Little Kindnesses - Slice of Life

It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't been blogging very frequently for ... well... too long.

I'd like to take a moment to reconfirm my dedication to words. To taking the time to notice the little things and write them down. To living a writer's life and cultivating my writer's eye. I took a deep breath this evening and revisited my day, looking for something that should be committed to writing.


Okay, so time for my return to slicing. 


Today I was sitting at my desk, gathering up my things before I had to run down to lunch duty. Fifth graders were filing out. I'd love to say they were leaving quietly, but that's just not how we roll. A few were checking out books from the Lair Library.

Just as the last echoes of the final voice began to die out in the hall, I saw a head peek back into the room.

"Mrs. Selke, can I show you something?"

"Of course! Come on in."

She had a little slip of paper in her hand. Biting her lower lip, she handed it to me.

"This looks really mean," she said. "I thought you should see it."

Relief flooded through me as I realized what she held. It was a scrap of paper with some really mean things on it, that was for sure! But instead of being an unkind note meant to hurt someone's feelings, it was a bit of a script another child had written. One of my groups is working on creating their own TED talks, and two students chose to write about combating bullying.

I smiled at this fifth grader who had taken the time to try to stand up for her friends.

"Thank you for showing this to me," I said. Then I explained the situation. The little wrinkles of worry around her eyes smoothed out as she realized that the note wasn't written to wound.

"You did the right thing, you know. If this had been what you thought it was, it would have been so important that someone came forward so we could fix it."

She darted back out of the room, her steps already looking lighter. Maybe we can't completely end the culture of unkindness in one giant leap, but even small steps take us closer to the prize.



Come join the writing community at Two Writing Teachers. Someone is there Slicing (writing personal memoirs and reflections) every Tuesday. Let's Write!