sol #24: not just a moment

A moment.

Today, I marched with 30,000 others in Chicago to make our voices heard for common sense gun reform.

I listened to poetry, I heard speeches, I chanted with those around me, and I carried a sign.

See how a whole bunch of moments are creating a movement, here.

See how kids of privilege use their power to give voice to those who have been silenced.

Let's be this movement.

sol #7: what's your 17?

Our school is planning a rally for next Wednesday to be in support of #MSDStrong. Part of the rally will involve some student writing, so today, we prompted our kiddos with a few videos of speeches, Ohana from Lilo and Stitch, and #whatsyour17.

So I got to thinking about my 17. What 17 things could I do that could impact our school community and all those around me?

1. 17 books about teens just like my students, so they can see their story is like so many others' experiences.

2. 17 hugs for kids who need them and and some for me when I need them. One on a rainy day, one when I'm so proud, and 15 on valentines day when we're all warm and fuzzy.

3. 17 appreciations to colleagues who bring love, light, and insight every day.

4. 17 comments on blog posts so voices are valued.

5. 17 invitations to my classroom, so together teachers can model how we collaborate, too.

6. 17 social events with teachers, to cope with stress, to laugh, to lighten the heavy stuff that weights us down.

7. 17 requests for more books. Because.... books.

8. 17 photos on 8th grade picture day when the kids are looking so sharp.

9. 17 opportunities for personal reflection, thinking about how I can continue to learn and grow as a teacher, to better support my students as the days go by.

10. 17 punny jokes. Because puns.

11. 17 packs of notecards from Target's dollar spot. Because snail mail never goes out of style.

12. 17 deep breaths, because we're all human, and sometimes teaching is a lot!

13. 17 calls to parents, so they can see the beauty in their kids through my eyes.

14. 17 times asking, "Can you ask your peer to repeat that?" so they understand how important THEIR voices are.

15. 17 apologies, because I'm human and mess up too.

16. 17 appreciations to my coteacher, who makes my days so joyful.

17. 17 boxes of Mr. Sketch markers and 17 reams of chart paper, so student ideas can speak from our walls.

So many things.

Thankful for this teaching life.

What's your 17?

devos funnies...but first a call to action

By now I'm sure you've all seen the hearing with the Senate and Betsy DeVos. What a train wreck! In case you haven't called any of the senators, you should definitely do that. Here are a few numbers to make it easy:

Senator Burr. NC (202) 224-3154
Senator Lisa Murkowski (202) 224-6665
Senator Lamar Alexander (202) 224-4944
Senator Enzi (202) 224-3424
Senator Isakson (202) 224-3463

Or, if you prefer to leave a signature online, you could go here to do that.

Please don't just stand by - sign a petition, write a letter, call a Senator!

So much for draining the swamp, right? Now that Trump is in office, Truth Trump comes out. There's no draining the swamp at all. Bunch of millionaires and billionaires in his cabinet, Betsy DeVos is a perfect example: over the course of years past, her family has donated upwards of $200 million to the Republican party.

I always thought that people in government were there because they wanted to make our country better...by serving others. I thought they were people who worked in the best interest of everyone, like, they thought not only of the insanely rich, but also of the many who live in a state of poverty. And the middle class. And also, I thought they would be highly qualified to do their jobs.

But it seems that some believe we should privatize public education, because it's "failing." (Perhaps they've found that if you privatize and let charters operate with less oversight, there's extra money there, and maybe some left over for the people running the biz.) But, newsflash! If you fully funded public education, the very thing that makes our country amazing and beautiful and special, and you leveled the playing field in the poor neighborhoods, we'd have progress.

So while we might not have a Secretary of Education who has one iota of knowledge related to the job she is more than likely going to take on, at least we can have a laugh.

So start here with Trevor Noah's complete clip on Betsy. It's awesome.

And then you'll get these funny memes that came out...

Friends, let's not let tomorrow be the day we give up. Get out into your communities. Volunteer! Walk in a march! Send some donations to the organizations that will need in most in the coming years. Make your voice heard! It's not the time to sit back and be quiet, it's the time to act. And let it start with laughter.

what I'm loving Wednesday

What I'm loving Wednesday - share a post about all the things you're currently loving!

Loving a new quote, new funny meme from the web:

Thank you Colleen for sharing!

Loving EC Life Planners with designer stickers!

This book is amazing. Currently investigating my relationship with money and writing my personal manifesto because of it.

This police officer - follow him on Instagram.

Posts videos and pics of community policing.

I LOVE IT!

These friends and the fact that they want me there to celebrate their life milestones together with them.

New cardio dance class, amazeballs.

Community facebook pages and easy ways to do something good and give back, btw, currently we're at $2,810 of $1,800 goal. People are good.

This article by Jennifer Aniston.

No society, I do not accept your views about how I should live my life.

I'll blaze my own path, thankyouverymuch.

And that's it. Share with me what you're loving this month!

Hey all y'all! It's the BigTime Blogging Challenge. I'm writing every day in July to celebrate my blog's three year anniversary! Join me - write your post, link it up with mine, leave some love for blogging friends in the form of comments!

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm on both sides

Hey all y'all! It's the BigTime Blogging Challenge. I'm writing every day in July to celebrate my blog's three year anniversary! Join me - write your post, link it up with mine, leave some love for blogging friends in the form of comments!

Good morning! I'm sorry I'm late, but I usually write the day before and then schedule, except I didn't do that yesterday! Today the prompt is favorite student memory, but I'm not in the mood for that one today. I wanted to share something I wrote in response to what's going in our country - I was writing this yesterday when I should have been writing for the challenge. Anyways, please feel free to share anything you'd like today!

There is a lot on my mind and I have a heavy heart this morning. Luckily I have writing to help me through. I don't know how GMA can still go on with the Kenny Chesney concert right now. How can people be in the crowd cheering when our country is in such a bad place?

I watched this video this morning and feel like I can finally breathe, well, a tiny bit. In this video, Trevor makes the point that if you want to talk about these problems in our society, and you start talking about how Black Lives Matter, that must imply that you don't think Blue Lives Matter. He goes on to say - his whole point - is that both black and blue lives matter. Thank you, Trevor, finally a little bit of clarity for me when waking up to such horrific news. If you haven't watched, take the time and please do.

Can we agree that Black and Cop lives matter? The outrage on social media, today - obviously. I can't believe what happened in Dallas. I don't have the right words to express the depth of what I'm feeling. (Distraction from the Hillary verdict? I feel awful for even suggesting that, but seriously. The plot lines of Scanal are seeming all too real lately...)

Blue lives matter. Black lives matter.

But where was the outrage after Alton Sterling and Philando Castile? The reason #BLM even exists is because of the ridiculous institutionalized racism that prevails in our country that is exasperated by the media (who is conveniently owned by the White elite). The media reports to us, and we tell ourselves, "it's fair and balanced, of course they are reporting truth." Get your news online for a week - follow the trending hashtags on Twitter and read those articles or watch The Young Turks on You Tube. See if you feel any different. Watch the documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad on Amazon Prime. Have an open mind and understand that the media is painting a coordinated picture for us all.

Black lives matter. Blue lives matter.

But back to my point - it's so sad to me when people say, "Michelle, all lives matter!" You're missing the point. White lives have always mattered, and I can best illustrate this with a tweet from an amazing author of Young Adult lit:

My life has always mattered. My opinion has always mattered. No one ever expects me to do any harm, damage, and people will always listen to me. The same is not true for our black and brown brothers and sisters. They face an ongoing narrative in the media that they are the reason for all that is wrong with our country. But then we see two videos - just this week - that show two black men doing nothing wrong, and they are shot and killed, and no outrage. Why? Why is it okay for them to be killed, but then when it's someone who is white, it's a different story?

Blue lives matter. Black lives matter.

I am the proud daughter of a police officer - 38 years of dedicated service. My uncles and my dad's friends are all good people. They put their lives on the line to protect and serve their communities. I hesitate when sharing about things like this because I have such a high level of respect for the people they are and the work they do.

Black lives matter. Blue lives matter.

But I teach kids of color. I hear their stories. I read their writing. I live through their experiences as black and brown youth here in a white America. But still, I teach them about hope and working hard, and when you do, you can have anything you want, because we live in the United States of America.

Except we're not so united lately.

I don't think there is going to be much in the way of change until we have an honest discussion about the problems facing our communities, a conversation about the state of policing in our country. Something needs to give.

Blue lives matter.

Black lives matter.

I'm with you both.

An InLinkz Link-up

currently march

Hi all! It's March first and time to catch up with what's going on currently! Thanks to Farley for hosting; this is one of my favorite linkys each month. Love finding new bloggers and making new friends!

Listening to...
Current playlist includes quite the mix:

Record Year by Eric Church,

Love Yourself by the Biebs, and

Heartbeat by Carrie Underwood

I'll leave you with some happy, romantic stuff from Carrie; this song is so so good!

Loving...Slice of Life
Are you familiar with the blog over at Two Writing Teachers? Well, every March they host the Slice of Life Story CHallenge, and hundreds of teachers from around the globe commit to 31 days of writing in March. It is awesome!

This year, 8 teachers on our staff are blogging, plus all of our third and fifth graders, and a first grade class! It's so cool to hear everyone talking about writing and sharing stories.

And the best thing about it? Writing for 31 days will teach you far more than any curriculum ever could!

Thinking...about how anyone could still be voting for trump
I don't understand it, how so many people are voting for him? I wonder what the rest of the world must be thinking about us? Also, if you haven't seen this video from John Oliver, you must check it out. Heads up - this is by HBO, so it's explicit!

Wanting...New Pillows
How long do people usually keep their pillows? I swear, mine are at least 10 years old. That's kind of gross, right? Anyways, I'm waiting for a Kohl's coupon, and a 30% off one at that, to go buy them!
Needing...Spring to arrive
There have been a few days that I've heard birds chirping when I woke up, but I'm excited for that to happen more and more, and open the windows up and get ready for warm weather and sunsets after 7pm...and eventually, summer vacation :-)


Polling Place

Yep, we're a polling place. It's a non-attendance day for the kids, but teachers are here for a PD day. It's kinda annoying to have a Monday at work, then a PD day, then three more days, but whatever. I'm just happy the kids aren't here with all the strangers in the building. And...if you haven't voted yet, I hope you're #feelintheBern!

That's it for me! Be sure to follow along with my blog, I'll be writing every day in March! :-)

currently february

Friends, it's February! I'm so happy to say sianara to January. The weather was sucky, I got in a car accident, and some other things that were not my fave. But February is here and it's time to start fresh and look forward!

Thanks to Farley for bringing us all together again! Hop over there and check out her new blog design, so so cute! Here's what's up on my end:

Listening to....the news - It's Iowa Caucus day!
This isn't too much, is it?

Seriously I'm totally #FeelinTheBern over here. I think he really needs to get Iowa tonight if he's got any chance at taking the whole thing, so hopefully all those people are out doing the Caucus. Also: idk exactly what caucusing is....anyone? Buellar?

Loving...my job, Literacy Coaching!
Few things: 1. Annie, another coach in our district, tagged a few of us in an article on Twitter and it was really good. It talks about how coaching happens one conversation at a time. Then, 2. today, I had a conversation like that and it was awesome. It makes me so happy to feel like I can help make a difference!

Thinking about...The Chicago Marathon...?
I recently started going to Old St. Pat's Church downtown Chicago and I just love it. In addition to feeling so uplifted at Mass, and learning so much through RCIA, they have all these awesome programs, including one to train runners for the marathon. I think yes! Any marathon runners out there? Thoughts?

Wanting... New shoes!
So I got a gift card for Tieks for Christmas (thanks sister!) and still haven't bought them because of some unforeseen expenses, but soon, very soon. I will be getting myself some ballet pink Tieks and I also want some new running shoes. I'm going to give Asics a try this time, after a lifetime of running Nike Free. Anyone run in Ascis? Do you love them?

Needing...umm...nothing?
Life is good. The days are getting longer, it hasn't been terribly cold, and I'm not digging my car out of snow! And speaking of my car...

Swooning...New Car!
So my car accident - made a crappy car a hopeless mess, so I took a payout on the damages (accident not my fault!), sold my car to CarMax and then my amazing parents chipped in a little bit of money to their poor teacher daughter (ok, I'm not poor, but I'm not sitting on a huge savings, either!) Anyways, now mine is a beautiful, smells-like-new-car, all electronic and high-tech, shiny, sleek, 2016 Civic:

I've driven all of the 53 miles this car has gone (except 6) and I just love it. Feeling very grateful for family that continues to support their grown daughter. I only hope one day I can do the same half as good as they have! Love you, family!

So that's where I'm at right now. What's new with you? Be sure to check out Farley's blog and link your Currently up, too!

gratitude lately

What a great day to celebrate our blessings! Write your own post and link up with me if you'd like to join!

Today I'm thankful for days of rest. No work for the rest of the week!

Thankful for Justin Theroux. He's so nice to look at...but his show, The Leftovers, it's crazy strange! I was watching the whole episode this morning thinking, "Whaaaattt?" and then at the end it makes a little sense, so I'll watch another. Every single time. Anyone else watching it?

Thankful for sweet notes from students, and their teachers who teach them about showing gratitude.

Thankful for our district's first Twitter Chat! Check out the Storify of it here, and below, a few of my favorite tweets!

Thankful for super funny Bernie memes!

#feelthebern

Thankful for this cutie...my nephew, Jack:

And my sister, who brought him to meet me for the first time a few weeks ago!

Thankful for my blog as a space to write, the people who read and talk to me about it, and the friends I've made because of it.

Making it up as I go!

That's all for me. I hope you have an awesome Thanksgiving and take some time to think about all the amazing things this life blesses us with!

An InLinkz Link-up

sunday letters

WRITE your letters.

LINK them with mine.

SHARE the love via comments!

Happy Sunday! Who else is on a three day, much-needed long weekend? Yesterday was awesome - only got dressed to go for a quick run, and just stayed home, relaxed, read my book, watched some Post-Season baseball, that's it! :-)

Anyways, if you're here for Sunday Letters, make sure to share yours with me below!

Dear Cubbies,
I'm pretty sure you're going to win it all, after all, Back to the Future predicted it!
Cheering for you,
Michelle

Dear teachers who are 'just going with it' with your Calkins curriculum,

I LOVE to hear your stories about what the kids are doing in your classrooms as a result of Calkins. The ways the students are discussing text and planning for writing are so amazing, and much MUCH more rigorous than instruction I did in middle school without her curriculum. I know she's wordy, but stick with it, it's amazing work!

So impressed!

Michelle

Dear Colleen,
Thank you for presenting with me at the IRC! I had such a great time hanging out, being inspired, and of course, planning and delivering a great presentation with you!
Hugs,
Michelle

Dear Sister,
I can't wait to see you and jackfed in a month! Be thinking of everything you want to do and keep me posted! Excited!
Love,
Michelle

Dear Bernie,
I believe! And I love the funny memes I find on facebook, like this one...

It's a political revolution! Keep it going!
Michelle

Dear Blogging Club,
Can't wait to begin again on Wednesday! I'll be looking forward to reading your blogs this year!
Sincerely,
A proud coach

An InLinkz Link-up

follow friday #ff

Hi Friends! Today is Follow Friday! Did you know this is really a thing? On Twitter, if you ever see the #FF hashtag, it's because we're sharing great users for you to follow! So here are some of my best recommendations!

Bloggers

• Two Writing Teachers - One of my favorite blogs done by a handful of classroom teachers, coaches, reading and writing specialists, etc. They host the Slice of Life Story Challenge all of March and every Tuesday is SOL writing, too! In addition, they constantly share great information about the Writing Workshop. Check them out!
• A Rocky Top Teacher - Sarah Cooper feels like my old friend (who I've never met). She's so upbeat and positive that it's hard to not love what she shares! You can find her on a Rocky Top Teacher facebook page where she does a Monday Moment - kind of like a way to positively center ourselves for the week ahead. She's also on Instagram!
• Adventures in Literacy Land - This is another collaborative blog by a group I collaborate with on Facebook - The Reading Crew! They share all kinds of literacy related ideas, book studies, and classroom information that is reading and writing oriented.
• Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension - Pernille Rip has outstanding ideas about all things teaching. It's practical and comes from her work with middle school students. Love. Love. Love! She's on Twitter, too!
• Curmudgucation - Grumpy Old Teacher, aka Peter Greene,  talks about education politics going on around the country. Super snarky, super funny, love all the stories he makes me aware of.

Twitter Friends

• Dr. Mary Howard - She presented to our whole staff and was awesome. We're now connected through Twitter and I've done the Good 2 Great chat a few times (Thursday nights, #g2great). She reaches out and is always willing to help - including offering to teach me all about Canva last night (which I used to make the image at the top of this post!)
• Diane Ravitch - Educational Historian de jure, she is active on twitter and also blogs here. Like me, she believes in public education and shares lots of information about the reformy movements to try and privatize it all. Be aware of politics, teacher friends!

Facebook

• Love, Teach - Funniest teacher blogger out there. If you're a teacher, you live her blogs, so read along and laugh your @ss off! One of my faves, #DEVOLSON :-)
• Badass Teachers Association - A growing group of teachers (we're around 54K now I think) who is all about keeping public education just that - public. Their mission: Badass Teachers Association was created to give voice to every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality through education. BAT members refuse to accept assessments, tests, and evaluations created and imposed by corporate driven entities that have contempt for authentic teaching and learning.
• The Gottman Institute - John Gottman, PhD, studies educational research in counseling and mental health. Author of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, he has research that can predict, with around 94% accuracy, the couples who will stay together or divorce. His research group shares tons of articles applicable to all relationship statuses, including working with children. Fabulous!

Okay, I'm tired, so that's enough for today. Who do you follow and read religiously? Write up a list and drop it off below!

Get the details for this challenge here!

An InLinkz Link-up

what I'm loving wednesday

Today's a great day friends, it's What I'm Loving Wednesday! Would you like to write with me? Just compose a list of all the things you love and then link up below!

❤ a Political Revolution
Who is Bernie Sanders?

• Never ran a negative political commercial.
• Raised 1 1/2 million dollars in the first 24 hours after announced he was running and has 175,000 people working for him on grassroots.
• Wants to make it a democracy again, rather than having all the billioinaires buy the elections (Supreme Court's ruling on Citizen's United)
• Too big to fail means too big to exist - Break up the banks.
• Wants to guarantee single-payer healthcare.
• Believes in quality education in America - affordable for all, no matter what your SES.
• He wants to beat the Koch brothers and billionaires.
• Stand together - all of us - all races, religions, genders - to make a political revolution happen.

Watch more below. Follow him, tweet him, publish him to facebook. Get registered to vote for him in the primary. Do your part to elect the man who speaks for all of us, not just the Billionaires!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

❤ Hand-Crafted Writers Notebooks
Make your own, friends. Make one for your self, make your students make their own. I love mine and want to fill it up! Love Jennie's, too!

Side note on my hypothetical dog: I asked my landlord if I can get a dog even though his policy is no dogs. He's solid on that no. So.... idk when Dudley is going to be a reality :-( Don't you love how Duds has his own category here on BigTime Literacy but he's not real? That pic is from Google!

❤ My funny new friend
I don't have a picture of her yet (Erika, I want one. I hope that's not creepy?!) But she's funny. Here's just a bit:

Principal of the elementary school we're working at stops by and was talking about his teachers observing each other. He tells us, "Yeah, so then I encourage them to go visit the reading specialists, too... watch them in action and the pacing and the program, it's amazing!"
Erika, in this voice she does, "Yeah, they are pretty great." (I can't do this justice without her tone, voice and body language, but it was hilarious!)

Erika on the cookies she baked: "Not only am I a fantastic Reading Specialist, but a great baker. These chocolate chip cookies, made with vanilla pudding power.........and love."

You need to go follow her blog. She's exploring writing with her funny voice in one of her upcoming posts, because, as she wondered aloud to us earlier, "I'm funny in person, and you all take me seriously...? Riiiiiight?" Yes, we do!

Love!

❤ Writing Blast (Rehearsal Strategy)
2 minutes at the beginning of workshop. Give your class a word. They write words and phrases about this word for two minutes. If and when they cannot think of another association, they rewrite the word until they get something new. Here's the one I just did:

Change

change - hard - takes time - change - change - change diapers - messy - smelly - then fresh - rebirth - alive - smiles - change - change happens - back and fourth - pendulum swings - change - change - change - change - cambiar - dual language - best for kids - enlightening - duality - good to great - Dr. Mary Howard - Twitter Chats - PD on Demand

Some tips:

1. Use a multiple meaning word (I didn't go to they money change, but others did!)
2. Make sure it's just free association words and phrases and don't stop!

I have lots of ideas of more stuff I can writing about, and some figurative language is percolating in there!

❤ Sleeping with the windows open
It's just blissful. Cool breeze blows through, sun seeps in when morning comes, leaves dance and cast calming shawdows in as I wake up, love, love, love it!

❤ this Swatch sprinkles watch
There's another girl in our class, Michelle (awesome name, right?), who has great style with this watch below. I want it. It's perfect for casual days and it's sprinkles! It's like calorie and toxin free cupcakes all day!!!

Get the details for this challenge here!

An InLinkz Link-up

what I'm loving Wednesday

Get the details for this challenge here!

Hi all! Today we're back for day 8 of the challenge and What I'm Loving Wednesday! For this post, please just share anything that you're currently loving!

❤ Southwest Airlines
If it were up to me, I'd never fly any other airlines. Ticket prices are reasonable and you get to check two bags with the purchase of a ticket. They have super great customer service - last week when I left Chicago to go to Calfornia, I was through baggage check in 10 minutes. Also, in Chicago, they fly out of Midway, which is smaller and I know it like the back of my hand. Highly recommend this fabulous airlines!

❤ wineries with friends
My California girlfriends live super close to a strip of like 40 wineries. We went to this one - Wilson, I think? Delicious sparkling wines! The grounds outside were beautiful and the company was the best!

❤ this
Found on Twitter or Instagram. Does your school have a twitter hashtag? Imagine the possibilities!

❤ Bernie Sanders
He's running against Hillary in the primaries. You need more info! I had never heard of him until just a few weeks ago, but he is not owned by big corporation money. The people who back his campaign are middle class folks, like us, and he wants to restore democracy. He's going to win by a grassroots effort, so get on facebook and twitter and start sharing! Here's one more blog post on him, too!

❤ Wahoos Tacos
If you're ever in Calfornia or Vegas, find one and stop. The. Best. Fish Tacos. Ever. and I had a shrimp one last night too - delish!

An InLinkz Link-up