DAY 2 OF THE MARCH SOLSC! #SOL16

Wednesday March 2, 2016Thursday March 3, 2016 Stacey Shubitz

Welcome to Day 2 of the 9^th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge! I’m delighted you’re here.

If you’re participating in the individual Slice of Life Story Challenge, this is where you share your writing. If you’re sharing your students’ slice of life stories, please head over to the Classroom Challenge, (i.e., see Deb’s previous post).

A special welcome to the first-time Slicers who are joining us this year.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A word about comments:

We’re fortunate to have SO MANY educators from all over the Earth (Six continents are represented!) participating in our month-long challenge. As a result, you might not know whose writing to comment on every day. Dana and I brainstormed about this prior to the SOLSC and we came up with some ideas:

You can comment on the two people who link before you and the person who links after you. (That means you’ll need to come back to see who links after you.)
Make a goal for how many blogs you’ll comment on in a given day (e.g., 10 blogs). Then, read the teaser statements in each day’s daily call for Slice of Life stories. Find the ones that resonate with you the most and comment on those.
Set a timer for however long you have on a given day. Start from the top (or the bottom) and comment on as many blogs as you can in the time you have.
Follow and comment on other Slicers who share their posts using the #sol16 hashtag on Twitter.
Use the writing pods (which we’ll send out on 3/6) to help you find people who have similar interests to you.
Comment on late night Slicers since they often receive the fewest amount of comments. That is, check the previous day’s daily call for Slice of Life stories and leave comments on the people who link their Slice of Life stories in the final hours of the day.

Remember, we never mandate whose blogs you comment on! All we ask is that you comment on at least three people’s blogs per day.

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

Username:

Please use the SAME email/username information on all of your March comments.

Commenting:

Please include the permalink (aka: unique URL) to your post when you leave a comment. Click here and scroll to the “New to Slicing” section of the blog post. Once you arrive, you’ll find two visuals that illustrate an example and a non-example of a permalink.
- If you link your slice of life story incorrectly today, you’ll receive a reply to your comment from Anna Gratz Cockerille, who is handling tech support this year, or one of the other co-authors.
We worked together to create some comment guidelines. We may, at any time, remove a comment from our blog if it is inappropriate. Please refer to these guidelines when commenting this month:

Self-Promotion: Please don’t use your comment or link to your blog for self-promotion. The links in the comment section of our Slice of Life Story Challenge are meant to lead our readers to stories from people’s lives–not just whatever was on your blog that day.
Linking and Running: Please do not just drop off the link to your Slice without commenting on at least three other Slice of Life Stories. Comments are the foundation of this community. If you choose to link early in the morning, please return later that day to leave at least three comments.
Spam: It’s not just big advertisers who spam. Spam can include: Copying and pasting a comment from one post to another, or leaving a message such as, “Nice post. Visit my blog at…” This kind of comment is a form of spam. We reserve the right to delete comments that fall into this category.

Thank you for appreciating and standing by our guidelines.

If you’ve never posted a comment on TWT before, or if your comment contains more than one hyperlink, then your comment will be held for moderation. I will monitor blog comments a few times today so I can approve comments that don’t post automatically. Therefore, there is no need to re-post your comment if it doesn’t appear after you click “post comment.”
- If you use the same username/email to log in when you leave your comment, your comments should appear instantly in the future.
- Tech-related questions? Contact Anna Gratz Cockerille at AnnaGCockerilleLiteracy{at}gmail.com.
If this is the first time you’re participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge, please let us know that when you share your link as a comment.
If you have a Blogger blog, please make sure you’re using the “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA” option or removing the security layers to make it easier for people to leave comments on your blog posts. Click here for more information about “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA.”

Prizes:

Prizes will be given away at the conclusion of the month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge. You’ll be eligible for a prize if:

1. You fill out the participant data form, which went live on February 21st.

2. You comment ONLY ONCE on the daily call for Slice of Life stories (3/1 – 3/31/16).

3. You sign a Slice of Life Story Challenge Participation Pledge on April 1st. (We’ll post the pledge and will ask you to “sign.” You’ll sign by leaving a comment certifying you wrote and linked daily, as well as commented on at least three other Slicers’ writing daily.)

In order to be in the running for a prize at the end of the month, you must leave the link to your slice of life story by 11:59 p.m. EST to be eligible for prizes.

Only links left before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time will count when you’re signing-off on the participation pledge on April 1st.

The call for slices goes up at midnight EST. Everyone has the same 24-hour window to post, regardless of the time zone in which they live.

Please play fair and leave only one link each day.

If you haven’t filled out the participant information form please do so today. Filling out this form allows us to keep a list of challenge participants and helps us expedite prizes in April. Only the TWT co-authors have access to this information.

Social Media:

We are using #sol16 on tweets about Slice of Life Story Challenge.
- NOTE: You must leave a link to your slice of life post on the daily calls for slice of life stories here at Two Writing Teachers to be eligible for a prize.

Questions:

Should you have questions about getting started with this Challenge, please contact:

If your last name begins with the letters A – G, please email questions to Beth, beth{at}elizabethmoore.work.
If your last name begins with the letters H – M, please email questions to Betsy, betsymhubbard{at}gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters N – S, please email questions to Dana, danamurphy143{at}gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters T – Z, please email questions to Stacey, stacey{at}staceyshubitz.com.

BE INSPIRED

Michelle Haseltine of One Grateful Teacher recently wrote a slice entitled “Power-less.” This piece is a great example of how to come up with something to write about when you think you have nothing to write about. If you’re feeling at a loss for a topic today, check out her slice and be inspired.
Click here if you need topic ideas.

Finally, here’s a visual definition of a slice of life story:

Are you wondering what a slice of life story is? Click on this image to enlarge & to learn more.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

1st Time Participant FAQ’s
Getting Started (INFOGRAPHIC)
Prize Information (Click here to check out the literary-related prizes!)
Slice of Life Information Page

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels. View all posts by Stacey Shubitz