Choice Lit Topic: Self Care
When Choice Literacy was launched in 2006, we never imagined that wellness and balance would be a part of the conversation here. Yet how can anyone take care of students if they don’t learn how to take care of themselves? These features are all about being kind to yourself so that you can show grace and compassion to others.
Results
Best Practices All Day Long: Balancing Personal and Professional Success
Eureka! Just the other day I had an epiphany, which I truly believe might change my professional and personal life forever. As a classroom teacher, I had always thought of...
Lady With the Yellow Umbrella
Coming down the lane, like sixteen, sneakers kicking up ructions, smile erupting buttercup dust, hair thinned out, spiked up from a deep mix of chemical spice creeping through her veins,...
Motive, Means, and Opportunity
I'm on trial for my latest offense. I'll confess -- I did it. And I'll do it again and again -- even if I get caught. I can't stop myself....
On Compassion
"You're a sucky teacher!" She hurled these words at me just before throwing a Kleenex box across the room, tipping over her desk, and storming out the door. I sighed and called...
A Bad Case of the Never-Ending Januaries
A Choice Literacy member wrote to us this week: I am noticing that we have hit a point in the year where teachers are stressed, snow days are maxed, and...
Harbinger
Where has this robin been, the one who finally showed up here this morning decked out in a dullish coat of gray over a vest of faded red? Understated for...
Along Saplines
Looking out at you, you skinny old tree, waving your rough arms in place like a tired warrior with nothing but a flurry of white between you and victory. Nothing's...
An Uncommon Place
A mulberry tree came down out back during this latest blizzard. I'm sorry to lose it, even though I won't miss the squashes of berries underfoot and the piling up...
Make it Personal
I'll admit it; one of my favorite movies is You've Got Mail. I've watched it dozens of times because I'm enchanted with the children's bookstore in the film, the "Little...
Now is Our Season
Now is our season on the verge, a time of endings and beginnings. The seeds of autumn have fallen away, lost in a fault of memory, yet in the dark of...
Learning from Coaching Mistakes
Inventors understand that early prototypes inform them best about what doesn't work rather than what does. But what about when prototypes are people? It's difficult for me not to feel...
If We Could Meet Again
If we could meet again as strangers, I would ask for more. Give me something sacred to see I would say, something bold to bless. Trick me into a patch ...
Restless Wanderer: Lessons for Teachers from Summer Vacations
It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts... it is to teach them to think, if that is possible,...
Days Ease
I am not there where grass doesn't grow with clover and sting my toes with dew, where the thrush doesn't thrill the midday air and rustle thyme. I am here...
Cap’n George: Mentors Who Matter
Cap'n George sits on the porch rocking his stories back and forth like a first child up all night trying to grasp this new air that's been slapped into him,...
A Three-legged Dog and a Show About Nothing
I've been in a real slump - a writing slump. It seems like it's been ages since I've opened up my writer's notebook, picked up a pen, and let loose...
Models, Coaches, Shepherds, or Rock Stars? Our Reading Roles in the First Few Weeks of School
I was inspired by Katie DiCesare's article, "Supporting Readers During Workshops: The First Few Weeks." Katie discusses young readers and the varied levels of confidence and experiences primary students initially bring to...
On Not Fretting
This morning, I was fretting. Cleaning my desk, I misplaced writing I was going to share with colleagues after school. The day ahead already began to seem scattered and rushed,...
The Porch in August: Letting It Be
Chris told his fifth-grade students last week that when he is inside a good book he just cannot put it down. He is caught in the vortex of the story...
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Recommending Yourself
The significance of a man is not in what he attains but in what he longs to attain. —Kahlil Gibran When I taught fifth grade, I used writing workshop time...
More Teaching Metaphors
Recently there have been a slew of articles published at Choice Literacy focused on teaching metaphors. Bread-baking, wood-working, and piano playing were all conversation starters, drawing out-of-school passions into our...
