The Sunrise Story

I've been fighting some kind of congestion for a few days. The medicine is helping. I've been trying to get lots of sleep, too...that's not working as well. I keep waking up around two or three A.M. and I'm up for the day. So I shouldn't be surprised to wake up today (at 2:23 am) with no voice.  Every teacher has experienced this...teaching with little to no voice. Physically, I'm feeling better than I have in the past few days. Today I have to face my seventh-graders with no voice. It's days like these where I realize how much I rely on my voice. It's also days like these when I'm reminded how awesome my students really are. Usually, I'm greeted with help as I whisper and croak my way through instructions. They help each other out more. They offer me help. It reminds me of how grateful I am that I get to spend my days working with these kind students.  Wish me luck today! Oh, and if you're going to NCTE, hope to see you there... ...

I just arrived home from a surprise trip to Massachusetts. I drove north to surprise my niece and nephew for Halloween...and I did!  On my second day there, my niece grabbed a notebook she had from a year ago. She asked me to work in our notebooks together. I told her that I was her age when my mother gave me my first notebook. She said she wanted to use notebooks too- just like me- except she wants to draw in her notebooks. I told her that she's the boss of her own notebooks, and that sounded like a great idea to me! We spent time each day doodling and writing in our pages.  She showed me some of her drawing tricks and I showed her some of the things that I wrote. It was heaven.  Saying goodbye is always hard, so a tradition I started when they were young is I leave them a goodbye note. My nephew always reminds me that he has a collection of all of my notes. I usually leave in the morning before anyone wakes up, so it gives them one more surprise.  ...