Month: March 2016

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

On Friday, my professional development was thought-provoking and gave me a lot of food for thought. Part of the morning was about Trauma-Sensitive Care in schools. This portion of the morning gave me a lot to think about and made me reflect quite heavily on the trauma that I experienced as a child and teenager. Hearing the information about how certain things might trigger a child even if they are in no apparent danger, really brought me back to my late teen years and even the early years of my marriage in which we navigated some muddy waters because things in our home would trigger my trauma brain.

Then, later in the morning, we were treated to this Ted Talk as part of our training about Educator Effectiveness in Wisconsin. We were delving deeper into the Professional Responsibilities domain of the Danielson framework and in the training we were to reflect on how this message might relate to how we advocate for our students. I thought this message really went hand in hand with the trauma care piece of the morning. If you haven’t seen the Ted Talk “The Danger of Silence” go watch it now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

 

 

Some great things to think about here, right? I think what struck me the most about this piece was the way this teacher asks his students to “Tell Your Truth.” I love the spoken word poem and I love the way he focuses on the silences and times when he should have spoken up. Don’t we all have times in which we should have spoken up, but we didn’t?

This training, both pieces of it, struck a chord in me. I have been hemming and hawing and turning some ideas over and over again in my brain. I have some truths to tell. They have been buried in me and have been clamoring to get out since early last fall. But I struggle with the truths. How much of this stuff is not mine to tell? What if telling my truth hurts someone? It is possible that this could be the case.

The biggest truths that I have to tell have to do with forgiveness for wrongdoing that never was acknowledged as such by the person who did it. My truth deals with trauma that changed the way I reacted to other people. It changed me into someone who avoids conflict. It gave me a part of my brain that had a panic reaction with certain triggers. It traumatized me. And, the truth is that it is still something that I have inside of me. I thought I had moved on from it. I have healed myself, I have become confident again. I had even let go, I thought. Until I started to meditate this year. Some of the guided meditations I did brought up the resentment that I thought I had done away with. So now, I am thinking about forgiveness. How do you forgive someone for something that affected you so much? Is it too late to forgive them if they have already passed on? And if you stay silent, how dangerous is it really if it only affects you?

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

We had trauma sensitive training today at school and it really made me think of some of the trauma that I had as a child and teen. This is just a short poem about my most traumatic event, which happened during the summer before my freshman year of high school. It certainly is something that colored my experiences in school, and I was lucky to have some teachers who were able to understand that sometimes very small things can trigger very big emotions. This training has really got me thinking about trauma and the way we all deal with it. I need a little bit of time to process, but I will most likely be posting more about my thinking soon.

That Day

He came home sick that day.

It was a summer day like any other that day.

He told us not to panic that day.

He called his cardiologist that day.

Did he lie to us about the conversation that day?

We went about our day.

We went to the pharmacy to get more Nitro that day,

Just in case.

He napped on the couch that day.

My little sister went next door to play that day.

My mom screamed.

I called for help.

I ran to get the neighbor.

My mom kept screaming.

We waited for the sirens that day.

He was staring into space.

He was not responding.

He stopped breathing.

They took Dad to the hospital that day.

We got bad news that day.

Our world turned upside down that day.

 

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

It’s really interesting to me how the world has embraced the World War II slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On.” On the surface, I completely understand the way people can relate to the words and it can even become somewhat of a personal mantra to get through stressful times. However, knowing it’s history, I find it hard to swallow the slogan. There are bomb raids happening all over London, and I’m supposed to keep calm?! I think it makes a lot of sense that the officials at the last minute chose not to post these posters.

But I also find it fascinating that so many people in our modern world are so quick to glom onto this phrase when so many people clearly do not “Keep Calm.” There are so many instances of road rage and people screaming at the clerk at the fast food restaurant, and fights in public places over some perceived affront. How about the “venting” that we all do? Why are we so quick to be so negative all the time? Possibly it is precisely because so many people find it hard to deal, in a calm and refined way, with things that inconvenience them  that this phrase became a widespread fad. People are in awe of the fact that someone might be able to actually keep calm and carry on with their life.

The other thing that is interesting to me is this acceptance of the status quo that is inherent in the acceptance of this slogan. What about the times that it is best not to keep calm and carry on, but to get angry and do something about it. I don’t mean that you necessarily need to be stupid angry like the examples above, but maybe empowered is a better word. Why should I keep calm if there is something that needs to be rectified? I might get quite charged up and then respectfully deal with the situation. Why should I carry on doing something that doesn’t work? Maybe I need to stop and rethink before continuing.

Whichever way you look at it, I find it difficult to jump on this bandwagon. No matter which new thing I might be doing after I Keep Calm, I will always have a tough time with it. Maybe I can start a new fad, with a new catchy phrase: Be kind and Empathize. Stay tuned for the t-shirts, mugs, internet images, and other merchandise that are sure to come once this one takes off.

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

I signed up to participate in a 7-day Blog Like a Pro challenge with Jeff Goins.

I am already 2 days behind because I was late coming across it and because I am stymied by the first challenge.

First blogging challenge: Write your manifesto.

Sounds simple. I have strong beliefs. I know the messages I want to send. I can define myself. But can I define my blog? I think I need to do this before I can really figure out my manifesto.

Who am I? Reader. Teacher. Positive Thinker. Writer.

I have MS, but this is not something that defines me most days. I am working to get healthier all the time. I am a bit obsessed with barre classes and I have been eating almost no grains and a lot less cheese and sugar than I used to eat. I started using doTerra essential oils and I know I will be promoting those also.

What is my message? Do I have a message? What purpose does this blog serve? Eek! I don’t know. I started out wanting to share more of my book choices with my students. This really is not the purpose of this blog any longer. I have built connections with other educators and this is a big part of this blog now.

There are two things I write about most often. My classroom and my reading. But I also sometimes write personal things. The link-ups on Monday and Saturday help me to be consistent on the blog. I definitely share my reading once a week. I definitely share glimpses of the good things I am doing in my classroom once a week. I sometimes share other things. During the month of March, I usually share a slice of my life each day. I sometimes do Teachers Write assignments on my blog in the summertime. I think I want my blog to be about teaching literacy most of the time. But do I have anything new or worthwhile to say? That I think is what stands in my way.

I have a hodge-podge blog which is more of a personal blog. I want to have a blog that is more widely shared and that gives people pause with inspirational content. I am working to build the time into my day to write. I have been keeping a better list of ideas for blogging. I am trying to build it.

However, everything I read about making the blog a successful enterprise says that I need a purpose. That makes sense. But how do I choose?  Do I narrow the choices down and define it? Signs would point to yes being the answer to that question.  I better get thinking. Stay tuned for my manifesto…

 

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

There is this kid. Let’s call him Joe. Every day he comes to school and works hard to learn. Some might say that he doesn’t have the desire to learn and that he doesn’t care, but I see the way he straightens up and faces forward the minute I start to compliment students who are doing this. I see how he gets excited for the points I give on ClassDojo.

This kid is not able to read at the same level as his peers. He is not the only one in the class, but he is the most resistant to reading. He chooses books that are way beyond his abilities and then busily pretends that he is reading them. Sometimes, it is okay that he does this. Sometimes he chooses nonfiction picture books and he learns from reading the pictures. But most of the time, he needs easier books so he can practice reading.

I have been recommending books, buying more books at a lower level, cajoling, requiring, almost begging, and still, most days he does not read because he chooses books that he cannot read. Even when I declare that he must only read the books he has placed in his book box, he is inevitably at the book bins searching again.

He loves book orders, and somehow scrapes together enough money to order a title or two each time. He finds the best looking covers in the classroom library and gets his classmates interested in more books. He likes books. But he can’t read most of them.

Joe is that kid that makes me earn my salary. He is the kid that makes me dig deep in my well of patience and try again today. We made a lot of progress before winter break, but then his family took an extended trip and we started almost at square one again in the middle of January.

But slowly, he is progressing. He is more fluent when reading with the small group. He is more confident about the words he is practicing each day. And yesterday, after taking too long at the book baskets trying to pick a book, he walked back to his desk with books that he can read. He sat down and he read. He did not know that I noticed it. He didn’t do this to please me. He did it to read. And the fireworks inside me silently went off in celebration of this moment. Maybe, just maybe, this kid is finally getting it.

Today, I will conference with Joe. I will show the patience I always show and I will congratulate him on choosing well. I will cross my fingers and hope fervently that we have crossed some kind of line and that this kiddo understands and is ready to be a reader.

Join us in the Slice of Life story challenge. Every day for the month of March, bloggers all over the globe are writing their slices and sharing them on the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Today I was planning a different slice. There is a story about one young man that is bubbling up to the surface. I started to write about him, but this is what popped up instead.

If all else fails, in this class, we are readers.

All you need to do to get our attention is to read aloud to us. We may shout out responses and drive you batty, but we will be reacting to the words in this book. If you try to stop at a cliffhanger we will demand more. We will beg for one more chapter.

We might take some time settling in to independent reading. We may take precious minutes at the beginning of our reading time to adjust ourselves and look for a book and adjust ourselves again and look for another book and adjust ourselves again. We may drive you nuts by asking yet again for help finding just the right book. We might give a little cheer that the book we have been waiting for is finally available. But once the silence descends on the room, it is magical and we all feel it. If you hear whispering, it is usually something we just have to share in our book. If a noisy class walks by in the hallway, we will ask to shut the door. If the group at your table gets too loud, we will shush them. 

We refer to things we have experienced together: the stuffed elephant that we have nicknamed Stella, and sometimes she is Ruby; the endless connections to the world of Rump, even when there is not a very logical connection to it; the pain that Rob experienced in The Tiger Rising and the way we all cried at the end of the book.  We ask to make a reading salad like we did in the beginning of the year. We ask, “Are you going to meet with us today?” because  we can’t wait to talk about the book our group is reading.  We groan when you say “Find a good place to stop and write down your end page.” And sometimes, we beg for more time. More time to spend in the world of our books. 

No matter how bonkers we are that day, you can rely on our calm and this reading space. We have worked to build our stamina. We have worked to improve fluency and comprehension. We have listened to your insistent advice that we need to choose a book at our own level. We are making progress. We are thinking deeply.

We are reading.