The Sunrise Story

I sit in the quiet  with my coffee and wait  for the words to come What will I write? What's my story today? What do I have to say? Today nothing except quiet... Maybe  that's my story Maybe today is about  listening... March is the Slice of Life Challenge. I'll be sharing a post each day in the month of March. Please join me at Two Writing Teachers to read more slices!

I'm not sure that I'll post this. I'm frustrated. That's not a good frame of mind to blog, but here I am. We struggle to communicate. It's more important than ever to communicate effectively. We are quick to blame and call names. It's tiring. I include myself in this struggle, but I'm working on it. I am passionate about my ideas. I work hard to listen and I don't name call. When I mess up, I apologize and take responsibility. I reflect on my choices and always think before responding. There are days when it feels like no one else is willing to do this. Everyone has a story. I try to live by this idea and remind myself of this when I interact with others. I work on showing grace to others, but there are moments when it all becomes too much. ENOUGH! This is where I am right now...ENOUGH...I'm disheartened by the cruelty and anger and selfishness I witness. I'm failing at showing grace and I want to understand why. Why choose sn...

Fifteen years ago on September 11th, I was standing in front of a classroom of fifth grade students, teaching. Today I’m still teaching, but now the students are middle schoolers and this date is now a history lesson to them. How do I teach eleven and twelve year old students about what happened on that day when they weren’t even born yet? Books. One of my mantras is, Everyone has a story. When we read stories, we become part of their story, part of history. I want them to know the stories of that day. We are using Nora Raleigh Baskin ’s book, Nine, Ten: A September 11th Story. It provides a perfect avenue to share that day with them. The story is told from four different points of view. This provides an opportunity for all of my students to connect with one of them. As I’m reading it to my students, they are able to relate to a character and really feel what they are feeling. Knowing more than one story is vital. That's another reason I love this book. The readers le...

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 . I love this saying... It reminds me to look deeper. It reminds me to see beyond the masks that we all wear and remember that we are all trying our best.  I wanted to get some history on this phrase, so I began doing some research online. I love research because you never know what you're going to find. When I began looking, I found an old CBS news segment by Steve Hartman called, " Everybody Has a Story ". Hartman would take a dart and throw it over his shoulder at a map. That would be where he would find his story. When he arrived in the location, he'd close his eyes and find someone in the telephone book and interview them. It started as a joke, but 123 stories later, it's a legacy.  Here's one of my fav...