Time to Revisit #SOL21

January 2021 is a time to revisit — teaching practices, writing projects and habits, friendships, favorite books, and trails. Even opinions and attitudes can be revisited. How about the practice of selecting a One Little Word for the year? That, too! I’m giving One Little Word-of-the-month a try, along with some of my writing accountability buddies from Teach Write. And my word for January is…REVISIT!

After reviewing all I hope to accomplish this new year, much of it seemed to involve revisiting. What better place to start! Revisit a word that really could last the whole year, but I’d like to give the word-of-the-month thing a try and see how it goes. At the top of my list to be revisited is the picture book manuscript I drafted this summer. It’s a story that’s been in my head and notebook scribbles for some time, and it finally came out on paper in July. I put it away as soon as I learned I would be teaching Kindergarten remotely for the entire year. Now that we are nearly four months in, and the dust has settled, it’s time to pull it out again and revisit the story and characters.

I’m thinking that knowing my OLW will “expire” at the end of the month will be just the nudge I need to make things happen. If that doesn’t work out, I can always revisit my plan. Right?

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Call the Cops! #SOL19

 

“The Police were involved.” No teacher out of the building for a week-long PD institute wants to receive a text from their sub with those words in it. Especially when they are a Kindergarten teacher!

Here’s what went down.

• Kindergarten boy asks to use hallway bathroom when classroom bathroom is occupied.
• Said Kindergarten boy doesn’t return after reasonable amount of time.
• Sub goes in search of said boy and can’t find anywhere.
• When returning to classroom to tell co-teacher boy can’t be found, sub finds said boy hiding under coats in cubby area. Said boy find this hilarious. Sub does not.
• Sub scolds boy and then hauls him to School Counselor’s office. Counselor is running the show while the Principal is with me at PD.
• Counselor scolds boy. As she is sending sub and boy back to class, she spots School Safety Officer making his rounds and calls him over.
• Safety Officer scolds boy and then sends him and sub back to class.
• Mom and Dad aren’t amused when they learn of said child’s inappropriate and unsafe choice.
• Said boy significantly scared within an inch of his not-quite-6-year-old self.

How was your Monday?

 

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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday. Won’t you join us?

#OneLittleWord #SOL19

Happy New Year! The first day of the new year seems to be the perfect time to share my One Little Word (OLW) for 2019 and reflect on 2018’s word — write. (Click here to see a brief video of how a OLW can be a thread that weaves its way through life’s tapestry.)

Write I did! As much as I would have liked? No, but does anyone ever accomplish as much as they would hope? Enough to feel good about? Yes! A few highlights included:

• keeping a daily writing notebook, special projects mini note books, and launching my first bullet journal specifically to capture and nurture ideas for future (or not!) use
• participating in my first month-long February Daily Poem Project on Facebook, an ekphrastic poetry challenge spearheaded by author/poet Laura Shovan throughout the month
• slicing daily in my second Slice of Life (SOL) Challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers blog, writing 31 straight daily posts
• writing alongside (albeit virtually) author/poet Amy Ludwig VanDerwater during her National Poetry Month Project in April, writing and sharing a new poem every day, each highlighting a different poetic technique discussed in her brilliant Poems Are Teachers (Heinemann, 2017)

That was three straight months of daily writing, creating, and publishing. By May, I was exhausted, but strangely energized, so I also:

• continued to post to #SOL and #PoetryFriday (almost) weekly
• discovered Teach Write and wrote two #TeachWrite Chat Blog posts, which you can read here (Poetry Midwifery in Kindergarten) and here (What I Believe About Writing)
• took my first Teach Write Academy online class in July and August and signed up for another beginning tomorrow night
• took a leap and hosted my first Poetry Friday roundup in August right here

Now onto 2019’s word!

2019 is going to be all about moving and moving forward, both body and mind. My husband and I have lots of fun walks and hikes planned, including a special trip in July. Santa brought us snowshoes, so we are just waiting for snow. And those InkJoy Gel pens (0.7mm, please) will keep moving forward, too, scribbling across notebook pages even more than in 2018. Promise!

Onto 2019! Let’s get a move on!

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Many thanks to the crew at Two Writing Teachers, and the extended SOL community, for giving us the time, space, and encouragement to live the writerly life here each Tuesday. Won’t you join us?