. Teaching is hard work because standardized tests have created data monsters in the central office and in the state legislature. Teaching is hard work because challenging kids and creating thinkers is a daunting task.  Teaching is hard work because good lessons require lots of preparation. Teaching is hard work because making a difference is not an easy endeavor. Teaching is hard work because teachers have forgotten that kids need the human factor more than technology or the newest textbooks or the latest curriculum.  

Teachers have the most incredible opportunity to reach kids in so many ways. They can make connections to current events, pop culture, and other classes.  Teachers who are excited about their content have students who are engaged and interested in their content area. I can think of many teachers I have had the privilege to know.  They care about their subject matter and about their students and it shows.  Note to teachers—teaching is hard work if you do it right. You make a difference and you matter to the future generation.