Slice of Life 2021- 2 of 31: I forgot and I remembered!

 It's March! That means that I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge. I am happy to co-host this event with the team at Two Writing Teachers. Everyone is welcome!

There's been a lot to remember lately, and somehow I've found myself keeping multiple to-do lists, a practice that I do NOT recommend. Few things lead to me forgetting things more regularly than keeping multiple to-do lists. 

Yesterday, as I read a friend's SOL post, something poked my brain. The part of my brain that says, Melanie, you're forgetting something. MELANIE! YOU'RE FORGETTING SOMETHING! (So maybe it was a little more than a poke...)

Oh no. The most effective way I'd inspired a student to complete an on-demand essay was to suggest that she write a letter to her former teacher, you guessed it, the one whose slice I just read. And the student wrote that letter, and I loved it, and I virtually high-fived her, and I FORGOT to copy it and send it along to the intended recipient. 

MELANIE!!!!

Fortunately, not too much time has gone by, and I have already taken steps to rectify this situation. Former teacher, you know who you are! And I know you will love the letter! Hopefully you will write back in a more timely fashion than the fashion in which I passed this lovely message along! 

Note to self: consolidate the to-do lists! 

Happy Slicing! 

Slice of Life 2021- 1 of 31: A Day to Forward To and Dread

It's March! That means that I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge. I am happy to co-host this event with the team at Two Writing Teachers. Everyone is welcome!

"Does my debit card count as cash?" Cecily asks as she comes into my room. I'm writing, and she's going through her checklist another few times, and one of the items is money. 

March 1: The date has loomed in my mind as a date to look forward to and dread. You might be thinking I mean the Slice of Life Story Challenge. I don't. 

March 1: The day my baby (she's 18, but as the youngest of four daughters, she's my baby) leaves for her trip. She deferred her freshmen year of college, a wise and tough decision, and until two weeks ago, she ran a small group of elementary students as they navigated school from home. 

March 1: She will board a 6:15 AM flight that will stop in Chicago. She will change flights and go on to Phoenix where she will meet her three trip leaders and the nine other program participants. She will have a stuffed backpack, a daypack, a one-person tent, several masks, a COVID mail-in test, and a spirit of adventure, as she treks through the Colorado River Basin. 

And she'll be gone for almost three months. 

I open my drawer for my cash stash, and she gives me a thumbs up and an eyebrow raise. 

"No harm in having both," I say. 

March 1: Tomorrow. 

Bring it on. 

Happy Slicing,

Slice of Life: Trying to teach through a screen

   I'm doing my best to keep up with slicing on Tuesdays! All are welcome! Join us at Two Writing Teachers!

I'll get them to write these essays, I thought to myself. 

I was excited to work with this group of fifth-graders. Their teacher had been telling me about how they turned their screens off, didn't write anything. When they did write, it was the bare minimum-- a sentence or two for the entire writing period. 

"They are all capable," she explained. "They can write."

Equipped, planned, and ready with my best strategies for encouraging writers and meeting them wherever they are, I headed into a breakout room with five students. One didn't arrive. Somehow, his pathway along the digital road missed the entrance to Breakout Room 4. (Could have been intentional.) Two others showed up as letters in square boxes, despite my requests to turn their cameras on. At least I could tell from my Go Guardian screen that they were looking at me. I launched into my idea for them to start the process of an essay with all the research already done, and I shared my screen, explaining how I wrote a paragraph from a set of bullets, and inviting them to try it out with a different set. No one wanted to try. 

"I don't get it," one said. 

I persevered, and after longer than I would have liked, we had a second paragraph written. (I did the typing.)

"Please make copies," I said, "and share them with me. That way I can teach you better since I'll know what you're doing." 

Three of them did. Nothing from the girl. 

"Do you know how to do that?" I asked. 

No response.

"I can show you," I offered. 

No response.

"Want me to share my screen?"

Nothing. 

Then she disappeared. Didn't even turn her video off first. Just left. And the GoGuardian screen told me that the student was off line. 

Turns out she was upset and crying that she wasn't allowed to work on her own essay. 

This online teaching is hard. 

Happy Slicing,

Slice of Life: Enthusiasm?

  I'm doing my best to keep up with slicing on Tuesdays! All are welcome! Join us at Two Writing Teachers!

I wasn't sure what he was going to say as the man in my Zoom meeting, one of my favorite mentors, got ready to say how he would describe me. I can't remember how exactly our conversation landed on this question, but the pathway doesn't really matter to the story. 

"You're enthusiastic," he said. 

Enthusiastic? 

The wrinkles on my forehead must have showed my confusion and maybe my displeasure with that word choice. 

"That's a compliment," he said, and I knew he meant that. "How would you describe yourself?"

"Passionate," I said. "Maybe committed. Driven. Not really enthusiastic."

The two of us launched into a debate about the difference between enthusiastic and passionate, and my point was that enthusiasm didn't relay a sense of seriousness or pathway to action. He disagreed, emphasizing the importance of positive energy behind whatever meaningful change was on deck. That, to him, was enthusiasm. 

"The work is hard," he said. "You can't give up. That's where you have to have the enthusiasm to both lead and keep going with the work."

We agreed not to disagree, but to consider and reconsider. Words matter. Passion. Commitment. Energy. Enthusiasm. How do they relate? Where do they overlap? I'll be thinking about this during my moments of quiet and contemplation. 

Happy slicing,

Slice of Life: Celebrating the faces on the screen

  I'm doing my best to keep up with slicing on Tuesdays! All are welcome! Join us at Two Writing Teachers!

I wasn't sure how it would go as I watched face after face appear on the screen in front of me. 

"The link to the meet is at the top of my Google classroom," their teacher had told me, a line that I'm pretty sure would have made very little sense to me a year ago. 

"The chat isn't working," one of the third-grade boys said, a line I'm pretty sure would have made very little sense to him a year ago. 

As I gave directions and taught a short minilesson about transition words, the students accessed the digital chart through a slide presentation or through a post on their classroom feed. Some of them did a quick screenshot and put the picture of the chart right into the piece of writing they were working on so that they words would be right there for easy access. 

H. and I debated the pros and cons of using a Google document or a slides presentation for her information piece. Since she was struggling with both volume and organization, she decided to go with slides so that each slide could be for a specific sub-topic. 

Yes, some students disappeared, turning their screen off and logging off or walking away from their computer, based on what I could tell from GoGuardian (another term that would have made very little sense to me a year ago), but mostly, this group of students who hardly knew me-- I was filling in for their teacher who has Covid-- was responsive and responsible. 

In an environment where so many conversations are beginning with the size, growth, and potential for learning gaps, what a lot these eight and nine year-olds know and are able to do.

Happy Slicing,

Slice of Life: Thinking about pictures for inspiration

 

   I'm doing my best to keep up with slicing on Tuesdays! All are welcome! Join us at Two Writing Teachers!

As I've been sitting on hold with a financial company that shall remain anonymous, I have been  trying to think of short and engaging writing activities that could inspire students to practice using dialogue in very low stakes ways. 

I love this picture for thinking about what could be said between the fox and mouse. 

I'm collecting some other pictures to give to students as choices, using this one as a mentor!

“I know I look tasty,” the mouse said, “But really, you don’t want to eat me.”

“Why would you think that?” the fox asked. He looked like a healthy young fox who got plenty to eat, but he had missed his morning snack, and his stomach was rumbling. 

The mouse could feel his insides turning circles and spinning. Could this really be the end for him? He sat up on his haunches and looked the fox right in the eye. “The truth is,” he began, but stopped and thought. “The truth is that I ate some poisonous berries this morning. I haven’t been feeling well since, and I don’t know why I did it, but I did.”

“What’s poison?” the fox asked. He really was young and naive.

“Poison is stuff that can kill you,” the mouse said. “And if you eat me, then you’ll be poisoned as well.”

“I’ll have to ask about that,” the fox said, and he left the mouse. 

The mouse didn’t wait one extra second. He spun around and scurried away from the fox and his near death experience as fast as he could!

It's not exactly a slice of MY life, but it's a slice of the mouse's. (My slice is still listening to elevator music. I think I've heard the same refrain about a hundred times.)

Happy Slicing! 

PS I'm still on hold. 

Slice of Life: December 42, 2020

 Throughout the month of March, I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge. I am happy to co-host this event with the team at Two Writing Teachers. Everyone is welcome!

These days seem to be full of curve balls. Since last Tuesday night, when I last wrote, the balls haven't even curved. They've taken right angles and then some. 

Over the weekend, I worked hard to decompress. Long walks, trips to a favorite bakery, binge watching The Sinner, and hard workouts filled the weekend. By Sunday night, I was feeling a little less overwhelmed with life...

And then this from my hairdresser. (Background information: while domestic terrorists were invading the Capitol, I was making sure that my hair looked good, getting little bits of news through CNN updates.)

We just wanted to reach out to our clients and let you know a positive test result has been reported at the salon.  If you have been there within the last 5-7 days; we recommend following CDC guidelines and get tested at your own discretion. Thank you and we apologize for any inconvenience. 

Really? 

Yes, that's an inconvenience. Especially since my math had me there six days earlier. Although I asked for a few more details, none were forthcoming. As I write now, I have my negative covid results. And I am ready to declare the date as December 42, 2020. Instead of dry January as I'd originally planned, I'm going for dryer January. I need my pathways for making it through and handling these curveballs.

Happy Slicing,