Monday, March 31, 2014

Last Slice of Life for March - Chalk-A-Bration

Slice of Life is sponsored on Tuesdays by Two Writing Teachers. For the month of March we are posting a slice each day on our blog. Join in!

I had great ideas for this last slice of life for the March challenge, but the universe, it seems, is conspiring against me. Last night our internet went out right as I prepared to guest host #titletalk. Then a bat came out of hibernation, apparently, in our basement. So writing last night - not happening. 

Today I figured I'd just catch up at school and get a post written. But first day back, new student, and a back that decided to get worse, not better, led to the decision of a short post.

We came back from spring break today with lots to catch up on. We're beginning podcasts this week and figuring out what that looks like for us. We talked about the Geisel award and Mr. Schu and Mr. Sharp's new challenge. We're deciding if we can participate and how that would work. Wrapping up the slice challenge, I met with over half of the class to look through the month of their writing and talk about how they have grown. 

By 2:15 I knew my students were spent, and so was I. Trying to move around the room, my back would send spasms up, threatening to bring me to my knees. Thinking what we could possibly do for the next twenty minutes before chorus, I remembered that today was the day of the month that Betsy celebrates Chalk-A-Bration. And what I love about my students is that I threw the concept out there - let's go write poems on the playground - and they grabbed it, chalk basket and all. All-in-all, a fabulous Monday.