SOL Day 4: My Classroom Slice of Life

When I decided to include my first grade class in the Classroom Slice of Life Challenge, I was really nervous about it. Since I had never done it before myself, I really didn't know what to expect from the experience. Therefore, it was difficult for me to know what to tell my students to expect from it.

I introduced the challenge to them last Friday at the very end of the day. Admittedly, it was poor planning on my part. I really only decided that I was going to participate while they were at Art, so by the time they got back and I started talking about it, it was almost time to go home. I really didn't do it justice. I gave them a basic outline of how it works and the expectations for participation then sent them home for the weekend.

Since the first day of the challenge was on Saturday, I wasn't expecting much. I was thrilled with the one student I had that wrote a post on his Kidblog on Saturday and Sunday. By the end of the weekend, I had resigned myself to the fact that this was going to be a failed experiment and I'd be better prepared next time. To my surprise, I had an additional eight students who had actually written posts in their Writer's Notebooks to be added to their blogs on Monday.

One of the components that we, myself and my two other participating first grade colleagues, Cathy Mere and Deb Frazier, decided to add to our classroom challenge was lunch once a week with the student writers. We decided we would meet with our classes during their lunch to talk about our writing and the challenge. Today was the first lunch meeting and I had 13 writers join me. We talked about our thoughts on the challenge so far and what has been the biggest challenge for them. I think of all the writing activities I have done with my students so far this year, and I have to say that this has been the most rewarding for me. To hear my kiddos talk like writers was amazing! They spoke of how challenging it was to come up with an idea to write about. How unsure they were that their writing would be something that someone else would want to read. Most of all, how excited they were to keep writing. L said, "I'm going to write every day for the rest of my life!" If only I could put into words how amazing this was to hear from this little friend.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the challenge brings.

30 Day Slice of Life Writing Challenge - Day 1

As often happens, I've been convinced to resurrect my blog and participate in another blogging challenge by my good friends and colleagues Cathy Mere from Reflect and Refine and Deb Frazier from Primary Perspective. They introduced me to the Slice of Life 30-Day Writing Challenge from Two Writing Teachers. So, for each day of March, I will be writing a post on my blog. I'm not sure what form this will take, but I'm accepting the challenge. Although this blog was established as a professional platform, so much of my life is made up of my role as a mother as well as a teacher, I know that more than a couple of posts will be slices of my personal life as well.


In addition to accepting this challenge for myself, I have also posed this challenge to my class of first graders.
They will have the option to write something in their Writer's Notebook, during Writer's Workshop, or on their Kidblog blogs. My hopes for this experience is to inspire my students to write for their own enjoyment as well as to be more comfortable in telling their own stories.


My Slice of Life - Day 1

For the last week or more, much of my time has been focused on the activities of my oldest son, Liam. This week, Liam had three nights of performances for his Middle School play. He was one of the narrators, was in all but 3 scenes, and was amazing! He really has a talent for performing. I was really impressed with his ability to memorize all of his lines and deliver them with great comedic timing and expression.

No sooner had he finished the final performance, than it was time for his first district Science Fair. He and his friend researched the best method for cooling cans of soda. Their presentation went well and they received an Excellent rating. In fact, they were only 3 points from receiving a Superior rating.

For my first Slice of Life, you get a glimpse into my pride as a mother.