I'm a runner

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for hosting the Slice of Life each Tuesday!

For some people, saying, "I am a writer." is no easy feat. For me, that's a piece of cake. I am a writer not because I'm particularly creative or do some amazing crafting with words, but because I come to my blog day in and day out and write. I publish things that I love and other things that I think are just okay, and some that are crap, but I still hit the publish button and put it out there. Because this:

But running, that's another story. If I'm being totally honest, it's exercising in general. I'm not one of those people who loves it and wants to do it all the time. I'm like that with writing. But running, I would rather:

• Do a marathon - on Netflix
• Clean my kitchen
• Grade some papers
• Make a rubric
• Floss my teeth
• Go grocery shopping
• Anything else

The thing is, once I tell myself what my best friend advised (you don't have to want to run, you just have to actually do it) and get my feet to the pavement, I kinda don't mind. And as I'm running, I listen to some good tunes and watch people around the neighborhood and then when I get home, I love to sit on my stoop and cool down, post some stuff on Runkeeper (including the update I drafted as I ran). And then, my friends like my running status, and that is really motivating.

I also find that when I'm running every other day consistently, I like it more. I bet if I just kept going and going and going, maybe I could be like those people who love running?

(Not holding my breath!)

But, I'm a runner. A slow runner, an inconsistent runner, a nonpassionate runner, but I do it enough to call myself a runner.

Do you write as often as I run? Just say it with me: I'm a writer.

Get the details for this challenge here!

An InLinkz Link-up

secret readers

If you've been following along, you know that I'm at the Illinois Writing Project Summer Leadership Institute (We're live on twitter -> #IWPsli15 - but we're just getting started so not a lot of tweets yet!) Anyways, each morning we share stories from books we are inspired by, and today, Salina shared from the book above. This book was a Scholastic freebie! I posted the image above on Instagram and lots of people had a copy, so maybe there's a freebie out there for me somewhere? D100 - I'm talking to you! :-)

As Salina introduced the book, she was telling us a story about how she and her husband just had dinner with their new neighbors. Her neighbor is very into crafting jewelry as one of her hobbies. After the neighbor shared their story, she asked, "Salina, what do you do for fun?"

Her response was, "I don't know, I have to think about it." Luckily, the neighbor is super nice and let Salina off the hook, but this morning, as Salina is telling the story to all of us, and real talk: she really loves to read and that she was worried that her neighbor might not think it was a cool enough hobby, every one of us in class was erupting to giggles and comments like, "Secret readers!" and "Time for you to come out of the closet!"

Then, Salina went on to share this poem, from the book up above --

I mean, beautiful isn't even the right word (I don't have a lot of time to think about a better word right now!) but, it's a perfect poem, isn't it? Salina, who openly shares with all of us, who understands what a reading life is all about, wants a cooler hobby to share with her new friends.

I've often felt the same when my boyfriend and I are asked what we do for fun. He's a sports guy who loves fantasy baseball and loves movies, too. I, on the other hand, can't remember a movie (or a quote, for that matter) to save my life and what do I do for fun? Write a blog and seek beautiful works of art like the one above. We're so different, but I love that I have this amazing life as a reader and a writer! I think people on the outside of this literacy life maybe just don't get it. I know Hektor doesn't. It's not bad, but he would never revel in the poem I shared above, and he definitely wouldn't find the events of this morning's share time so funny, like the rest of us did.

So, friends, could there be any secret readers in your life?

How can we show all the others (our students included) what they are missing out on with this literacy life?

Perhaps I need a really great baseball story for the boyfriend!

Make sure to share your story with Two Writing Teachers!

Get the details for this challenge here!

An InLinkz Link-up

day 29: power to the people! Write on!

WRITE your story.

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A few days ago I was texting with friends, trying to figure out what we were going to do this weekend:

They laugh at me but have no idea about the event I attended yesterday. Said poetry slam was Louder Than a Bomb, presented by Young Chicago Authors. LTAB is a poetry festival, this year, celebrating it's 15th year. I came to find out about it last year when I came across this video on Twitter:

LTAB is a poetry competition, but the point is not the points, the point is the poetry! All of March, the teams and individuals attend bouts until they are narrowed down to four teams to compete at the finals. This year, finals were held at the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place. LTAB is actually the largest youth poetry festival in the world...how awesome is that?

I went with one of my favorite work friends, Alexa. Neither of us had been before. When we arrived, we found seats, and the DJ was playing music and all the kids were dancing on stage....tons of kids from all over Chicago and a few suburbs. "This is what the city of Chicago looks like."

Eventually the competition got underway. Each team was to have three individual performances and then one group performance. Kids were encouraged to "Step up to the microphone and dream." They were told to share their stories. This festival came about to give a voice to marginalized groups across the city.

The kids spoke poems about all kinds of topics - some I have no idea about, but many included themes of police treatment of black boys. Being such a traumatic event, what happened in Ferguson was woven through many of the pieces. Kids discussed politics in Chicago, wars happening in our city and around the world, their experiences being different than the "Barbie Army" applying their red lipstick in the bathroom mirrors as the different girl hides in a bathroom stall. One girl spoke about an act of violence she endured. All poems were just that - laced in metaphor, plagued with sounds that make the poetry come alive as it was performed for us.

The best thing? There was a theater full of kids who LOVE writing. One of the co-founders talked about how these kids who participate in LTAB walk around their high schools as popular as the star football players, but instead of catching a pass and winning Friday night's game, they are "hyper literate nerd word" kids, looked up to by their peers. LTAB gave them art, poetry, and a space to find themselves, and that's exactly what they did.

As a presenter at the end gave out the literary award, he shared a quote (I didn't catch who said it) but it was, "The world may be in bad shape, but you can't blame the youth." So true. Last night was exhilarating. I am definitely not done with classroom teaching. I totally want to teach high school. Think of all I could learn from the youth that sits before me if I was ever able to have that awesome opportunity?

Check out archives of LTAB here.