The Sunrise Story

It's early on Tuesday morning. My brain isn't fully awake yet and I'm struggling to find a slice to share. What do I do? I'll lean on some advice I give to my students. Find some words that inspire and let those wash over you. Listen to them. Sit with them. Find your words. I found some words this week on social media. Here are some of those words... These are good. Inspirational. Thought-provoking, but they still don't grab me on this early morning. Here's the one... I found this final image on Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/dailydose_of_growth/ ). I love the phrase, "follow your bliss". I believe those words and I try to live those words. These words. These ideas...they feel true.  I'm working on a book about writer's notebooks and using them in the middle school classroom. I'd put things aside in the busy-ness of opening a new school. I let fear take over. I'd gotten down on myself and frustrat...

We've launched notebooks. We write in our notebooks every day.  I collected notebooks for a first check. Spending time in these pages inspired me.  I get to know my sixth-graders as writers and I get to know their interests and passions. Notebook writing and reading their writing is certainly something to celebrate today!  The rest of this post will be pages from their notebooks. They've given me permission to share. You are in for a treat! Enjoy... Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space for sharing our celebrations. Please join us and share your own!

Writing makes sense of my world. When I sit down, with my notebook or at a keyboard, things make sense. That's not to say that writing is easy! It's not. Writing is necessary for me, like breathing or eating. When I go without for awhile, I feel out of sorts. This year, I'm part of an inaugural staff in a brand new middle school. New beginnings. I decided to take a risk and invite other teachers to join me in my writing practice. I sent an email last week to invite teachers. Here's what I said: I worried that no one would respond. I was wrong. Teachers from all content areas responded with interest. More than a dozen teachers replied and I'm hoping more show up to write. Math teachers, science teachers, and English teachers...getting together to write. Tomorrow we begin. We will gather together and write. Reflect. There will be quiet and thinking and a little bit of chocolate. I can't wait to spend an hour writing with other educators. If this...