The Sunrise Story

  from our last trip to the beach OBX Today I celebrate a summer filled with writing and learning and meeting new people. I attended the All Write Conference in June. July was filled with day after day of writing at the Invitational Summer Institute with the teachers at the Northern Virginia Writing Project. My goal is to carry those days with me into August and the school year ahead. I want to write morning pages everyday. I want to incorporate some fiction writing into my daily writing practice. I want to continue with my writing group. These are the goals I'm working towards. Today, my goal is simple. Pack my car. (Make sure I have my notebook and pens!) Drive north. Meet my family. Drive to the beach in Maine. We are celebrating my mom's 70th birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! The ocean is always good for the soul...the beach with family is exactly what I need.  Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us...

“So much of me Is made of what I learned from you. You'll be with me Like a handprint on my heart. And now whatever way our stories end I know you have rewritten mine By being my friend.” -For Good Lyrics My time with the Northern Virginia Writing Project's Invitational Summer Institute (#NVWPISI2016) has come to an end. Today we had the opportunity to spend the morning with the brilliant and talented Mark Farrington. He lead us in fiction writing, which is a struggle for me. There were so many tips and tricks that I had moments of feeling successful. I loved it and I am definitely going to attempt more fiction in my writing practice. After Mark's presentation, I clumsily said goodbye to the group. Flustered, I forgot so much of what I wanted to say...I'll share it here. To the teachers at the ISI: Thank you. I think it all comes down to thank you. It's an honor to spend time with teachers who are motivated and creative and funny an...

Morning pages is the perfect way to begin each day at the Northern Virginia Writing Project ISI. It focuses me and gets me ready for a day of writing. My plan is to continue this practice after the institute. As morning pages draw to an end, we have a break. Each morning someone different brings food. Christy was responsible for our nourishment today and look what she brought. Her passion for reading and writing was contagious. I can't wait to use some techniques I learned this morning. (To read more about Katlyn's specific lesson, please visit Mr. Anderson's Blog !) Next, I got the chance to share the profile I wrote about my profile buddy, Matt. I confess, I was so nervous about this. He wrote a beautiful profile of me and I wanted to make sure I wrote something that he'd like. Matt's presentation focused on conferences with our student writers. (Again, to read more about Matt's presentation, stop by Mr. Anderson's Blog !) I love how Matt starte...

Today we journaled. Dave Arbogast stopped by today to lead us in some of Progoff's Intensive Journaling activities. It was an honor to introduce Dave, as he was my introduction to the NVWP through the graduate class I took in 2005. He's the reason I am part of this project and I'm so grateful! What an experience to watch the other teachers experience this for the first time. Dave explained that the writing today was for us...as writers. The audience was us too. With intensive journaling, strong emotions bubble up through the words. I've participated in these exercises time and time again, yet the writing is always fresh and new. Amazing! After our morning of intensive journaling, we broke for lunch and met up with our writing group. We've been meeting at a table in the cafeteria, as it's been quiet. Today it was busy, so we found a room. (Shhh, don't tell...it was marked Faculty. We decided we qualified. Some of us were nervous and outside of our comfort zon...

Today's post is inspired by the teachers from the NVWP ISI , I sat down and penned this poem. Thank you for your words, your friendship, and your creativity! Say it with me, "I am a writer!" Words multiply reproduce and they demand to be written ...in notebooks ...on blogs ...in books Suddenly, everything is a prompt the article you read in the morning paper the blog post written by a friend the song lyrics you're rocking out to on the drive Once writing begins it's an unstoppable force that invades sleep interrupts dinnertime requires constant preparation because a good idea is always floating around As a writer I listen I grab those ideas I assemble the words into lines, phrases, sentences that make sense that stir emotions that ignite ideas I am a writer. I write. Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community y...

Monday morning and I'm driving down route 28 to George Mason University when I realize it's my last week with the project. My family is celebrating my mom's birthday next week at the beach, so I won't be here. During my drive, I felt the sadness seep in...I am going to miss this experience and these people so much! I arrived to room 447. Peter was quietly writing and the tables were in a new arrangement. Peter and I decided to leave them like this and see what happened. It lasted about half an hour, until we heard rumblings, "Why is it like this?" "We won't have enough room." "It's different." Quickly, we rearranged and got down to our morning pages. The focus it takes for me to complete morning pages is a lot and it's a good reminder to me, the teacher. Setting a routine is important. Settling into the routine takes some time and practice. Morning pages always reveal something that surprises me. Today I was breaking in my n...

Oh I need to write a blog post. I'm behind. I haven't posted in a few days. I never wrote about the brilliant presentation by Arvinder where she showed us how to effectively use visual images in our instruction. She spoke eloquently and shared stories of her students too. I even cried! After that, I was laughing too much to write about performing improv lead by the amazing Whitney. Her presentation gave me a real a-ha moment about myself. Fearing the idea of performing improv, I resisted it. Whitney got us writing immediately about improv in our teaching lives and our personal lives and I had a lot to say. I never wrote about the brave and talented students we visited at the Student Summer Institute. These middle grade students wrote and wrote and wrote this summer. We spent an hour with them and listened to them share and give feedback on their writing. Exhaustion got me. I blamed not writing on not having anything else to say. I learned that I wasn't chosen ...

What is a writing marathon ? Simply put, it's a day of writing. The brilliant Natalie Goldberg created the idea of the writing marathon and it's in her book, Writing Down the Bones .  Marathon is defined as  a long-lasting or difficult task or operation of a specified kind. We define writing marathon as finding a new location, meeting up, getting into groups, and walking around and writing all day long. We end our marathons with an invitational read around. Our place today was Fredericksburg, VA. It's about seventy miles away from where I live, so I've never been there. I am definitely going back though! I loved it! We met up at 9:30 this morning and got ourselves set for the day.  I spent the day with Matt and Jen...two wonderful writers! We started near the river.  We sat on some rocks and wrote. I am pushing myself to try fiction, so that's what I did. This morning I read a blog post, from my blogging friend Linda, about shoes ...so I focused on my sh...

My day began with a coffee spill and a headache...sounds like a Monday. As soon as I walk into room 447, I release a breath and feel calm. How is it possible to feel this "at home" after only a week? This morning, Peter reminds us to write more and talk less during our morning pages and it works. As I started morning pages, I struggled with "what should I write?" feelings. On my drive I've been listening to Brené Brown and her influence seeped into my writing this morning. I came up with two questions to get me started... 1. How do I feel?  2. What is my intention for today? With these questions guiding my writing, I was off. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I remembered my intention as the day progressed too...it worked.  Only one presentation today...feel better Steph! Peter read the profile he wrote about Kyle. I love these profiles. Each has a different voice and style and it's a perfect way to learn more about everyone. Kyle presented today on multig...

I've been away from the blog for a few days. It feels good to have stepped away and I'm happy that I'm back. Last Thursday was a busy day for me! I shared my presentation with everyone in the morning and I met with my writing group, for the first time, in the afternoon. When I got home, it was like my brain was overloaded and I needed a break.  The presentation I shared was about notebooks. It addressed myself as a notebook writer and I invited teachers to become notebook writers themselves. The teachers responded positively to our time together and I'm grateful for that.  The afternoon brought our first writing group. My group has decided to try something new this summer. We are going to be a hybrid group...meeting face to face once a week and online the other time. We spent some time setting up norms for our group and it was time well spent. We each shared our writing and gave feedback. I love my group. I love that this group of women came together from different ...

Today we talked and talked.  We listened.  We had hard conversations.  We learned.  Sharing and listening always leads to learning and growing.  Can't wait for tomorrow!

Lot K is where I park. It's farther away than the garage, but the walk is lovely.  Day two brings a familiarity with it. We ease into the day with our morning pages and I already know that this will be a favorite time for me. As Peter reads the ethnography from yesterday, I look around and smile. There are four of us with colorful pens...Anna, Elissa, Christy, and me.  Sarah is up first with her presentation. She introduces herself. She's written her own profile...haha!  We spend time thinking about our writing process...what does it look like? What animal is our writing like? What characters are in our heads? The questions are original and thought provoking. Here are some of my musings... After a break, Anna gets up and reads a lovely profile to introduce Lauren. (I quickly realize I need more information to write my profile, so I spend the day gathering more details on my profile buddy.) Lauren has us making our thinking places. We...

I'm sitting at home. It's silent. I breathe in and out...in and out. I'm processing. Today I spent the day with amazing educators. We wrote together. We shared. We asked questions. We listened. We began our journey together. The NVWP ISI (Northern Virginia Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute) is an intense and life changing four weeks. This is my third time participating in it and it remains a powerful experience. Our day begins with yummy gourmet snacks and managing the minutiae, like parking passes and paperwork. That's followed with morning pages...silent time to write. Settle in and write. What a gift...time to write! Here's a little of what I wrote: Lauren Jensen enthralls us with her wonderful presentation on profile writing. We jump right in, partner up and begin interviewing each other. Listening and learning someone's story is compelling. I found the process exciting and productive and I'm busi...