If you have posted every day, including today you are a little more than halfway through the Slice of Life Challenge! Congrats! You will be able to finish. Last year at this point I wasn't so sure I would be able to. Today I write with the confidence that I can complete the challenge and so can you!Last year I embarked on slicing with my friend Lee Ann and my husband. He didn't quite make it, but she and I did. It inspired me to try out a mini-challenge with my students. It inspired my daughter to create a blog. It inspired me to write more on my blog. It inspired me to invite my graduate students to try out the challenge. Little did I know it inspired a colleague\friend to participate in the SOLC too. All of their blogs are featured in the sidebar on the left.
When I finish the challenge at the end of this month, I will have equaled the number of posts that I wrote last year, 47. Last year it took me 12 months to do so, this year 3 months. In the next few days, I will celebrate my 100th post. That will be a red-letter day for me. I created this blog in 2011 and only wrote one post that year.
After participating in the SOLC challenge, doing one with my students, being introduced to Pecha Kucha and IGNITE, as well as using a NING space with my students for three years, I added a digital writing project as a component to the graduate course I teach. All those experiences taught me that if I wasn't modeling the use of digital writing in my work with my future teachers, they wouldn't have the safety-net they needed of doing so when they embarked on digital writing with their future students. Five of the nine chose to take the month-long challenge, two are doing weekly slices for 10 weeks, one is using Edmodo with her students, and the other is learning how to do a Pecha Kucha.
Their participation means that I have commenting on their blogs as well as a minimum of three other participants of the challenge. I admit I haven't visited the classroom blogs, but want\need to do so. I admit that my commitment to commenting has left my writing somewhat less polished than usual. I used to write then comment. Now I comment and then write to be sure I get it done for that day.
Luckily, I had 25 drafts saved. They were in various stages of development, a line, a photo, a complete blog. These drafts tell me that there were 25 days in 2012 that I meant to write on my blog. Fortunately, these drafts have helped me immensely during the challenging days during the SOLC. So far I have not had the 11:50 pm post like I had once last year. I have been able to complete posts in a more timely manner each day, late afternoon to bedtime. I admit, I am in awe of those of you who have already posted by the time I get to my computer at 5:30 am. Maybe one day I will be be able to do that.
What I do know for sure is that regardless of making my match on March 31, 2013, I will have many more posts in 2013. Thank you Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres for making the time and space in your lives to inspiring others to take the challenge.
I love hearing about your process and how you have inspired others. I crossed into the 100's this year too. In the graduate class I teach I will be also asking them to slice weekly on their thoughts surrounding books. Hopefully, some will join in on the Tuesday slice as well. I wish I had had 25 drafts saved up for the slice this year. It is phenomenal to have supportive husbands, isn't it? I keep talking about this slicer or that slicer and he smiles. I think I'm going to ask him to write a guest slice. xo
ReplyDeleteLove your reflections here. It is important to think about what we have learned from this slicing challenge - and I may have to write a slice about this, too. I really appreciate your line, "All those experiences taught me that if I wasn't modeling the use of digital writing in my work with my future teachers, they wouldn't have the safety-net they needed of doing so when they embarked on digital writing with their future students" - you are "living out" what you hope for your new teachers/students. Thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteHurrah for all the inspiring!
ReplyDelete"When I finish the challenge at the end of this month, I will have equaled the number of posts that I wrote last year, 47." THAT IS INCREDIBLE! Yea for you, Beth!
ReplyDeleteBTW: I've loved reading the submissions from Bear English!