#SOL23: Writing Habit
It’s January. I check my email. Some days I read a specific email message before morning coffee. On other days I wait until the brown go juice has squeezed the sleep out of my brain. Then I copy the quote for the day and check for the mentor text. It’s #ASDWWrites. It’s a 30-day writing challenge. It’s response writing. (@shelfietalk and wakelets from chats at https://wakelet.com/@shelfietalk )
I don’t have the topic in advance.
I can’t store a couple of blog posts as drafts if the writing doesn’t come easy.
I’ve missed some days.
I’ve gone back and filled in the gaps because I’ve left blank pages in the notebook in my Kindle Scribe. The empty page with a day and date reminds me that I’ve missed something. Something that I committed to doing.
Daily reading and/or writing is a habit. Since the pandemic, I’ve made it a habit to start my day with reading, writing, or both. The writing may be blogs, tweets, DMs, or notes to myself. The reading also varies from saved documents, blogs, research, books, directions, and quilting tips.
Dictionary.com offered this definition of HABIT.
As I reflected on the first 20 days of this daily writing, I wondered if writing was truly a habit. In other words, if I missed a day was it still a habit? How many days could I miss and still have it be a habit?
What if I missed a day or two because I was involved in other writing work?
So it wasn’t that I didn’t write . . . but just that I didn’t write to the daily prompts because I was writing a lot “to take action” for another project?
And I did go back and write LATER.
Reading and writing are customary practices. Daily habits. Some days don’t allow for an early morning response and my schedule is discombobulated and the habit does not demand completion before I sleep. Postponing to another day helps keep some people/tech/device balance in my days. It’s not about “having to write right now” but about completing the task.
Hmmm. . .
Am I hedging my “Habit”? Does a habit have to be 30 consecutive and distinctly different days? Who decides? What does this say about agency and choice for our readers and writers in school?
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Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers 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.
#DigiLit Sunday: Planning Process
Margaret Simon has invited us to blog about planning for the new school year today for DigiLit Sunday. You can read more posts here at Reflections on the Teche.
Planning has been on my mind lately and actually has been my blog topic the last two posts here and here.
Where to begin?
With my #OLW – JOYFUL!
What’s my end goal? (Backward Design)
Joyful Learning for all!
How will I achieve my end goal?
Careful appraisal of my current status,
Develop a plan to integrate my learning from this summer,
Plan, plan, plan
Short term targets and
Long range goals!
Foundation:
Bricks = Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening
Mortar = Mindset, “YET”, Brave, JOYFUL
Filling the inside with all that I know . . .
Determining Priorities Based on Data . . .
and then continuing to collaboratively increase my knowledge with my colleagues who blog, tweet and vox about literacy, learning, passion, joy, leadership and fun for students!
Sounds simple? “The proof will be in the pudding . . .
I will be planning on monthly check ins with my plan.
Approximately 200 days to fruition.
How will you know if your plan is working?
I’m borrowing this MLK quote from a PD session led by Justin (@jdolci). . .
#TCRWP Reading Begins Today
On the schedule for today:
Registration
| Keynote
Lucy Calkins @ Riverside Church A Call to Action |
| AM Advanced
Amanda Hartman Rev Up Your Teaching Muscles to Make Your Whole Group Instruction as Potent as Possible (Mini-lessons, Shared Reading, Read Aloud) (K-2) |
| PM Advanced
Kathleen Tolan Beyond Guided Reading: Expanding Your Repertoire of Small Group Work in Nonfiction (3-8) |
| Choice Session
??? |
So many great sessions to choose from with staff developers:
Kathleen Tolan
Cheryl Tyler
Kathy Collins
Jen DeSutter
Shanna Schwartz
Lindsay Barton
Brooke Geller
Jennifer Kean-Thompson
Natalie Louis
Pablo Wolfe
Audra Robb
Lucy Calkins
Shana Frazin
Katie Wears
Molly Picardi
Keynotes for the remainder of the week:
Matt De la Pena, Donalyn Miller, Freddy Hiebert, and Natalie Louis!
It’s Monday, June 27th!
So blessed to be learning for a second week at #tcrwp.
However, it’s 2:00 in the morning!
First-day excitement!
I can still sleep for hours and hours!
Anticipation!
Way toooooo early!
Post a blog!
Back to sleep!
Dreaming of life and learning in NYC!
What will you be learning today?
Will you be following the Booth Bay tweets? #bblit16
Or #ISTE16? Or #NOTatISTE16?
What’s on your learning plan?
#SOL16: Teacher Appreciation
Teacher Appreciation is every day, every week but a special mention is definitely appropriate as the school year winds down!
What characteristics of a teacher are most important for you?
What do you want to “hold onto” this week?
(And for an added bonus, can you name some of the authors / texts that influenced the words and descriptors above?)
Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Thank you for this weekly forum!
#SOL15: Revisiting #OLW15
My #OneLittleWord15 was focus. It’s reckoning time as 2015 nears the end.
How did I do?
Focus on Family:
My grandson
now seven months old
with just the cutest grin!
The center of our Christmas Celebrations!
Who is the center of YOUR conversations?
Focus on Friends:
Near and far
At TCRWP Spring Saturday Reunion
At TCRWP Writing Institute
At TCRWP Reading Institute
At ILA15
At Iowa ASCD with Lester Laminack
At TCRWP Fall Saturday Reunion
At NCTE15
On Twitter with #TCRWP, #G2Great, and #WRRD
On Voxer
And on Slicers, Too!
Can you find yourself?
Focus on Reading:
- New Units of Study in Reading
- Mindset for Learning: Teaching the Traits of Joyful, Independent Growth
- Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies
- Amplify: Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-6 Classroom
- The Construction Zone: Building Scaffolds for Readers and Writers
- The Common Core Companion: Booster Lessons, Grades 3-5: Elevating Instruction Day by Day
- Good to Great Teaching: Focusing on the Literacy Work that Matters
- Read Write Teach: Choice and Challenge in the Reading-Writing Workshop
- The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching
- In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice
- Readers Front and Center: Helping All Students Engage with Complex Text
- The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers
- What Readers Really Do: Teaching the Process of Meaning Making
- The Unstoppable Writing Teacher: Real Strategies for Real Teachers
Which of these have you read?
Which of these are on your holiday TBR stack?
Focus on Writing:
About TCRWP Spring Saturday Reunion
About TCRWP Writing Institute
About TCRWP Reading Institute
About Reading
About ILA15
About Iowa ASCD with Lester Laminack
About TCRWP Fall Saturday Reunion
About NCTE15
Tweets about #TCRWP, #G2Great, and #WRRD (and all the above!)
And Slices with #TWT!
What have you written about?
A Focus on Focus:
Ever on my mind
Often changing to meet my purpose
Ever necessary
To complete my tasks
Sometimes a nagging worry
Other times a constant fear
. . . . Ever forward
Ever moving
Difficult to pin down
Growing –
Celebrating Learning!
What is your FOCUS?
How would we KNOW?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna,Betsy,Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers andteachers here.
From Riverside to Riverside . . . the learning continues
Until four years ago, this was what I expected to see and hear IF and WHEN I visited New York.
Did you check it out?
That’s what I knew about New York!
My world has shifted on its axis in the last five years and I now trust my good friends to keep me grounded.
Dayna Wells (@daywells) tweeted this out):
Dayna’s hometown is about 10-15 miles from our family farm. To me, the connections are obvious. My family roots are in the town of Riverside, Iowa. In fact, I feel that I can positively say that my family, the Schnoebelens, founded the town of Riverside, which is now infamous as the home of “Star Trek”. St. Mary’s in Riverside, is a majestic Catholic Church.
You can read about the church and the founding families here. In our family, one claim to fame is that all of my mom’s family attended the school at St. Mary’s. My grandmother was a teacher in a one-room country school. All ten of her children attended St. Mary’s School! That fact is celebrated in the pictures on the walls of the church hall. We have many fond memories of our local parish church, the school and the cemetary at St. Vincent’s whch is the resting place for many, many, many family members. A small town church for a small town Iowa girl!
And tomorrow is the 7th time that my learning day (or week in the case of summer institutes) will begin at Riverside Church in NYC. A majestic setting for a FREE day of learning. There is no cost for participating in the learning at #SaturdayReunions at Teachers College.
An eye-opening, mind-blowing learning extravaganza . . .
Slow Learner, Fran?
There are folks who have attended for more than 25 years!
Before the end of the day, my eyeballs will be rolled back up into my brain – trying to absorb just one more ounce of inspiration, passion and true belief that ALL OUR kids can read and write. AND read and write at high levels! AND that all our kids deserve the BEST teachers of readers and writers – THOSE that read and write themselves.
The agenda is seven pages long. Difficult choices for attendees as all sessions will be led by those who have been immersed in the reading and writing units of study by Lucy Calkins and the amazing Teachers College Staff Developers.
How and when do you follow your passions?
What are you learning?
How will we know?
(Thanks for the inspiration, Dayna!)
#SOL15, Almost October, and #OLW
It’s Tuesday, time to write, and a topic is eluding me.
I’ve read this quote from Tara three times:
“The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.”
― Anne Lamott
What’s my strategy to get unstuck?
This is today’s strategy:
- Read my blog posts from last October.
- Read some other slicer posts.
- And then start writing.
- Write quickly.
- Don’t pause.
- Write.
- Write.
- Write.
What do I wish for students for 2015 – 2016?
- Sense of Urgency – There are no “do overs” so each day needs some strategic planning with specific targets in mind. What is the end goal? Where do we need to end up? And then backward planning . . . Ready, Set, Go!
- Focus on Students – Students First, Students Second, Students Third . . . Get the idea? Students are at the center of every decision. In every classroom. In every school. Every.Decision! (and even knowing when to abandon the plan from sense of urgency because it does NOT work out for students!)
- Focus on Volume – Increase Teacher and Students’ Volume of Reading and Volume of Writing – Everyone needs to read and write more. This will require a focus on literacy, as well as speaking and listening and thinking. Teachers will model reading and writing daily. There will be evidence of living both a readerly and writerly life! And the reading and writing will be like Gold – not like a curmudgeon!
- Joyful Learning – Not reading like a robot or due to assigned drudgery! Creating an energized hub of activity – Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening and Thinking Joyfully! Happiness will ooze out of the corners of EVERY room! How do you celebrate meeting goals? How do you celebrate writing? How do students become the leaders in your classroom?
- And Lastly, Choice – Students will have choice in what they read and write daily. Being engaged in joyful literacy workshops daily means that teachers aren’t assigning chapters and questions or daily prompts. In real life, where are end of chapter questions or daily writing to prompts? When is the last time that a teacher completed end of chapter questions or daily writing to prompts? Readers and writers resent “made-up” busy work activities that are counter-productive to the items previously listed such as joyful learning, focus on volume, focus on students! Students know when the work is a waste of time!
As mid-terms, October, and/or the end of the first month of school approach,
What do you wish for your students?
What are you planning for?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL15: How many ways?
Does this chart look familiar?
What does this chart really mean?
What does it look like to read a book in different ways?
As you read the following, think about which chart category applies?
Crinkle the pages
Squeeze the duck on the back cover – “QUAAACK!”
Label the pictures: duck, dog, dog, rabbit, rabbit, goldfish, goldfish, duck – one word per page
Use the same sentence stem for each page: “I see a __________.”
Name the sound the animal makes with its name for each page.
Name the action the animal makes as it moves in a two word sentence. (“Goldfish swims.”)
Ask a question about each page: “Do you see the _________?”
Name the picture and say something about its color.
Name the picture and say something about its size.
Count: “One duck, one dog, two dogs, one rabbit, two rabbits, one goldfish, a second goldfish, and one more duck.”
Take the pages out of the mouth and turn them slowly again, without any words!
Tell a story beginning with “Once upon a time there were some animals . . .
Point to the picture and name the animals again!
How many ways did this grandma read one 8 page book?
How have you taught parents to read a wordless paper book?
What can you add to this list?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#ILA15 Begins Tomorrow!!!
IRA now ILA = International Literacy Association
I’ve skipped over this paragraph in the ILA materials (probably 100 times now), but please slow down and read it . . .
“Illiteracy is a solvable problem, and together, we can make a difference! Amplify your efforts by joining forces with us at ILA 2015 in St. Louis, where you’ll get information and inspiration to transform your students’ lives. Register now for this can’t-miss event, where you’ll experience endless opportunities to network and learn—and leave feeling part of a meaningful movement, resolved to end illiteracy.”
And this . . .
“Literacy—across all sectors, mediums, and channels—is increasingly critical. In order to effectively prepare children and adults for the future, teachers must be well prepared to help diverse students improve their literacy skills.”
Whether illiteracy or aliteracy is a concern for you, follow the twitter stream on #ILA15 to LEARN from July 17 pre-conferences to the sessions on July 18-20 in St. Louis! Who defines well-prepared? Are your current efforts REALLY working for ALL your students?
#Amplify
#TogetherBetter
Resource - Full 