The Sunrise Story

Today marks the beginning of a new quarter...a new semester. Beginnings feel fresh and new-filled with possibilities. There's an energy around beginnings that's palpable and motivating. I wonder why. The school year can be a long haul. There are days when things feel stressful and I get overwhelmed, but this moment means that I get to look back and reflect on all we've accomplished. I also turn my eyes forward and see what else there is left to do.  We have made it to the halfway mark of the opening of a new school. It's been hard, and rewarding, and fun, and frustrating...through all of it, I've grown and learned so much about myself as an educator and a teammate. I wouldn't trade one single moment, even the stressful ones.  Today I go to school and it feels like a brand new blank sheet of paper. Where we will go from here? What can we accomplish now? I'm ready to go!  Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for this amazing platform to write...

This blog post has been requested by my seventh-graders. "Ms. Haseltine, a lot of people follow you on Twitter, right? A lot of people read your blog? Will you write about us?" How could I say no to that?!?! One of the classes I teach is an elective, Communications, and this year our class has created an original news show for our morning announcements.  Our first show. I confess that I had no idea where to begin, so our amazingly creative IFT (Instructional Facilitator for Technology) joined us and helped us find a beginning. We jumped in on December 4th and we haven't looked back since! Students pick their assignments and create new and interesting news segments. They take their phones and find places around the building and then they film themselves. Each day there's a producer who takes all of the segments and edits them together. What they create...I can't believe it! It's all done by the students. Filmed, edited, produced...all by s...

Life is all about perspective, isn't it? I've been thinking a lot about choices and perspective lately.  We control what others see in our lives... What do we choose to share? Do we share the failures or only the successes? Do we share the messiness of the process or the beauty that only appears at the end of a long journey?  Earlier this week, I shared this picture of my writing space on social media. Proud that I was working towards my goal of daily morning pages, I wanted to share this with my writing tribe, so I posted it. A friend made a comment to me about how perfect that looked. I told her, "You should see what I cropped out...I cut out the messiness and only left the beauty.  Authenticity is something I value. I work to share both my failures and my successes, but I strive to focus on the potential. Where can this bring me next? How can I grow from this? But, I find when I post pictures, I often crop out the messy and unorganized parts of my s...

New year means new beginnings. Today I began creating my 75th notebook. I've been notebooking since 1982 and a few years ago, I counted. Seventy-five notebooks. It's quite a number. I almost let that number intimidate me in choosing this next notebook. I finally settled on this... A new notebook means I get to begin a new story. My last notebook was small with lined pages. I do not usually use notebooks like that, but it was a risk and I thought I'd try it. I've been craving large, blank spaces where I can write and doodle and think. A new notebook allows for a fresh start and I can't wait to begin number 75!  With this new year also comes a new word...my tenth "One Little Word". I can't believe I've been choosing words for ten years. WOW!   Is it just me or is the choosing becoming more difficult? I feel this pressure. This year I was almost in a panic. I need to have more faith. My word always finds me. Each word touches my life in a ...