Seeds

Many years ago I felt lost when thinking of how to teach writing. I was not a writer myself and grew hopeless when wondering where to start. I found Lucy Calkins Units of Study and fell in love with the metaphor of the seed vs. watermelon stories.

Today I found myself frazzled at the end of the day. It amazes me how little time I feel that I have at the beginning of the school year. I feel that I’m constantly racing to get things done only to stop at the end of the day and see everything I didn’t do. This year I’m making a conscious effort to look for the seeds that show what is going well and marvel over them.

Seeds of our tenth day together:

·      Sharing Colby Sharp’s video (Can view it HERE) and having students rush to check-out Babymouse, say they wish he was their teacher, and comment on his passion for life.

·      Sharing book trailers for Dragon’s Tooth (HERE), Babymouse for President (HERE), and The One and Only Ivan (HERE). Crying as I watched that one and telling my students the story of IVAN.

·      Listening to Delaney tell me that Because of Winn-Dixie is one of the best books EVER MADE and agreeing with her.

·      Having Lexie share her thoughts of Marianne Malone’s The Sixty-Eight Rooms. She said that she thought it was amazing and couldn’t stop telling me her thoughts of Jack and Ruthie. I’d agree.

·      Having students begin collaborating on Google Drive.

·      Reading the point in Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library where Kyle is headed to the lock-in. Having them beg me not to stop.

I looked around my room at 3:45, trying to gather everything to go home. In my earlier years I would always stay until at least five. Now I have children to get home, homework to help finish, and dinner to cook. I grabbed items that I could work on after they were bed and sighed, knowing how much there was to do. But then I thought of the seeds – the bright spots. We’ll get there soon. Until then, I’ll hold on to those moments each day.