Slice of Life: Celebrate 3/15

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.


It is rather awkward on days when I double up on challenges, because this blog was created for my writing exercises.  Slice of Life happens here, and the writing I do for Teachers Write in the summer happens here.  However, I have a different blog that is my reading blog.  On Mondays, some Tuesdays, and Saturdays I participate in link-ups on that blog.  Today I have a post to share as part of the Celebrate link-up on Ruth Ayres' blog.  I would love it if you would come over to see my post here.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Slice of Life: Relaxation 3/14

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Today I had the day off after working Wednesday and Thursday nights for conferences.  I was able to just sit and read for hours this morning.  I also took a nap.  Since I have been feeling a little under the weather lately, it was really good to have this time to relax and rest up.  

I love also that I get to cuddle up and watch a movie with my husband tonight.  We chose Austenland, which is completely my choice.  I love Jane Austen and I love the premise of this story.  So far, I am loving this movie. It is definitely making me very interested in buying the book!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Slice of Life: Parent-Teacher Conferences 3/13

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

I just arrived home after two long days of teaching followed by parent-teacher conferences.  On Wednesday and Thursday, we had a thirty minute break after school and then had to be there for conferences until 8pm.  I am beyond exhausted after the two long days and so glad we have Friday off.  

Conferences are always a mixed bag.  I wish every conference could be a glowing report of how each student is excelling and making great effort at school.  I care so much about my students and I wish they all cared about school and doing well.  Most conferences are good ones, because I choose to focus on the positive while bringing up things to work on.  However, I sometimes need to crack down and roll out the barest truth so that a parent understands exactly what is happening. I am still positive with these cases, but I want the students to understand their part in moving forward.  

Tonight, I had one of these conferences.  A student, who is in danger of being held back in 8th grade because of the strict standards in our district, needed to hear the dire truth.  He needed me to tell him that as of right now, he is not passing 8th grade.  He needed his mom to tell him that it is all up to him.  He is an intelligent boy that is capable of so much.  I hope that he heard our message and will start to put forth effort. I will cross my fingers and see how things go on Monday.  

For now, it is time to curl up with a good book and forget about school for a while.  There will be plenty of time this weekend for planning and working.  Now, it is time to relax.  

Slice of Life: Apology? 3/11

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

As I write this, my husband is in the kitchen making dinner.  I had a splitting headache today and am just able to write this because the Tylenol kicked in enough for me to sit up.  I love that my husband will step up and take care of me when I need it.  It made me think of the false apology poems we just worked on in my writing classes.  Here is my attempt at another poem tonight:

This is Just To Say

I have been
sitting here
not moving
a muscle

While you
clean the kitchen
and make dinner.

Forgive me
the couch
is wonderful
so comfortable
and warm.

Slice of Life: Perfectionism and Failure 3/10

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

As a perfectionist, I have to make a conscious decision to keep doing something once I have made a mistake.  My whole being wants to say, "it will never be good enough now so why bother?"  I have to force myself to get through this hurdle and keep going.  As I have gotten older, I have developed different ways to get myself to lighten up.  However, it takes a lot of self-discipline to keep myself from negative self-talk.  I tend to berate myself the way I would never do to anyone else.

It can be a very small thing.  For example, last night I forgot to get cash out when paying for groceries.  It took me a good five minutes to stop beating myself up over that simple mistake. So when it comes to bigger things, there is always a struggle to keep myself on an even keel.  "Nobody is perfect" becomes my mantra and I try to live with that.  Failure is a part of life, and everyone needs to be able to deal with it.  In fact, failing at something is sometimes the way to learn.  Making mistakes is how we learn.  I teach that to my students all the time.  I want them to be able to make mistakes and cope with it and in fact embrace the mistake and learn from it.  Therefore, I need to be able to do the same.

Last week I failed.  I was not able to keep up with the daily writing of blog posts.  I wanted to do it, but I was exhausted and feeling the pressure of report card deadlines looming.  I didn't get it done.  I missed 4 days of blogging.  I no longer will be perfect at completing this challenge.  This eats at me, and I almost didn't get back into it.  When I had missed one day, I was disappointed but ready to continue.  Then I missed 2 days, then 3 days, then 4.  It was a big challenge to not throw my hands in the air and say "why bother?"

Since I am having some health issues, I may miss more days.  I will try not to, but I cannot promise I will get here every day to blog.  This does not mean that I cannot still get a learning experience from this blogging challenge.  It doesn't mean that I can't still make writing a priority most days.  I will do what I can.  My perfectionist brain will have to deal with it.

Reflecting on my own perfectionism really makes me think about my students.  I wonder how many of them share this type of challenge.  I wonder how many of them waste time with the negative self-talk and give up on things when they don't think they will be able to be perfect.  I wonder how many of them hear me when I say that mistakes help us learn, but don't really believe it.  I wonder what I can do to help these perfectionist students to keep going even when they know they won't be perfect.  I can start by leading by example.

Here is my day 10 post.  I won't win a prize, I won't be perfect, but I will stick it out and learn from it.

Slice of Life: Exhaustion 3/5

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Today I am so exhausted I can't see straight.  Ever notice how when you are tired the world seems to move at a faster pace? I have been super fatigued the last few days and all I want to do is sleep. Is there a pause button on the world? Wouldn't it be great if we all could press pause every once in awhile and take a nap?

Tonight, I would use that power if I had it.  I hope to be able to finish some of my grades tonight and get something started in my report cards before I fall asleep.  Wish me good luck!

Here is a Haiku that goes with my general feeling right now:

Glorious bed waits
Eyes need to stay awake
Deep sleep comes tonight

How are you feeling today? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Slice of Life: Sprecher soda 3/4

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Over the weekend, my sister and her husband and my niece stayed at our house for a visit.  Since my brother-in-law is on an epic quest to try many different beers (he actually has a spreadsheet and is working through the list of beers that judges in beer festivals have to try to be able to define certain beer types), we decided to tour the Sprecher brewery.  Now, in Milwaukee we have multiple brewery tours available to us so it is sometimes hard to decide.  Since my sister and I were planning not to drink this weekend, we chose Sprecher because they have sodas as well as beer at their brewery.

Since we have done multiple brewery tours, the actual tour was pretty boring. What was interesting was hearing about the soda-making process and the way that root beer outsells everything.  The end of the tour when they give beer samples was the best part.  Normally, I would be sampling right alongside my husband, but I had been under the weather lately so I decided not to have beer.  At Sprecher, they give unlimited samples of their sodas in the beer garden.  This was AMAZING!!!  The sodas are so delicious and there is so much variety in what is available.  There are flavors like raspberry, blueberry, grape, orange cream, cherry cola, and of course root beer.  I now will be a bit obsessed with Sprecher soda for a while.  I really wish it were good for you!

I highly recommend this brewery tour if you ever are in Milwaukee.  Even for the beer drinkers, sampling sodas between beer samples would be a great way to extend your time there.  I know it hit the spot for me on Saturday!

Slice of Life: It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3/3

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Every Monday, I write a blog post on my other blog to update my reading for the week.  It is an awesome way to keep track of what I am reading and what my reading plans are.  I really enjoy the community of readers/bloggers who post each Monday and my TBR pile is ridiculously tall because of these blogs.  

If you are interested in reading my It's Monday! post click here.

Slice of Life: Report Cards 3/2

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

This week, I need to get my report cards ready to send home.  I have to turn them in on Friday and my principal will then read them and give feedback so that we can correct them and have them ready to give out next week.  I always dread this time of year because I feel like there is so much information that we need to share with parents and this is such a short (and confusing) document.

A few years ago, we switched to a standards-based report card.  This means that I give students proficiency scores on each of the standards in each area rather than giving one letter grade for each subject.  I am glad that we report student progress in this way, but there are so many people that are confused by our system that it makes report card day a dreaded time in my building.

Compounding the problem is the fact that I work in a large urban district and the students are far from proficient in many categories.  Helping parents to understand that the effort score is really what tells them if their child is doing everything they can to make progress is very difficult.  Our society is so set in the traditional grading system and so many people think that grades are all about jumping through the hoops and handing things in.  I don't know what the solution is, but I do wish more people would understand that a score of Basic or even Minimal in a standard does not automatically mean that the student is not doing everything he/she can do and making progress.

The last few years have been extra frustrating because by the time I get students in 8th grade, many of them are very far behind.  Getting 8th graders to understand that doing "extra credit" is not going to change their score (unless the extra practice helps them get proficient) is really challenging.

As I enter into this week in which every waking hour will be spent grading and writing report card comments, these thoughts scramble through my head.  I hope that with the comments I write parents will be able to understand how their child is really doing in school.

Slice of Life: Family 3/1

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

I am so excited to participate in this challenge again this year.  I have not been so great at getting to the Tuesday slices, and I am excited to make writing a priority during this month.  Last year, the challenge helped me to start writing more regularly on my blog.  I am hoping this year the challenge will be habit forming to get me consistently writing daily.

This morning, as I am writing this, my sister and her family are sleeping upstairs.  It is so fun to see her and my brother-in-law. We always enjoy their visits.  This time it is super special, because it is the first time they have come home with the baby. My niece is ten months old and so fun to be with.

The best part of the night last night was watching my dog and the baby together.  So precious! The baby loves doggie kisses and was laughing and playing with the dog. I love seeing such cute moments happening.

Our family time is precious since we live so far apart.  My sister lives in California and we live in Wisconsin.  It is so amazing to spend family time enjoying each other.