The Sunrise Story

I haven't been here for awhile.  I've missed this space.  Taking a step away gives a new perspective. I'm back. Showing up is necessary for me. When I show up, I feel accomplished and proud. Here I am. Today is a celebration post. There is much to celebrate. My students. My writers. They have started blogging and they are already flying! Expressing themselves. Mining notebook pages to find something to post and share with the world. They are writers...entering writing contests and signing up for writing workshops.    I watch them show up every single day. They write. They read. They work. Being a student is hard and they show up smiling and giving it their all. I celebrate the students who sit in my classroom and take risks...the students who demonstrate their creativity in their notebooks and blogs...the students who recommend books to each other.  Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us and shar...

Oh I need to write a blog post. I'm behind. I haven't posted in a few days. I never wrote about the brilliant presentation by Arvinder where she showed us how to effectively use visual images in our instruction. She spoke eloquently and shared stories of her students too. I even cried! After that, I was laughing too much to write about performing improv lead by the amazing Whitney. Her presentation gave me a real a-ha moment about myself. Fearing the idea of performing improv, I resisted it. Whitney got us writing immediately about improv in our teaching lives and our personal lives and I had a lot to say. I never wrote about the brave and talented students we visited at the Student Summer Institute. These middle grade students wrote and wrote and wrote this summer. We spent an hour with them and listened to them share and give feedback on their writing. Exhaustion got me. I blamed not writing on not having anything else to say. I learned that I wasn't chosen ...