Slice of Life: Celebrations 11/12

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers
host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

Here is something that I am celebrating this week:

Last week, my students begged to be able to write.  This is the second year that I have participated in NaNoWriMo and I absolutely love the experience!  I knew that my students needed time to prewrite and prepare for this month so all through October we worked on developing characters and plot.

NaNoWriMo for adults means trying to write 50,000 words in the month.  For students, the word count goal is a self-selected number.  Using this chart, I set the requirements for my 8th graders.  They are required to set a goal between 3,000 and 10,000 words, if not higher.  We use the Word Count Goal Calculator on the Young Writers Program website to prove to students that they will be able to write that amount of words.  I love the way that some students challenge themselves with a higher word count goal than they are required to have.

Once November starts, I set aside at least 2 class periods a week for novel writing.  By having students work so much on prewriting in October, I was able to build up their anticipation for NaNoWriMo.  On November 1st, students were silent and writing.  And every day since the students have begged for writing time and cheered when I told them it was a noveling day.  I also offered after school sessions for students who might want to come write.  I was blown away that there were 18 students who signed up for these sessions.  So far, we have spent three separate days after school until 5pm.  Driving home from school after these sessions, I feel so amazing.  I love that I have students who are enjoying writing so much.

Last year, NaNoWriMo was the number one thing that my students wrote about on my end of the year survey.  They LOVED the experience.  This year my students are even more enthusiastic about this experience.  I would not have believed that this would be such a popular writing activity if I had not tried it.

Although I love NaNoWriMo as a class activity, I have realized that NaNoWriMo does not work for me.  I have not spent enough time doing the work to plan out my novels.  I have the ideas but when I sit down to write, I just don't have enough.  I am learning that I am the kind of writer that needs to have plans and outlines.  The quick turnaround time of NaNoWriMo does not allow for this outlining and planning.  Even though I am not loving what is coming out, I am working on a draft so that I can celebrate my word count with my students.

Slice of Life: Injections 11/5

I am slowly, but surely learning about living with MS.  My most recent flare-up seems to have subsided for the most part.  I am glad to know that the ridiculous fatigue I sometimes feel has an explanation, and I have been glad to be able to read some blog posts from others who have these same symptoms.

Last week, I read Climbing Higher which is Montel Willams' memoir about dealing with MS.  I was amazed to read about the severe symptoms he experienced, and about how little they knew about the disease just 15 years ago.  It was eye-opening to read that book.  I hope I continue to have relatively mild relapses if I have any at all.

Last Saturday, the nurse came out to my house to train me for doing my daily injections of medication. My husband and I spent about an hour learning the proper technique for doing the injections and the proper ways to dispose of materials.  I now have a little red sharps container of my very own.

The good thing about this medication is that there really are not many side effects.  The most common side effects are injection site reactions.  Therefore, I need to rotate the different injection sites in order to avoid having bigger reactions.  There are seven spots where I do the injections.  So I basically feel like a giant pin cushion.  Each time I do an injection so far, I get a small reaction.  It feels like a bee sting for about 15-20 minutes and I need to put a cold compress on the spot.  It is a small price to pay for possibly not having to deal with bigger neurological symptoms, but it is uncomfortable.  

In the blog post in which I first spoke of my diagnosis, I wrote that my biggest challenge was that of crossing the line from healthy person to person with an auto-immune disease.  I think that this continues to be the biggest adjustment for me.  The daily injections just highlight this difference in my mind.  So I will continue to despise these daily shots at the same time that I love them for what they may do for me. 

Slice of Life: Connecting Through Stories 10/15

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers
host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

Last week in writing class, I modeled writing about an important moment in my life.  I knew it was important to come up with a moment that might resonate with my students so that they would be able to pick a good moment to write about.  We discussed how a snapshot moment in writing shows instead of telling and I shared a few examples of snapshots.  Then, I started sharing about the moment I had chosen to write about.

I chose to tell my students about the moment that my dog got hit by a car when I was in middle school. I told them that I chose this moment because it was so important to me.  It was the really hard lesson I had in which I realized that it was a good idea to listen to my dad.  I watched as my students nodded along as I told them this.

Then I proceeded to tell them the story.  I was out picking up rotten apples from the ground under the apple tree and chose not to put my dog on his chain.  I thought my dog would stay there with us and he didn't.  We realized my dog was not there and then proceeded to call him.  We were on the other side of the house when we heard the screech of brakes.  When we got there, the dog was still alive but barely. We rushed him to the emergency vet, but he had too much internal bleeding for them to do anything. This was absolutely devastating to me at this age, especially because I didn't follow my dad's directions and I felt terribly guilty about the whole thing.

As I told the story, I filled out the graphic organizer the students would be using.  I talked about sensory details and how I was feeling.  I gave them a piece of my history.

Then, when it was time for them to start writing and I was circulating the room, I was bombarded with questions. What kind of dog was it? Did you get another dog? I also heard the stories from my students. It was overwhelming to hear about the way this story connected with my students.  So many of them have experienced something similar with a beloved pet.

After reading their snapshots this weekend, I realized again how important it is to model in a real way for students.  I chose a real moment that was important to me.  We all connected through this experience and then my students found moments that mattered to them.  And the best part is that I found a way to connect in a deeper way to my students and now I will know them in a deeper way through reading their writing.

So much of what we do in the classroom relies on the relationships that we build.  My writing lesson last week reminded me that the best way to build a relationship is through sharing things that matter to us.  By choosing a moment I thought would resonate with my middle school students, I inadvertently chose a moment that we all could share.

I hope to find more of these moments throughout this year in our writing workshop.

Slice of Life: Feeling Loved

In the last few weeks as I have shared my recent medical issues with my friends and family, the outpouring of support I received was amazing.  I have heard from colleagues, friends, and family.  So many people have sent me messages about prayers and thoughts sent my way.

I am overwhelmed by this.  I am so lucky to have so many caring people in my life.  It makes me think about how important it is to be there for others.  In this age of social networking and the negative thoughts that we see so often, it is amazing to be surrounded with positive thoughts.

I just keep thinking about how lucky I am to have wonderful people in my life that will go the extra mile to let me know they are thinking of me. I am truly blessed and I will work to pay it forward so that others that are not so lucky might feel a bit of this feeling.  I feel loved and am so grateful for that.

Slice of Life: My World Turned Upside Down

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers
host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

Three weeks ago, I came home from school after a long day on my feet, took off my shoes, and put my feet up.  My feet felt weird.  They were feeling kind of swollen but also tingling and like they were asleep.  I figured they were just tired and mad at me...after all it was not too far into the school year and I was not yet used to being on my feet all day.  I went to bed a little concerned but not too worried.

Then I woke up with tingling and numb feet on Tuesday.  I still was trying not to be too concerned, there were a number of things that could explain it.  I had a text conversation with my sister the doctor and decided to just relax and go with the flow.  But she warned me to pay attention if the numbness and tingling started spreading.  Of course, later that afternoon I started to have tingling in my lower legs. Now, I was a bit worried.  I went home and stayed off my feet. If pure willpower had been enough to cure me, I would have been cured.  I did not want to have to go in to the emergency room.  I decided that it wasn't really spreading so I chose not to go that night.  (I was also refusing to be sick because I had organized an author visit at school for the following day)

Wednesday morning I woke up at 3am to the weirdest sensation ever.  My feet felt like they were going to explode out of their skin.  At this point, I was worried.  I requested a substitute and went in to urgent care.  There they ran a bunch of tests, but diagnosed me with neuropathy.  There wasn't anything they could do for it so they sent me home with a new vocabulary word and directions to follow-up with a neurologist.  I went to school at 10am and was able to host the author and it even went better than it would have because my class had the substitute teacher and I could be there just for the visit.  I had a great time meeting Jasper Fforde and seeing students that were really excited to meet a real author (from Wales, no less).

Did I mention that I was walking funny and losing my balance easily?  The three flights of stairs to my classroom seemed extra daunting so I was glad that I wasn't working.  I went home and rested and tried to get a hold of the neurologist for a follow up appointment.  No dice.

The next few days were normal, except for the fact that I couldn't really feel my feet at times, or they were extra tingly and uncomfortable at other times.  Then, on Friday,tingling and numbness started in my groin area.  I talked to my sister the doctor again on Sunday and she insisted that I immediately go to the emergency room.  I guess numbness in that area can sometimes be spinal cord compression and this was something to get figured out.  So, I headed off to the hospital.  They did a whole battery of tests on me.  The doctor in the ER wanted to order a STAT MRI, but didn't think they would let her do that.  This hospital was small and there wasn't a radiologist in on Sunday night so they didn't do the MRI.  She sent me home with a prescription for the STAT MRI and instructions to expect a phone call the next morning to schedule it.

Now I was feeling awful because I was going to miss school for the second day in the first three weeks of the school year.  This was not the way I wanted to start the year.  I stayed home on Monday so that I could schedule the MRI as soon as possible.  I got the appointment for noon on Monday and then played the waiting game.  I got to the hospital, registered, and was brought back to do the MRI right away.  I changed, locked up all my things, and headed off to the MRI machine.  Then, they handed me some earplugs.  I should have expected it but I didn't.  I get super nervous when I can't hear well. Then I was lying on the table and the technician put a cage-like thingy over my head.  I got more nervous. Then, I asked how long this was going to take.  She said about an hour.  That was the last straw.  I couldn't do it.  I did not know I was going to be claustrophobic but this was not happening.  So I had to leave. Because it was an MRI that was ordered by an ER doctor, I didn't have anyone to ask to reorder the MRI with sedation or with anxiety meds.  I went home frustrated and started calling my primary doctor, the emergency department where I had been seen, and the neurologist that I was supposed to follow up with.  Two hours later, when I hadn't gotten anywhere with those doctors, I decided to go back to the ER.  This time, I went to a bigger hospital.

By this time, it was already Monday evening.  I had another long wait in the ER, but because I still had the numbness in the groin, I was a higher priority with the triage and didn't have to wait long to be brought back.  This doctor did not waste time, she reviewed everything that had been done at the other ER and ordered the MRI right away with anxiety meds this time.  She decided to get a scan of my brain as well as the lumbar part of my spine.  When the results were back, the doctor consulted my primary doctor and decided to admit me to the hospital.  They had found lesions in my brain scan and wanted the neurologist to take a look.  Before bringing me up to the room, they decided to do a spinal tap so that the results could be back in the morning.  On Tuesday, the neurologist ordered yet another MRI of the rest of my spine while we were waiting for the spinal tap results.

Tuesday was a long day of waiting.  I did not get on the MRI schedule until the evening so I spent the day watching HGTV and trying to read a little bit.  I think I also slept some as well.  On Tuesday night, the neurologist called to talk to me and let me know the diagnosis.  He had mentioned it in the morning, and I knew that is what they were trying to figure out, but it was difficult to get the diagnosis.  I have Multiple Sclerosis.  I am not crazy.  I am not a hypochondriac.  Those weird symptoms that I always seem to get have a cause to them.  It explains a lot.  But it is not a fun thing to find out about yourself.

Being a nerd, and having a doctor for a sister, I have a lot of research to do.  My sister has already sent me multiple articles to read.  I know what my genius hour project will be about.  I have done some reading but this week was mostly about getting back to normal and catching up at school (I missed the entire week last week).

What has been the most difficult about this time is that the world continues to revolve while my brain stalls a little bit and I just feel like crawling under the covers and hiding from the world for a time.  I know this is not the worst thing that could happen to me by far, but it takes me from the world of healthy people into the world of people with a pre-existing condition.  I have an auto-immune disease. That is hard to fathom.  It is hard to accept.  But I will get there.  I just need a little time.  For now, I hope this flare-up goes away and I can focus on moving forward. One day at a time.

Starting a New Year

Today was my first official day back to school.  I have been working in my classroom for about a week and had learning team meetings last week to write the School Improvement Plan, but now I have to get back to the routine.  The beginning of the school year always makes me think of New Years Day and resolutions.  I think I make more resolutions each time school starts than I do at New Years.  This year, thanks to some great professional reading, my biggest resolution is just to BRING IT in the classroom.

I also am super excited because someone in the district office finally listened to us and the super strict mandates for curriculum and instruction have been lightened this year.  I will be able to teach with Reading and Writing Workshop models and not have to figure out how to connect it to the mandated structure.  I have the most coherent and connected plans for instruction that I have had in the last few years.  Of course, there are still millions of things on my to-do list that need to be done before next Tuesday when students start school.

I am so excited to be setting up our reading community.  Here are a few pictures from the work-in-progress.

The book sorting process. It is much more organized than it has been in the last few years. I love the genre classification stickers from Demco!

I am so excited about this reading door!

My reading door display is much bigger this year.  I had a small display last year and it really started conversations.  This year, I have it up before the staff meeting that will be in my room tomorrow and before Open House.  I can't wait to see what kind of buzz I can create with this display.

For now, I need to take things a step at a time and get ready for the best year ever!

Being a Pirate and Finding Inspiration

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers
host the Slice of Life every Tuesday.

In the last week, I have read two professional books that gave me endless inspiration for the coming school year.  Both books ignited a fire in me and made me look at some hard truths about myself and my school.  

First, I read Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle. I had read Book Love earlier this year so I knew I would love Penny's writing.  What I got out of the book was exactly what I had hoped to find.  The very clear explanations of how she structures her classroom and what units she chooses to teach gave me some direction that I badly needed.  I have been doing Writer's Workshop for more than ten years now.  I started in first grade and moved to fourth and fifth grade and then up to middle school grades.  I have never felt like I got a handle on middle school writer's workshop.  I know we probably do better than I give myself credit for, but I know I can do much better.  

My first a-ha came in the section of the book where Ms. Kittle describes the idea of choice in workshop.  She tells of an interview that Tom Newkirk did with Don Graves in which Don said, "Unlimited choice is no choice at all."  

She goes on to say:

 "I had missed that part. Choice has to be taught: I needed to learn how to help students discover their topics. Students of any age will get discouraged if they just sit and think, trying to find an idea that feels big enough to write about."  

I love when I read about teachers who have had the same struggles as I have had and have found a solution.  I love the way that Kittle balances quick-writes with mini-lessons and now I have a good plan for the daily routine in my classroom.  

The other quote from this book that really jumped out at me was this one:

"I don't have a lot of patience for teachers who stand behind their twenty-year-old lesson plans with the admonition that, 'I'm giving them good teaching but they don't take advantage of it and learn, that's not my problem.' Teachers have to adjust their work to meet the needs of kids. If the kids aren't learning, the first place to look is at the teacher and the curriculum. All kids can write well; I just don't accept anything else to be true. I will work every day (weekends, too) to make it happen for whoever walks through that door. That's professionalism. That's responsibility. I won't pretend this work is about anything less." 

I really appreciate the candor in this. I agree whole-heartedly and I am glad to see that there are teachers who are willing to take their stand in a published work.  This gives me a swift kick in the pants to consider my own professionalism and what I can do differently to help students become good writers.  I am not saying that I haven't already been doing some of this and thinking this way, just that I have room for improvement and I will make it a priority to improve.  

The second book that I read this week that really hit home is Teach like a PIRATE: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator by Dave Burgess.  This was a truly motivational and inspirational book.  It just made me really think hard about what I give students in my classroom.  I thought through my passions and really evaluated my own teaching as I read through his ideas.  One thing has been really bugging me for years.  This idea of professional jealousy that exists in our worlds. Maybe you are lucky and work in a place in which everyone is completely supportive of one another...that is very lucky.  In this book, Dave Burgess discusses the awkward moment that happens in his seminars when he asks the question, "Do you want to be great?" He says:

"I'm sure a certain portion of my audiences want to say 'yes' to the greatness question. Unfortunately, the snide comments and eye rolling of their peers keeps them from admitting what they really want. People who are comfortable and accustomed to traveling with the pack, always riding in the peloton, often resent those trying to escape in search of something more...Believe me, plenty of people will try to drag you back. That's why you must have a goal worth fighting for."

This section hit home.  In 2006, I was fortunate enough to be given a Milken Educator Award. Each year, there are two Milken Educators named in Wisconsin (as well as about 100 educators nationwide) and I was lucky enough to be recognized in this way.  The award comes with a $25,000 prize.  The state superintendent and a whole bunch of other dignitaries showed up at my school for an assembly.  Part of the deal with the Milken award is that the assembly is a complete surprise.  We knew we were having a bunch of important people come to our school but not what it was about.  When my name was called after all the build-up and explanation about the award,  I remember two things.  First, I remember the cheers and screams of the kids in the auditorium.  I have a fabulous picture from the local newspaper of two of my students jumping up and down as if they had won the award themselves.  Second, I remember the scowls on the faces of two of my colleagues.  I was at the microphone, completely shocked and awed that I had been recognized in this way and I faltered in what I would say because I saw these two people glaring back at me.  How awful is that?  I got this completely unsolicited recognition and they could not be happy for me.  My pleasure and celebration that day was tainted by the rumors that I knew would be flying all day. 

This section of Think Like a Pirate brought me back to that day.  I was able to shake off the negativity and continue to strive for greatness, but I really shied away from any opportunity to share what I was doing in my classroom because I let that criticism get in.  I will not let the negativity of others keep me back anymore. There are many ideas I really like in this book, but the best thing that I got from the book was a new motivation to continue to seek greatness in my classroom and a great resource of guidance to help me do it.  

It was the perfect blend of professional books for me to read this week.  I love this time of the year when I start to dream about the possibilities for the new school year.  This year I will go into the school with a renewed spirit and commitment to professionalism and greatness.

I hope all the other teachers out there are finding their inspiration to go start a great school year.  How are you finding your inspiration?  Are you going to be like a pirate too?  Please share in the comments.