I Am A Writer: A Slice of Life

Writing teachers need to write themselves.

I am participating in the Slice of Life 2015 Challenge, 

where I attempt to write stories and narratives about moments in my life.

I apologize if this blog post veers off the informative "literacy lens" I usually write through.

This month I am pretending to be a writer, for my students' benefit (and my own).

Writers write. 

#SOL15

     Today is a big day.  Not only is it Day 31 of the Slice of Life Challenge, but it is also #PostitivePostItDay on Twitter.  What do you get if you combine the 2 things?

     I end this challenge with a Positive Post It to myself.  I am a writer.  All month, I have been copying and pasting the same text to the top of my blog.  "This month, I am pretending to be a writer, for my students' benefit (and my own)."  But, as the month comes to a close, I am starting to see that I am a writer. 

     I write on my blog, usually for myself, but with an awareness that there may be an audience out there.  This challenge helped me remember that.  It was so much fun getting comments from others, and leaving comments for writers.  Sense of audience is important, for us and for our students.

     I write better narrative than I did at the beginning of the challenge.  Specifically, I better learned how to document my children's moments through words.  I need to get their blog going again.    

     I have realized that writing poetry does not scare me anymore, but it did a year ago.  

     One of my goals was to write more from from different perspectives.  I did not do that much this challenge, but I do see other peoples' perspectives better after reading slices by others.  I just need to keep slicing, perhaps on Tuesdays.

     I have remembered to slice every day, despite missing the time deadlines a few days.  I have reminded myself what goal setting can be.  Within goal setting are some failures, too.  But I remembered not to give up, and have a purpose beyond prizes.  My purpose was to write.  I feel like I did that.

     So, thank you Slice of Life and TwoWritingTeachers.wordpress.com for making me a writer.  Thank you, fellow slicers, for reading my posts but also inspiring me along the way with your writing.  It is powerful to share your voice with the world, and I am so grateful that a handful of people took the time each day to read my thoughts.  What a fun month this has been!  

(Graphics by Ashley Hughes)