Rebooting our Imagination with Katy McKy

Our school PTO generously brought our students the great fortune of meeting author and educator Katy McKy this week, as our author in residence.  To begin the week, Katy McKy, surrounded by nearly 600 eager students, transfixed us with her exciting tale of how pumpkins took over the small, quaint village: Pumpkin Town.  The show was entertaining, start to finish, with Mrs. McKy developing much of her fun story using our school's principal (Poppa) as her center of attention.  Quickly, she brought nearly 80 students up to the front stage to become instant props, while bringing forth staff (myself included) and students to act out various parts one might read in her book.  As she retold the story Pumpkin Town, all legs sat criss-crossed, backs were straight, and eyes were glued to what might happen next.  The morning was a success.

However, our class' individual time with Mrs. McKy this morning may have taken her presentation to a whole new level.  Regularly she asked my students if they were "Tough enough to focus."  You bet they were!  In her energetic ways, she reminded them to REFUSE TO GIVE UP!  Our morning was based largely on her tale Wolf Camp.  As a group, my students had to identify every single element her story might include using the props around us.  We used leaf blowers for wind, squirt bottles for rain, feather dusters as creepy crawly bugs.  My students quickly memorized the "things" they need for a camping trip, from a water canteen and filter to an emergency pack.  Before we knew it, we (myself included) were crawling around on the floor pretending to be bears or packs of wolves invading an imaginary camp which Katy and one of my students inhabited.

With our remaining time, Mrs. McKy had my students write their own story using all the elements we learned about in the first 45 minutes.  Their stories had to include: a setting, a problem, a bigger problem, an even bigger problem, and a solution.  With students camped up into tents, Mrs. McKy and myself wandered our campgrounds causing rain, wind, and creepy bugs to invade the tents.  These distractions were no match for my focused writers.  Many of my students were upset to end / leave, because as they might tell you, they still have a long way to go on what some of them see developing into a great story.

Mrs. McKy taught my students that each of them has a extraordinary power within them...their brains.  Their brains are capable of anything they want them to be, so long as they have will power and courage to do their best.  McKy provided me, with a much needed (though I did not realize this) professional development session.  I learned that my students can be very focused with the correct cue, and that some directions don't need to be so dragged out.  I also learned to power of oral editing.  I cannot wait to integrate Katy McKy's strategies with my own to create a very positive and unique learning environment.

We will have one more all school assembly with Katy on Friday, where she will then let our students tell their parents all the "Truths" about what she really told them...giving her just enough time to get out of town.  The following are some pictures from our fun writing session this morning: