Portable Teacher

Last week tweets about The Two Writing Teachers’ Slice of Life challenge (#slice2012) came across twitter just as I was dipping into the stream to refresh myself. 

The challenge demands daily blogging for a month. Eeek! That scares me a little bit, but it also intrigues, excites, inspires. 

The challenge runs the month of March. To get ready for it, I've been reading slicers' blogs and adding them to my Google Reader. I like to organize things. Lists, streams, folders, hashtags, that's where I've started this week. If you are participating and also tweet, let me add you to my slice list. Send me a note @spillarke. Feel free to subscribe to the list--even if you just want to lurk. Twitter lists help me stay organized within a community and that's something I've read a lot about this group, the community.

Last fall I participated in a weekly challenge sponsored by ed-tech guru, Melanie Holtsman. While I enjoyed the writing, I didn't find a community.  Blogging weekly made me feel disciplined and committed to my own writing. Writing about my classroom deepened my sense of purpose. I knew I would be reflecting, not just in my journal, but in public, on my blog. 

The fall challenge last year was a good experience. It pushed my thinking about my own practice, so I’m going to step it up and try it again. Plus, not only do I already know several folks who are participating, a colleague and teacher-friend (Beth Scanlon @scanloe) is going to slice right alongside me. She and I supported each other through National Board Certification (twice since we renewed our initial certificates), so I know we'll encourage and push each other's thinking. 

I’m all in for #slice2012. We start Thursday. Want to give it a go? 

Happy writing!