Reflections on the Teche

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for Tuesdays Slice of Life Challenge.

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. –Anne Frank”

I have been writing a Slice of Life post every Tuesday (most Tuesdays) for years. Four years, I think. And in March, I write everyday for the Slice of Life Challenge, thanks to the Two Writing Teachers.

I want to pass on a love of writing to my students. The Slice of Life habit works many writing muscles; and yet, I can package it to my students as a way for us to share little tidbits of our lives. I can make it sound like fun, not a chore-like writing assignment.

On Monday, I ask the question, “How was you weekend?” As the stories start materializing through talk, I respond, “That would make a good Slice of Life story.”

Yesterday, Kielan came to my desk wanting to share all about her weekend. I asked her if she wanted to share it with the whole class, and she responded, “No. They can read about it in my Slice.”

I love how after only a few weeks of school, my students are immersed in blogging. I was checking the blog this morning and found a post from Tobie about Sept. 11th. I hadn’t brought up the date. They had an art enrichment activity that morning, so we didn’t have time to properly cover it. Actually that was my excuse because it’s always more difficult for me to talk about than it is for the students.

But Tobie hadn’t let it go by. His posts are usually rather silly, but here he shows another side, the strong sensitive side. He never said anything out loud about the date. Blogging gave him a way to express his thoughts.

Today is one of the worst days in American history. We are marking the day of the nightmare of the terrorists of September 11, 2001. Today marks the day that terrorists have crashed our own planes, gotten by hijack, into the World Wide Trading Center. Thousands injured or killed, kids without parents. We must remember the men and women lost, and the ones who fought for them. Only few were pulled from the chaos of fire and barrier, plane parts and glass. All of this at the hands of terrorists, who do this for fun or money. They don’t care for the lives of many innocent Americans. Let us have a second of silence, for the men and women, and even children lost, injured, or no family to take them in.

America has suffered much from this day, and we must not forget this day, 14 years ago. Our parents have been alive during this tragedy, in school or out of it. The Towers have been rebuilt, or are being rebuilt. We will never want another 9/11.
–Tobie, 5th grade

On Mondays, I am posting a quote for response, “Mrs. Simon’s Snippet of the Sea.” This week, I posted a video of Anne Frank quotes and asked the students to select one to write about. Lani expresses well her feelings about writing in her response.

The quote that I chose was, and I quote ”I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” I think this quote means that when you write you can get everything that is bothering you off of your chest. For example, Anne Frank must’ve had courage before she went into hiding, so she is saying that now she has sorrow, but when she writes her sorrow is gone and she then has courage. I personally think that this quote has the same meaning today just like in the past because when I write my courage comes back if I am writing about a time when I had sorrow.
–Lani

Slicing and blogging with my students gives them the platform and audience for making meaning with their writing. If you are not blogging with students yet, I suggest you try it. And if you are and you want to connect on kidblogs, let me know.

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