Lorelai Gilmore I am not! In case you are one of the deprived souls who never watched The Gilmore Girls please let me explain. One of the main characters on this wonderfully witty show was Lorelai Gilmore. Lorelai had an unnatural LOVE of winter. Seriously. In several different episodes she stated that she LOVED winter; that everything seemed magical when it snowed. I do not like the snow. I do not think everything seems magical when it snows. Why? Because I am not watching the snow fall peacefully from the sky on some T.V. show. Nope. I am watching it cover my driveway and changing my plans of curling up under a blanket and reading Unbroken. It doesn't look magical to me. It looks like more work. I am NOT Lorelai Gilmore!

However, this never-ending winter has me more hateful of snow than usual. So, I decided that instead of complaining about things I cannot change I would try to change my view of snow. Therefore I decided that I would try to occupy my mind by looking for the silver lining to the reality of more snow on the first of March while shoveling the snow. Here is my top ten list of reasons why snow/winter isn't as bad as I currently perceive it to be.

10.     Thanks to the snow we now know exactly whose dog is using our backyard as             its bathroom. Knowledge is power.

 9.     I don't have to mow the grass. (Ya, I know. When summer comes I will have to          make a top 10 list about why grass isn't as bad as I think it is.)

 8.     I get to see neighbors that I haven't seen for a few months. This is a BIG plus            with my awesome neighbors!     

 7.     It's a great opportunity to entertain the same aforementioned neighbors as I               sing along to some great music on iheart radio. (I may have had a few dance               moves thrown in there as well, but unless that shows up on youtube I am just              going to pretend that I wasn't dancing. It's better this way. Trust me.)

 6.     Despite the cold, my toes remained warm and dry in my totally stylin' snow                boots.

 5.     Technology friendly gloves. Best. Thing. Ever.

 4.     I guess I could throw fresh air on this list. I mean, it was COLD air and I would            prefer warm air, but it was fresh. 

 3.    Exercise. Shoveling snow is exercise. (Hey! Killing two birds with one stone.               WIN!)

 2.     My husband's gratitude when he came home from work to find the driveway               already shoveled. 

 1.     When finished with shoveling drinking hot chocolate while curled up under a               blanket, getting lost in a good book and knowing that spring IS right around the           corner. Now that's magical!

Have you ever felt like you blink your eyes and weeks have passed by? This is exactly how I am feeling. Where did April go? (Sigh) The school year is almost over. In my world this means that my groups will be ending in a few short weeks so that I can assist with the plethora of end-of-the-year assessments that must be done. There is still so much I want to teach! Plus, I have a student who has FINALLY turned a corner. This is a child that I have spent hours strategizing how to support. (I replaced sleeping with this...and I LOVE sleep!)  I am starting to see real leaps in their progress and I want to keep this momentum going. Just the thought of this student going three months without school worries me. We all know that our kids tend to 'step back' a little over summer break, meaning they loose some of the progress they made during the school year. It makes me wish that my school district was year round.

I can see the potential advantages of a year round school schedule for my ELL students. For many ELL students English is not spoken in the home therefore they don't have that consistent exposure to the English language when they are not in school. I also think about how important routines/schedules are for so many students, especially students who have special education needs. Plus, when I think of the possibilities of having all students reading, writing and mathematizing, without a three month break, my heart smiles. It seems to me that the summer loss that occurs would be lessened if we had a year round schedule.


Now I know it's easy to say we should have a year round school calendar, but implementing it I think would be a challenge...to say the least. I imagine district scheduling would be even more of a nightmare and I wonder how it might impact parents who have children in multiple grades. Would this type of school calendar make it difficult for them? Then I think about the cost. I would assume that an increased use of utilities would, of course, increase cost. Plus, with a year round calendar would the maintenance crews and custodians be able to do their jobs effectively? 

I am sure there are a million other arguments for or against a year round school calendar. I simply don't have any experience with a school who uses one...yet so my knowledge about it is still a work in progress. I am curious to know what others think and, if they have had experience with a year round school, what it was like for them. But, when I think about just my students and nothing else, I am convinced that year round school would be the best. After all, don't we strive to put our students first. 

I recently read one of Tricia Eaton's blogs, Today I Love Writing, where she asks the question, "How do you write?" This question got my mind wondering...how do I write? It depends on a number of things. Such as what I am doing, how I am feeling or the purpose for my writing.

There are times that I just need to put my thoughts and feelings on paper. I don't carve out time, like some do. This type of writing, for me, comes from more of a necessity. Perhaps if I devoted a specific time just for writing I would feel differently. When I write like this I tend to ramble on and on. Sometimes my thoughts just go in circles or one thought will jump to a memory before it makes the leap to another idea; like stream-of-consciousness writing. I may be the only person who could even follow this writing of mine and its ALWAYS full of mistakes, but that is okay because this writing is just for me. I am generally a very private person and I only allow a select few know my inner thoughts and feelings. So, putting pen to paper is very therapeutic during these times. 

If I am working on a paper I like to write a brief outline of the information I want to include prior to planting myself in front of the computer. I'll surround myself with a variety of books, notes and have websites readily available then I jump right in. I let my outline guide me as I combine my thoughts and questions with information I have gathered. Editing and revising is something I do constantly in this process. When I finally "finish" it I will walk away for a chunk of time. I need to let it be, to settle my mind a bit before I check it again. Then I will read it a few more times, tweaking as needed, before officially declaring it finished. When I write like this I need to have an outline. It drives me crazy when I am working with someone on a paper and they don't have a plan. I NEED A PLAN, MAN. I NEED A PLAN!

What I am discovering about blogging is that I want to have a plan but it feels better just letting go...somewhat. I will start out with an idea. This idea may have come from something I have read or a discussion I have had or perhaps a lesson I have learned, but I need to have an idea before I even attempt to write something. Why is this? Simply put because, with any luck, SOMEONE will read this. They will read this and they will form an opinion or it will trigger a thought or a million other things. The point is that this IS public. I can't just throw my personal thoughts and feelings out here all willy-nilly! That's craziness. And honestly a blog that sounds more like a formal paper is BORING. 

Blogging has become the bridge that connects my two worlds of writing. I am surprised by the joy and the freedom I am feeling from blogging. Remember, this is coming from someone who was very hesitant to even start this! I have turned into someone who now looks forward to it. Even now as I am typing this I am thinking about what I should write next! I didn't see this one coming. Why didn't someone warn me that blogging was SO addictive? I might be turning into a blogaholic! I wonder if anyone else feels the same way?

Being a newbie in the blogging world there is something I need to confess. When a group of my peers were discussing how much the comments on their blogs meant to them I didn't fully understand. Yes, I understood that they liked receiving comments on what they had written. I can relate to that. Every time I have been observed teaching I have appreciated the feedback especially when it helped me grow and improve my teaching. What I could not relate to was the feeling they got when someone commented on their blog. I get it now. I am totally going to sound like a nerd here, but comments are like Christmas morning. When I get an email that says someone has commented on MY blog, on something that I wrote...well, I can't wait to see what it says. I get the same feeling I had as a child waking up on Christmas morning. It is an exhilarating feeling and something I didn't expect. 


I am aware that I don't have many comments and you may be wondering why I would choose to write about receiving comments. In the past I would have told myself that I tried and blogging just isn't for me. However, I am not going to do that today. Instead, I am going to focus on the fact that even though I don't have an abundant amount of comments that at least two people took time out of their busy schedules to not only read what I had to say, but comment on it as well. I feel honored.

This experience started me thinking about a book I have been reading, Celebrating Writers by Ruth Ayres. In her book Ruth writes about expanding writing celebrations. For me the comments that were left on my very first blog were a celebration. Receiving comments has encouraged me to continue blogging. This, like many other things, started me thinking about my students. I work with English Language Learners (ELL). Writing, for many of them, is NOT their favorite activity. Just speaking the English language can be difficult on its own; putting those words on paper is a whole other beast. Knowing how hard learning English can be for them I've always been pretty good about congratulating them on their triumphs. However, as I was reading Celebrating Writers I became cognizant of the fact that during the past few months I have gotten away from celebrating their writing. Sadly, I have been doing more assessing than celebrating.

I realized this when I told a group of my first graders that we were going to have some free writing time, time to write about whatever they wanted to write about. One of my students looked at me and asked, "We don't have to write about the book?" My heart sank a little as I realized that I had spent SO much time having them write about things I wanted, or needed, them to write about (in order to help me with a state mandated assessment for ELL students) that I had neglected to let them write about what was important to them. How are they going to learn how to put their thoughts and feelings in their writing when they aren't given an opportunity, or the freedom, to write about what is significant to them? Then I thought about that Christmas morning feeling I got from the comments I had received about my writing. How can I expect them to find the joy in writing and the courage to push on if they don’t receive 'a comment' that encourages them to keep writing and celebrates them as writers?

I am changing this today. I am taking a bite into the Slice of Life Challenge and am giving my students a little bit of free writing time each day. It won't always be easy, but it will be powerful. And we are going to celebrate every step of the journey!

I am very fortunate to work with some amazing educators who inspire me in a number of ways. Most notability, how they have made the use of technology, specifically blogging, with their first grade students, a routine as opposed to an event. I have been thinking about blogging for quite awhile but I have been hesitant for a number of reasons. For instance, I wonder if blogging is a realistic possibility for me. Is there a way to use it effectively and efficiently that won’t cut into too much of my valuable time? Then there is that self-doubt that always creeps into my mind. Will I have anything to blog about that would be of interest or help to anyone? I think more importantly I question how can I incorporate it with my students in a meaningful way AND insure their safety? These are some of the big questions, some might say excuses, I have as to why I have not jumped on the blogging wagon. However, witnessing the first graders in my school blogging has lit a fire under me. They unknowingly have challenged me to abandon my comfort zone and explore a personal uncharted area of social media.

The fact that the students of today are comfortable with technology is not lost on me. Let's face it our students lives revolve around various forms of technology. One thing that comes to mind is when I saw a nine month old unlock his dad's touch screen phone and open an app that he wanted to play. Unlike my generation today’s generation has spent their entire lives surrounded by technology. So when I shared my amazement of a nine month old opening an app his four-year-old brother looked at me like I was crazy and with a shrug informed me that they do that all the time. No big deal. The whole idea of blogging, most likely, isn’t as big a deal to my students as it is to me. They aren’t going to be weighing the pros and cons like I do. Nope. They just do it.

I suppose I could continue on with my avoidance of blogging. I mean the world will still go on spinning if I choose not to blog with my kiddos, but is avoiding something that I am uncomfortable with depriving my students of something…more? What I absolutely LOVE about social media/blogging is the sharing of ideas; learning with new people and reading about their thoughts, their perspectives. The whole camaraderie that it can bring is something the world has never had so instantaneously before. By blogging I could open my students up to a whole world of experiences. Is that something I really want to keep from them?

All of this brings me to my current dilemma, to blog or not to blog. As you can clearly see, I have decided to make the leap. So, here I am attempting to create my very first blog. Whether or not anyone chooses to read it, or to respond to it, only time will tell. My intention is to use my experience with this blog, and any advice or helpful suggestions that I may receive from the more blog savvy members of society, to help me decide how I would safely use it with my students.