The Sunrise Story

Blogging is a strange form of writing. It's public. I value authenticity, but sometimes being authentic and transparent isn't possible on a blog...like today...instead, I'll say this… It's been a tough week. I've encountered a few situations that have challenged me...some expected and some unexpected. Dealing with all of this at the end of a busy school year makes it harder, because I'm also tired. Worn out. Why show up today to celebrate? I believe in it.   That's what this week has taught me...to hold onto my beliefs, especially when challenged. "I believe..." It's easy to say that. It's harder to live those beliefs. This week I struggled through, but I remained true to my core beliefs and that's something to celebrate. What else do I believe?  I believe everyone has a story. I believe in grace and gratitude. I believe today can be the best day. I believe tears are cleansing. I believe crying with a friend is...

As the school year winds down, we are reflecting back on ourselves as readers. I stumbled upon a great project on the Notice & Note group on Facebook. Students are making videos of their reading lives. We are looking back into our reading logs. We are searching for books read months ago. We are taking pictures of our favorite places to read. We are creatively turning these things, and more, into a video. Watching my students get so excited about this project inspires me. It's May 24th. We only have a couple of weeks left of school. Today, each class worked diligently for an entire hour on their projects. (I have no pictures because I was working alongside them.) I love watching them use their voice in the video. I love watching them pose for their pictures. They asked if they could use all the pictures I took this year, so a student showed me how to upload them to Google Photos. Yes, a sixth grader showed me an easier way to share the pictures. What's better than ...

What's the saying? Life is like a roller coaster. This week has seen ups and downs...and I'm tired. I celebrate them all here today. DOWNs... More rain. State testing. End of year exhaustion.  Allergies.  UPs... National Notebook Day! Time spent with friends.  Students falling in love with their notebooks again.   New possibilities. A former student who sees me in the hall and lights up.  Two students starting to write their own book. (One of these students insisted that she hated writing at the beginning of the school year!) That same student publishing her hundredth blog post for the year. (Now, she's on her 103rd post.) Voxes from friends. Moderated a great Twitter chat about Genius Hour .  Another makerspace lesson in class this week. (I'm writing more about that soon.) When I sit down and look at my week, I see so many positive things. I'm surrounded by good friends. Work is crazy, but good. The week ended at my new favorite...

Today is National Notebook Day! This holiday is made for me. Unfortunately, we can't celebrate in class tomorrow as we are testing, so I began the celebration today. The past couple of weeks I've noticed students complaining about notebooks and forgetting notebooks. I thought about it and realized that we aren't using them enough. Wednesday, I posted this on the board... In each class we spent some time reacquainting ourselves to our notebooks. It took some time. We perused our pages. We picked out special entries. We started to write and play in our notebooks again. Two students said, "Ms. Haseltine, I get it! I wrote better today than I have in a long time." These same two students stumbled on an idea for a book and started drafting and planning. Oh, the magic of notebooks! During the next blocks, we continued our journey back to notebooks. We wrote about ordinary objects that are around our classroom every single day. Some students wrote descriptions, some...

I have sad news. Many of my students have fallen out of love with their notebooks. I noticed this last week when I said, "Please take out your notebooks." and that was greeted with moans and groans. Uh-Oh! Today we began our journey back to our notebooks. Check out my blog post tomorrow for National Notebook Day. We are falling in love with our notebooks again. Here is a sneak peek...

Preparation. Our state test is later this week and today we talked about testing. I asked the sixth graders to write down words about testing. They answered with words like SCARY, LONG, BORING, HARD. They expressed fear and worry as well as determination. We turned the conversation to attitude and I asked if attitude, their attitude, could have an effect on the test. They decided that attitude is a big part of success. Talking to sixth graders about big ideas like attitude and anxiety...these conversations stay with me and inspire me. I'm impressed with their awareness and maturity. We took two pieces of paper out. On the first, we wrote the word TEST. We made lists of words that we connected with testing. When we finished with our conversation, I invited the students to rip these papers and throw them away. We talked about how this symbolized the power they had over the test. The second piece of paper is for them. I asked them to write a letter to themselves on the day of...

This week has been hard...end of the school year, testing about to begin, lots of rain...but, there's still so much JOY and so many reasons to celebrate. Here are a few... 1. Kindness of strangers. On a walk, Bella's leash released and she was off. She ran into the middle of a very busy road and kept going. I was screaming and scared. Every single car on the road (during a busy evening commute) stopped. Many got out of their cars and helped. A man was able to get her and bring her too me. I'm grateful to have witnessed so much kindness! 2. Bella's new leash with a locking carabiner.  3. Watching my students grow in confidence and ability this week. I love observing how they work together to achieve their goal. (Photo made with WalaxyPic app.) 4. Sunshine yesterday. We have had more than two weeks of rain and no sun. Yesterday, the sun emerged and my students ran to the windows, like they do when it snows. 5. Selah Writing Retreats . Everyday I work a...

The end of the school year is here. We begin our state testing in a week and a half. Stress levels are at an all time high. I find myself complaining more and hear more complaining in the halls and classrooms. Last week, I spoke with my students about complaining. We admitted we all got into a bad habit of complaining and we promised to work on it. I've seen a change in them. We are working on group projects right now. Group work is challenging to every student, for different reasons. The introverted students struggle to participate. The extroverted students struggle to control their participation, some students hang back and others take over. I want students to experience this and to have a voice as well. The first two days of the group work, the students filled out an exit ticket telling me about the group and how things progressed. Yesterday I tried something different. Students were asked to write one sentence about their group work and after that, they had to list the names...

Last night there was a thunderstorm. It was loud. It was bright. The rain was pouring from the sky. Everything stopped. I sat in bed with all of the blinds opened and watched the flashing lightning paint the sky over and over and over again. The thunder boomed and my poor Bella ran under the bed. The rain poured and poured and poured.  I thought about how cleansing a storm can be. While it's happening, it can be scary...just ask my dog...but after it's over, I wake up and feel renewed. Maybe we need to storm sometimes too. Let it all out and see what's left and how it feels. I storm...on the pages my notebook. When I'm frustrated or worried or ecstatic, I open the pages and let it all out. The emotions paint the pages of my notebook...it's all left there. And after, I feel renewed. I breathe more deeply, think more clearly, and feel better. Without thunderstorms, what would spring be? Without writing, who would I be?  I have always been deeply connected to th...