I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March.  You should do it too!  Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

Oops. This is yesterday’s post… which posted as a page for some reason. Just trying to put it in the right spot. 

March 23. 

I don’t know what to say.
You probably don’t care that I’m currently making myself some decaf.
Or, that I plan on putting a little bit of vegan creamer in it.

I don’t know what to say.
It doesn’t seem to really matter that my demonstration notebook is broken.
My big sketchbook, where I keep my reading and writing work, a la Kate & Maggie.
Will I be able to fix it? Do I need to redo all those teaching charts?

I don’t know what to say.
Did you know? It’s the anniversary of my cat Billy’s death.
Facebook is good for reminding us of anniversaries.
Death anniversaries aren’t fun, and pet death anniversaries seem to just pass on by.
No one wants to read a depressing slice like that.

I don’t know what to say.
Should I mention that I made my class hold their compare contrast essay mentor texts up,
Look at them with adoration and sing “You’re the inspiration!”
And would you be interested to know that we wrote found poems about dung beetles,
In order to showcase our understanding of nonfiction?
Teaching is fun.

I don’t know what to say.
Next week I’ll start covering my bulletin boards to make sure
My students don’t cheat on the PSSAs by accidentally looking at something that reminds them of the work we’ve been doing this year.
But I’ve written about standardized test PSSAs before and although I’m feeling angry
about the system that puts data before kids, I’m not sure how to disrupt that system.
I wonder if Cornelius Minor wants to come help me figure that out.

I don’t know what to say.
 It’s late, but if I had more time I’d find the perfect article to use tomorrow in class.
 Today we talked about not having to believe everything you read.
 We talked about perspective.
 We talked about position.
 We talked about power.
 But we didn’t have a great article to practice with, so the lesson fell a little flat.
 Felt a little flat?

I don’t know what to say.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll have things to slice.
I don’t know what to say.