does this bring me joy?

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For Christmas this year, I got a great book i didn't even know I wanted: 

Life-changing is, in fact, a great way to describe this process.

This book is really telling us that we have too much stuff, which makes our homes cluttered and untidy. Do you have clothes that don't fit in your drawers or closet? Do you have scarves and mittens that don't fit where they go? Are your bookcases overflowing with books? Is your desk or kitchen table or counter full of mail and catalogs and bills and papers you're not sure where to put? If any rings true, this book is for you.

We have too much stuff. Way too much. My closet was full to the max, where when I'd take out one shirt, the two on either side of it would pop out with it. I knew it was time to declutter, and so I followed the steps in the book and got rid of 10 bags of stuff: mostly clothes, but shoes, purses and bags, and cups and mugs:

The hangers below, they were all in my closet with clothes before this tidying-up:

And now, instead, I have space and all of the clothes that bring me joy. That's how you decide what to keep. You start with clothes, and even more specifically, tops. Go get all your tops that are hanging, your T-shirts, tank tops. Take them all to the same place and then one-by-one, pick each up and ask yourself, "Does this bring me joy?" If not, its as simple as this: discard.

Now, my tank tops and T-Shirts, which used to take up two drawers, fit in one, with space to spare:

And I feel so happy. I have space in my apartment. It feels big enough, and I have room to grow.

I still haven't gotten to my office supplies, books, and mementos like pictures and cards. I love my books and notebooks, and I love office supplies, too, so it's going to prove a little more challenging, but I'm excited to do it.

Best of all with this book, it's going to change the way I buy things, too, because with every purchase, I'm going to be asking, "Does this bring me joy?" If not, it's staying on the racks.

Have you read this book?
Have you decluttered and tidied?
Please share your experiences!

everything, everything

Just finished the best book I've read in a really long time. So, so, so good. Started it on my plane ride last night, finished it up this afternoon.

Everything, Everything (Yoon) is the story of Madeline, who has been cooped up in her house for all of her 18 years of life because of a very rare disease. She has her routine - school via skype, reading lots of books (The Little Prince is her favorite...and now I must read it!), and hanging out with her mother. Her family is one of two: Madeline and her mother because of a terrible accident where her dad and brother were killed when she was just and infant.

All is going well until Olly moves in next door. They become friends first through their windows, and then via instant messaging. Olly's family has some issues as well, which one day call Maddy from her house. After being outside, it is hard for her to continue with the life she's lived for 18 years, and well....things happen.

This book not only has a great story and a twist at the end, but also many formats that make it very enjoyable for me, and I imagine, for young adults. "Chapters" are short and sometimes only a few lines of text or even a drawing. There are pages and pages of Instant Messaging to unfold the story, emails back and fourth, schedules of various characters, and drawings depicting feelings and events to come.

One of my fave lines:

So, I highly recommend this, you should grab a copy for sure!

Up next for me:

What are you reading these days?

Hope you're enjoying a lazy Sunday like I am and I'll be back soon with New Year stuff!

looking back

This month, the #compelledtribe is talking about year-end reflections. It's crazy how fast each year goes by, but here we are again, ending another. So, professionally and personally speaking, here are some reflections of my year...

Illinois Writing Project
One thing I am most thankful for is my work last summer with the Illinois Writing Project. I took part in their Summer Leadership Institute and participating reaffirmed everything I believe about writing and writing instruction. One would think giving up 12 days of summer break would be a drag, but it was by far the best PD I've had outside of my graduate program. Through it, an important friendship grew closer and I made some new friends too. And now I'm helping out with the Social Media for IWP. This was a wonderful investment of time and energy, and I highly recommend the Writing Projects - in Illinois and all the states!

Literacy Coaching
What a difference a few years can make... I'm really enjoying the work I get to do as a coach. Seeing the wonderful teachers in my building on a consistent basis and collaborating with them to best meet the needs of our students is so rewarding. I've come up with some better organizational systems and learned more about guided reading at various levels. I can see the growth of our students as they continue to receive instruction from a Reading and Writing Workshop approach and it's because of the hard work of our teachers each day that our students are flourishing as readers and writers. As a fourth or fifth grader, I never knew anything about Author's Craft, but our students sure do. Thank you Emerson teachers for your trust and collaboration...I love to work with you! (Check out what's going on in our building by searching #tigerslearn on Twitter!)

Blogging Club
I'm in my second year running a blogging club with fourth and fifth graders and I just love it. In March, we completed the Slice of Life challenge with Two Writing Teachers and I had four students write every day for the entire month. Have you ever done a month-long challenge? It's not easy, especially during the school year (and it was testing season, too!) Now that we've started this year, I love how the fifth graders who are on year two are coaching the new kiddos - I totally understand why Nancie Atwell's ELA class was a 7-8th grade combo class that looped. This year, kiddos have already refined their practices with commenting, and we're using a goal setting chart to focus our work!

Personally Speaking
Lots of great things happened this year! I got to visit friends and family in Florida, California, and Arizona. My niece came for a week in the summer and we had so much fun together doing things all around the city. My sister came in November and brought my new nephew Jack so I could meet him. I went to two weddings of great friends and celebrated first steps in their new marriages. We watched some ASU games together, I had an awesome 35th birthday party and a really fun Friendsgiving, and Bernie Sanders is picking up some traction during this primary season.

It's kind of upsetting that unless I'm actively going through all these memorable occasions all I can really seem to keep in mind is the breakup, but luckily that is getting further and further away from me each day, and so it gets easier every day. And I guess that even though there was an ending in 2015, I'm always going to abide by this:

There's my year in review. Hope you had a great one, too. Coming next are goals for the new year; stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

two things i heart

I'm in my second year with my Tiger Blogging Club, and some great additions to our work has helped the students reach further in their blogging in so much less time than last year. I think these things can be applied to the classroom, too, so I wanted to share.

First, my club consists of 4th and 5th graders. I have five fifth graders and eight fourth graders. Having a group of returning kiddos is SO SO helpful for instruction. They are models who have a background with edublogs and naturally, they help me coach the fourth graders on their work.

Nancie Atwell, one of my Literacy Idols creates her Reading - Writing Workshop rosters in this way. She teaches to a seventh and eight grade combo class that loops, so when the seventh graders become eighth graders, there's already one half of the class who are additional coaches to the new kiddos. In my dream job, I'd teach one second of a Reading - Writing Workshop this way, with seventh and eighth graders. (And coach the other parts of my day!)

Another thing I wanted to happen was to track student work on a chart. At first I was thinking it could be a sticker for every post written, or maybe comment, but I didn't want to impose my goals on the kiddos, so I made a goal setting chart:

I wanted to make it more pretty and laminate it, but I don't have tons of time, so it's just hand-drawn squares, one space for each of my kiddos. Then, each week when we meet, I ask kids to set goals for themselves with blogging. Some of the goals this week include:

• 3 Slice of Life posts, plus four more posts and 5 comments
• 3 Slice of Life posts, plus 7 more posts, categorize my posts, and leave three coments
• Write 6 posts total: 5 Slices of Life and one about Christmas

(Remember, they're on break for the next two weeks, so they made their goals bigger!)

The first week, I asked them to set a goal. They didn't know a sticker chart - one where we'd track how often we met our goals - was coming, but in my mind, I knew I'd put that up next week. When they returned that following week, I stood by the sticker chart I had put up, asked who made their goals, and not one person had (myself included). At the end of that session, we took our old goals down from the board and set new ones. When the kids came back on the third week, they were so excited. As they trickled into our meeting, many checked their goals, told me they made them, and sat down happily to begin working on their blogs.

These two strategies - having a combo grade level club and a goal setting chart has led amazing work by my bloggers! Check out their blogs listed on my right sidebar under "Student Bloggers in the Loop." One of my kiddos hit a major milestone this week - she published her 100th post!

Hope your last week before break is wrapping up well!

have lunch with more than your selfie!

WRITE your story.

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I got to work this morning and was a few minutes early so I logged into my email to see if I could start returning some messages before we began and I happened upon this in an email from a work friend:

A few weeks ago, I had been sharing about my Christmas card predicament, that is, do I send one anyways now that I'm single and it's just me on the card? I had a few ideas about what I'd put on it, and I was running them by colleagues as we at lunch together in the teacher's lounge.

The first group of teachers loved my idea, the second, not so much. But the second group did have a lot of new ideas for me. We shared those, and laughed a bunch togehter.

Teachers who are reading this, do you eat in your lounge? It's a non-negotiable for me. While there are usually 10-15 things running on my To Do list at any given time, for me, it makes my life easier if I can take some time away from my work to unwind, relax, and laugh a little with friends.

Because we spend time together, and share stories, we develop better understandings of one another. The people I work with are there to listen when I feel like crying and they're there to laugh along with me when I am happy. We get to know one another and care for one another, which leads to even better, collaborative working relationships.

So, to all you newbies out there, yes, teaching is crazy busy. But taking time for your well being and eating with your team, it's so so important. So set those papers down, forget the lesson plans, and pass the cookies!

Oh, and I am sending the cards...and they look like this:

It's perfect, #AmIRight? :-)

tmi via an i am poem + a freebie

During Summer Leadership Institute at Illinois Writing Project, one of our group leaders shared an I Am poem as a structure we could use for writing. Now, I've heard of poems like this before, but never how Jan has used them, because she rewrites her poem every year, and has been doing so for two decades or longer. Seriously, so amazing! I decided in July I wanted to start this tradition, and I'm finally getting around to it now, so here's my first one.

and...it's super personal and really reflects how I've been feeling lately so there's that. I wrote it and screened it through my writing friends at work and they said to publish even though it's intense. So I'm sharing, but hesitantly because it's kinda:

But here goes anyways...

I am so many different things: friend, daughter, sister, Literacy Coach, Social Media enthusiast...and
I wonder when I'm going to add happily married to that list.
I hear that everything happens for a reason.
I see that people don't love the way they say they do.
I want a great guy who will cherish me and
I am not settling.

I pretend like this holiday season is merry and bright, but
I feel kinda grey inside.
I worry that people will feel sorry for me, and
I cry... but not as often as you would think because
I am still pretty angry.

I understand that this will pass.
I say that everything is okay, because mostly it is. 
I dream about a blissfully happy future and
I try to keep my negative thoughts at bay.
I hope this is the last single holiday season, but it might not be because
I am not settling :-)

Okay so seriously don't freak out, I'm totally fine but stuff like this is usually swimming around in my head when I have time to think. Obviously it's pretty hard to hit the Publish button today, but the writer in me longs to be transparent and share what I'm really thinking. And guess what? When I had my writing besties read this, they looked at me and their eyes told me to hit the Publish button. So I'm trusting them today.

Enough of my ramblings. I have a treat for you! A copy of the I Am poem template, in English and Spanish. Head on over to my TpT to grab a copy!

Have a great night, and start a tradition with the I Am poem - write one every year!