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... ...

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday...even as a kid. A few weeks ago, I was Facetiming with my niece, Jillian, and she was telling me all about her costume. She even asked me to come trick-or-treating with her. The problem with that is we live 400 miles apart. After I hung up I thought, "I could go trick-or-treating with her..." It's a surprise. I'll be driving up on Halloween to surprise her. I can't wait! Now for my costume...we Facetimed again and she suggested what I should wear on Halloween for trick-or-treating with my friends. She said that I should dress up as HER. My dark curls are the opposite of her blond tendrils, so I solved it.  For the first time ever, I am looking forward to Halloween! 

Celebrating my successful painting! I've noticed, as a teacher, I can get bogged down in the day to day work of teaching and forget to celebrate student successes. As we approach the end of the first quarter, I want to stop and notice growth and success.  1. Three students finished books yesterday. 2. One student who refused to write earlier in the year picked writing as a choice activity. 3. Another student who had been withdrawn from class participated wholly. 4. I noticed students working out differences as they collaborated on a project. 5. On more than one occasion, I saw students treating each other with kindness. 6. A student who had been very quiet easily shared with the whole class. 7. Groups worked together to finish planning on a challenging project. I saw the groups working through disagreements and finishing. Teaching is hard. Being a student is hard. It's important to stop and notice the successes..big and small. I'm proud of my stude...

As the school year begins, I happily return to my blog. Routine helps my writing habit, so here I am...excited to share! As each year begins, I share my love of writing and notebooks with my students. It's an idea I first got from Stacey Shubitz, a brilliant teacher! I get a notebook for each student and wrap it as a gift. It takes a long time to finish, especially as I teach over one hundred students now, but it's so worth it. The experience is memorable and the students know how much I value writing and the notebook.  This year I changed the routine a bit. Inside the notebook, I include a poem that I wrote for them...each student gets the poem from me taped onto the front page. I added something new.  At the end of last year, I asked my students to write words of wisdom or advice for the new students. THAT seemed to put the gift over the top for students this year.  The students guess what's in the wrapped package, a spiral notebook, but it doesn'...

The school year is ending. We are days away from packing up and saying goodbye to another year. I'm proud of what my students have accomplished this year.  Currently, we are working our way through projects that sum up our year of learning.  These projects are varied as students got to design and create their own project. Some students are creating movies, others are writing speeches that they will give, some are redesigning the classroom space for next year and a few are working with me to present at a local conference after school ends.  The engagement is high. Students reflect weekly on their progress or lack of progress and report out on how it's going. I love seeing them engaged in their projects, but I love reading their reflections even more. After weeks and weeks of practicing, they are able to reflect in an authentic way.  My hope is when they leave this class, they will remember how much they have to offer. I want them to remember that work d...

It's been months and months since I've blogged. I wish I knew the reason why. I wish I could tell a story to explain. I don't and I can't. Today, I felt the pull to return so here I am blogging again.  Even though I don't know why I stopped, I can share how it feels to be back. I feel refreshed. This feels new again and I am excited to return. Officially, I am declaring my return to blogging after this failure.  My notebook is named "Spectacular Failure" from a quote by Ransom Riggs..."If you must fail, fail spectacularly!" I've always believed in failure. This is the place where learning takes place. My students and I talk about it. It's something I value...but is it something I live? I've been reflecting on that a lot lately and I've come to the conclusion that in my life, I haven't truly valued my failures! Instead, I try and hide them. NO MORE. This stops now.  Leaving blogging for months has been a spectacu...

I've been looking for a new way to begin class...something that will help us begin with more calm and allow the students to express themselves creatively. I found it...self-portraits.  Lynda Barry. She is brilliant. I own all of her books, but this idea came from Syllabus . Students are given a blank index card and invited to create a self-portrait of themselves today. I give them approximately two minutes. Here are a few of them...       I thought students would love this activity, but surprisingly they approached it with some fear and a bit of dread. I heard over and over again, "I can't draw."  We are persevering. Students are finding ways to be more creative and allowing themselves to have more fun with it as the days go on... My next step is to share this video (parts of it) with them and invite them to take more risks. What would your two-minute self-portrait look like today?  Find more slices on  T...

In just two days, I'll be flying south to Houston, TX to attend my fifth NCTE conference. This is the first time I'll be presenting. I just reread some posts from previous NCTE visits and I'm more excited than ever to be in this space with educators and authors. My post from NCTE 2016 includes a bunch of collected quotes from brilliant authors and it turns out I get to present WITH one of these writers this time around: Amy Ludwig Vanderwater ! Amy, Linda Urban and I are sharing our passion for notebooks. Together on Saturday, we are presenting, with my brilliant colleague, Jen Cherry , moderating the panel. I'm so excited and unbelievably nervous!! Will anyone show up? Will they like what we have to share? These are the thoughts that plague me! After my presentation on Saturday, #TeachWrite is hosting a notebook exchange and meet-up at 4:30. I can't wait to get to meet my writing friends in real life...and get a new notebook! On Sunday, TeachW...

We are experiencing the final week of the quarter this week. It can be a stressful time...finishing assignments and grades. In room 734, we are reflecting. Yesterday I asked the students how many of them take selfies- ALL the hands went up (well, most of the hands). We talked about selfies and why people take them and share them. "So people can see how good you look!" "So you can see how you look, like a mirror." "For memories, to see where you've been and what you've done." "To see how you've changed over time." YES! And that's why we reflect...to see how we look today and how we've changed and grown over time and to share that with others for feedback.  From there I gave the class a list of questions as a guide for their reflection and they were off. Some created flipgrid videos, others wrote letters, and a few even shared their reflections in notebook pages.  Reflecting is a tough process for anyone and even toughe...

Today is an exciting day. After school, I am sharing a presentation with the staff at my school. They have five or six choices and I'm offering one of them. The exciting part is this...my co-presenters. I am presenting with seven of my seventh-grade students.  A couple of weeks ago, a colleague of mine, the brilliant Mrs. Jenny Miller,  came into my communications classes to teach the students skills that will help them become skilled interviewers and presenters. The kids loved it. I saw their eyes light up. They came alive!  It turned out that I had been invited to present today. It seemed like a quick turn-around, but I asked for volunteers. In one class, eight students asked to do this with me. We met and they brainstormed ideas. They created the promo video to get the audience to pick our presentation! I showed them how I plan out my presentations and they watched carefully. We decided on the message and the things we wanted the participants to do during...

This school year is a different one for me. I am purely a teacher of elective classes. The majority of my day is spent working with my seventh-grade communications students. In my county, it's the first opportunity that students get a say in their learning. Their choices include a foreign language high-school level class, coding, and my class. Last year, I taught communications and English. My communications classes totaled seventeen students at the beginning of last year. This year, I started with 72 and I'm already over 80 since the year began.  We create in our class! Right now they are finishing up photography portfolios. We collaborate on projects. Our next project is to create student presentations. We learn and practice communication skills. We struggle through critical thinking and problem solving and we contribute to the class, the school, and the world around us.  My friends, those of you who teach core content classes...did you know how different it is...