One Little Word

Ali Edwards at {A} encourages the readers of her blog to choose one WORD to focus on throughout the year.

I am loving this inspirational idea. This year I have spent a lot of time with words and just recently found your site through Ruth at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. After some contemplation, my word for the year is STRETCH. (Not too thin, I hope!) I need to stretch physically. As a teacher, I am always stretched mentally. I need to encourage my students to stretch. I also need to stretch myself out of comfortable routines in order to get more out of life.


Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2911042795/

P.S. Hmmm... My word was not included on the l-o-n-g list of words at Ali's blog. So, I "searched" for it assuming that it had been lost in the blogosphere. Not true and I was not the only one with this word. Maybe it is some sort of sign that this is not my word. I guess I must think about this some more.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

I began by trying to find the birthdays of the Lipstick Chronicle authors. I have not read many of their books but enjoy their blog. It was not easy to find their birthdays, so Elaine Viets and Nancy Martin are in limbo at the bottom of my list. Maybe I will discover their birthdays before the challenge is over or perhaps they will need to be part of next year's list. Here is my list of possibilities.

January 28 - Harley Jane Kozak - I read Dating Dead Men.
February 1 - Meg Cabot - I read Size 12 is not Fat.
March 5 - Mem Fox (alternate Lois Lowry)
April 12 - Donna Andrews
May 6 - Kate Collins
June 26 - Charlotte Zolotow (alternate Robert Munsch)
July 29 - Kate Flora
August 18 - Paula Danziger
September 21 - Stephen King, On Writing
October 19 - Sarah Strohmeyer
November 25 - Charlaine Harris
December 19 - Eve Bunting

Elaine Viets
Nancy Martin

Remembering - Creating Memories

Stacey at Two Writing Teachers has made me think again. (That's the whole idea, right?)

At the end of each quarter we try to take some time to reflect on the accomplishments and set some goals for each student. I think this ties in perfectly with Stacey's thoughts.

I found a couple of sites that I think might help us to "remember" first quarter. Beth Lewis has an example of an "I Remember" poem at About.com: Elementary Education. I like how this guides the students to think about their first impressions, a field trip, a math activity, etc.... I also found another sample and an online version that will print the created poem.

Here is my poem.

Instant I Remember Poem

I remember popping into a new school year.
I remember meeting 28 students and their families.
I remember teaching about how to choose "just right" books
and how to build reading stamina.

I remember exploring a nature trail.
I remember shaking cream to make butter.
I remember making an accordion book about the planets
even reading word wall words by flashlight.

I remember writing a story about the Mysterious Squeak.
But my favorite memory’s yet to come!

I love the final line: But my favorite memory’s yet to come. Some memory-gathering at the end of the semester will set us up to write some goals when we return in January!

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Purpose?

I believe that it may be time to decide on a purpose for this blog. It was originally started as a class assignment (in other words: something that I had to do, not necessarily something that I wanted to do). Through my grad classes and more assignments to write blogs and read blogs, I have discovered that I tend to read 3 types of blogs: book blogs, teacher blogs and tech blogs. I suppose that I have the most to say about teaching, but I have some reservations about having enough quality information to pass on to others. (Do I really need an audience for this? Would it be helpful?) I also have had difficulty finding the time to write this fall. A plethora of second graders and an ill family member have required a lot of time. I continue to believe the TWT mantra that a teacher of writing must write, but lately I have felt that teachers of writing are too busy to write!