Slice of Life - Getting it Started


As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my core values for my students this year will be the simple phrase "Be Brave".

Yesterday was the first day I got to start pulling my students into the classroom for our first few lessons. (As an enrichment teacher, my students get the chance to "settle in" with their regular classroom before I start removing them for my lessons.)

I read The Story of Fish and Snail to my second grader, and we made lists of ways we can show we are brave, and drew pictures. He drew himself singing in front of a large group. I drew myself walking into a large group of people and jumping into the discussion.

My older students had a larger chunk of time with me, so we got to accomplish several tasks. We read Fish and Snail and discussed bravery. We watched a video of The Dot and made our own dots to share.

Yes *I* drew, too. I've never considered myself to have any artistic talent (at least not with the visual arts), and it takes a little bump of bravery to draw in front of my students. Believe it or not, it takes a lot more bravery for me to share my drawings than it does to write in front of them!

My dot isn't quite finished, since I wanted to save some of the work on it to do in front of my other two enrichment groups. I'll share my thoughts on Dot Day - and my dot - toward the end of the week.

We did some goal setting and discussed our classroom "code of conduct". I said that the first two rules in the room this year would be:

Be Brave

Be Unique

As a group, we brainstormed more "be" statements - like "be respectful"and "be honest". Each enrichment group will brainstorm this week, and then we'll have a vote to decide what 3 additional statements we would like to have in our code.


As another little leap of faith - I tossed my name in the hat to be a Cybils judge this year. I was selected to participate in the round two judging for the graphic novels category! Sometimes bravery means trying something new, right?










I'm participating in the Slice of Life Challenge, hosted by the amazing educators at Two Writing Teachers. We write and share on Tuesdays. Stop by to see what others are posting!

Also - if you stop by and comment, and you are also slicing - PLEASE feel free to include your URL in the comments. With over 200 people slicing, it is often hard to go find your specific link on the Two Writing Teachers page, and I'd love to come read YOUR slice too!

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