#celebratelu: Students and Teachers Are Slicing

It started, innocently enough, during a break in teacher-interviews as we discussed her "less-than-excited-to-write-third-graders."  I suspect I threw out something about Donald Graves, my guru, and writing for real, meaningful purposes about self-selected topics.  (I usually refer to Donald's powerful-to-me-message at moments like that!)  Next thing I knew, we were planning a Slice of Life Challenge for the After-Testing season! It was only a few days later that I realized this "writing-virus" had spread to the classroom next door.  There lots of students writing every school-day for a month! Our hope is that writing more about subjects we know and love would produce some writing that came from the heart and inspired us to write in order to understand and clarify our world.

Today, when they came into the reading-writing room, they proudly shared their SLICES OF LIFE NOTEBOOKS!  We don't have wi-fi yet and a laptop cart is still on the horizon; however, the SLICE-OF-LIFE challenge was really happening in my hallway!

So yesterday, I discarded my plans, picked up a piece of paper and encouraged my reluctant writers as I brainstormed aloud!  We wrote...I smiled...and I knew that while my world is in shambles these days, I still am still "inspiring" students and teachers to live readerly and writerly lives!
This morning, I celebrate the power of just a few moments of collaboration!