Sweet Seven

Happy Saturday!

Celebrate your week. Visit Ruth Ayres Writes for details.

I'm celebrating the end of the first week of the Slice of Life Story Challenge with seven sweet moments that inspired me to love the work this week:

7. A childhood favorite for breakfast one morning: BLT with Peanut butter on my husband's homemade honey wheat bread. A serious treat, so delicious, a good breakfast makes all the difference in my day.

6.  #satchat a weekly Saturday morning Twitter discussion for school leaders co-founded by adminstrator, Brad Currie  - he offers a treasure trove of professional learning opportunities beyond #satchat via his blog and other ventures he records and posts. Listen in or use a piece to begin a conversation with a critical friend on your campus.

5.  Walking with my friend Beth, who slices at Seeking Six, was a great way to celebrate week's end. We even met and stopped to talk with teachers from a nearby Elementary school when our paths crossed. Serendipitous PLC time and collegial conversation, good stuff this walking with friends after school.

4. Sharing wonder. So many posts this week awakened wonder:

Bryan's posts about historical figures (Maurice Tillet and Harriet Quimby)
On Sharon's Wonderland blog a poetic slice "Home"
Linda's reminder this past Monday about the power of memory and service in love. 

3.  Students' sharing stories as they begin to blog for the Slice of Life challenge and  analyzing poetry in our Socratic circle. I loved this week's Socratic Circle discussion for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the level of commitment students brought to the task. They listened to each other. They consulted the text (pictures of it from the book on their phones). My students are the best part of school.

2. Students taking the stage to strut their stuff during Bear Rock Live. It takes courage to stand on a stage and sing (or scream or mix or dance) in front of your peers. Don, pictured above, is from France, he's been learning English and writing poetry in Poetry Club all year. He told us he likes to sing and that he mostly sings, but he wanted to try poetry to help with song writing. Last night, he did a mash-up of John Legend's "All of Me", rap and a slice of French. Floored me. Loved it. Impeccable timing plus limber yet innocent voice equaled a powerful moment on stage.

1. Hank Green lives the  passion my students are just tapping into. I have a Green brother bias; I admit it, but this week I am celebrating Hank's acoustic, punk  cover of "Let It Go" from Frozen. The power in Hank's voice to not only entertain and educate (Vlogbrothers, SciShow, Brain Scoop) but to reveal and revel in a shared spirit of joy and discovery, amazes me and humbles me every time I tune in. Love the work he is doing.

Serve up your slice of life this Saturday.
Link up at Two Writing Teachers.