A Teacher's Ruminations

I've set a goal for myself of writing every day for at least ten minutes. It's not working. Most of the writing I'm doing is because I have a deadline that's either imposed internally (blog entry) or externally (doctoral paper). Without the deadlines, I'm not writing during those self-appointed ten minutes every day. Of course, I write emails, notes to parents, comments on school documents, etc. But that's not the same as disciplining myself to write for ten minutes whether or not I have to. I need to revert this trend as it stultifies my goal. I want to be writing for the sake of writing as that is the only way to get at anything worth writing about. Make sense? It does to me. I need to write, every day, for 10 minutes even when I don't have a deadline. There are now three article ideas running through my head and that's all that's happening - they are running through my head. I need to transfer the ideas in my head to paper. Just yeste...

Every year, without fail, I am confronted with the dilemma of how to encourage my students to write a lot without compromising drawing as a form of expression during writing workshop. While I understand that drawing is important to writing at this stage and that a drawing can be as intricate and detailed as a piece of writing without pictures, I am still conflicted when I see children who draw flowers, candy canes, and the like just because they have the choice. At the same time, I have to remember that I must take the children where they are in order to get them to go where they can go next. But, should I limit the amount of drawing the children do? Should I "require" writing to happen before drawing? And, what does all this seemingly aimless drawing tell me about my lessons and my students' grasp of what I've been trying to teach? As I write this I remember a wise teacher once saying that we need to eliminate the shoulds and musts from our vocabulary. Hmmm......

Recently, several families at my school experienced the devastating effects of a fire that left five families on their block without a home. Fortunately, no one was hurt but one family at our school lost all of their belongings. The different communities this family belongs to have offered various levels of support as they look for other places to live and try to reconstruct their lives. Some people are offering monetary support and some are just providing a bed to sleep in for the children and parents. Our principal sent a letter to all the families in our school detailing the situation and asking parents to consider making a donation for this family in our school. On the back of the principal's letter there is a simple drawing and a brief note from one of my former students. Having been evacuated in the early morning hours and probably wondering herself if her home and family would be safe, she wrote a simple missive to her friend calling her a hero. My former student'...