Back in the Day

I have several students this year who are voracious readers. These kids read a couple of hundred pages a day and power through 4 or 5 novels a week. Do they stop to think about what they've read? Probably not very often, and so I try to engage them in conversation about their reading, even beyond our class assignments. The other day, a student was telling me about a series of books she had recently discovered and that she was enjoying very much. "You know what?" she said. "I've decided that I really like old-fashioned books."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Like books published in 1988," she explained, "there's just something quaint about them."

Life in Century 2.1

Today I reserved the laptop cart for my students to work on an assignment. Second period, three kids to a table, laptops open, room is silent, because everyone's engrossed in typing their writing piece, and one student looks up. "Wow. It's just like Panera or Starbucks in here," she notes. There are a few nods of agreement, and then everyone goes back to their own screens.

Keep it Short

Sometimes I wonder if I ask too much of my students. I understand the value of high expectations, and I'm not proposing a lower bar for quality, but rather for quantity. I believe that if we shorten what we ask for, but demand that the product be well-considered, well-written, and well-edited, then we are helping the students and ourselves.

I'm still working out the details, but it all started with Nancie Atwell's proposition that examining and composing free verse poetry can teach almost any writing lesson, and as a result, over the past few years, I've developed a fondness for the "micro assignment." I've decided that I want my students to write briefly, but exquisitely. Kind of like the writing equivalent of an amuse-bouche-- in the cooking world, it's widely believed that if you can execute that one perfect bite, you're golden.

Facilitator's Blues

That writing project PLC that I'm facilitating met today. Early in the year we agreed to reflect on our teaching and write about it regularly. Way back in September, people felt like 2-3 times a week was an achievable goal. Flash forward to a rainy Wednesday in December. Three of the original participants were not able to make the meeting today, so our group was eight. Seven had writing. Most had composed what they brought specifically to have something to share with their writing group. Not quite what we had in mind, and because I'm in a group myself, it was hard to tell if people think that these meetings are time well spent.

The other part of our session was spent talking about teacher blogs. Last time, everyone agreed to read a few and write up a brief "blog talk" to guide our conversation about this relatively new publishing opportunity. How are teaching blogs valuable? would have been the guiding question had I put it on the board. There was some interesting discussion about what's out here in the blogosphere, but my impression was that not many of the teachers in the group view edublogs as either a valuable resource or a viable outlet for expression.

We don't meet again until February. When this PLC was originally proposed, I expressed my reservations about how little time was available to meet, and I still wonder what writing project objectives can be achieved in seven hours spread over eight months. Ultimately, though, I realize that my role is to provide an opportunity. What everyone does with it is up to them.

NaNoWriMo No Mo

First day free of the chains, and I've found liberation to be a little disappointing, although I am looking forward to spending a bit more time reflecting on my classroom, my students, and my teaching. (How possessive does that sound?) I've missed it.

NaNoWriMo Day 30: 33.7%

I'm satisfied with my effort for my first NaNoWriMo, and I wouldn't rule out trying again next year, maybe even with a partner or team, so that we could get together and write and cheer each other on, too. That would be great.

I do plan to continue to write a little bit every day until I finish the first draft of this story. I'll continue to post my word count, too.

“Give me a minute,” she said, returning to the cabin and dressing as silently as possible. As she slipped out the door to meet her brother, the sun was just rising, and the day promised to be hot...

...Claire narrowed her eyes. “Summer camp and pranks go together like baked beans and franks,” she said. “The trick is to never let it get personal.” She sighed. “Don’t worry, there’s a work order in for your door—it will probably be fixed before you get back from the survival campout.”

Word count: 16847

NaNoWriMo Day 29: Sunny Sunday

The weather was way too nice to stay inside today.

“How about worms in their beds?” Dana suggested. “That would be gross.”

Hannah laughed. “Yeah it would.”...

...“5:30,” he answered. “I need to go back to the meadow to see if there’s a trail or something, so I can make sure that the thing I hit last night is okay. Come with me?”

Word count: 16466