Writer's Notebook: Part 1 - Why I Write

   

One of my MANY Writer's Notebooks

     Last week, the hashtag #whyIwrite was trending on Twitter in honor of National Day of Writing (October 20th).  People were sharing their personal reasons for writing and why they see writing as a valuable experience in their classrooms.  My story begins in 3rd grade...

    If it is even possible, imagine a nerdier version of the current me, a 7-year-old that wanted nothing more than to read "The Boxcar Children" and become a country music singer with her two friends.  Yep, read that last line again.  A country music singer.  I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but that was my life goal (well, and to become Miss USA).  I had a teacher that probably realized I couldn't sing to save my life, dancing wasn't my strong point either, but encouraged my friends and I to write our songs.  Furthermore, she let us perform them for the class all the time.  Like, every day.  At one point, we even created "dance partners" by tracing our own bodies on poster paper, decorating them, and cutting them out to use.  That amazing lady never mentioned how ridiculous it was, nor smirked at our choice of lyrics (losing love at 7 is hard, man).  She encouraged an abundance of creativity and showmanship, and I loved her class for it.

     Fast forward to high school where I joined the newspaper staff.  I wrote what I still believe to be a phenomenal piece about how to be the best benchwarmer you could be.  I laughed.  My parents laughed.  My basketball coach did not laugh.  I enjoyed writing for the newspaper because it was fun and exciting.  I never associated it with creative writing, though, and I still don't understand why.  

     Besides newspaper, my high school career consisted of critical writing with very little creativity.  Lots of essays, reports, regurgitation of researched information. I considered writing to be a very technical process.

     And then I participated in National Writing Project two years ago.  If you are ever looking for a Professional Development opportunity that will rejuvenate your sense of purpose, NWP is it.  I found my love for writing and fun again, while learning that creative and critical writing are not two very opposite ends of a spectrum, but actually work hand-in-hand in a classroom.  I learned how to take information or stories, and present them in new, fun, challenging, creative formats, and how to model that for my students.

    Students need more opportunities to express themselves constructively during the school day. With my Writer's Notebook, my students are learning problem-solving, collaboration, organization, how to ask questions/wonder, and it helps foster a sense of self-worth.

     I write in my classroom because I believe critical writing can be creative and my students needs to see that.  I teach persistence through a blank page in a Writer's Notebook, waiting to be filled with thoughts, stories, and doodles that represent how my students see themselves.  My kiddos write to show they matter.

#whyIwrite

Love and Sparkle,

   Come back for the next installments of this series:  Writer's Notebook:  Part 2 - Organization, Grading, and other Teacher-ish Questions and Writer's Notebook: Part 3 -  Ideas, Student Examples, and What I Would Do Differently.

Positive Postcards

Small things are the ones that seem to have the biggest impact on my students.  Silly erasers and small pieces of candy aren't much, but they let students know we care, we think about them, and even look forward to things they do.  

My third year of teaching I worked in building that really promoted positive communication between school and home.  About 98% of our kids were on free or reduced lunch.  Most of their parents had 2 or 3 jobs in order to just survive.  Kids might not see their parents at all on a given day, so the kids thrived on any positive reinforcement given at school.  That was great, but not enough, so our principal encouraged Positive Postcards.  It is so simple, that it is kind of ridiculous more of us don't use them.  It is so simple, in fact, that once I moved to middle school, I just forgot about them. 

Until the end of last school year.

I look forward to my end-of-the-year evaluation every year. Yes, yes, I know that's crazy, but I like hearing what things I can do to improve the next school year.  I am an extremely competitive person (I get this from my Dad's side of the family - a game of Spoons is like going to war.  Blood is often drawn and small children are used to steal spoons from others.  No joke!).  Because of that, I make it my own personal mission to beat my evaluation scores from the year before.  When I had to make my goals for this year, I said that I wanted to have more positive communication in my classroom, with parents and students.  And that's when I remembered the Positive Postcards.

Positive Postcards are just a 3-4 sentence positive note you actually mail home about something amazing you've witnessed the student do recently.  Easy enough.

Here's what you do: 

Here's the design I chose for the postcard

First, get postcards.  You can make some on your computer and print.  Dollar Tree has packs of 20-25 postcards in their teacher section.  If you're like me and you like personalization, I bought postcards from Vistaprint.  It was an amazing deal - 250 cards for $16!  There are always 40% or 50% coupons for Vistaprint on coupon sites, which is what I used.

Second, print address labels for your students.  Most teacher attendance or gradebook programs have this option from the homepage.  If you can't find it easily, search it. 

Third, find a time in your week to do it.  I don't feel like I have a lot of extra time - who does?!?! - so I thought about time that gets wasted.  I keep my postcards and address labels in my clipboard portfolio I take to meetings.  When I get to meetings early or technology goes awry during a meeting, I pull out those postcards and labels, and start writing to kids. This way, that time is still productive. 

That's it.  It's that easy.  I try to send out 5-7 postcards a week.  This means I can get through everyone in one semester, which means kids can two postcards a year.  I know who I haven't sent postcards to yet because I still have their label, so no need to keep another record sheet.

I've already had parents email about the postcard being on the fridge at home, or students who have shown me pictures on their phone of the card in their locker.

And if that isn't enough reason to do, it just makes me happier.  It gives me a specific reason to look at all of the bright spots happening in my room daily.  Some days the negativity starts to creep in, but when I write those postcards, I smile thinking of the specific incident I'm writing about.

What types of positive communication do you have with your students and parents, in or out of school?  I'd love to hear about them, so be sure to comment!

Love and Sparkle,