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! 

“What part of quiet do you not understand?”
“What did I just say?”
“There is no talking during a fire drill!”
……………………………………….
The fire drill pierces the quiet conversation I was having during my planning period. I can’t help but roll my eyes.
I get my drill folder, and walk with the kids
up, through,
up, down.

It’s March, so I’m in noticing mode.
The street is wet with rain.
The feet all around me stomp,soldiers marching behind me,
or chasing me. 

A few students whisper.
A few teachers shush.

shhhhhh
stomp

We walk down and around to our drill area.
Someone talks again, and is yelled at.

I notice I bristle.
I notice I think of my own kids, my home kids.
I notice I am a softy, never wanting kids to feel the sting of being yelled at.

I remind myself that I have yelled almost the same words to kids during fire drills before. After all, it’s a fire drill! These drills are meant to keep us safe. The kids have to take them seriously.

This is a non negotiable.
I notice I am still thinking of my own kids, my home kids.
The way their faces would fall if they got yelled at in front of 800 kids.

I know that sometimes kids should know the rules but don’t. 
I know that sometimes kids know the rules but don’t follow the rules.
I know that it’s our job to remind them of the rules.

I know these things.

Inside now.
There are kids whispering in Social Studies, they are supposed to be working, when I overhear a conversation between two boys: 

“What kind of slice are you going to do?” One asks and my heart does a little teacher-slicer-dance. 

I can’t hear the answer, but I’m glad I didn’t yell at them for talking.

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers

I always wanted to be the kind of person who kept a writer’s notebook with me all of the time. I do love notebooks… It doesn’t work out for me though – I’ve tried. I leave it places, or it gets lost in the car mess, or squished in my backpack, and I can’t actually get it out and start writing when I have something to write, which is often. I’m trying to slow down my life a little so that I have time for a notebook. One day I’ll have more than a moment of time to write. But,  I’m not there yet.  This is not good. I lose so many thoughts and ideas.

So, I try to grab my phone and add notes. Sometimes the notes are typed in, and sometimes they are voiced to text. The voice to text ones are always fun to read later.  One day I’ll make sense of these notes.

I have notes that  are part of a picture book idea I have swirling around… And notes that are slices I have glimpsed but not caught yet.

"Passing out musical instruments."  "I am not a tinkerer." " I am not a painter, right?" 

Some notes are just a word. I found one just now that says “N l.” Your guess is as good as mine. (And the note that says “15 Square?” That one? I have no idea.)

Even whole sentences written in the past are sometimes totally lost on me now. I wrote this note in 2013:

"We should do this every 2 years."

I wonder what that was about.

Sometimes I collect quotes that are really on my mind. The one near the top of my notes currently is:

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, 
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, 
is not only unpatriotic and servile, 
but is morally treasonable to the American public."  
- Theodore Roosevelt.

There are other quotes as well, things my own kids have said that I just know I want to remember.

"Who does more work? The president or the government?" 
"What if running for president meant you actually ran? And the first one 
who got to the White House won?"

There’s also parenting advice – things I’m supposed to remember to ask my kids after they have a consequence.

"What, why, how? How are you going to remember to do it? 
How will we know you do it?"

I have lists. Grocery lists, to do lists, and lists that I think are actually poems:

Saturday
Laundry.
Upstairs Hallway.
Barefoot Moscato.

I was wondering what the first note in the list would be. All it says is:

"Teaching is the hardest."

I said that in 2012. I think I knew it even before then. But why did I write it then?

One day I’ll figure out how to organize this notes app notebook of mine. But until then, I will just have fun looking back at the notes every so often. Like these quotes from my kids from years ago:

"When I grow up, I'm going to make a church that only vegetarians and 
vegans can go in. We can pray for the animals." H, 6 years old.

"Ugh! Why am I always talking? I think I'm sick." - E, 3 years old.

One day I’ll make sense of these notes…. But I wonder…  Does this mean that I already have a Writer’s Notebook with me all the time?

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!

10 Days of Winter break…

10 chocolates snuck, even though I’m trying not to eat candy.

9 slices written so far.

8 trips to stores (at least!)

7 minute workouts . . . short but intense!

6  new-to-me picture books read . . . #bookaday

5 times a day I need to clean the kitchen (at least!)

4 novels read… #bookaday

3 times a day the kids want to eat a meal! Shocking!

2 more nights before school starts again

1 more day to actually open my school bag and get work done!