#SOL20: Farewell, Celebrate!
New decade, new year, new days, new words!
One Little Word has a rich heritage and you can see my process in my 2019 choice here as well as my previous words.
- 2014 Transfer
- 2015 Focus
- 2016 Joyful
- 2017 Brave
- 2018 Curious
- 2019 Celebrate
My path to my 2020 word was lengthier than usual. Holidays. Celebrations. Family Events. Holiday Bowl. Travel. Celebrations. Joy. Travel Delays.
These words and this process were a part of my final review as I continued to search for graphics that would help depict my #OLW for 2020.
I tested out graphics on google docs. Which would make the best blog wallpaper?
I continually returned to . . .
The continuous cycle.
The “compactness” of the process.
Envision,
Execute,
Empower . . .
Yes, interrelated!
But, it all begins with Envision!
Without Envision, there is no goal, no target, no objective!
From Vocabulary.com, here’s the definition:
“Imagine a cause to be seen”
Envision!
What’s your #OLW?
How will it guide you in 2020?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
Envisioning a “Happy Birthday” for my brother today!
#SOL19: Celebrating
Celebrate has been one of my favorite #OLW as it lives in so many personal and professional aspects of my life. As #SOL19 closes out and my #OLW is close but not yet present, it’s a perfect time to revisit!
During the Holidays . . .
Travel by car: Celebrating 66666 on my odometer. Love patterns and this one marked my return trip home from holiday travel.
Traveling by plane: Celebrating the kind gentleman with his “Lady, can I help you with your bag?” as I waited for more passengers to disembark before going back two rows to the overhead compartment for my carry on bag.
Time with family members: Listening to the stories from daily lives. What matters today? Coloring, building with legos, and playing dinosaurs!
During the Year . . .
- Birthdays, Weddings, Funerals, and More . . .
- Collaborating with Friends and Continuing to Learn
- Reading and Learning
- Writing and Publishing
- Presenting with groups at #ILA19 and #NCTE19
What are you celebrating?
How well did your #OLW serve you in 2019?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL19: Fueling the Soul
I returned to #NCTE19 in the same site as #NCTE14 to present as part of a different panel group. Excited to rejoin face-to-face friends and colleagues. Exhilarated to learn with new friends and colleagues and just a bit exhausted from the prep and planning to take advantage of every single moment. Celebrating friends. Celebrating peers. Celebrating communities. Celebrating learning. So ready to lean into my #OLW: Celebrate!
NCTE: National Council of Teachers of English. So many folks from so many places. One night around the table, we represented Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Virginia, Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, California, Connecticut, and Michigan. That was the night of the Slicer dinner. Two new friends. Many face to face friends. Slicers all who intersect with #G2Great, #TCRWP, #CCIRA and our #NCTE presentation – the four of us together for the first time! Talking. Sharing. A laughing video of a grandson. Sharing of children’s artwork. Shared quotes. Food, drink, conversation, and fun. With just a touch of rain that did not dampen our spirits!
There is nothing like scintillating conversation, learning with peers, celebrating with authors, and after hours gatherings to fuel the soul . . . sparking a joyous celebration of friends, families, and ever increasing meet ups of social media friends. As the world shrinks when we write and speak collaboratively on social platforms, our knowledge base grows exponentially.
As I continue to reflect on my travel and learning while I sift through my notes, I will add three outside sources here.
One of my favorites from NCTE is Kelly Gallagher’s Top Ten Things he heard at NCTE:
Melanie Meehan, co-author of Two Writing Teachers wrote about three sessions here.
Stop and Think Reading List and Resources here.
How do you collect and organize your learning?
How are you refueling your professional soul?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL19: What Counts?
What do I read?
Mail, Blogs, Tweets, Chapters . . . and Books
I have always envied those who kept a list and reported out like Regie Routman here, here and here. Currently many are reporting out #BookADay now on Twitter or Facebook. For more information about #BookADay created by Jillian Heise in 2014 go here.
So during the winter break I decided one goal of mine was going to be to “celebrate” my reading in 2019. And of course that would mean that I had to keep track of it somehow. So being ever mindful of this quote, I’m tracking my reading. (Note the key word: I)
William Bruce Cameron
We aren’t quite to the midpoint of the year, but here is what my reading life looks like through most of May . . .
Search for a “balance” with NF labels a la Melissa Stewart
I’ve written about reading goals before here, but I found that round chart didn’t have enough spaces for my book count. Holding on to one single list has not been helpful. I create stacks of the “done” books and record them every two, or three or four weeks. Based on my records thus far for 2019, I believe that I can confirm that I am a voracious reader. But are there other ways to display the data as I think of students who want to make sense of their own reading lives.
So again this week, I saw a tweet that caught my eye about reading circle graphs and I replied. And then the learning began when Steve Peterson (@Steve1Peterson) replied with the fact that Excel and Google Sheets could make radar graphs.
And the same data above looks like this. Fiction = 72, Nonfiction = 52, Professional = 50.
This graph is quite interesting. Having all professional books in one category quickly made it into an outlier in this format. Five of the 10 remaining categories were in the 20-ish category with four in the single digits and only one category reporting a zero. (Radar chart)
No external pressure other than the public announcement.
No public accountability required.
No summative assessment.
Just recording a snippet from my life . . .
I am Wondering . . .
Is my reading varied enough?
Varied enough? The good news is that I still have time to have a mid-course correction. I will purposefully pick up some titles for those four single digit categories. (And I am already plotting to combine some so that I will have fewer gaps – Yes, manipulating the categories.)
What does not show in this data?
What does concern me is that the data does not show my growth. This year I have made a conscious effort to read more graphic novels, cartoons, and even narrative prose. Those books are represented in the totals for F and narrative NF but not as separate categories because they are not separate genres.
What else?
The data also doesn’t share my frustration that tracking my books read over a year is cumbersome. It’s easy to make a “pile” when reading at home. But when I’m not there where and when do I record the data? Do I really only have one list? NOPE! I have some post-its with some scribbles, some lists in my Kindle app, and who knows what else!
The lesson here was to give myself grace. My list does NOT have to be perfect. The data is for me. It’s not a “controlled study” so error is fine.
So my final advice to myself . . .
Take a breath.
Take another breath.
LET IT GO!
NEXT!
Where, why, and when might giving yourself “grace” free up positive energy?
When could you TRY something without trying it “forever”( so you have room to modify to match the needs)?
When will you commit to JUST being the best that you can
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL19: Really?
I blew it! What was I thinking?
Twitter Chats are easy. A few questions. A few responses. Let’s talk. And then taking my turn on writing a summative blog post. Predictable patterns.
Book clubs . . . What’s the format? What’s the end goal? What’s my role? More questions than answers. And each club . . . renegotiating the roles and the expectations.
Check. Deadlines met.
Check. Responses entered.
Check. Make no waves. Agree with the participants
Check. Check. Check.
I was focused on the product and got lost in FEAR!
I was worried if it was good enough and was frozen in time!
I rushed to task completing and forgot it was about the thinking!
This was the format for my early book club participation and it has followed me around worse than the groundhog’s shadow ever since. Book clubs were a place of similar thinking; thinking outside the box resulted in social ostracism.
I went underground as a reader as I have had a LOVE/HATE relationship with book clubs. Some have been fun. Some have been tedious. All have provided learning. But what was that learning?
I love talking about books. Mary Howard and I talk about a tweet, a blog post, or a book on a regular basis. Her reading is also voracious! At CCIRA, Regie Routman handed me a book, I thumbed through it, and I had to order it. Penny Kittle told me about a book and I forwarded the title also to my sister and a niece. I hadn’t even left Maria Walther’s session and I was forwarding the book list. Reading and talking about books is fun!
And then last night I watched this video of Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher. You can watch it too if you are a member of the Summer Book Love Club 2019. What do you notice? What would you name as the key points of the video?
Link
A photo clipped from the video
And because the link does NOT work if you are NOT a member, here are the TOP 10 REASONS you should join Summer Book Love 19 from the Nerdy Book Club here.
Elementary Book Club Books July 2019
Here’s what Penny said about the FB Live session:
“From Concord, CA… I’m here with Kelly Gallagher, my co-author and friend, to talk about the importance of book clubs in his professional life.”
The importance of book clubs in his professional life.
The sheer joy.
The number of books he has read as a part of a book club.
The fact that he, a good reader, learns something from every book club meeting and that they celebrate the different ideas everyone brings to the book club.
Somewhere
Somehow
Sometime
I lost the sheer joy of talking about books in a book club.
The book club became about the process of my notes, my annotations or my writing about reading.
The book club became more about compliance than learning!
I became that “kid” who completed the work but maybe didn’t invest very much of myself.
It’s book club season. I will be in several this summer. I will be watching my own learning. And just as I detailed the process for “Professional Learning” in the last 5 posts about Repeated Reading, so will I also monitor my own learning, processes and products. I think it will be critical to be brutally honest with myself.
And I can do that personally with a process that is also set up for bigger systems work.
How will I find the gold and the JOY in book clubs?
What is the process for professional learning?
- Set a Goal – Participate productively in book clubs
- Selection of Content which includes Checking the Research – Talk about the books
- Design a Process for Professional Development/Learning – Check the schedule and allow plenty of time. Refusing to allow lack of time to be an excuse.
- Teaching / Learning Opportunities – Checking in. What do teachers need to learn? How will they learn it? How can we set some measurable targets? – Pay attention to my “joy” meter. When does it stop being fun?
- Collaboration / Implementation Reading and Participating
- Ongoing Data Collection including Listen to the Students – Consider my responses to students with actions similar to mine
- Program Evaluation – Going back to the teacher data: Has there been growth? How do we know? Plan ahead – what will I do
ifwhen I get stuck? - Collecting / Analyzing Student Data – Is the gap closing? Are students growing more capable? Are students more independent? Balancing “habits” of reading, attitudes, processes and products
- (WHY would I use a different process?)
I will be a part of at least three book clubs this summer and as the summer wanes, I will let you know if I was successful and how and when I will be celebrating the continuous JOY in reading and talking about books!
What is your experience with book clubs?
What motivates you to continue to learn and grow as a reader?
What learning targets would you consider?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL19: #OLW19 Celebrate
Celebrating 2019 Reading
29 books listed for my 52 book goal in Goodreads
7 of 29 books are professional books.
Celebrating Writing and 2019 Publications
Two posts at Literacy Lenses: “Creating a Conversational Thread: Engaged Reading, Writing and Talking Across the Curriculum” and Game Changers!
Here at Resource – Full: 22 posts this year in 56 days
25 PUBLISHED!
Celebrating 2019 Talking (Twitter Chats)
Cohosting an #ILAchat on Independent Reading on 2/14/19 http://bit.ly/ILAchat_IndependentReading
Cohosting #G2Great chats – 7
Celebrating 2019 Learning Destinations
Minneapolis with Kathryn, Kari and Cornelius Minor
Denver CCIRA – 3 fabulous days of learning here, here, here, here, and here
TOTAL 29 + 25 + 8 + 2 = 64 literacy reasons to celebrate
Evidence of Reading, Writing, Talking (Chats), and Learning . . .
What are you celebrating in 2019?
How are you progressing with your #OLW?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL19: Celebrate Action
Nobel Peace Prize 1964 . . .
Because of his words and actions.
Read more here.
To do
Or not to do
To take action
Or not to take action
Make a decision
Don’t let indecision freeze your thoughts or actions.
Equity featured in my post here last year.
When?
When do we move beyond surface quotes? Using that quote that pops up on Google or Twitter and move to deeper knowledge?
What was the essence of MLK Jr?
As I “celebrate” (#OLW19) the life of Martin Luther King, my actions will be to speak up and out about “white privilege.” Information is the first step towards action and power.
I hold these words close, “What the main sections of the civil rights movement in the United States are saying is that the demand for dignity, equality, jobs, and citizenship will not be abandoned or diluted or postponed. If that means resistance and conflict we shall not flinch. We shall not be cowed. We are no longer afraid.” (Nobel Prize Lecture, 1964)
What will you say?
What will you do?
How do you honor MLK’s legacy?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Independence: Taught? Or Not?
Who is doing the work?
Students?
Teachers?
How do we know?
Does it matter?
This flow chart from an October 7, 2018 tweet by Daniel Willingham caught my eye this week out in the Twittersphere!
I have studied it on my phone, my iPad, and on my Chromebook. I continue to revisit the subheading “(doing laundry, making lunches, doing dishes, etc.)”
Does this chart apply to routines in the classroom?
Does this chart apply to instruction in the classroom?
Should it?
Where does my “curious” mind go? I “celebrate” the opportunities for formative assessment. Observation and completion of tasks quickly come to mind. Fairly straight forward. Items that I can check off. Routines.
How much of the school day should be “routinized” to this level?
What’s the end goal?
Previous posts have discussed the fact that many times students do not have enough practice in their work in order to really KNOW and DO the task at high levels of cognitive effort. Is that a flaw in the curricular design, the instructional design, or in the instructional delivery system? Or a symptom of other issues?
And then Wednesday night’s Twitter chat with Alicia Luick and Taliah Carter was about the Independent Use of Mentor Texts to Promote Independence in the Writers’ Workshop. Serendipity and another celebration as topics aligned!!!
It helped me when Alicia explained the difference between mentor texts, demonstration texts, and exemplar texts. All have many uses as we think about a “progression to independence”.
How do we teach independence?
How do we provide practice time so students can develop confidence, competency and independence?
I love these ideas from Ryan Scala. Students can quickly be “upping their game” so they are ready to lead demonstrations, small groups or seminars!
So many ways for teachers to scaffold and support students at their current level in order to “reach” for the next level and continue to stretch and grow. Sounds easy but supporting all students in a classroom is hard work.
And who is doing the most work?
Do we “teach for independence”?
Do we provide enough practice time and get out of the way in order to increase independence?
#OLW19
Drum Roll . . .
Red Carpet . . .
Celebratory Toast . . .
My final choices were: Gratitude, Celebrate, and Thankful.
I tested them out with flash drafts of this post.
What was I searching for?
Enduring words: That would be a part of my life 24/7 – literally woven into the fabric of my life
Practical words: That would be like a ticker tape running in the background of my life.
All encompassing words: That would be suitable for my professional life, my personal life and my role as a grandmother.
How would I know which word was THE word?
I would easily be able to flash draft a post about the word.
I would NOT check to see who else had chosen the word.
I would be able to use the subtle nuances of the word in my decision-making process.
My selection grid:
One Last Review of Previous Words:
- 2014 Transfer
- 2015 Focus
- 2016 Joyful
- 2017 Brave
- 2018 Curious
AND . . .
MY CHOICE . . .
Celebrate . . .
Successes in work – the processes and the product
Successes in learning – the struggle of change and the challenges of implementing those changes
Successes in family life – school and life events
Successes in being present – paying attention to small wins every day to fuel long term goals
Work attempted
Work completed
And when needed . . . celebrate that which is YET to come!
My Goal = Celebrate . . . EVERY day!
What is your #OLW19?
How and when did it find you?
What will you celebrate in 2019?
Teacher Resources:
- One Little Word
New Year, One Word HyperDocs wke.lt/w/s/5y4xQ via @wakelet A collection of three lessons for reflection/goal setting w students in the new year. Just file and make a copy to edit for your specific student needs. @TsGiveTs @SEANJFAHEY @WickedEdTech @KarlyMoura @SARAHLANDIS
Check out the wakelet link above! 3 different choices!
2. Word Comparisons https://wikidiff.com/
#SOL18: Signs of Spring
Signs of Spring
What do I see?
I see slivers of green
peeking through the brown grass
in the yard, the fields, and along the road.
Hopeful for fresh asparagus, daffodils and mushrooms.
What do I hear?
I hear choruses of birds
loud and excited
quiet and steadily constant.
Hopeful for woodpeckers and their staccato beat.
What do I smell?
I smell the earth
fresh-plowed and ready for seeds
anticipating the new growth.
Hopeful for abundant, fruitful crops to feed the world.
What do I feel?
I feel the sun’s rays
as day temps finally rise to 70s
and nights remain in the 50s.
Hopeful for no more sleet, slush, or snow.
Signs of Spring
What signs of spring are present in your region?
How will you celebrate spring?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
Resource - Full 