Expanding the Fanbase

The other day, as our 100-Day Writing Challenge officially began, a student asked me if I would post my writing every day, too. "Since you already write every day, I mean," she shrugged.

"Maybe," I told her, but to be honest, I have long resisted doing just that. For one thing, I don't really want to share everything I write here with my students. Many pieces offer my own private adult perspective on our days spent together, and kind of like teachers talking at lunch, are not always appropriate for kids to overhear. 

Likewise, what I might write for a sixth-grade audience may not be of interest to my adult readers, (as few of them as there are!), so I've chosen just to continue on here, rather than write twice. But there was something about the request that made me think again, and so I decided to give posting with those young writers a chance this year.

It's only been three days, but already I've seen some benefits. For one thing, I can model the type of writing we're looking for. Many students write what we call bed-to-bed posts, basically listing everything they do on any given day, rather than focusing on a single thing, or at least a single theme, for each slice of life. Another advantage was when I wrote about the mouse in my classroom the other day. As I was composing I worked to find good "mousy" verbs, and then I was able to use my writing as an example the next day for a mini-lesson on vivid verbs.

But maybe the greatest upside of publishing a couple of hundred words every day on our class site is that my readership has skyrocketed: I've gone from 3-5 daily readers to 50-100! Maybe it's not viral, but it sure is kind of gratifying.

Just Hang Up

I had a sinking feeling when I reached for my phone at school this morning. Scanning my desk, I saw no sign of it, and when I checked the pockets of my down vest, they were empty, too. My phone was at home.

But? Believe it or not, the day went quite well without it. There were only a couple of times I wished I had it-- once to check a password I couldn't remember and then again when I set out for my walk home; I had planned to listen to an audiobook as I hiked the 2+ miles.

I didn't miss any calls, or texts, or news alerts, or social media posts. The world was fine when I found my phone just where I left it, on the dining room table.

State of the Union

In honor of Presidents Day, I asked kids to name their favorite president. I can't say I was surprised when Barack Obama came out on top. Besides his historic election, he was in office when they were born, and they think he's "nice" and "cool". Plus, they like his daughters.

In second place was Lincoln. Most who chose him had a vague notion about slavery, although one liked that he didn't want to be too hard on the Confederates, and someone else appreciated that he was rumored to keep letters and other things in his stovepipe hat.

Washington was a distant third, because, according to more than a few students, he "created" the country and the office of president. A couple of kids liked that he was a general, too.

Jefferson had a few votes, more because our school is named for him than the Declaration of Independence. Teddy Roosevelt was also mentioned twice because of national parks and hunting. Finally, FDR and Reagan had one supporter each. The first because he led the country through WWII and the second because the student's grandfather was a general who worked for him.

Oh, and President Biden had one mention, too, because he beat Donald Trump and he seems like a nice guy, even though he's old.

Holiday Gratitude

We started our 100 Day Writing Challenge a little earlier this year to give ourselves a bit more time to wrap things up at the end. 

Officially, the event starts tomorrow and ends on May 31, but I gave my students a soft opening by providing them the chance to post from last Wednesday when we introduced the challenge, and I was impressed by the 31 kids who made time to write over the long Presidents Day weekend. It seems like we're going to have a good year.

And as always, I was amused and charmed by some of the content. Today we didn't have school, wrote one student. I'm not sure why we didn't, but I'm happy since I got to sleep late.

Today I thank the presidents for letting every person who goes to school have the day off, wrote another.

At least they are grateful!

Unqualified

I had breakfast with an old friend this morning. Ruth and I have known each other since 1991 when we entered a graduate program in education. After we graduated, I got a job at the school where she was already working, but she gave up teaching in public schools a short while later. Since then, she has done a lot of different things, all in education and theater, her first love.

These days, she and her family live just far away enough that we don't see each other as often as we'd like, so it's always great to have a chance to catch up.

"So what's the deal?" she asked me as we sipped our coffee. "Are you retiring or what?"

"It's so funny that you think I would know that with only four months left in the school year," I laughed, "believe it or not, I still haven't made up my mind."

"What's the holdup?" she said.

I shrugged. "If I had something I knew I wanted to do, I would definitely retire," I told her. "As it is, though, I only know what I'm dreading for next year: a new curriculum, going back earlier in August, all the hoops they make us jump through." 

"There must be so many jobs you would be good at!" she replied.

"Maybe," I agreed. "I'm pretty good at job-doing, but I sure don't have the job-finding skillset. I have had the same job for more than 30 years!"

"I know," she nodded. "I helped you get it."

"See what I mean?" I sighed. 

Poking Along

"So my phone got taken away the other day," an 8th-grader told me recently. She was a former student who had stopped by after school to catch up. Or rather to catch me up with her; I could barely get a word in edgewise.

"What happened was my mom said she was going to take it away, and I said, 'You always say that but you never do!' and then she took it away."

"Oof," I managed before she continued.

"And when I told my world geography teacher, he wasn't even sympathetic! He just laughed and said I poked the goat or something," she sighed.

"It's 'poke the bear'," I told her.

"Whatever," she waved her hand. "I actually like 'goat' better because to be honest, my mom is the G.O.A.T," she reported with a shrug. She looked at me as if I was unfamiliar with the term and clarified. "You know? Greatest of all time? My mom is truly the greatest mom of all time."

"Well at least you don't hold grudges," I said.

Connections

The grand finale of Kindness Week was for each homeroom to collaborate and create a poster that expressed why kindness matters. "The most creative gets a prize," I informed my group, "so let's think about it."

We brainstormed, tossing ideas back and forth, but nothing really captured our attention. "Let's do Connections," suggested a student after a while.

"No!" I said, thinking he meant the NY Times word game we enjoy playing together. "We can't play a game until we have an idea!" Then I turned my head. "Or did you mean let's do Connections for our poster theme?"

He nodded. 

"I think that's genius!" I proclaimed, and the rest of the kids agreed with me. 

So the next day we came up with a list of words associated with kindness and looked for commonalities. We were all crowded around the whiteboard writing, erasing, circling, making suggestions and tweaks until at last we had sixteen words that could be sorted into four not-too-obvious categories. "This is the most fun I've ever had at school," one student said quite sincerely. "It's way better than game day!"

Another student did a little online research and discovered a website that allows you to create your own Connections game, based on the NY Times model. She plugged our words and categories into it, and we created a QR Code to go along with the poster.

"I'm sure we're going to win!" another kid crowed.

"Maybe," I said. "I guess it depends on whether the judges know the game."

"I don't care if we win," said someone else. "This was a good bonding experience for us."

I'd have to agree.

See for yourself: