Reading Teacher Writes

Sharing a love of literacy with fellow readers and writers

Category Archives: March Slice of Life Challenge 2024


by Leave a comment

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 18

House Showings and New Floors

The number of house showings are fabulous, but we need that one offer…

The construction people started on my new floors today at the new house. I’m impressed! Gorgeous! I cannot believe that I will live in the home…soon! I’ve never had hardwood floors before, or a walk-in closet, or big bright windows all over the first floor. I can’t wait to settle in.

By the way, I do NOT recommend moving when the weather cannot make up its mind. Mother Nature! Hey! Is it winter? Spring? Spinter? Fall? Who knows? Saturday was 63 degrees and today was 37. Someone with higher powers has to figure this out!


by 1 Comment

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 17

I blew it again! This past week has been so hard: our school is transitioning and I needed to plan with the team, there are two schools in our district closing, so I need to lead the library closings, and we started the house showings – whoa! I haven’t been home to do anything but touch-up cleaning in between the visitors. I hope this house sells soon!

Anyway, I’m failing at this challenge again, but I wanted to write as much as possible, so here I am. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May the luck of the Irish be with you all.

We are watching the Selection Shows tonight, getting ready for March Madness basketball. This is a fun time of year when we get to see which teams are matched up for the big tournament. Go teams! (Men: Purdue; Women: Notre Dame and Indiana)

Have a great week! I wish you the chance to read and relax!


by 2 Comments

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 12

Read Alouds Work!

I went to school today with hope for the future as I met with my reading group students. My goal was to work on a three-part assignment and start our read aloud, Unstuck, by Barbara Dee. This book published recently and I was so grateful that Ms. Dee wrote about a seventh-grader with a perfect, complicated story in her head, but couldn’t write it on paper. Writers Block.

The beginning of the story chronicled the main character, Lyla, talking to the reader (1st person POV – my students told ME) about a wonderful fantasy that she was going to write…but never wrote a thing on her paper. My students and I found it funny that the opening scenes were exactly like what happens in “real school” life. I love that my students are also in 7th grade and writing narratives for our third quarter ELA project – this is the perfect read aloud for them.

Write on!


by 3 Comments

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 11

Hello! Here are my 10 sentence starters from yesterday’s post:

  1. Mom! I’m huun-greee!
  2. Just one more minute, please.
  3. I’m busy!
  4. When she saw him the next day, she knew she got it right.
  5. She checked the time again, just to make sure.
  6. Did you find it?
  7. Well, hello there!
  8. There were only two more hours until…
  9. Fine! I’ll tell you!
  10. I’m at peace.


by 2 Comments

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 10

Back at it! I took this book out of the school library because it was back in a corner in the “T” (Teachers) section and hasn’t been used in years. Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain sounded like something I could use (besides coffee). Published in 2006 by HOW Books, Stefan Mamaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield got me thinking.

Here’s page 235…

Wait! I cannot use, “Once upon a time…?” The premise that a character has to DO something is one that we tell our students all the time. Students always write plot: “And then…and then…and then…” but their characters are not developed (sixth-graders), so the reader never really wants to read more and the story sort of dies on the second page. We try motivating our students by reading those “First Line Fridays” book openings, where we find the best lines from library books to check out and encourage our writers to pen something of their own.

Tonight I’m writing opening sentences. I’ll see if I can find something cool to share with you tomorrow.


by 3 Comments

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 8

Friday!

What a long week! I’m so glad it’s Friday! This weekend we are cleaning and staging our house for the market. Twenty-eight years of stuff, whoa! It’s time to box it all up and move. Here’s where I sit to write. This room will move with me, although in the new house, there’s a giant window that let’s in bright natural light, and I cannot wait to write there this summer.

Have a nice weekend! “Write on!”


by 4 Comments

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 7

I’m exhausted! Teaching small groups of readers as a mandated extra part of my daily job is fun and I love the students, but I’m worn out! Honestly, I wasn’t going to “slice” today. I went to bed already, but as I rolled around, I thought about my commitment to writing, and I dragged myself back out of bed. I’m glad I did!

That’s what we ask our students to do every day — get up and get to it! Learning is fun, but it’s a chore sometimes, too. We are lucky to have “our people” to support and guide us. I’d like to thank Stacy Shubitz today for hosting the first 7 days of this month’s Slice of Life Challenge! We are inspired by you and we love you!

Now…back to bed. I’ll be better tomorrow. It will be the weekend!


by 2 Comments

Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 5

Happy Book Birthdays!

I love celebrating my author friends’ publishing days (called “Book Birthdays”) each Tuesday. I used to gather all the upcoming pub dates in a calendar and then find the book cover images to post on my site or at least on social media. I’ve been really bad about that for about sixth months now, so I thought I’d use THIS post (Happy Tuesday) to start again. Cheers to my friends who have Book Birthdays today! Virtual cake and ice cream for all!

Now…where is that cake and ice cream?