The Sunrise Story

Saturday celebration is here again! I can tell this is becoming a routine in my life as I'm starting to notice things throughout the week and I hold onto them to include here on Saturday. Thank you for that, Ruth !  I practice gratitude on a daily basis. Each morning, I send out an email listing those things and people for which I am grateful. Here are my emails from this week:  Monday:   Grateful for... a TWO day work week long drives with audiobooks finding just the right song at just the right time celebrating life's moments with friends holding babies and having them snuggle into your neck when they get sleepy finding items on your grocery list...on SALE!! Tuesday: Grateful for...  The new Valentine book by Adriana Trigiani Snuggling in bed after a chilly day Family!!!! Jeans today at school Still praying I'll be able to travel north! Wednesday:   Today I'm grateful for a  day to relax and read my...

As I was reading through Feedly (my blog reader) I came upon a few blog posts talking about something called #nerdlution. After reading I discovered that a #nerdlution is akin to a resolution with support. The deal is starting December 2...for fifty days...challenge yourself to accomplish some goals and share your progress on twitter using #nerdlution.  As I said in some of the blog comments, this scares me. I want to say, I'm too busy! It's a bad time of year. I don't need to do that... or twelve other excuses I can create. BUT, I know when something scares me, it's often something I should try. So here goes... My #nerdlutions include the following:  1. Write for thirty minutes every day. Write anything. Blog. Write in my notebook. Write for my students...just write, write, write.  2. Read for thirty minutes every day. Read instead of surfing Facebook. Read instead of watching TV...just read, read, read.  3. Move for thirty minutes every day. Walk. Run. ...

Shared with Slice of Life 2013 at Two Writing Teachers   This year for the first time my students each work with their own individual laptop. One of the things we are doing is blogging. Each of my sixth graders has their own blog. It's scary and exciting and new! I love it. At least once a week in class, we have blogging time.  I pick a word from my word jar (filled with rocks I picked at the beach this summer). The words in the word jar come from me and from my students. Once I pick a word, we all blog for about twenty minutes. Ah, to hear the clicking of the keys. I love watching them compose on the computer and I'm overwhelmed with the writing I'm reading. I mean look at this blog entry inspired by the word, Waiting .  I write with them. It reminds me how challenging it is to come up with something I'm proud of...on demand. I model how to start and what to do when you get stuck...I'm not faking either. Hahaha! Monday we blogged. I teach three classe...

Dear God,  I'm writing this letter to say thank you. Life moves so quickly that I hardly slow down and truly appreciate the gifts you've provided me.  Thank you for all of my blessings.   Thank you for my family...those here and those who are now with you. I'm grateful to have a family that loves me and knows me....a family that can be crazy and loud, but a family that always loves and forgives.  Thank you for my friends...my friends filled with faith and love and goodness. My friends who show me who I want to be and love me for who I am right now. My friends who pray for me and pray with me, my friends that laugh with me and cry with me. My friends that have taught me lessons of patience and forgiveness and have shown me how to live an authentic life. My friends that inspire me with their own lives.  Thank you for my home, filled with treasures like photographs and notebooks and drawings from my niece and nephew...that reminds me thank you fo...

Last week on Facebook, I saw a post with a list. Every item on the list began with I believe. I wondered what I would write. Here's my list, my poem... I believe in deciphering the shapes of clouds I believe in honesty I believe in being present, in the moment I believe in teaching students first and language arts second I believe that doing right is better than being right I believe in peppermint: a cure that all ails, tastes heavenly, and smells divine I believe in silliness and giggling I believe in family I believe in unconditional, hard, messy, painful, but-oh-so-worth it love I believe in God I believe in praying I believe in music I believe in singing at the top of my lungs I believe in listening more than talking (although, I need reminders) I believe in poetry I believe in being awesome and loving yourself I believe in "yes, and" rather than "no, but" I believe in words and their power I believe in writing as think...

from Discover. Play. Build. with Ruth Ayres I'm celebrating survival. I'm celebrating success.  I'm celebrating just being and that being is enough. I'm celebrating laughter through tears. I'm celebrating that lightbulb moment finally coming after so many moments of being lost. I'm celebrating authentic friends. I'm celebrating grace and goodness in the midst of mean words and attacks. I'm celebrating amazing students! I'm celebrating true friends! I'm celebrating wonderful family! How about you? What are you celebrating today?

Each student has a laptop on their desk...it's an English classroom...so it's obvious: let's use the computers to write. I'm finding so many surprises during this year with computers. Here's one I'd never guess: many students struggle to write using computers! Drafting on the computer is a new way to write for students. Before this year, we drafted using paper and pencil, sometimes notebooks, sometimes loose leaf...but the tools were basically the same: paper and pencil.  The act of writing is thinking. Now with computers we are asking the students to think using an entirely new tool. Previously, computers were used for publishing...to make things look pretty...to polish an already finished piece. Think about how different that is. Polishing vs. building. Building requires concentration and focus and trial and error. It necessitates a switch in perspective. The computer becomes a writing tool and not a publishing tool. It is now helping students build a...

Feeling accomplished. Twenty one days and one thousand page views! Thanks for reading. Your support is greatly appreciated!

I sit here preparing to fine tune two writing units for second quarter. As I schedule mini lessons and plans conference days and find places to provide time to write- I think about me as a writer. Yesterday, I shared a post about learning to love myself despite, or maybe because of, my flaws. I'd written it weeks ago and revised it Friday night. The post was personal...very personal. I found myself checking and rechecking for at least one positive comment. Thankfully, many people read my post from yesterday and I received amazing feedback, but it was a risk for me.  What do we ask of our students? We ask them to write and share. A LOT! We ask them to write personal stories and we ask them to make up stories and to research things and write about that. We ask them to write and revise and share and conference and edit....everyday. Are we willing to do that? Do we remember the fear of rejection? Yesterday brought all those feelings back for me. It changed how I'll conference wit...

Today I'm celebrating who I am. No, that's not it. I'm celebrating accepting and loving who I am...YES!  For so long, too long, I tried to hide myself and my passions and fit myself into what I thought I was supposed to be . For years, I did things I didn't love doing because everyone else was doing them. (Oh my this is sounding so high school and immature, but it's honest and that's what I'm going for!) I felt like fitting in was the most important thing. The ironic thing is that I never really felt like I fit in. So I was failing at something that I didn't really want...and I was miserable...and things fell apart.  Within the last couple of years, I've experienced some big loss! My Dad died and I unsuccessfully attempted the process of adoption...but I started discovering, accepting, and loving myself... flaws and all! With age, I'm realizing that time is precious and I need to be myself with no apologies.  Today, I make choices that I...

One of my favorite things about being a teacher is that a new quarter means a fresh beginning! It's November and I'm excited about seeing my students and starting some new learning. There's a lot to do this quarter...book clubs, research, blogging, reading, writing...Whew, I'm tired already!  Looking forward to setting goals tomorrow and talking about the days and weeks ahead. Everyone will be getting their own individual blogs within the next couple of days too. Exciting! 

This past week marked the last week of our first quarter. My students and I took this opportunity to reflect on our growth this year. It helps me see what worked and where I need to make adjustments in my instruction. For example, my students made goals for their reading during this quarter but as I suspected, they weren't very connected to their goals. This is where I need to change my focus for second quarter. I framed the discussion like this:  Think of yourself as a reader in September. How did you feel about reading? How much did you read? What were you reading? And now think about yourself as a reader now. What's changed? Why has it changed?  During our discussions, the first thing that came up in all of my classes was choice! All of my students agreed that they read more because they get to pick what they want to read. Some students said they liked reading before, but they never got time to read in class. The responses that set my heart aflutter:  One of ...

Ah, I love celebrating! This week was a good one. The last week of a quarter can be exhausting and draining and overwhelming, but this week was calm and productive and, dare I say it, even fun!  1. I'm celebrating  Zone Day! That's the day when we spend the entire block celebrating our hard work with READING! We independently read, we share book talks, we read aloud, we bring in pillows and find comfy spots and just READ! 2. I'm celebrating my students. Two different students brought me in little treats. One brought me some of her Halloween stash. The other brought me this pen:  Thoughtful students make me SMILE! 3. I'm celebrating so many amazing professional books to read. Having so many resources to educate myself and grow as a teacher makes me so grateful! 4. I'm celebrating the work being done in my home this morning. After a terrible leak months ago, I'm so excited to have my home repaired and back to normal...or even better than norma...