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 . It's over. March is ending today. When the month and this challenge approaches, I get nervous and worried...as the days progress, I get into a groove...as the month ends, I get sad and feel a loss. I wanted to find an appropriate way to end, so I am borrowing (and adapting) the form Alan Wright used on his blog Living Life Twice  yesterday and writing about who we are right now. Right now... We are writing our final slice for the month We are weary from pouring our hearts into our words We are peacocks...proud of overcoming our doubts We are owls...wiser from writing our story everyday We are buttresses...supporting each other every step of the way We have sistered each other through these days with our words We sh...

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...

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 talked about the word, MINDFUL. I asked my sixth graders what it meant. Almost all of them had heard of it before...that surprised me. When I asked them to tell me what it meant, I realized where they heard it. Adults use that word to remind students to be empathetic and respectful. One student gave this example, "My mom tells me to be mindful of my sister who's doing her homework at the table." I get it. That makes sense. It's not what the word means to me, it's not the exact meaning that comes to mind. I think of the word in terms of being in the moment, being present, being aware. We talked more about that and talked about why we, as writers, would benefit from being mindful. Students got it!  "I...

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 . Holidays are about tradition and family and kids. Easter is a holiday that I can't spend with my family, so I've spent the last few years creating my own traditions. Easter is about rebirth, renewal, and hope. I start the day with the early sunrise service that my church puts on. We call it the SonRise Service.  It's outside at 6:30 am. We gather at the gazebo at a local park. The praise band is there playing unplugged. There are always familiar faces and new faces. Our pastor leads the service as the morning breaks. It's breathtaking. I cry.  The power of being outside while a new day begins and hearing the message of hope and love...it's overwhelming.  The singing brings me such joy on top of all of t...

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 . On Saturday, I looked at the date and noticed the number twenty-six. That made me think of the alphabet...twenty-six letters. That inspired today's post. Using the alphabet, I wrote the ABCs of Slicing. I drafted in my notebook, so here's the original version. Enjoy! Would you have written anything different for any of the letters?  As I was writing this, I had lots of ideas for the letters S and W and T, other letters weren't as easy for me. It took some time to think. This post was more like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Might be a fun writing format for students to try. 

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 want to start this post by thanking everyone who commented yesterday. Your kind words brought me to tears. I'm grateful, beyond words, for this community of bloggers...friends...here. Yesterday was a Good Day! Finished the garage clean out. Met my blogging friend Sally at Panera and we talked for hours...literally hours! I can't believe we didn't take a selfie!!! Next I ran some errands. As a reward for cleaning out my garage, I treated myself to a beautiful new chair...patchwork, colorful, comfy, and inspiring.  At home, I stayed busy with Bella and straightening up my kitchen and reading and writing and enjoying life. It was one of those days. One of those days when life makes sense, pieces fall into place, things fee...

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 a "soft spot"? Something that is tender inside of you and if it's nudged, it hurts...a lot. We all do. I'm sure we have more than one. The most tender soft spot I have is my status in life...single, no children. Oh, it hurts to identify myself like that because I never dreamed that I'd be forty-four and here. When that spot is rubbed, I get sad and resentful. I feel shame and blame. I wallow and cry and I don't know how to get out of it. Oh the noise in my head when this spot gets irritated is loud and infinite. I want to heal this spot inside of myself. It's hard, but I feel like yesterday I made the first step. I spent the afternoon with one of my best friends and her wonderful family. Her hu...

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 . Yesterday I heard the most wonderful words from Glennon Doyle Melton. She had her first #LoveWarriorLive cast yesterday. You can find it here . The topic is aging. She just turned forty. She's made a commitment to tell the truth. What's better than that? Here are some words of truth that touched me from her first live cast... "I don't have to earn my existence anymore. I don't have to earn love anymore. I'm here.  I'm not trying out for life anymore,  I'm just going to live it...Getting older is how you become yourself.  I made my intentions for the year...Being your sister is one of the honors and joys of my life. How much of my life has been spent trying not to be 'too much'." Glennon Do...

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 . Words They are my food nourishing me bringing me life... Every. Single. Day. What would I do without my Words? How would I... live? communicate? love? My mother introduced me to my true love... Words. We first met in books and continued our romance in  notebooks. Words always know how I feel how to soothe me how to make me laugh. Words comfort me show me the truth make me better love me for who I am. I love you, Words. Tagul from the words from One Grateful Teacher

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 . My garage is a mess. It's filled with stuff. Lots and lots of stuff! It's been that way for a long time...too long! I am embarrassed at how bad it's gotten, but I'm going to share before pictures anyway.  (Warning: Messy and disorganized pictures coming up! Look away if you can't handle it!)  I have bags of clothes and books that are ready to be donated. Christmas decorations. Books and binders and school supplies. Empty boxes. Grocery store bags. A dresser. Chairs. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Everywhere. It's become a dumping ground for everything. I dread walking through my garage. It represents chaos. UGH!  I just finished an amazing book by Rob Bell called, How to Be Here. In this book he talks ab...

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 reading posts on the Nerdy Book Club ! I find new books and authors whenever I go there. I always learn something new. Donalyn Miller wrote yesterday's post called Touchstones . It's about the books from our lives that have been meaningful to us. She talks about reading autobiographies. I have written my reading autobiography...multiple times. One time I wrote it as a poem (like a Where I'm From poem) and published it on the Nerdy Book Club.... Reading and Where it All Began . Every time I sit down to write my reading autobiography, it changes. The early books stay the same, but books and authors are added and deleted as I read. I love that even though I'm in my forties, reading still changes me.  Right now,...

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 went to the movies yesterday. My choice? Miracles from Heaven. It's based on a true story about a little girl who survives a fatal disease with no scientific explanation...miracle.  The movie is emotional. I sobbed my way through it...you know, the ugly cry. As I was leaving and thinking about what I thought of the movie, a question popped into my head. Why do I always love the sad stories? It's not just movies, it's books too. My students joke when they get to know my book taste and ask me, "Ms. Haseltine, is this one sad too?" Miracles from Heaven wasn't sad, it was emotional. That's what I love, feeling the emotions. I love when words or images on the screen touch me so much that I laugh out loud...

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 . The past couple of days I've conferenced with some of my students about their growth in reading. After being out for almost a week, I was able to notice some things quickly. We begin every block with "Status of the Class" (from Steven Layne's book "Igniting a Passion for Reading" ). That's where I ask every student what book they are reading and what page they are on. It's a quick and powerful part of class. Students hear what others are reading and that turns into an instant book recommendation. I know what every student is reading and I quickly learn their preferences. When I returned to school and we began our status of the class, I noticed one of the girls was reading a different book. I scanned the sta...

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'm going to be completely honest. It's Thursday night and I am currently co-moderating a Twitter chat (shhh, don't tell I slipped over here for a moment!) and worried I won't think of anything to write. I notice a tweet with a slice of life post by Beth called Spring Break Resolutions . It's a great post, you should stop over and read it! This idea is all her idea...I'm just adding my twist to it. One more day of school and spring break is upon us. No trips this year. I've decided to get some things done, but when my plans stay so vague...nothing ever gets accomplished. I'm going to make a top ten list of resolutions for my spring break to help me out. Here we go... 10. Finish my taxes 9. Clean OUT my ga...

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 . Life is busy...filled with plans and errands and worries, it feels like there's never enough time...and then something happens. The unexpected. Last week, I got the flu. My world stopped. At first, I tried to deny it, ignore it, fight it! And when that didn't work, I worried. How will I get everything done? Scheduled to present at a conference. Sub plans for school...and on and on. The flu doesn't give the body much choice. I surrendered and suddenly things got simple.   My life was about sleeping and drinking fluids. Friends helped with other chores like shopping and walking my dog. My mom called every single day to check in and make sure I was ok. All those other worries soon faded away when I wasn't strong enough to pa...