The Sunrise Story

March is Slice of Life Challenge. April is Poetry Month. I am declaring May to be Notebook Month.  The month when we reconnect with the pages of our notebooks. That's a primary goal for me this month. Get back to the notebook! My students are reflecting and writing about themselves as notebook-ers this month because of an amazing opportunity! We...they...the sixth-graders are TAKING OVER Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's blog Sharing Our Notebooks .  They have signed up voluntarily to write a blog post for every single day in May. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Today I conferenced with every single writer (again) and checked their progress. The excitement is contagious! They can't wait! I love reading their thoughts on creating their notebook pages and their advice. My favorite part may be their author bios. These students are writers. They see themselves that way...they call themselves writers. We are all writers.  My notebook is going to be busy this month... Thank you to Two Wr...

It's been too long since I've written in this space. I've been writing. I've been writing a lot, but blogging has slipped away for a few weeks. I'm back and I missed this space. Writing feeds me. Lately, I've been writing pages and pages in my notebook and I've been working on my book, so the time slipped away. What's missing from those two other kinds of writing is an audience. I miss sharing my words with others and receiving feedback. Here I am today, showing up and writing.  This year I set a goal for myself to work on developing the reader's notebook into a more meaningful and engaging tool in our classroom. As with any goals, it's a journey. We are working hard with our reading and showing up to our reader's notebooks a few times a week. I want it to be a daily commitment, but I know we can get there.  This week, we were discussing different kinds of conflicts that we witness as readers. I invited the students to create a noteboo...

We write every day in sixth grade. Each class begins with writing time in our notebooks. During the month of March, the slicers may blog during that time. Showing up and writing every day has created habits for us. We are living as writers. On rare occasions when the schedule changes, we feel it. We miss our writing time. Writing isn't the only important part of this...sharing our writing is vital. I wish we shared daily, but time seems to get away from us. My goal is for writers to have the opportunity to share every two or three days. This week, our sharing time got pushed til Friday. Sharing gives writers an audience. Sharing inspires new ideas and techniques. Sharing teaches us. Sharing makes us all better writers. Sharing is fun! Here are some sixth-grade writers sharing. Notice the confidence? Notice the joy? Used Prisma app for these pics. Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonder...

Sharing words from our notebooks Writing in the butterfly garden Finalizing details Laughter Team coming together in big ways Encouraging words Daily photos from mom Smiles Kind words Support Dinner out with a friend Finishing a great book Good cup of coffee to begin a rainy Saturday... I celebrate each of these moments. These are the moments that made this a great week.  Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us and share your own!

The first week of school has ended. It was a whirlwind...it always is. As the week ended, I am happy to say that we have already established an important part of our writing routine. As the students enter the classroom, they get their notebooks out and begin their, "Sacred Writing Time". This time happens in our notebooks and it's an essential part of our journey as writers. We launched notebooks on Wednesday. I brought in spiral notebooks wrapped in bright and shiny wrapping paper. The students ripped open their gift and read the poem I wrote and taped into the front cover. (When I read the poem to the class, one class applauded and stood up!) We named our notebooks.  We celebrated our notebooks.  And we began to write... On Thursday and Friday, I reminded the students of the routine, "Come in. Get yourself settled. Write." We write for 7-10 minutes. Students are invited to share at the end of class. Our routine is already set...daily writi...

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...

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 ...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . Finding creative ways to blog through this sickness. Today, I'm sharing writing from my notebooks. I have written in notebooks since 1982. Here's a few random notebook pages from some of my 65 notebooks today for my slice...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . What is it about writing? Beginning is the hardest part for me.  Once I pick up the pen, open the notebook,  sit down at the keyboard, the writing is there.  It's always there.  Doesn't mean it's easy! Writing is like a good friend Forgiving and grace-full. Fun and spontaneous Difficult and challenging. Writing pushes me to be a better version of myself. Writing reminds me that I'm never alone, the words are always there. Writing persists never gives up, even when I've given up. With ten days at home with over three feet of snow, writing found me again. It nudged me and reminded me to return. I'd only given my writing a perfunctory glance these past few months. I wasn't digging, I was only dou...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . Be. Present. Now. There's too much. Life is too fast. It's hard to catch my breath. I'm in the middle of two planning days between first and second quarter. I love the end and the beginning. It's time to reflect. Readjust. Renew...usually...but the words, "too much" keep floating around in my head as I worry about fitting it all in. My attention is distracted with new initiatives and techniques. I'm overwhelmed and failing at mindfulness. This thought shifted my thinking to mindfulness. Am I in the moment? No. I worry and plan and check emails...what can I do? The first thing I did was to stop checking emails multiple times a day. In the past, I would check my work email ten or more times a day! My no...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! September 19 will mark our 100th celebration! Please join us! I love September. September means new beginnings and fresh starts. It reminds me of the new year in January. As teachers, we get this additional opportunity for a new year and I love it!  I celebrate enthusiastic and sweet sixth graders and their parents. This week school started. We are getting to know each other. We are reading and writing a lot! Thursday was Back to School Night and I met lots of kind and supportive parents. I am blessed to work in such a wonderful school! I celebrate my OLW of the year, FLY!  This word has taken me places I didn't expect. I began writing a book this summer. It's about notebooks and how I keep them and how I use them with my students. Hoping this has an audience when I'm done. I'm hoping to get a publisher and get it published, but the act of writing it is amazing and powe...