Slice 7: Family Literacy Night

Finally home from work!  High school teachers in my district start at 7 am.  I pulled a 15 hour day at school and in less than 12 hours I will be right there again alongside those teachers who pulled a 15 hour day with me. Given the length of the commute, some may not be home yet as I am writing this.  Teacher over-time or community service for a good cause, family literacy night.  Family literacy night is just one of the several events that we do at our school to continue to foster the love of reading in teens.

Each year we create a life-sized version of a game inspired by one of our Florida Teens Read books. This year Rot & Ruin  provided the catalyst to create a zombie game modeled after a version of Candyland/  Two of my colleagues, a fellow slicer, Krystin Beavers, and Helen Philpot and their students worked hard to draw scenes from the novel as well as costume themselves appropriately.  It was a hit.

We also offered book spine poetry as well as our kid "craft" ala Cat in the Hat foldable where student collected figurative language from Dr. Seuss's books. I am always amazed because students of all ages seem to gravitate toward the activity that we design for younger children.  We also offered an parent training in Spanish for a pilot program at our school as well as a book trivia game using Socrative, one of my favorite tech tools for the classroom.

Our grand finale was the Poetry Club performance who are coached by another colleague/fellow slicer, Lee Ann Spillane.  Check the phenomenal poets out on their YouTube channel.  Although our campus has 3200 students, our family literacy night was intimate, a synonym for small about 100 teachers, parents, and students.  No matter the 15 hour day, no matter the size, we had a great time!  

Wednesday: Slice 6

It's Wednesday! I actually napped today! I would still be napping if my urgency to slice hadn't taken over me. Most Wednesday eves I work my second job as a teacher-educator at the University of Central Florida.  It's spring break for us there.  My real spring break happens in two weeks. You know, the one where I get the days off.

I love my class and love to end Wednesday with the three hour class  about teaching writing in middle in high schools. I feel overwhelmingly positive about the future of education when I leave that class. In fact, some of the students are participating in the Slice of Life Writing Challenge this year. Their blogs are in my feed on the right.  This semester I have 45 students not all of them are taking the class because they want to be English teachers in a middle or high school.  Some are elementary education majors, psychology majors, social studies majors and  I've even had music majors. The class is not the largest class that I have taught, but teaching a class this size has taught the most about integrating strategies to get students to talk.

This Wednesday though I could have go to work out, gone shopping or played ultimate, but I napped. I surprised my daughter by picking her up after school.  I commented on slices and finally wrote this. Later I will join two Twitter chats #dsma and #rwworshop at 9 to finish my day, still a full one without class tonight, but a day seemingly off with its absence.

Slice 5

It's almost ten east coast and I am scrambling to slice. Not really! Last year my latest post was at 11:50 pm. I've had a crazy day at work and blew off the evening work I normally do by going to dinner with a friend after my workout.  The hardest thing about slicing is banishing the thought that I have to write something that matters every day.  I just need to remind myself that writing is hard and slicing is cultivating a writing habit every day at least that is my goal.

Today was a relatively good day, but a dangerous day for me.  If I really want to manage my disease well, I can't have days where I don't eat lunch. I know better!  I need to act better. There were students who needed me every minute of the day.  That is the gist of a teacher's life.  The hard part is finding balance and staking time for yourself, even in your workday!  There is always work and more work.

The work that I was happy to do today as a reading coach included---

1. Helping out a friend get testing for 400 kids started because I had the time and the flexibility in my schedule.
2. Registering students for ACT who would not normally choose to take it. If you haven't helped juniors and seniors through it lately, it takes a good hour to do it.
3. Working with a colleague to develop a lesson on literary analysis for ESOL students just because I said hello to her in the hall after school.
4. Making space for another student to come to our Skype visit on Friday with Jonathan Mayberry just because the teacher recognizes how much it will matter to this student.
5. Hanging out with a teacher friend (after work hours) and figuring out what to do with her students when I teach her class while she is out for a week.

What I know is that staying focused on the work that went well will keep me from dwelling on the work that was frustrating.  I just need to make sure that I am also working well for myself.

Paper Vs. Plastic Part Deaux

Last year one of my slice's was about Paper Vs. Plastic or why I choose to buy and read books, hard cover or paperback, but definitely not e-books.  I try not to close doors in my life so I found myself giving plastic a try again. Having received an I-Pad also made it an exploratory option for me. I tried to overcome my inability to read e-books and failed. I confess I am addicted to paper.

I realized that reading professional books is a tactile experience for me. There are books that I visit and revisit. The post-its left behind are signals for me to dip back here.  The notes remind me of where I was at and the questions remind me of where I intended to go.  This fall I borrowed a book Switch and had permission to write in it.  After the owner read it following me, he told me that he thought I was writing to him, especially with the questions in the margins.  I loved the idea that we were reading side-by-side, a professional journey. I love to follow the thinking of readers who precede me.

I also get a thrill when I see somebody with a book I shared in their hands, especially students.  I love when they pass it on.  My books do find their way back to me and out again. I love receiving a book in my mailbox from Paperback Swap.  I love books slipped onto my desk at work because they are whispers that say, "I know you well enough to share."  They are also calorie and carb-free.

I honestly tried this past month to read not one, but three plastic books. It wasn't my lack of time. It wasn't the genre or the content; it was the format.   I did plenty of other reading while not quite getting to or finishing the plastic books.  To be fair, I do most of my reading in bed at night with my daughter and I am cautious about bringing technology to bed.  But in a world where I spend far too much time linked in via my plastic, I relish the solitude that paper bequeaths me and the connection to others it still allows.

SOLC 3/31: Brave the Silence

It's time to take action according to the month's One Little Word project with Ali Edwards. My action aligns with my intention this month which is to Brave the Silence. My action will be to talk less and listen more. In lesson study I learned that if I stayed quiet and waited long enough someone would say what I was thinking. We can do that in many different ways in our work.  I'm not talking about the kind of silence that the quote, "Silence is the voice of complicity." is talking about.

My goal is to deliberately practice listening to allow my students and my colleagues the oppportunity to keep learning going. Sarah Dessen writes in her young adult novel Just Listen, "This is the problem with dealing with someone who is actually a good listener. They don't jump in on your sentences, saving you from actually finishing them, or talk over you, allowing what you do manage to get out to be lost or altered in transit. Instead, they wait, so you have to keep going.  My action is to practice being the listener this month.

In our classroom I am reminded again and again of Kylene Beer's words about the one who talks the most in the classroom does the most learning.  I have been working on increasing the amount of student talk in my instruction for the past two years. This work became even more important as I work with teachers and have over 40 students in my classes.  It becomes readily apparent which students feel comfortable sharing out whole class. I also like using different strategies because it makes students talk to different people.  We have our comfort zones, but then we talk to new people we are introduced to new perspectives.  In my resolve to brave the silence, I hope to learn more by letting other discovery what they didn't know, they knew.

One books that I like to help teachers design lessons with more student-talk embedded is Daniel's and Steineke's Text and Lessons for Content Area Reading


Here is a list of the top ten strategies I have been using to get students to talk more so I can listen:

1. I Have, You Have
2. Carousel Brainstorming
3. Tabletop Twitter
4. Fold the Line
5. Mile a Minute
6. Quotation Mingle
7. Square, Circle, Triangle
8. Socratic Seminar
9. Find Your Match or Move to the Beat
10. Brown Bag Assessment

SOLC 2/31: Stride for Pride Part Deaux

Last year I began training a little more seriously for running.  I really hate running because I love the camaraderie of team sports.  I train with people, but on race day I've found myself on my own in my head even with people at my side.  I would rather run with someone for something rather than for the solitude and inner joy than some people say running brings.  Today we did run for something and someone, we ran a 5 k as a family, my family of three plus my work family.  The Stride for Pride is a race that celebrates the life of one of our students, Zaryn, who passed away last year.  His grandfather, mom, dad, and cousin work at my school. His sister goes there as well.  The race is small but it raises money for a scholarship fund.  It brings a community together.

Around one hundred students, teachers, and community members gathered around the starting line. I brought my husband and daughter with me. My husband ran the 5 k well ahead of us and stopped for coffee at the 7-11 and still beat me by at least 10-15 minutes.  My 9 year old daughter attempted to run it with me.  She did great. She is pretty active, most recently doing 9 mile bike ride with only 1 fall; she has been hiking with me since she was born. Today was here first 5K. We ended up walking more than running. She also ended up taking a short cut. We had some quality time where I answered her questions about what would be the best site to stay for the zombie apocalypse.  Aside from enjoying my time with her and the movement, I realized how much I have learned this year about myself and running\moving with diabetes.

Last year I was afraid and now I have a better understanding of what to do, how to handle myself, and what to pack.  You can't go to class to learn everything you need to know in the real world. I test while I walk. I carry my phone. I always have fast-acting sugar.  I don't always do this well, but lately I haven't let it stop me from moving.  Over the past year I have been able to pushing myself harder.  I do know that I still always must be mindful.  People who have managed this disease longer have surprises. Scott Johnson's post I Passed Out on January 1 was an important reminder of what can sneak up on you.

What I have learned since I did the Stride for Pride run  is that I can be more and do more than let this disease define me.  Finishing a half-marathon and this 5K today without any surprises .  I still don't like running.  I love the the camaraderie and the physiological benefits it brings as well as the strength of mind and confidence it has led me to develop about managing a sporty life as a T1.

Slice 1 of 31: Challenge

I love challenges. I don't necessarily love writing, but the Slice of Life Challenge lets me blend both together. Can I really write for 31 days straight?  This year I start off with the knowledge that I can because I did it last year.  Whenever you embark on something for the first time, the uncertainty always lingers.  It's like a road trip to somewhere you've never been.  Once you've been there once, the journey seems so much shorter.   Some nights I didn't post until 11:50 pm.  But I did make it and comment on three people for the entire month.  I even won a cool prize! Though it wasn't about the prize.

Last year it was a personal journey full of questions. Could I balance a little writing each day with work and life?  What does it mean to participate in a digital writing community? What does it mean to create a digital footprint?  How do you grow as a writer?  This year I will continue to explore those questions as well as write side-by-side with some of my graduate students. After doing a tiny Slice challenge with ninth graders for ten days last year in May, I added an open-ended digital writing project to my syllabus for graduate students s.  Part of my journey will be working with those students and dealing with the questions that arise as I read their work.  I already have some brewing!

I am also encouraging my nine-year old daughter to write with me each day. Last year as I sliced, she became more and more interested in writing and kept nagging me for a blog.  We created one and this month I hope to nurture her more as a writer. We already read side-by-side and the slice will give us an opportunity to write side-by-side.  If you are new to the challenge, welcome! If not, I am excited to slice with you again!