Let’s Connect
For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I have adopted four children. Our youngest was with us first, being adopted at birth in 2006. Then we adopted our daughters, a sibling pair, in 2008 and another son in 2013. Our oldest three children were adopted as older children from the state. They experienced trauma that no human should have to endure, and ever since they came home, our family life has revolved around helping them overcome their dark starts to life.
Some of their stories are incredible…like Hannah becoming a Marine or Jordan rocking a white suit for prom. The highlights, however, don’t remove the trauma…and they do not capture the reality that not all of the stories go how we want them to go. For example, we also have a 19-year-old daughter who was arrested for the first time at the age of 12 and is currently homeless. This is the life she prefers.
This is a tricky fact to share, but I share it because it helps us understand celebration. Perhaps this is even trickier to understand.
What I’ve discovered in my years as a parent to kids who have been scraped by darkness is that the celebration is usually gritty. It rarely sparkles, and it’s typically not shiny. In a world where all we see are highlight reels, it’s easy to misunderstand celebration.
At its heart, celebration is unmasking joy. When we take the time to look past the ugly and the hard, we can often find joy lurking.
Last summer I took an unexpected step away from social media. I’ve needed the time and space to figure out how to interact in ways that allowed me to continue to celebrate. This led me to deep reflection about the reason for social media and the role I want it to have in my life. I’ve discovered that I miss sharing my stories and the community that comes from interacting in a common space.
This led me to explore LinkedIn as a platform for a professional community. I’ve started curating my feed, finding connections, and interacting. This is the gritty celebration that was unearthed from my unfortunate but necessary decision to become a ghost on other platforms.
I would love for you to join me on LinkedIn to continue the conversations from the Big Fresh and form a community of instructional influencers.
This week we look at celebrations—plus more, as always.
Shine on,
Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief
Bitsy Parks shares the celebration within the publishing process. Learn to find the joy in uplifting young writers’ approximations by sharing their works with a larger audience. This article was first published in 2021.
Stella Villalba explains how her Poetry Cafe program brings families together for a festive event, and helps English language learners develop reading and fluency skills at the same time. This article was first published in 2012.
Teaching Fiercely: Spreading Joy and Justice in Our Schools by Kass Minor was recently released. On May 23, you can join a virtual celebration of the book launch via Zoom. Register here!
Join the first Racial Justice Conference with Re-Center! You can register for the virtual option.
Writing Poetry with Elementary Writers offers ways to help elementary writers develop the mindset and tools to dip into poetry in their notebooks.
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
Heather Fisher shares a process to help teachers learn to admire student writers and find the beauty in their work.
Jennifer Court shares the celebrations that propel students to engage in the Young Authors Program.
In a QuickTake video, Ruth Ayres shares a process for grading student writing that improves efficiency and accuracy.
In an encore video, Katrina Edwards begins her conference with first grader Allen by celebrating all he is doing well in his writing. She highlights his language and details in writing before moving on to new strategies to try.
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
In a time when lives are showcased on highlight reels of social media, Gwen Blumberg reminds us of the importance of highlighting ordinary moments as worthy writing topics. She offers common topics and extraordinary mentor texts to help capture the ordinary, and beautiful, writing topics.
In this Picture It, discover the power of naming the intentional moves of student writers and displaying their strengths for all to see.
Ryanne Deschane shares how to be intentional about monitoring our energy to have a joyful end to the school year.
Quote It:
While we are living in the present, we must celebrate life every day, knowing that we are becoming history with every work, every action, every deed.
—Mattie Stepanek
That’s all for this week!
