I love linking up to a wonderful celebratory community, inspired by Ruth Ayres, every Saturday!
- I celebrate Saturday mornings - they are always cause for celebration - sleeping in, reading, walking the dog, time to read Choice Literacy (my writing and planning partner, Megan Ginther, has a great article in Big Fresh this week on peer-evaluation) and Celebrate this Week blogs, updatimg Goodreads, drinking lots of coffee, etc. I love them!
- I celebrate my youngest daughter's appointment as a blogger for her business fraternity, Pi Sigma Epsilon at The Ohio State! Read her first blog post here! We'll be joining her later today for Parents' Weekend.
- I celebrate travels. Ed and I had a great time in D.C. last weekend. We had perfect autumn temperatures and sunshine the whole time. One of the highlights was seeing the Library of Congress. We have been to D.C. before, but we had never visited the Library. It is stunning. So beautiful! I enjoyed seeing Thomas Jefferson's book collection.
- I celebrate when my students agree we need more time in our ELA classes (we only have an hour)! This sounds funny, but what joy it is to hear them groan when I say it's time to switch. One student even said she never checks the clock in my class, and it goes by so fast. That's because we're having fun! Yay!
- I celebrate Slices of Life and Kidblog! We have been spending the last three weeks looking at mentor Slices of Life and comments, and students are writing their own. I've wanted to get my kids blogging for a couple years now, but haven't really done a good job of it. I'm very proud of their Slices of Life this time around. Taking the time to look at mentor texts and jotting down characteristics and ideas, having them map ideas on Georgia Heard's Heart Maps, and writing rough drafts in their notebooks first have made all the difference. I'm loving seeing their thoughtful and thorough comments, also. Their enthusiasm makes all the time and effort we've put in to them worth it. I can also tell they're getting new ideas for writing as they read each other's slices. Their weekly Slice of Life requirement is going to encourage lots of writing this year, and I'm thrilled about it!
Off to read about other celebrations!
Holly, I love your photos from DC. Wow! I just added the Library of Congress as places I must visit! Mentors are powerful. I'm inspired by they way you reflected on the impact of them in your classroom. Happy writing!
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Today I celebrated what seemed like three Saturdays because I was on fall break. Love those days off! My students finally started blogging this week. With our short periods, it has taken us a long time. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteWoo Hoo!! What great celebrations!!! I love DC too...living so close, I don't go into the city enough. I need to do that more! We, too, are revising our slices and I'm loving them this year!! Can't wait to see your students blogging too. Join us!!! We'd love to blog together. :)
ReplyDeleteA weekend in DC - a great way to spend time with your husband. Students feeling that times fly by fast in a class is wonderful. You know that time is well spent then.
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing your DC pics on FB, Holly. Glad it was a great time. Congrats to your daughter and her blogging, and it's nice to hear that your students want more. It doesn't get better than that compliment. Have a lovely weekend!
ReplyDeleteI love DC! We haven't been for almost 15 years. (Can that be?!?!?) The Library of Congress looks stunning, I would love to go there! Great things to celebrate! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous pictures. How wonderful that your students are so engrossed in your classes that they don't want them to end! That everyone is that engaged is wonderful!
ReplyDeleteHolly, what a great week of celebrations you had. My daughter lives in Washington, DC so I am on my way to visit her for the NCTE Convention. Will you be there?
ReplyDeleteI just commented on your daughter's blog post-wonderful for her first time out.
ReplyDeleteI love your celebrations: the travel, Saturdays, and that your daughter is blogging. Way cool.
ReplyDeleteHooray for Kidblogs! I'm so glad you got your kids blogging. Are their blogs public? I'd love to add them to our blogroll. For the National Day on Writing, we did a comment invasion challenge. My students enjoy invading other blogs and leaving comments.
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