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!

#tcrwp series of 6 word memoirs!

(Even my title is six words!)

(Six word subtitle-on a roll!)

• Feeling uninspired? Head to Teacher’s College.
• Dudley’s lollipop stories broaden leadership definition.
• Kate’s metaphors inspire, baby’s cute too.
• DIY Maggie’s tools make teaching easier.
• Absorb Mary’s knowledge! Ask what’s fascinating.
• Cornelius! Aha! “Change doesn’t happen accidentally.”
• Kate, Maggie, Mary, Cornelius! Rockstar day.
• Inspired now. Teach. See potential. Love.

 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! 

I’m sitting in a faculty meeting trying to fall in love with data. I am. I get it: Triangulate data to help students grow. I am making friends with assessment this year as an instructional tool. I am, I promise. I’m a little stuck because I can’t love test data that helps us streamline instruction in order to help students do better at that test. That seems like a vicious circle to me… and an odd priority. But, I’m trying to make friends with Data, and find time to really use it.

I’m in! I use formative assessment data to help guide me… trying to make it quick. I’ll hand out index cards, ask students to read a short article and write the central idea and key details on their index card. I’ll collect reader’s notebooks and read their “best” stop and jot about a signpost. I’ll look at my students’ work and make strategy groups, conferring goals, and whole class lessons. When I have time. My instructional coach has this great way of looking at data. She has an eye for it, and she is always looking for ways that real-life classroom teachers can manipulate and then use data, “What can you do in 10 minutes that will help your students?” She has kids at the center and data as a way to help them grow. She is data-gifted.

I’m listening in a faculty meeting as we are given an example of a teacher meeting via video. “This is where we’d like to be with our PLC’s!” We are told. The video comes on and the teacher  on the video says disparagingly, “We used to talk about students in our meetings. Now we talk about data.”

Hmmm…

I’m trying to fall in love with data. I’m already in love with students. I will not aim to have meetings where we aren’t talking about students. I will not make that my goal. Let’s add data to the discussion. Let’s triangulate and guide instruction. Let’s grow. And, let’s not forget about the kids themselves. Please.

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers

I don’t have one little word yet.  I didn’t finish my grading today. I didn’t hear my 5:30 alarm… didn’t wake up until Mr. Thought shined a light right at me around 6:00. It was raining and grey all day. I don’t quite have a handle on the literary essay unit I am starting tomorrow. My muscles are sore from just 3 days of working out. There are so many kids with missing work even after multiple reminders. The laundry didn’t magically get done while I was at school today. After a brief moderate break over vacation, I don’t eat sugar again. My classroom was clean and fresh until 8:01 this morning.

But.

The students came back, and I didn’t have to cajole them to answer the “What I missed” section of my whiteboard question. They just did. We all love vacation, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t vote for another week or so at home with my own kids… ignoring my chores and reading books. But…how lucky I am to spend my day at school with kids who missed their friends, their school, not being bored, math, and … me!

Plus! I counted 9 Winter Break Slice of Life challenges in my in box today, and 9 Book a Day challenges too! That’s a record for my winter break challenges. Yay for reading and writing during break!

I’ve challenged my 6th graders to a Slice-A-Day during our winter break…I will attempt to keep up with the challenge as well!

Dear School Bag,

Don’t stare at me like that. I will try to empty you after the kids go to bed. Maybe.

Nobody wants to go to bed. I don’t blame them. After one more sleep, winter vacation is over. H says, “That’s it! Then we will have to wait an entire year before another winter break!” And I remember how long years were when I was a kid. Now the days are sometimes long… but the years are so very short. I know that next thing we know, it will be next Christmas.

It’s bedtime, but the kids are busy. They are reconstructing the MacGyver episode they just watched. MacGyver. Yep. I can’t tell if they like the time at home with their family, or just the amount of tv we’ve let them watch. I know I was busy playing games with the kids, writing on my computer, and reading books in the family room. I’m sorry I didn’t pay more attention to you during this vacation.

Oh School Bag – you might remember that I did open you briefly at the  beginning of vacation. This was before I shoved you in the corner of the dining room. Somehow, you are still full of things I should have done. A stack of papers to grade, some paperwork to fill out… I hope you have enjoyed your vacation. Tomorrow we go back to school!

As usual, it feels like just as we are finally into the swing of a school break, just as I finally forgot that you were sitting half unzipped behind the buffet, break is over. Just as I have gotten relatively on top of the dishes situation…I had to pack lunches again. (You may have noticed that I slipped a bag of gluten free crackers in your small pocket a bit ago. I’ll take those out when we get to school)   Just as I finished the last load of laundry… just kidding, I never finish laundry. There is no “last load” of laundry. Even you know that. I think there’s a cardigan somewhere in your bottom.

Now you are here at the table with me, as I hide in the dining room, waiting for the MacGyver conversation to fade a bit. I finally took the  Literary Essay Unit of Study book from your grasp, and when I give it back to you, it will have a few more post-it notes stuck inside.

Hopefully I won’t fall asleep too long snuggling kids to bed tonight, but if I do – I’ll take the grading out of your grip first thing during our planning period tomorrow. I promise.

Love,
Mrs. Thought

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers.

My desk before Reader’s Workshop yesterday
Responsive Teacher
Messy Teacher
Hardworking Teacher
Tired Teacher
Assessments, data, mini-lessons, conferences, strategy groups, read aloud,
planning, teaching, demonstration pages, Anchor charts,
Engagement Inventories, grading…*
Tired Teacher
Hardworking Teacher
Messy Teacher
Responsive Teacher

*Wait. Is this a song?**

Mini Lessons, then confer, group your kids, hope goals Transfer
Anchor charts, assessment data, demonstration pages
Read to self, read aloud, ELA will make us proud
Essential questions, inquiry, hope your work engages

Understandings, knows and do’s, google docs – no time to snooze
Study data, write it down, buy some stock in post-its
Reader’s Notebooks, more directions, closely read the text collections
Follow kids and write them back, love those kids the mostest

We didn’t start — we’re trying!
Students, geared for learning
as the year starts turning
We didn’t start — we’re trying
Workshop’s just beginning
Soon we will be winning!

Find a book, check it out, ask a question if in doubt
Whole group meetings, someday lists, readers make plans
Talk to kids, give high fives, workshop norms and reading lives
Much to do to get a classroom full of reading fans!

We didn’t start — we’re trying!
Students, geared for learning
as the year starts turning
We didn’t start — we’re trying
Workshop’s just beginning
Soon we will be winning!

**My apologies to Billy Joel and my thanks to Mr. Thought who is somehow an expert on the meter and rhyme of We Didn’t Start the Fire, as in: “I used to sing this all the time in 1990. I had the whole thing memorized.”

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers.

I know it's not a good idea to multi-task... 
but I would love to be able to write my slice as I'm going through my day.
This morning's play by play slice would be something like this: 

Right now I am. . . 

Wishing my computer would connect to the internet so I can print my sub plans
Talking to helpdesk on the phone while my students watch announcements
Restarting chrome
Restarting chrome
Restarting chrome
Trying firefox
Giving up
Realizing that now I can't project a "Right Now" slice 
as a model for my class
Taking out my phone to use instead
Copying part of a "Right Now" slice onto the board
Sending students off to try their own. 
Hoping my computer works for the next class
Teaching teaching teaching
Restarting Chrome
Failing at technology
Worrying about printing afternoon plans
Sharing my sloppily written whiteboard slice with my other class

Wishing  my doc cam worked
Challenging Students to write a bunch of "ing" verbs and then 
to finish the thoughts

Taking on the challenge myself on the whiteboard.
Wondering about the one table of boys who hasn't noticed 
that everyone else is writing or watching me write.

Joking with students
Having fun
Making mistakes
Modelling slice-writing
Being flexible
Learning with kids
Teaching Writing

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers.

I’m feeling overwhelmed, you know. My desk is piled.  I’m working so much…my to do list grows and grows, and priorities are hard to make. Reading Pernille today helped me. She says “yet,” and I agree. I’m just not there yet. However, within the beginning of the year stress, there were lovely things about today.  There’s that.

I wrote with my students today. There’s that. We sliced.

I read with my students today. There’s that. The One and Only Ivan. Then Rain Reign with my second reading class. These are the books they voted on. I warned them we would need tissues.

I planned with my friend and colleague  today. There’s that. I’m ready for tomorrow. I am. And beyond! (I am!)

I even made dinner for my family, and took the dog on a walk – with my 13 year-old daughter too. There’s that. The chat with her, I’ll have that every day please.

After getting the kids to bed, I did more work. There’s that. I love my job, I love this work.

And look! I sliced! There’s that.