Some people feel the rain — others just get wet.
Roger Miller
My friend Jasmine and I threw caution to the wind and went for a walk despite the dark, threatening sky. About halfway through our walk, on the far side of town, the sky cracked and drops drained down. Fortunately, we found cover under an old oak tree. We remained dry.
The rain stopped and our walk continued.
We met some friends and visited until the sky turned to night. As we were leaving, the rain started again. It was just some drops, and we were only a few blocks from our cars.
“Don’t you have an umbrella?”
“Where are your umbrellas?”
“Didn’t you bring an umbrella?”
Our three friends were clearly more put together than we were. Jas and I looked at each other and shrugged. “We can walk between the drops,” I joked.
We declined their offers to borrow umbrellas or catch a ride to our cars. The rain turned from drops to pelts to buckets.
Jas and I giggled and ran and wiped the water from our faces. The sky boomed. The rain was unleashed, and we were drenched.
We laughed more and jumped into our cars.
Water dripped from the brim of my hat. My feet squished in my shoes. My hands were impossible to dry, making the steering wheel slick.
I started my car and giggled more.
Sometimes we go to great efforts to avoid the storms. Jas and I stood under the oak tree, and the storm passed. We remained dry and unchanged.
Yet, when we kept going despite the storm, good things happened. Jas and I chose joy in the middle of the rain. We’re closer friends from weathering the storm.
Storms will come. Let’s go through them together. Facing storms allows us to overcome obstacles, grow through challenges, and end up in a better place.
This week we look at a different sort of storm in the classroom – dealing with touchy subjects. Plus more as always — enjoy!
Ruth Ayres
Contributor, Choice Literacy
Ruth Ayres is a full-time writing coach for Wawasee School District in northern Indiana. She blogs at Ruth Ayres Writes and is the coauthor of Day by Day, available through Stenhouse Publishers.
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When students take a stand in writing, they will almost inevitably bring up touchy topics. Heather Rader considers the challenge:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1486
Sometimes it takes a village to help a preschooler feel like part of the group, especially when that child cries almost all the time. Kelly Petrin finds her young students have more empathy and resiliency than she imagined when she enlists their support:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1482
Jennifer Schwanke explains why dealing with rumors is a constant issue for literacy leaders:
http://jenschwanke.blogspot.com/2016/08/rumors.html
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Christy Rush-Levine explains why she stocks some books in her middle school classroom library that can provoke concerns from families, and how she deals with conflicts:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2594
In this week’s video, Katherine Sokolowski describes a wall display with guidelines to ensure students are respectful and aware of the pitfalls of posting online:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2508
Jennifer Schwanke finds teachers can get territorial about texts, “claiming” them for their grade level. In Replicating or Deepening?, she explores when it is appropriate to repeat the use of a text in subsequent grades:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2530
Mark Levine finds his middle school students are appalled by some of the cultural differences from times gone by, and shares how he fosters more understanding:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2588
New PD2Go: Ruth Ayres helps a second grader work through an emotional piece of writing:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/pd2go-11479
This video and workshop guide fulfill Common Core State Standard ELA-Literacy W.2.3: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
That’s all for this week!
