In the Details

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for 

creating community and valuing teachers' writing. This is post 8 of 31 for 

the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Join us at Two Writing Teachers. 

My students are taking turns writing on our class blog this month. Yesterday I got an email from a student who's post would not publish. 

Her email came through on my phone, but I was out to dinner with family and could not make out the Wordpress Dashboard on my small screen in the dim restaurant. It was late when I got home and realized I'd left my laptop at school, so the solution waited until this morning. 

We connected just before first period. I found the problem quickly. I'd mis-assigned rights to the blog and made her (and a few others) contributors instead of authors. So, I changed the setting on the Wordpress dashboard and published the posts that had accumulated in the "pending" outbox. 

Whew! Problem solved. 

At the end of a class period, there are always loose ends: pressing questions, grading concerns, learning issues, storing concerns (packing away laptops). Each I need to address as I make my way from the room to the hallway. Sometimes the phone even rings during that first minute of our six-minute passing time. 

I know I left adding users to the blog to the end of a class period one day and in the rush to do what needs doing, I missed the type of users I added. I need to adjust how I add users to the class blog next year. I am going to remember to slow down. Less is more as Ted Sizer said and reminds me. No need to rush. I will remember there is time enough for everything if I take my time to work each moment mindfully. Luckily we got the blog users and posts straightened out in less than five minutes. 

I love an easy fix. 

If you'd like to see what my students have been writing about, click the image above to visit our class blog.