Ending, Cleaning, and Organizing

Fourteen days left with the students. The school year is coming to an end. It's a time of wrapping up and closing and with that comes reflection. Thinking about where we started and how far we've come. The end of this year is different for me as I am packing up and leaving this school. This school where I discovered my true love...working with the middle school student. It's time. It's the right time. I've been offered an opportunity to open a brand new middle school, which is a new opportunity for me. I have all of the feelings that go along with transitioning...anticipation, excitement, worry, sadness, loss, and wonder. My challenge right now is to stay present in the moment with the students. I find when I'm able to do that, I am able to grasp the most joy.  Practically speaking, arrangements must be made to clean out years of memories and teaching, before I move. I've dreaded this, until last night when I heard a comment that stopped me in my tracks.  Last night I attended a class about Bullet Journaling at this cool studio called Create N Take. I've journaled before, but I needed a refresher and wanted to hear some new ideas. It was a small group, there were only four of us. One of the women was saying something about the time it takes to create the layouts in the bullet journals and the teacher quietly replied, "It's self-care. You need to take the time to show yourself some self-care and by setting up these pages, that's one way to do it." 

I'd never thought of bullet journaling as self-care, but of course, it is! 

Cleaning and organizing is a form of self-care too. It's all in the perspective. I've been dreading cleaning and packing up, but now I find myself hearing those words and looking forward to showing myself some self-care. We all could use more of that! 

Thank you to Margaret for this linkup! 

Join us and share your post here.

Long Distance Connections

Join us at Margaret's blog for digital literacy posts every Sunday!

Being a teacher is hard. I adore my job, but make no mistake...it's challenging. I'm grateful for those who make my job easier! Colleagues, strong administration, supportive parents...I'm blessed to have all of these. I also have a powerful PLN. Teachers from around the country (around the world) who share my passion and who share their expertise and ideas! 

How do I connect with these teachers? It starts here, on the blog. I write and they read and comment. Relationships begin to develop. It continues on Twitter. We chat and share resources. We ask each other questions. Last year I was lucky enough to meet so many of these teachers at a national conference, NCTE. 

How do we keep in touch? Currently, I am in an amazing online writing group that meets weekly via Google Hangout! It's the best way to begin a Saturday morning, by sharing our weeks and our writing. 

Yesterday I enjoyed another Google Hangout with some other teachers. We had plans we wanted to make and online wasn't enough...we needed to talk. Julieanne, in California, and Margaret, in Louisiana, and me, in Virginia...sat and talked for a couple of hours via Google Hangout. 

The hardest thing about Google Hangout is finding the time (especially across three different time zones)...and making sure the internet works.

Our talk left me feeling inspired and grateful. I am amazed that I work with teachers all over the country. I consider them mentors. Technology has changed my life as a teacher!

Five Minute Friday Blog Posts

Thank you to Margaret Simon for starting DigiLit Sundays. Join us here!

This past Friday, I asked my students to blog (write) for five minutes...and ONLY five minutes. Like so many good ideas, I borrowed this from someone else. One Friday about a month ago, I noticed the post on Ruth Ayres' blog was tagged, Five Minute Friday. I clicked the link and found Kate Motaung's blog. I tried Five Minute Friday myself and enjoyed it. The idea stuck in my head until this week...I shared it with my students.

I wanted to make it meaningful for my sixth graders. While reflecting about including this in my plans, I thought back so many years ago to the summer I participated in the Northern Virginia Summer Writing Institute. While watching presentations from these talented and creative teachers, they would ask the participants to write. "For the next seven minutes, write..." Every time this happened, I FROZE. I can still remember hearing pencils scratching furiously on pages around me. I worried. I wondered, "How do they know what to write? I can't think. Where do I start?" Then I sighed and continued the barrage of anxiety, "I've wasted two minutes. I'll never get anything down on paper. I'm a terrible writer." I often faked my way through discussions on what we just wrote because the time sent me off on an anxiety-ridden journey. That was so many years ago. And it rarely, if ever, happens to me anymore. I wondered why? Why am I able to write on demand now? Why couldn't I do it then? One word...Practice. 

I've been writing so much since that summer. I've attended so many presentations, but most importantly, now I write WITH my students. Practice. Practice. Practice. It doesn't make perfect, but it gives me faith that the words will be there. They will come. I needed faith that summer...faith in myself. THAT is what my students need. Faith that the words are in them! 

This Friday we talked a bit about what Five Minute Friday was and because it was the first time, I showed them a video to prep them before we wrote. The topic was, "Look for the Helpers". I borrowed that phrase from Mr. Rogers and showed a video that explained what he meant. 

After the video, I gave the students a minute to turn & talk. Next, the blogging started. I set the timer for five minutes. I blogged on the screen while my students were writing because I knew this would be hard for some students and I wanted them to have a model. 

After the timer sang, my instructions were to close computers and let's talk about this. I asked one question, "How was that process?" Some LOVED it! They finished in five minutes and it seemed easy because it was only five minutes. (I hadn't anticipated that and that response made me so happy!) Many students really didn't like it. Some reported hating it! Their reasons included: 

"I didn't know what to write." 

"I was confused."

"It took me four minutes to figure out what to write and then the timer went off."

"I want to write more." 

"I need to finish."

"It was hard!"

We talked about times in life when we will have to write on demand and we won't have all the time in the world to finish. I informed them that Five Minute Friday was here to stay...and I gave them permission to post or not post their writing for this week. Many posted their writing and included an explanation of Five Minute Friday.

I found their writing clear, succinct, thoughtful, sometimes funny, often personal and just plain good! Here are some examples. Stop by my class blog Crayons & Pencils, if you'd like to read more!

My Everyday Life

Francine's Life Blog Nolan's Sarcastic Blog

Thinglink

Thanks to Margaret Simon for the Digital Literacy link up every Sunday! Join us at her blog!

Loving the site Thinglink! It's a free site where you can add links and text to photos. I'd played around with it last year, but I discovered it was blocked at school. Bummer! Last week I found out that it's now available at school. Woo Hoo! I used it to show links to fellow class blogs...

Here's one I made about myself last year... I can't wait to let my students loose on this site and see what they create! I'd love to hear ideas for other potential uses in the classroom.