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 . With only thirty-seven days left until the new year, I want to reflect on 2015. My one little word this year is FLY. What has the word brought to me? How has it changed me? FLY brought me a new friend, Jennifer, who shared this OLW for 2015. We became close and she inspires me with her kindness and her positive attitude! I'm grateful for my new friend. FLY...it's hard to put into words how this word has changed me. It's given me permission. When I think of FLYing, I think of being free. This year has been a year of growth and a year where I'm working on accepting myself...all the part of myself, even the parts I don't like. Doing things that help in that journey of self acceptance...writing retreat...listening to one of...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! I am writing this blog post as I sit in a session during EdCampNoVa . I was sad I couldn't attend NCTE this year and get the energy from that conference. Instead I get the opportunity to attend this unconference. Spending time with enthusiastic and brilliant teachers makes me better! There are about a hundred educators here this morning. We woke up early on a beautiful Saturday morning and came together to share and learn together! We are talking about lots of different topics. Ideas generated by those of us HERE! Here's the idea board... We are discussing so many important issues! The sessions I attended, we learned about connecting as educators and how to coach and provide and participate in meaningful PD and sketchnotes. Hard questions are being asked. Support offered. Connections made. I celebrate these educators! Motivated and passionate...and changing the wor...

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 . Have you ever struggled connecting to a student? During these past two years of teaching, I have specifically focused on making connections with my sixth graders. Learning doesn't happen without connecting...at least consistent and powerful learning. I have one student in mind from last year and I failed him. Something happened and I was never able to connect and it sticks with me. I regret that so much. This year I promised myself that I'd do better. As the year began, I found myself presented with quite a few students who did not trust teachers and did not like school. Patience. We are well into the second quarter and I'm seeing changes. I notice students who never spoke to me, coming up and starting conversations about b...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! November 13th is World Kindness Day . I'm not sure how I've missed this since it began in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement . Better late than never, right? I decided to spend some time celebrating World Kindness Day with my students.  We started class with our normal routine...status of the class and independent reading. During reading time, I quietly wrote sticky note compliments for each of my students and placed them on their desks. When reading was over and students read the notes, I liked watching their faces go from confused to happy to wonderment. I said, "Today is World Kindness Day and I wanted to show kindness to all of you...that's why there are notes on your desks." They nodded, smiled, and some mumbled, "Thanks." I continued, "...but then I thought of something that would make you even happier. Let's go outside for reces...

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 . I love getting inspired from other teachers. Recently, I read two blog posts that inspired me!  The first is a post by Carrie Wisehart . I love her blog! There's so much there...I even love her About Me Page. Last week, she turned forty and blogged about a birthday gift that turned into a student challenge. The challenge is called #dollardifference . A friend gave her forty dollar bills and challenged her to do something creative. She passed the dollars onto her high school students and asked them to make a difference. WOW! I'm figuring out how to do that with my middle school students. Changing the world while teaching...what's better than that?!?! This weekend, I came across this post by another Carrie...Carrie Baughc...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week!  Please join us! We are reading aloud Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. If you don't know this book, get it...get it NOW.  It's about a sixth grade girl named Ally who struggles with school. Every word rings true! Read alouds are one of my favorite things about teaching. Sharing good books with students is powerful...but it's more than that. This book, this story, is helping our classroom become a community. As we share the struggles and successes of Ally and Albert and Keisha, we think about our own struggles and successes. Yesterday we read a chapter called, Misfit Lunch. We watched the video from the Rudolph Christmas special, Island of the Misfit toys. We talked about negative and positive connotations of the word misfit. I shared how I felt (and feel) like a misfit and I love it! In one class, students shared their own misfit stories. The vulnerability they sho...

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 . Be. Present. Now. There's too much. Life is too fast. It's hard to catch my breath. I'm in the middle of two planning days between first and second quarter. I love the end and the beginning. It's time to reflect. Readjust. Renew...usually...but the words, "too much" keep floating around in my head as I worry about fitting it all in. My attention is distracted with new initiatives and techniques. I'm overwhelmed and failing at mindfulness. This thought shifted my thinking to mindfulness. Am I in the moment? No. I worry and plan and check emails...what can I do? The first thing I did was to stop checking emails multiple times a day. In the past, I would check my work email ten or more times a day! My no...