#SOL21: Habits
Will they survive? Will they flourish?
Three nights of freeze warnings and this view in the daytime.
It’s spring. A time of growth. A time for blooming. And yet, a time for snow and freezing temperatures.
Do we let Mother Nature take her course? Do we try to mitigate the results? Plants, flowers, pleasing to the eye. What’s our response?
In our schools, it’s the season of standardized tests. Tests in the midst of the pandemic that continues on. A year+ like no other. What are the options?
What’s the cost? Check out Tim Wheeler’s blog.
What are our goals? What are the habits that we want students to develop.
Melanie Meehan and Kelsey Sorum have this gorgeous new book. We featured it on our #G2Great chat March 25th and Val Kimmel’s blog post is here. It was featured on TWT here.
One of my favorite resources in this book is Chart 1.9. It speaks to me of reasons why I write daily. It speaks to me of why students need to write daily. And it speaks to me of things that are not so easily counted. Not so easily measured. But habits that I want all students to have. In their writerly lives. In their daily lives. In their student lives. In their adult lives.
To name just a few habits:
Perseverance
Empathy
Resilience
What habits in life are you willing to identify today? What habits will you nurture today? What habits do you actively support? How do you do that?
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Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
#CyberPD: Being the Change
To read.
Surface Learning
To absorb and think about applying.
Deep Learning
To really consider the impact of my own words and the power of my actions, thoughts, and words.
Transfer Learning
We have a phrase in Iowa. It’s “Iowa Nice.” When are we “too nice” and when do we need to stop and consider the impact of our words? When do we need to step out of our comfort zone? Some issues seem easier to advocate for? Is that my background? Or just my comfort level?
I wrote about this book just two short months ago before the #G2Great chat with author Sara Ahmed. It feels like more than two months. So many changes . . . locally, nationally, and internationally.
I’m rereading it now for #cyberPD . . . just one of several book clubs that I am currently in. As I thought about “What” to write, it dawned on me.
I read it.
But I didn’t really think it was “about me”.
Being the Change!
I acknowledged my background
And checked it off my list.
Back to the drawing board.
Rereading.
Digging deeper.
Not just doing.
But thinking.
And reading.
And writing.
And determining what actions I need to take.
How will others know this is important to me?
What does it mean to “see the humanity” and to “activate your empathy”?
How do I remove the “us” and “them” from my vocabulary?
Paying lip service is not good enough.
Nodding my head is not good enough.
I must do better. It requires change.
Mea Culpa!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
