The Sunrise Story

Where were you on September 11th? What's your story? This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the day that changed our world forever and the students I spend my days with, weren't even alive.  While reading & booktalking  Somewhere Among , a novel in verse by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu that was set in 2001, my sixth graders began asking me questions about my 9/11 story. Where were you? What did you think? Were you scared? This conversation is not an easy one to have, but it's necessary. Reading stories always makes these difficult conversations easier to have. Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story  by Nora Raleigh Baskin  is a perfect book to help those conversations.  In Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story, we meet four kids from around the country 48 hours before the attacks. We get to know them. We learn who they are. Baskin masterfully brings the reader back to "before" with ease. Each of these kids is dealing with life, as they know it, before it all ...

I'm fat. It's true. I'm not looking for comments like, "Oh you're not fat." I am. I want to take that word back. When we say that now, it has a negative connotation. I'm tired of that. I'm done. I'm fat. I'm working on loving my body just the way it is...by reading a book. I confess I'm reading the book on my Kindle app because I was embarrassed about the title. It's called, "Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls" and it's written by Jes Baker . Her mission is self-love...for all. I've highlighted so many lines, I can't possibly share them all, but here are some of my favorites: "Our bodies are our physical bookmarks that hold space for us in the world. Our bodies are magnificent houses for everything else that we are. Our bodies are a part of us, just as our kindness, talents, and passion are a part of us." (p.10)  "Your size is irrelevant to your ability to find fulfillment, purpose, love, a se...

It's Sunday morning as I write this post and I have returned home. The past few days were spent learning and listening and wondering with friends at the amazing All Write Conference in Warsaw, Indiana.  My trip started in Wisconsin where I got to spend some time with the lovely Jennifer . We road tripped to Indiana and met up with my roommate for the two days, Leigh Anne . This is where I can't even list all of the people I met and saw as there are too many to mention. I made new friends. I met blogging friends. I saw some friends again! Time with these people was good for my soul. The conference was wonderful. I got a chance to learn from the greats, including: Ralph Fletcher, Penny Kittle, Jeff Anderson, Ruth Ayres, JoEllen McCarthy, and Linda Urban. On Thursday, I got an opportunity to sit and eat lunch with Linda Urban. We shared our experiences with notebooks over some yummy bar-b-q sandwiches. Linda's presentation on Friday was so much fun! Lots of notebook writi...

Good Morning. I'm writing this post as I sit in the terminal at Dulles Airport waiting for a flight to take me to All Write...I feel like John Green. (If you watch any Vlogbrothers videos , you'll get that! He often posts videos from airports.) Traveling is not my favorite thing, certainly not traveling by plane. It stresses me out, so why did I name this post, Traveling Joy? I've been struck by people today and the joy I've seen expressed and shared. 1. The man on the phone with me at 4:00 in the morning straightening out my travel arrangements that had been drastically changed overnight. He was patient. He was kind. He was helpful. Customer service for an airline must be a difficult job and I felt like I could hear the smile in his voice as he helped me. 2. Parents traveling with young children. Oh parents, how do you do it? I was behind a mother in line with an energetic three year old girl at security, and she (the mother) was patient and smiling. The...

When you meet someone for the first time, how do you introduce yourself? Obviously you share your name, but what other pieces of information do you share?  Think about it for a moment... I think it depends on the circumstances of the meeting, but I find the same details are usually shared during introductions. People share their marital status and the number of children they have. Often they also add where they live, and their occupation. Would you agree that these things are typically shared during an introduction? Why? This has been bothering me for awhile and I am wondering why this is the way we begin interactions. If you're wondering why I've noticed it, it's because when I introduce myself and say that I'm single with no children, I'm already a failure in the eyes of many. If you're about to say, "Michelle, you're not a failure." Well, I'm different...other, and that makes people feel uncomfortable, which in turn makes me feel uncomf...

I love my blog because it gives me an opportunity to look back and see where I was. Today I searched for posts about Father's Day and I've never written a post about it before...interesting. Today, I'm celebrating Father's Day. I was blessed with a wonderful dad. I'm grateful for all of his love and support throughout my life. I miss him everyday. He died nine years ago, but his presence in my life is still noticeable. Here are some things that I celebrate about my Dad: I celebrate his JOY. I celebrate his positive attitude. I celebrate his love for his children. I celebrate his enthusiasm. I celebrate his risk-taking. I celebrate his ability to reflect. I celebrate his presence. Dad was there. He showed up. He and I loved to talk and talk and talk. My favorite times with him were road trips or walks. We would just spend time together and have fun. Dad made mistakes too. He owned his mistakes and worked to improve himself. Dad was fiercely independent and he...

Today is the last day of school. It's the end of my twenty-first year of teaching. Every year is the same, I wonder what else I could have done and I remember the great successes. I spend as much time as I can on the final day, looking into their faces and remembering. They move on, but a part of each of them stays with me...has changed me. It's the end of the school year.   Today marks a beginning too. I can announce the first writing workshop dates for my Selah Writing Retreats. There will be two retreats on the evenings of July 13th and 14th at Zephaniah Farm Vineryard . Come for one night or both! Sign up NOW at  Selah Writing Retreats .   I can't help but think of my favorite quote from the movie, Hope Floats: "...beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will, too..." Thank yo...

I am the daughter of a teacher. I guess it's no mystery why I am a teacher. Growing up holds memories of visiting my mom's classroom and meeting her kids. "Her kids"...that's how she always referred to her students. I remember every Thursday night was the night she sat down at the kitchen table and spread out her lesson plan book and her manuals (Remember...with the spirals?!?!) and she would write out her plans for the week. I remember listening to her read aloud books to her students whenever I visited. I remember her kids hugging her and how much she loved each and every student. This week was my mom's last week of teaching. She started in 1968 (that's forty-eight years ago). Most of her years spent in the classroom have been spent with first graders. She "officially retired" seven years ago, but quickly returned to the classroom, part time. Thursday she said goodbye. Here's what she posted on Facebook:  My mom loves teaching. She loves...

I don't know what to write. I'm showing up because that is what life is about, but I don't know what to write. The school year is coming to a close. Transitions are hard. Not knowing is hard. I'm excited about what we've accomplished this year (like My Reading Life video) and I'm sad to say goodbye. I look forward to my next challenges and opportunities. This summer: I'm attending the All Write Conference for the first time! I get to meet (IRL) some of my good friends.  I'm getting to spend my summer WRITING at the NVWP Summer Institute. It's such an honor to be able to return and spend days writing and learning from amazing teachers.  I am traveling north to celebrate a new baby and a 70th birthday. Time at the beach with my family...there's nothing better in the world.  I'm getting my business, Selah Writing Retreats ,  OFF the ground this summer and planning writing workshops and retreats...info coming soon. I'...

The end of the school year is a time of reflection for me. I think back through the year and I wonder about what worked and what could have worked better. I make plans to change things for next year. Reflection is powerful. It changes me. I ask my students to reflect too. We reflect on ourselves as readers and writers, as students and as people. This week a simple exercise in organizing gave my students an opportunity to reflect on themselves as writers. Living in this digital age, much of our writing ends up online...in google drive or on the blog. This week, we went through google drive and organized our writing. Then we went through our blog and copied our posts into google drive. It was meant to serve as a place to hold their writing for seventh and eighth grades. It turned into reflecting. "Oh my goodness! I wrote this?! It's terrible!" "I can't believe I didn't write this better!" I kept hearing statements like these from my sixth gr...