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...

I teach a seventh-grade elective called Communications. I've blogged about this class and my students before. It's a class I've grown to love! Our main focus this year has been creating and sharing our daily morning news show, B-AM News .  Last week I watched the Oscars and I saw a commercial that inspired me... Walmart challenged three talented directors to create a short film, one minute, about a box. The three versions were creative and different and entertaining. I gave that same challenge to my students. One class finished and presented their videos. I'll share a couple below for your viewing pleasure.  I made my own film.  It was just like writing a story. I felt the same worry when I began, "Is this going to be good enough?" I drafted and revised and revised and revised. The process is exactly the same as writing. My film doesn't have any dialogue, but the creating was not easy. Looking for a new way to approach writing...

An art teacher at our school won a radio trivia contest (94.7 Fresh in the DC area) and when they heard he was a teacher, they offered to treat the staff to cupcakes, Georgetown Cupcakes. That was exciting! Cupcakes?!?! Georgetown Cupcakes on a Monday...heavenly! As I walked into the staff lunchroom, I realized that the people who brought the cupcakes are the people who are on the morning show on 94.7, The Tommy Show. I started talking to them about our amazing news show and the hard-working students who create it every day. Bragging. Yes, I was bragging about my middle schoolers! Their faces lit up! They had so many questions. We chatted for awhile and then Tommy asked if I'd like to answer a couple of questions. He interviewed me right there...on the spot. I'm going to be on the radio show this morning.  What a connection! My hope is that we can continue this connection and my students will benefit from it. It's moments like these that make me grateful tha...

Today marks the beginning of a new quarter...a new semester. Beginnings feel fresh and new-filled with possibilities. There's an energy around beginnings that's palpable and motivating. I wonder why. The school year can be a long haul. There are days when things feel stressful and I get overwhelmed, but this moment means that I get to look back and reflect on all we've accomplished. I also turn my eyes forward and see what else there is left to do.  We have made it to the halfway mark of the opening of a new school. It's been hard, and rewarding, and fun, and frustrating...through all of it, I've grown and learned so much about myself as an educator and a teammate. I wouldn't trade one single moment, even the stressful ones.  Today I go to school and it feels like a brand new blank sheet of paper. Where we will go from here? What can we accomplish now? I'm ready to go!  Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for this amazing platform to write...

Morning Announcements. The communications classes I'm teaching have taken over the morning announcements or the news, as we call it.  I have a confession about this...I was nervous about it and kind of dreading it. I had no experience and no idea what to do or how to make it good. I'm so glad that I stuck with it because it's amazing! How did we begin? We watched the news and talked about previous experiences with announcements and recording ourselves. We used FlipGrid almost every single class to get used to being on camera. We spent hours observing and rehearsing until the day we did it for real. Communications is the last block of the day, so we record the news the day before and push it out to the classrooms the next morning. Students work in pairs or groups of threes. They get their assignment, their press pass, and they have a limited amount of time to record their segments. They search the building for the very best place to record.  It's been two w...

I've been gone from this space for a few weeks. My initial reaction to that is guilt and shame. I remind myself that these few weeks have been filled with other kinds of writing and growing and learning. I'm back now. I celebrate returning to this space that always welcomes me home.  Winter break has begun for me. I plan on posting daily here as I have lots to process and share. Today, I want to celebrate creating. It's the holiday season and that means there are gifts to give. Every year, I make a gift for my friends, family, and students. The gifts come from my heart. For my students, I create a touchstone, a talisman, that holds our class motto. Here's a picture... Students seemed to enjoy getting these small tokens. I love to watch their eyes light up at this gesture. On a group text with colleagues, I randomly asked, "What's your favorite word?" I was sneaky and made these for my team members. Their reaction was fun to see, too! My next ventu...

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...

How is it possible that I've never written this blog post before?!?! Today, this day, notebook launching day...it's my favorite day of the beginning of the year! It's so exciting! The energy is palpable! We begin by talking about what writing is. This helps me get a peek into their previous writing experiences and the emotions surrounding them. Here's what I heard today... These answers gave me such joy and hope. It's evidence of students who already feel successful as writers. Next, I shared my life as a writer. I love when I show them my very first notebook and hear the gasps when they see what year I began writing...1982.  After we discuss my experience with writer's notebooks, I say, "Writers, you need notebooks." Students begin shuffling around until they see the giant pile of wrapped notebooks... I begin passing them out and the volume slowly goes up. Students start whispering and soon, they are cheering. The sound of hear...

Celebrating small moments today. My first celebration is sleep. I slept. It was a good sleep. The phone woke me at 7:30 and I felt rested. I love when sleep comes like that. If feels good and complete.  I celebrate Bella. Her joy when she sees me at the end of the day, playing wholeheartedly with her toys, and enjoying her treats. Bella knows how to live.  I celebrate new relationships. Working together with new people and getting to know them and allowing them to know me. It's been a joy already! We help and support each other. We listen to what we need and we work to provide that.  I celebrate surprises! Yesterday was busy & stressful. I was at my wit's end and frustrated with some circumstances when a package arrived for me in the mail. It was a sweet surprise from my friend, Dana. The JOY that it brought me!!!! I couldn't believe how thoughtful this gift was and it reminded me to show thoughtfulness like this to others in my life.  I cele...