Category: Slice of Life

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

We had trauma sensitive training today at school and it really made me think of some of the trauma that I had as a child and teen. This is just a short poem about my most traumatic event, which happened during the summer before my freshman year of high school. It certainly is something that colored my experiences in school, and I was lucky to have some teachers who were able to understand that sometimes very small things can trigger very big emotions. This training has really got me thinking about trauma and the way we all deal with it. I need a little bit of time to process, but I will most likely be posting more about my thinking soon.

That Day

He came home sick that day.

It was a summer day like any other that day.

He told us not to panic that day.

He called his cardiologist that day.

Did he lie to us about the conversation that day?

We went about our day.

We went to the pharmacy to get more Nitro that day,

Just in case.

He napped on the couch that day.

My little sister went next door to play that day.

My mom screamed.

I called for help.

I ran to get the neighbor.

My mom kept screaming.

We waited for the sirens that day.

He was staring into space.

He was not responding.

He stopped breathing.

They took Dad to the hospital that day.

We got bad news that day.

Our world turned upside down that day.

 

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

It’s really interesting to me how the world has embraced the World War II slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On.” On the surface, I completely understand the way people can relate to the words and it can even become somewhat of a personal mantra to get through stressful times. However, knowing it’s history, I find it hard to swallow the slogan. There are bomb raids happening all over London, and I’m supposed to keep calm?! I think it makes a lot of sense that the officials at the last minute chose not to post these posters.

But I also find it fascinating that so many people in our modern world are so quick to glom onto this phrase when so many people clearly do not “Keep Calm.” There are so many instances of road rage and people screaming at the clerk at the fast food restaurant, and fights in public places over some perceived affront. How about the “venting” that we all do? Why are we so quick to be so negative all the time? Possibly it is precisely because so many people find it hard to deal, in a calm and refined way, with things that inconvenience them  that this phrase became a widespread fad. People are in awe of the fact that someone might be able to actually keep calm and carry on with their life.

The other thing that is interesting to me is this acceptance of the status quo that is inherent in the acceptance of this slogan. What about the times that it is best not to keep calm and carry on, but to get angry and do something about it. I don’t mean that you necessarily need to be stupid angry like the examples above, but maybe empowered is a better word. Why should I keep calm if there is something that needs to be rectified? I might get quite charged up and then respectfully deal with the situation. Why should I carry on doing something that doesn’t work? Maybe I need to stop and rethink before continuing.

Whichever way you look at it, I find it difficult to jump on this bandwagon. No matter which new thing I might be doing after I Keep Calm, I will always have a tough time with it. Maybe I can start a new fad, with a new catchy phrase: Be kind and Empathize. Stay tuned for the t-shirts, mugs, internet images, and other merchandise that are sure to come once this one takes off.

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

I signed up to participate in a 7-day Blog Like a Pro challenge with Jeff Goins.

I am already 2 days behind because I was late coming across it and because I am stymied by the first challenge.

First blogging challenge: Write your manifesto.

Sounds simple. I have strong beliefs. I know the messages I want to send. I can define myself. But can I define my blog? I think I need to do this before I can really figure out my manifesto.

Who am I? Reader. Teacher. Positive Thinker. Writer.

I have MS, but this is not something that defines me most days. I am working to get healthier all the time. I am a bit obsessed with barre classes and I have been eating almost no grains and a lot less cheese and sugar than I used to eat. I started using doTerra essential oils and I know I will be promoting those also.

What is my message? Do I have a message? What purpose does this blog serve? Eek! I don’t know. I started out wanting to share more of my book choices with my students. This really is not the purpose of this blog any longer. I have built connections with other educators and this is a big part of this blog now.

There are two things I write about most often. My classroom and my reading. But I also sometimes write personal things. The link-ups on Monday and Saturday help me to be consistent on the blog. I definitely share my reading once a week. I definitely share glimpses of the good things I am doing in my classroom once a week. I sometimes share other things. During the month of March, I usually share a slice of my life each day. I sometimes do Teachers Write assignments on my blog in the summertime. I think I want my blog to be about teaching literacy most of the time. But do I have anything new or worthwhile to say? That I think is what stands in my way.

I have a hodge-podge blog which is more of a personal blog. I want to have a blog that is more widely shared and that gives people pause with inspirational content. I am working to build the time into my day to write. I have been keeping a better list of ideas for blogging. I am trying to build it.

However, everything I read about making the blog a successful enterprise says that I need a purpose. That makes sense. But how do I choose?  Do I narrow the choices down and define it? Signs would point to yes being the answer to that question.  I better get thinking. Stay tuned for my manifesto…

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

There is this kid. Let’s call him Joe. Every day he comes to school and works hard to learn. Some might say that he doesn’t have the desire to learn and that he doesn’t care, but I see the way he straightens up and faces forward the minute I start to compliment students who are doing this. I see how he gets excited for the points I give on ClassDojo.

This kid is not able to read at the same level as his peers. He is not the only one in the class, but he is the most resistant to reading. He chooses books that are way beyond his abilities and then busily pretends that he is reading them. Sometimes, it is okay that he does this. Sometimes he chooses nonfiction picture books and he learns from reading the pictures. But most of the time, he needs easier books so he can practice reading.

I have been recommending books, buying more books at a lower level, cajoling, requiring, almost begging, and still, most days he does not read because he chooses books that he cannot read. Even when I declare that he must only read the books he has placed in his book box, he is inevitably at the book bins searching again.

He loves book orders, and somehow scrapes together enough money to order a title or two each time. He finds the best looking covers in the classroom library and gets his classmates interested in more books. He likes books. But he can’t read most of them.

Joe is that kid that makes me earn my salary. He is the kid that makes me dig deep in my well of patience and try again today. We made a lot of progress before winter break, but then his family took an extended trip and we started almost at square one again in the middle of January.

But slowly, he is progressing. He is more fluent when reading with the small group. He is more confident about the words he is practicing each day. And yesterday, after taking too long at the book baskets trying to pick a book, he walked back to his desk with books that he can read. He sat down and he read. He did not know that I noticed it. He didn’t do this to please me. He did it to read. And the fireworks inside me silently went off in celebration of this moment. Maybe, just maybe, this kid is finally getting it.

Today, I will conference with Joe. I will show the patience I always show and I will congratulate him on choosing well. I will cross my fingers and hope fervently that we have crossed some kind of line and that this kiddo understands and is ready to be a reader.

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Today I was planning a different slice. There is a story about one young man that is bubbling up to the surface. I started to write about him, but this is what popped up instead.

If all else fails, in this class, we are readers.

All you need to do to get our attention is to read aloud to us. We may shout out responses and drive you batty, but we will be reacting to the words in this book. If you try to stop at a cliffhanger we will demand more. We will beg for one more chapter.

We might take some time settling in to independent reading. We may take precious minutes at the beginning of our reading time to adjust ourselves and look for a book and adjust ourselves again and look for another book and adjust ourselves again. We may drive you nuts by asking yet again for help finding just the right book. We might give a little cheer that the book we have been waiting for is finally available. But once the silence descends on the room, it is magical and we all feel it. If you hear whispering, it is usually something we just have to share in our book. If a noisy class walks by in the hallway, we will ask to shut the door. If the group at your table gets too loud, we will shush them. 

We refer to things we have experienced together: the stuffed elephant that we have nicknamed Stella, and sometimes she is Ruby; the endless connections to the world of Rump, even when there is not a very logical connection to it; the pain that Rob experienced in The Tiger Rising and the way we all cried at the end of the book.  We ask to make a reading salad like we did in the beginning of the year. We ask, “Are you going to meet with us today?” because  we can’t wait to talk about the book our group is reading.  We groan when you say “Find a good place to stop and write down your end page.” And sometimes, we beg for more time. More time to spend in the world of our books. 

No matter how bonkers we are that day, you can rely on our calm and this reading space. We have worked to build our stamina. We have worked to improve fluency and comprehension. We have listened to your insistent advice that we need to choose a book at our own level. We are making progress. We are thinking deeply.

We are reading.

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Over the course of the last 8 weeks, I have been working on my health by completing a challenge. I signed up for the Whole Life Challenge because it seemed like just the thing to get me working toward the healthy goals I have for myself.

The challenge is an online platform in which you sign up and join teams. Each day you earn points for completing healthy habits for the day. There are seven habits each day to think about: nutrition, exercise, mobility, sleep, water intake, reflections, and a lifestyle habit. What I noticed is that just signing up for the challenge really set me up to put my mind in a place to develop new habits. Starting with my New Year’s resolutions, I have been working to create my best life and be healthier.

As far as nutrition goes, I had really gotten far from the way I wanted to be eating. My husband and I were spending way too much money on fast food and restaurants and going “out for a beer” too often. I love to cook and I know what a healthy meal looks like, but I had gotten lazy. This challenge gave me some pretty strict parameters in which to function. I had to get creative. I basically had no bread, no pasta, no cheese, no beer, no french fries or potato chips, and no added sweeteners except Stevia. Was I perfect doing this? NO. But that is what was cool about this challenge. Each day I had 5 points to start with. For everything I ate that was not compliant, I lost a point. This had the intended effect of making me think twice about the treats I chose to indulge with. Just changing my eating habits in this way has made me feel better. One of the treats that I was allowed in this level for nutrition was one glass of wine a day. I learned to appreciate savoring that glass of wine and to be satisfied with just that. This was a big change for me too. I never overindulged and got inebriated, but I definitely had at least 2 glasses of beer or wine whenever I did drink.

The exercise and mobility part of the challenge were a breeze for me on the days that I had Barre class. I had to make a conscious effort to move on the days that I did not have a class. I did better with this toward the beginning of the challenge. In the coming weeks, I would like to tweak my morning routine to include some movement every morning as I was doing at first.

The sleep component was good for me. I set my goal at 7 hours a night of sleep. It made me be very conscious of what time I was going to bed and what that meant for my sleep goal. I am not sure exactly what has made the difference because I have been working on so many things, but I have not had any nights of insomnia this winter. That is a big improvement!

I thought water was going to be a challenge because of the I-am-a-teacher-and-can’t-use-the-bathroom-whenever-I-want-to thing. But I actually drink a lot of water anyway. Now that I also started using doTerra essential oils, I have a set amount of water I drink with a different oil in each water bottle. I can’t remember the last time I was actually thirsty. I am glad that I am making this hydration a priority.

The lifestyle practices were good for the most part. What was awesome was that some of the practices were things I had started doing in the New Year. Having them come up as practices that this team valued as good, healthy habits was a great affirmation that I am on a good path. My favorite were the meditations and the gratitude journal, which are both part of my morning routine.

Reflection is a vital part of my day every day so having to write one each night was fine. Some days it was hard to come up with something to say, but most of the time it was easy to reflect on how I was doing.

Overall, this 8-week challenge has taught me that I did not need many of the things that I thought I might not be able to do without. I don’t particularly miss cheese. I will splurge and indulge every once in a while, but I won’t need to sprinkle every recipe with shredded cheese. Our new favorite recipe is roasted vegetables and chicken breasts. It is so full of flavor and does not need anything else. Just eating better has made me feel so much healthier and full of vitality.

My results in the challenge have been good. I lost a total of 5.5 inches in my waist and hips and about 10 pounds. I also just feel better with more energy. I am definitely going to continue to eat pretty much in this way as I move forward and I will be signing up again for the challenge that starts in May. Maybe this time I will do a stricter nutrition level. We shall see.

This challenge was the best thing I could do in this moment of my life when I am working to develop a healthier version of me. I highly recommend the experience…what is life without a little play? Come join me with the challenge this Spring, I dare you.

   

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

It’s Saturday and that means it is time to reflect on the week and celebrate things both big and small. Join our community and celebrate this week by linking up or just stopping by the host Ruth Ayres’ blog to read others’ celebrations.

This week was a crazy week and I am celebrating all of the craziness!

First, here in Wisconsin, the beginning of March is not often warm and sunny. But this week, most of the days were bright sunshine and highs in the 50s and 60s. Break out the shorts! (Seriously, people wear their shorts in this weather as if it were a day at the beach)

Next, we had a field trip on Tuesday to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. My school receives a grant each year from the Herzfeld Foundation to attend the concerts for schools that the symphony puts together. This is so important because many of these students from low-income families would never be exposed to this type of performance if it weren’t for this field trip. This year, the music teacher at our school decided to participate in a program called Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks. The students prepared ahead of time learning the music from the concert and all about the composers. There were materials provided to the music teacher for this. They also learned to play some of the songs on their recorders and to sing some of the songs. Therefore, our experience at the symphony was really interactive. I really enjoyed this field trip and hearing my students’ excitement when they heard a song they knew how to play.

Then, on Thursday we had our Spring Open House at school. We did something new this year. It was called Festival of Nations and each class studied a different country and created a display to help people who attended our open house learn about the countries. My class studied Laos. One of my students comes from the Hmong culture and her family came here from Laos. I loved being able to connect with her and help the class learn more about her culture. She even brought us egg rolls and lotus flower cookies to taste! It was a great event and I am also celebrating the fact that it is done!

 

Last, but not least, my class had a visit from the current Alice in Dairyland, Teyanna Loether. Her job is to be the ambassador for Wisconsin Agriculture. The presentation she does for 4th grade students in the state focuses on the foods that are produced throughout the state and how the agriculture business contributes to the state economy. It is always great to have a guest speaker. We had an added benefit in that this speaker was really good with the students. Our kiddos learned a lot about nutrition and agriculture in a short 45 minute visit. They even got to sample some Colby cheese.

We had a busy week, but it was a good one! I am looking forward to being a lot more back to our regular schedule and routines next week, but I am so glad for the shared experiences that make our community continue to grow together.

What are you celebrating this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

This week was a crazy and busy week at school. My students had so many great learning opportunities, but our schedule went haywire.

We spent a lot of the week working on learning about Laos for our Festival of Nations open house on Thursday night. It was a great experience but we spent a long time working to prepare our display for the night.

On Tuesday, we went on a field trip to the symphony. It was amazing and the students had a lot of fun, but it was another thing thrown into our schedule.

Today, we had a presentation from Alice in Dairyland and the Milk Marketing Board about Wisconsin’s agriculture. It is a really well done presentation about products from our state and how agriculture contributes to our economy.

This week was a weird weather week as well. Our temperatures got up to the mid-60s with abundant sunshine this week. For the beginning of March in Wisconsin, this is very warm.

I had a crazy busy but really fun week. I am very relieved that it is Friday and I will be able to relax this weekend!

 

 

Tonight, we had a Spring open house at my school. This year we did something different. It was decided that we would have a Festival of Nations at our school. Each classroom studied a country and created a display about their country. Families were given a passport and got a sticker for their passport from each teacher as they toured the world.

Great idea, right? I loved the idea until we were told the continent that we had to choose from. Each floor was given a continent. Now, I do understand wanting to organize it this way. However, it really stopped some of us who have a connection to a certain country from being able to use our fountains of knowledge.

I really wanted to have my class study Spain. I lived there during college for a study abroad program and met my husband while I was there. I still have a very strong connection with this country because my husband is a Spaniard and his whole family still lives there. I would have been able to do a lot of really good things with my classroom as well as giving them great Spanish food.

However, my floor was assigned the continent of Asia. So, I did the next best thing. I connected to a student’s culture. We studied Laos because one of my students is Hmong and her family comes from that country. We learned a lot. We researched, we read about Laos, we watched videos about this beautiful country. And we worked to create a great display. I loved the connection that we made to my student’s family. She brought egg rolls and flower cookies to share with us and I loved giving her a spotlight.

Our display consisted of research writing with pictures included, small strips of fabric designs using some common patterns in Hmong embroidery, and our own versions of Hmong story cloth.

I was proud of what we had done, but I spent all night feeling inadequate. My colleague, who is a resource teacher and therefore does not have a class to plan for, takes all of these things and runs with them. She treats it sort of like a competition. She worked with the classroom next door and found all kinds of projects for them to do about China. She took the ideas and made it into a wonderland of projects and showed us all up. (There was a lot of time spent on these things that I believe was time that had other purposes in her schedule) That class would have learned just as much about the country without all the glitter. They would have enjoyed the study with just one or two projects rather than dragons, lanterns, the great wall in cardboard boxes and clay, brochures, food sampling with chopsticks, and mooncakes. I don’t think this teacher means to make the rest of us look less capable, but it sure feels like this is the purpose of the over-the-top projects.

I wish I could have enjoyed this night to its fullest without the competition. Why compete? Why try to do better than the next class? Why not focus on learning?

I will go to school tomorrow and congratulate my students on their hard work learning about Laos. I hope that they will understand that we did the best we could and that is amazing.  I will try to let go of this feeling of frustration at the focus on competition that should not have been there.