A challenging work day today for me by far and not one that I am ready to share. I have been thinking about my last slice post. It is most fitting on the last day of the month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge to reflect and for that I use the .A to Z list!
Audience-The SOLSC participants who post comments and those who just stop provide valuable feedback and sometimes just the acknowledgement that I hear you. Even the larger community of friends who stop by and perhaps don't comment, but hit like on Facebook, thanks for listening. I didn't know it mattered.
Brave-It takes courage to put your writing in a public space for other to read.
Challenge Writing is hard work and we most often demonstrate and realized the truth of it by pushing ourselves to write every day this month.
Dedication-Demonstrated daily to ourselves, to our slice community,and to our students.
Exercise-Writing is an exercise of the mind and you get better by doing it every day, especially on the days you don't think you can.
Friends- Virtual ones you make through your words and blog visits.
Gift- No one is paid for participating. Thank you for the gift of your time. It is the most valuable gift you can give.
Habit- You can find time every day to do what you value and that is what cultivates habits.
Introspection- The daily thinking required by daily writing practice.
Juggle our lives and its demands of it, but still finding time to write.
Know- the lessons you have learned about the teaching of writing just by the practice of writing.
Labor-Writing takes work and one just never sits down and is done in the 15 minutes that you only have that day.
Medium- I played with different mediums this SOLSC. I crafted a weekly infographic on Fridays and integrated pictures on my Eye-Spy Wednesdays.
Novel-The ideas that I have gained from others as well as the stories! The brain seeks patterns and responds to novelty! Thanks for adding novelty to my life and my teaching practice.
Observe-Writers check out their world. They listen. They see. This year I added pictures. It made me look hard for interesting images in my daily world.
Peers-My face-to-face teacher friends, Erin, Lee, LeeAnn, and Krystin who write alongside with me, I learn so much from you! Those who will write with me in the future! I can't wait for you to join.
Quiet- The place I go to in my head when I write. Writing isn't all collaboration. It is just the tapping of your keys and the words pouring through your fingers. Even in a room of chaos, I can find the quiet and the words.
Routine- Open posts were hard and sometimes the routines of writing specifically about certain topics on different days lead to more freedom. I enjoyed having a Sunday Seven, Eye-Spy, Infographic, and In the Wild posts for four of the seven days.
Stacey-This is my fourth year participating, but the SOLSC has been alive since 2008.. Many people have vision, but few act and do and sustain! Thanks Stacey for keeping the writing live.
Team-What it takes to pull this challenge off! There is the SOLSC with adult writers, I think with over 260 writers and then there are the student writers in the Classroom SOLSC. You have the site team and then the people who rose to commenting challenges, writers who helped people navigate new to them tech or slice experience and the welcome wagon as well as other organizations that provided prizes. Then there are the participants too. The team works because we each add to the community.
Understanding-Understanding of your writing self, your student writers, and others' experiences.
Voice-what emerges through routine practice.
Whispers-Words that percolate in your mind throughout the day as you figure out what you want to post next.
XOXO- hugs and kisses to my readers and commenters!
Yahoo- Yeah we made it! We're done! What will you write next? Will you participate weekly? How will you move forward in your writing life?
Zen- The knowing that you did it! You accomplished it! You can write more than you thought possible!
It takes the whole alphabet to find the words to tell all that our writing community and challenge means to us. You did a good job expressing it!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting to the Z this month! Your comments mean a lot to us too, Beth. :)
ReplyDeleteI love this format - I used to use it with kids but it seems to have fallen off my radar. Thanks for the reminder and for being BRAVE enough to do this!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to end the March writing challenge! "Juggle our lives and its demands of it, but still finding time to write." This phrase resonated with me so much!
ReplyDeleteNice A to Z-ing recap! It was a great month! So hard to get to everyone though1
ReplyDeleteAwesome recap! Hugs and kisses to you too.
ReplyDeleteWow! That was amazing! Made me have goosebumps reading it on this last SOL day. Nice way to wrap it up and presented with a word cloud too! Every phrase was exactly my experience too. Love the alliteration of "dedication demonstrated daily" Introspection, Quiet & Whisper really resonated with me because that is what it took to develop ideas. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI totally loved it! What a creative and cool way of doing your introduction. I agree with D, E and J ...that's me ..
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to you and all on our journeys as teachers. ;)