Slice of Life Story Challenge

DAY 3 OF THE MARCH SOLSC! #SOL16

Stacey Shubitz

SOLSC ButtonWelcome to Day 3 of the 9th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge! I’m delighted you’re here, sharing a slice of your life, today!

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).

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please Read!

Comment on writers’ blogs, not on the TWT post. We’ve noticed some people are using the “reply” feature in the comments section to leave comments to other people’s blog posts rather than leaving a comment on a person’s individual blog. This clogs up the comments section of the daily call for Slice of Life stories. We would appreciate it if you’d refrain from using the reply feature for this purpose. (The TWT co-authors use the reply feature as a means of letting people know when they have linked incorrectly or for other tech-related issues.) Comments made on the TWT post to other Slicers, rather than on their blog, will be deleted.

Leave the correct link to your post. Please be sure you’re leaving the permalink to your blog post, rather than the URL to your blog, when you leave a comment. Click here and scroll to the “New to Slicing” section of the blog post. You will find two visuals that illustrate an example and a non-example of a permalink.

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.

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

  • BE INSPIRED.Sometimes new Slicers dip their toes into the SOLSC in the weeks leading up to the March Challenge. Lori Muir, from I Want My Students to Write, did just that last week. At the beginning of her slice, she worried she wasn’t going to get it right. But, as you’ll see when you visit her blog, she did. Her post embodies the essence of a slice of life story. Do check it out!
  • 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.
Are you wondering what a slice of life story is? Click on this image to enlarge & to learn more.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Click on the image to enlarge.
Click on the image to enlarge.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

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.

309 thoughts on “DAY 3 OF THE MARCH SOLSC! #SOL16”

  51. Thank you TWT for a reason to write every day for the month of March 2016. What a great gift!
    I am rediscovering the power of writing every day. Gratitude!

    This one – I gotta admit – is a R A N T. But within it I uncover the passion I harbor so close for WHY we do what we do each day.

    What is Reading?

    Like

    2. Wow! I love this:
      All the academics that we are trying to teach, at the end of them all, we would like these young citizens to grow as responsible and caring people of our society. That they do not just sympathize but empathize.

      Any new skill that requires the mind can be learned at any point in time. What the heart requires should start while its young.

      I have been having this conversation with some of my colleagues! I have reading up on Number Sense, deeper thinking and understanding. I have seen a huge change in my students as the style of my teaching has grown and changed, for the better I hope. Number Sense Routines: Building Numerical Literacy Every Day in Grades K-3 is a great book I refer back to off and on. I got started a few years ago after reading Carol Dweck’s Mindset, and this led me to reading about how we approach math. Another possible good read is Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching 1st Edition by Jo Boaler (Author), Carol Dweck (Foreword). The review are great, too.It’s so exciting to talk with people on the same journey. I’m so glad I read yours today! Thank you!

      Like

      1. When we are working with kids, our focus is how they are going to think out loud the process. If we take two steps back, we can see the big picture. There is more this activity has to offer for us to see. It is very evident for students with behavioural issues, struggling not just academically but more so, socially. I see this as a great opportunity to teach character attributes.

        Thank you for the list of resources you mentioned. I am creating a list of books on numeracy that I would like to buy. Have you heard about Number Talks Matter by Cathy Humphreys and Ruth Parker? I heard it’s a great book as well. It’s on my list. Our learning doesn’t stop and it will never end!

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    1. Hope this posts in the right spot! The comment is for ^^Pittswitts: I read and posted on your “Full Plate” post, but the comment isn’t showing. Do you have comment monitoring on? If so, you may want to turn it off.

      Like

    1. Beautiful, just beautiful, and touched me so deeply. I don’t have that balance in my life, and need to renew my spirit, reconnect. Thank you for your spirit and grace. You have truly made a difference today, in my life.
      Kay

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