What Worked

In an effort to salvage a year that is going downhill fast, I am going to try to blog about things that are going well in the classroom. Hopefully I'll get to this every day, but we'll see.

Today, writing went well. As usual! It takes a few minutes for the students to settle in, but once they are wrapping their brains around a piece of writing, I can usually get 40 minutes of quality learning time in. I love teaching writing according to the writing process in a workshop approach. It gives the kids responsibility for their writing, and ultimately teaches them to be good writers. Many students will spend three weeks on a piece of writing- planning, drafting, revising, editing, revising again... and I love their final projects. Today was a good day- we started writing by writing to the pen pals the students currently have. Around Valentine's Day each year, we start a post office in the school. Kids are required to buy postage and address their valentines to send them to each other. We also pair them up with students in another room to write letters back and forth.

Writing for a purpose always works well. Actually, when there is a clear purpose, students do most anything well. They get engaged in what they are doing and want to do their best. Today they did a great job, and for once when I was traveling around the room it was commenting on writing instead of behavior. We've started a time for "Author's Chair" each week, and students with a final published copy of a piece of writing can read it aloud (or have me read it aloud) for the class to hear.

Yup, I think writing about the good will help me out.