Heart for Writing

First I have to make a few comments about a workshop I went to yesterday. It was the All Write Institute and it was so inspiring!  It's like a breath of fresh air and like the first day of spring and summer, a new beginning! It makes me feel ready to begin again.  With the Keynote, I listened to six speakers.  Some of course were the same speakers because I liked Jeff Anderson so much, I went back to hear him twice.  I felt he could help me with what I wanted to learn at this time to help my students the most at this time. With that said, summer brings in things we don't have to do; we don't have to wear winter coats, no worry about snow or shoveling, the lack of ice on the roads makes it so much easier to drive and easier to walk, we don't freeze and have cold breezes that make it hard to breathe in the cold, no fear of sickness like colds or flu, and finally we feel more like being outside (well I don't like cold) so I stay inside more in the winter. Thi...

Hello!  I just had to write today!  I was so inspired again by what Ruth said in her blog yesterday and what another blogger said.  There are so many things in our lives happening but we do have priorities and we manage to always do what is most important to us.  Writing is one of those things.  I knew something was missing.  I loved writing in March and April but when May came, I just fell apart.  No excuses! Sure I have aging parents, school was coming to an end, I had standards to meet and lessons to prepare but the enjoyment of writing could have eased the stress and helped me to cope. Isn't that the way it is? Sometimes, we have to go through things and situations in our lives to really understand what we are missing.  I appreciate all the people who blog and are willing to write down how they feel.  It puts them out there. Sometimes at the risk of being shot down but in the end, the community embraces who you are and identifies wit...

This will be an unusual post.  I am trying to decide what to write about and decide to just write about what comes to mind. I know it is sometimes difficult for my students to come up with ideas and I want them to know that it is sometimes difficult for me as well. Writing isn't always easy for me either.  I have to dig deep for ideas. Sometimes it is about myself, my family, my pets (even though I have none at the moment- I can write about the ones I have had), my hobbies, my children or grandchildren.  I have to stop and think about what I am going to write about. Today I was so excited to see the class and the students in my 6th grade Language Arts class.  They bring excitement and life to class.  I look at them and see potential for the future.  They care about each other. Oh, that doesn't mean that they are always nice to each other, but they act like siblings and they at least respect each other most of the time. They aren't rude and nasty. I appr...

It has been many years since I arrived on the island of Iceland.   However, I still harbor wonderful memories from my time there.   I was only seventeen when I first stepped off the prop plane in Keflavik, Iceland.   It was scary at first.   The bus I was riding on drove over a gravel road through fields of lava.   The land was black and barren. A cold blue sky was clear as crystal lakes I had seen in pictures. At seventeen, life is so exciting. I was ready for adventure and it never occurred to me that I wasn’t going to see my family, pets, and friends for over a year.   I just went with a vision of seeing the world.   All I had to go on was a picture of an older couple, who turned out to be 14 years older than my own parents,   that I was going to live with.   I had found out the last week of my senior year of high school that I was accepted into the exchange program to go to Iceland.   My plans originally were to go to Switzerland, bu...

I’m continuing the persuasive research paper in class.   The students have their notes written.   We marked them with the arguments/counterarguments.   Then they cut them out and pasted them on paper in the order in which they wanted to write them in paragraphs. They wrote their introduction.   Today we worked on beginning to type the rough draft.   I am conferencing with the students while they work on their papers. Tomorrow they will be back in the computer lab to type the whole paper.   They have to add the conclusion.   My goal is to have the paper at least typed by Thurs.   We’ll type the bibliography in the classroom because next week we begin to take our state proficiency test and we won’t have the time nor the computer lab.   I’m excited because most of the students appear to understand what I have asked them to do.   There are a few who do not have all their notes and don’t have the rough draft. These had the notes but have l...

Today I feel somewhat overwhelmed.   We have less than 8 weeks of school left and so much to do.   I am working on a persuasive research piece with my students and today we began reviewing taking notes, paraphrasing and summarizing.   I gave the students some information about their topics so they could take some notes today and possibly tonight so I can help them with their notes tomorrow. I plan to review bibliography so if they are researching, they won’t forget to get the information they need for their bibliography.   It has helped students in the past; otherwise they get to the end and have forgotten where their information came from.   I give them a worksheet to keep track of the information in the correct order. Most of the students have chosen within about eight different topics.   They seem to be pretty passionate about their topic as I discuss it with them. I find as I talk with them and have their three arguments written down that they have a...

This is my first time slicing for the Slice of Life Tuesday.   I don’t start anything small, at least that is what my husband tells me.   I had to go for the Slice of Life Challenge for the month of March 2011.   Started this blog and began my first writing every day, not just one day but everyday and now it has become a habit that I don’t want to break I watched a live webcam this morning on the internet that was streaming baby eagles in a nest.   It was beyond amazing how a bird that is so majestic soaring in the sky, swoops down to take an animal for food, but can be so gentle in a nest of baby fledglings. I couldn’t pull myself away.   I understand the nest was not without drama the day before.   Apparently one of the eagles was cleaning out the nest by picking out the egg shells and accidentally picked up one of the fledglings and pushed it to the edge of the nest and almost knocked it out.   Then it had quite a time climbing to the center to be...