Skip to main content

Celebrate This Week!

Thanks to everyone who commented last week when I was struggling to celebrate...each comment helped so much. Thanks to Ruth for hosting this amazing community where we focus on the good in life. Please join us at Ruth's blog. 

 Celebrations this week...

 Monday brought me back to the classroom after NCTE and ALAN. I missed my students so much and returning with piles of books was amazing. 
Watching my students pour over the new books made my return even sweeter. We spent our day catching up, talking about books and authors and getting back to our normal. 

 Tuesday brought my new ukelele. 
At ALAN I heard Mary Amato speak about music and writing. I'd read Guitar Notes and I loved it! She talked about how she learned to play guitar when she was 45 years old.  She played ten minutes a day...badly. In a few months, she saw progress. It made me think that I could do that. (I took lessons in the fourth grade for a few months before I quit and I always regretted it!) She signed my copies of her new book Get Happy and I asked her about learning the guitar in her forties. I told her that I'm thinking of trying it. She suggested the ukelele. We chatted for a bit and I dismissed it...until Cyber Monday (really Sunday). Shopping for gifts, I found a great uke for a huge discount! It's here. And I've already started to play badly. 
Wednesday brought time to slow down. I didn't have any meetings after school so I stopped at the grocery store and came home and cooked dinner. Taking time in the middle of the week to breathe and slow down helped me a lot. December can be such a crazy month with so much to do, it's vital to find time to stop and just be in the moment. I'm grateful that I took that chance on Wednesday. 

Thursday brought our second Twitter chat for Loudoun County educators. We discussed student engagement. Getting together to share ideas and learn from colleagues really inspires me! It was an amazing chat! Our next one will be on January 8th at 8pm EST. All are welcome!

 Friday brought creative and interesting work from my students. I'll be honest, this happened all week long. We are about to start a group project so I wanted them to get some practice working together. I read them If I Were a Book. They wrote their own lines inspired from this text. Students were assigned groups and then wrote these creative collaborative poems using receipt tape (makes revision so simple). The poems were so good and the teamwork was even better! Certainly a hightlight of my week!


 What are you celebrating this week?

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. KendraDecember 6, 2014 at 8:18 AM

    Oh! I've been playing my Grandmother's guitar. Badly. :) Enjoy this journey. I nearly majored in music in college. Maybe someday we can play together! What did you make for dinner on Wednesday? Thursday, I had the chance to make an apple-squash-cheddar soup. I do better cooking on the weekends. But it turned out okay! Tell your students, great work! These poems are great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michelle HaseltineDecember 6, 2014 at 8:22 AM

      Haha! I'd love to play together some day! :) Thursday I made a simple chicken dinner. Nothing fancy, just yummy! Cooking on the weekends is certainly better!! I'll pass along your kind words to my students! :)

      Delete
  2. Beth S.December 6, 2014 at 8:52 AM

    Oh I'm so happy you got a ukelele! I am embracing the playing badly on my piano right now too. The other day I played a piece for the first time I hadn't played in many years, and while it was fraught with wrong notes, I finally felt joy again while sitting at the piano. That hadn't happened in almost 15 years. It was glorious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michelle HaseltineDecember 6, 2014 at 9:08 AM

      Beth, I know when I'm strumming the notes are off (not tuned yet) and I'm constantly messing up...but it is so much FUN!!! :) Glad you're experiencing the same thing on the piano!

      Delete
  3. drferreriblogspot.comDecember 6, 2014 at 9:15 AM

    I love your "If I Were A Book" project and most importantly the students' responses. WOW. Like all wonderful teachers, it is clear you get your energy renewed by their enthusiasm for learning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Linda BDecember 6, 2014 at 9:58 AM

    Michelle, I love hearing about the ukelele, and that you're going for it! And the poems are great. I find so many uses for that kind of tape, but have never done a collaborative one like that. Thanks for the idea, and have a great next week!

    ReplyDelete
  5. TaraDecember 6, 2014 at 11:21 AM

    If I were a Book is definitely coming to my classroom, Michelle. So happy that you got that ukelele - just like you to reach out and grab something happy to spread more happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  6. CrystalDecember 6, 2014 at 11:55 AM

    Those poems are fantastic. It's interesting to create something like that together. Have fun with that ukelele. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Leigh Anne EckDecember 6, 2014 at 12:48 PM

    What fun learning how to play the ukelele! The book, If I Were a Book, looks fabulous and what a catalyst to some great writing. I will have to add that to my list. I love "I would uncork the bottle of knowledge." Have a great week and I can't wait to hear about those books you got from NCTE.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Carrie GelsonDecember 6, 2014 at 1:13 PM

    Look at those bags of books! Yippee. This "If I were a book" writing is incredible. Please pass on how fantastic these images are. Loved reading them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. JulieanneDecember 6, 2014 at 3:41 PM

    Brave you getting a ukelele! I feel so beyond learning an instrument. You are an inspiration. And I love those lines from students. Mentor texts are so empowering.

    ReplyDelete
  10. MartineDecember 6, 2014 at 5:40 PM

    Love the poem by your students.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts. I love comments!

Popular posts from this blog

Here I Am

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I've been thinking for the past couple of days about this post...but I can't think of anything to write. Frozen in my failure, I want to quit, but I push through and show up here...even though it seems pointless. Who wants to read a blog post about nothing?  I begin to panic a bit...Have I "lost it"? My passion for blogging? My ability to blog? Why can't I think of something clever? What do I have to say that anyone will want to read? (By the way, I'd have all of these answers if it was you asking the questions!) Should I quit? Give up? Accept defeat? NO.  Instead, I show up.  Instead, I remember the words I said yesterday to my seventh-graders,  "Show up. It gets easier." Instead, I write and show grace to myself. Instead, I remember that blogging is a muscle that I haven't stretched in a while and I need to warm up, I need to take some deep breaths. Here I am. Showing up to the page. I'...
17 comments
Read more

Someday...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . Do you have dreams? Kids are good at dreaming. I find many adults struggle with it. Speaking for myself, I get so caught up in the everyday drudgery of life, that dreams get nudged aside until they disappear.  It's important to have dreams. I've been writing about my dreams in my notebook and so I thought I'd share my dreams here... 1. Writing a book.  While I'd love to get a book published, my dream is to write a book...to complete the act of writing it.  I've started on this dream and it's hard and challenging and exciting and amazing.  2. Living at the beach.    I love the water, the waves, the ocean smell, the seafood, the sand...all of it! The Outer Banks is my favorite place in the...
23 comments
Read more

Chasing My Dream

I'm doing it. I'm chasing my dream. I've always wanted to run writing retreats and workshops for people, but I've always been too scared to do anything about it...until now. I don't know what's changed...maybe I've changed. I'm not allowing the fear to stop me anymore. I've started Selah Writing Retreats.  The past couple of weeks I've been getting the business end in order. I thought I would hate that...I don't. It's scary, but I am surprising myself with how efficient I am. Yesterday I went to a bank to set up a bank account. The woman I met with was kind and helpful and so enthusiastic about my dream. My website is set up. I've done lots of work on it. I hope you stop by and let me know what you think. It's  selahwritingretreats.com . Balancing creative with business has been challenging but fun. Creating the website, getting a federal tax id, making business cards, planning dates... My favorite voxer group is called Butt Ki...
21 comments
Read more