The Sunrise Story

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 . Today we took our writing notebooks out to write a sentence. Just a sentence.  What is your sentence? I stumbled upon this amazing video from Daniel Pink's book, Drive.  I asked my sixth graders this question. We decided that we'd like to see some examples, so I shared a couple of other videos with mentors of this sentence.  We analyzed their sentences. We noticed that the sentences were written in the third person. We noticed that the sentences were written as if these things had already happened. We got lost in their words.  It's time to write our own. We spent five minutes writing and rewriting our sentence. We added details. We rearranged words. We tried out new ideas. We shared. After a few students share...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! I struggled to celebrate today and I almost skipped it, but the commitment to celebrate is important and as I continue to struggle through this terribly inconvenient cough and scratchy voice I decided I MUST celebrate.  Today I celebrate the connection I've made with my students. This year, each block is so different and it's taken me awhile to figure out what everyone needs. The "figuring out" takes time and some failed attempts on my part. I get frustrated with that process, but this week I noticed amazing progress for my students AND for me!  This week I discovered that my first block is kind and thoughtful. I discovered that when I returned from morning duty to the whole class sitting quietly outside the room waiting for me. I observed that my second block is curious and problem solvers. They always want to help and find the best way to get something d...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week!  Today marks our 100th celebration! Yippee!!! Please join us! I have no voice. It was scratchy yesterday. Today, it's gone. Nothing. Nowhere. So I celebrate the silence. The power of silence and where that can take me. I celebrate the power of slowing down. In honor of our 100th time celebrating, I am writing a list of 100 things to celebrate! Here I go... 1. Silence 2. Cheerios 3. My sweet Bella 4. Books to devour 5. Notebooks to express 6. Colorful pens 7. Cozy jammies 8. Morning walks 9. Neti pot  10. Slowing down 11. New places 12. Lists 13. Creative students 14. Laughing 15. Read alouds 16. The look on a student's face when they learn something new 17. Binge watching on Netflix 18. Writing 19. Sparkly twinkle lights 20. Stickers 21. Cupcakes 22. Prayers 23. Words and their power 24. Hugs 25. Sending mail 26. Getting cards 27. Surprise phone calls 28. Suppo...

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 . One reason I love social media is the inspiration that's shared. A couple of days ago I was scrolling through Instagram when I saw something interesting posted by @Kevinmenglish. I was immediately intrigued. My mind started working and wondering how my students could make their own RIGHTS. Today we discussed the rights we have as Americans...freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote. Then I asked them, "What rights do you have as readers?" Lists began in notebooks. Conversations started. We shared our best rights... Our next step is to revise our list and make a final list of ten rights we have as readers. The conversations that happened about reading and what readers need were powerful and mea...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! September 19 will mark our 100th celebration! Please join us! After days filled with middle schoolers chanting my name  followed by requests and inquiries... After days of meetings and schedules and planning and organizing... Today, as my friend Erinn says, "I am introverting today!"  (Love the use of that word as a verb!) I celebrate the quiet rain falling outside, I celebrate the faithful dog asleep at my feet, I celebrate the amazing books waiting to be read, I celebrate the cookies baking in the oven, I celebrate the nap that will be taken this afternoon, I celebrate the words that will be written, I celebrate the TV shows which will be purged on, I celebrate the opportunity I have to make these choices! As I introvert today, I hope your day brings you much to celebrate!

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 . Good Morning! This is Bella. I am writing this blog post this morning because my mommy can't figure out what to write. She is struggling, so I decided to help her. I am going to write about our weekend. We had a wonderful weekend, but some weird things were happening! Saturday was perfect. We took a long walk. I sniffed lots of good smells and enjoyed myself. When we came home, Mommy and I played with my toys and then we cuddled together for a little while. I settled down to rest and all of the sudden there was all of this commotion. Mommy was taking things off of the shelves. All the things were coming off of the shelves.  She was surrounded. I couldn't get to her. I paced back and forth while she moved things around. Some of...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! September 19 will mark our 100th celebration! Please join us! I love September. September means new beginnings and fresh starts. It reminds me of the new year in January. As teachers, we get this additional opportunity for a new year and I love it!  I celebrate enthusiastic and sweet sixth graders and their parents. This week school started. We are getting to know each other. We are reading and writing a lot! Thursday was Back to School Night and I met lots of kind and supportive parents. I am blessed to work in such a wonderful school! I celebrate my OLW of the year, FLY!  This word has taken me places I didn't expect. I began writing a book this summer. It's about notebooks and how I keep them and how I use them with my students. Hoping this has an audience when I'm done. I'm hoping to get a publisher and get it published, but the act of writing it is amazing and powe...