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
Swimming and Learning
The other day while I was swimming laps, I started thinking about Franki Sibberson's struggles in fitness camp. Her experience at boot camp gave her new insight into her teaching...
If Boot Camp Was Standards-Based
As I move into my fourth month of fitness boot camp, I can't help but reflect on my time there so far. The initial shock to my body is past,...
Lessons from My Summer Vacation
The first few days of my very first summer vacation had progressed fairly uneventfully, when I found myself having a minor panic attack while gripping a vacuum cleaner. The spark...
Bucking Broncs and Spitting Bulls
The opening moments of the local rodeo were familiar: cowgirls raced their well- trained horses all over the arena and sponsors flags waved in the wind. A local high school...
Messengers
I believe Ezra Pound when he said that "Literature is news that stays news," but we don't often get to hear our poets bring the news. When we do, we're...
The Rolling Pin: Looking into Things
Julian looks long at the slipper shell, one he has brought to school from his collection. When I kneel next to him at writing time he is turning it over...
How I Flunked Literacy Leadership 101
Year four in my role as a literacy leader, and I thought that by now I might have most of the job figured out. I knew going into this year...
Helping Aaron Find His Voice as a Writer…and Mine as a Teacher
In my first two months of teaching, Aaron was the student that kept me up at night. He was the face I saw while sipping coffee at a red light...
Recipe for a Literary Tea
Teachers, literacy coaches, and specialists are often looking for that unique gift for teachers and friends -- one with a literary touch to it. I created a "designer tea" for...
Ode to a Sweet Snowy Day for Two
[You can download this month's poem from Shirley, Ode to a Sweet Snowy Day for Two, by clicking on this link.] Recently I attended Poetry Week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico....
Root Metaphors for Teaching: Learning from Our Passions
Franki Sibberson's recent Choice Literacy essay "Fitness Boot Camp Helps Me Understand Struggling Readers" caught my interest, and I found myself returning to her ideas. While I am (fortunately!) not immersing...
Putting Ourselves in Our Teaching
It's important to know that even if you don't think of yourself as a particularly reflective person, or someone who naturally puts your thinking on display, it doesn't mean that...
Chance Encounter
It was supposed to be a casual and quick lunch with a couple of colleagues I worked with when I taught in a middle school some years ago. It turned...
Tips from the Pros on Starting Your Own Writer’s Notebook or Teaching Journal
Your writer's notebook gives you a safe place to ask: What really matters? What haunts me? What in my life, in this world, do I never want to forget? Your...
Fake It ‘Til You Make It
I’m seven months into being a first-time foster parent to five incredible siblings. The journey is like nothing I can describe most of the time; my husband and I would...
The Sharpening Stone
I watched a lovely video recently that was designed to describe the approach of a nonprofit called One Village Partners (OVP) and the work they do with people in different...
Overcoming: Helping Students Process Covid Feelings
My son Ryan and I were in his room, playing basketball with the hoop on his closet door. I was sitting high on his loft bed and shooting “threes;” he...
