Join Our Writing Community for the 10th Annual SOLSC

The Slice of Life Story Challenge began on Two Writing Teachers in March 2008. This March, we’ll host the 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. Ever since the challenge began, the mission has remained the same: to support teachers who want to write daily. Teachers who write regularly can better support the students they teach in writing workshops daily.

In the weeks to come, the co-author team and I will provide you with information about prizes and the Fifth Annual Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge. For now, here’s some basic information to get you energized for our March writing challenge.

NEW TO SLICING? Read this: Everyone has been new to this writing challenge at one time or another. We’re a welcoming community of educators from six continents, though the majority of our participants reside in North America. I can assure you that if you’re nervous about going public with your writing — or are unsure you have something to say — you will be welcomed by the men and women we affectionately call Slicers.

Questions: If you have questions after reading through the infographic (above), please contact me, Lisa, or Melanie since we’re the co-authors hosting the individual challenge this year.

• If your last name begins with the letters A – G, please email Betsy, betsymhubbard{at}gmail.com.
• If your last name begins with the letters H – M, please email questions to Lisa, lkeeler{at}stab.org.
• If your last name begins with the letters N – S, please email questions to Melanie, meehanmelanie{at}gmail.com.
• If your last name begins with the letters T – Z, please email questions to Stacey, stacey{at}staceyshubitz.com.

Permalinks: Please use a permalink (aka: unique URL) when you link your posts. To find this link, click on the title of your blog post. The permalink will appear in your browser. Copy that entire link so you can paste it into your comment when you leave a link to your slice of life story at TWT.

An example of a permalink:

A non-example of a permalink:

Leaving a new permalink every day will provide readers with a perpetual link to each of your blog posts. In addition, if you write and link your slice of life daily in March, you’ll be in the running for a prize. Your permalink serves as proof that you wrote daily.

If you’re still having trouble finding the permalinks to your blog posts, then please watch this short tutorial I recorded on Voicethread to learn how to find the permalink to your blog posts.

RETURNING PARTICIPANT? Read here: You’re a seasoned Slicer if you’ve participated in one (or more) of the previous March challenges. We hope you’ll not only join us for our tenth challenge, but we hope you’ll consider inviting a friend, family member or colleague to participate. Remember: the person doesn’t have to teach writing workshop to part of this challenge. While the primary purpose of this Challenge is to foster a community of teachers who are writers, we welcome educators from all subject areas and in all stages of life (e.g., working, retired) to participate in the Slice of Life Story Challenge.

Welcome Wagon: We are in search of seasoned Slicers  to help us with the “Welcome Wagon.” If you can commit to commenting on several new Slicers’ blog posts every day in March, then please sign up to join the Welcome Wagon team.

FOR EVERYONE. Please read:

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 will go live on Sunday, February 19th.
2. You comment ONLY ONCE on the daily call for Slice of Life stories (3/1-3/31/17).
3. You sign a Slice of Life Story Challenge Participant Pledge on April 1st. (Melanie will post the pledge and will ask you to “sign” by leaving a comment certifying that you wrote and linked daily, as well as commented on at least three other Slicers’ writing daily.)

Bottom Line: We’re using the honor system.

Usernames: Please use the same email/username information on all of your March comments. You don’t need to have a WordPress blog to sign-up for a WordPress username. However, having a WordPress username makes it easier and faster to post your comments when you visit TWT. (It also minimizes the chances of your comments going into our spam folder, which we fish out a couple of times daily.)

Comment Guidelines: We are using the same comment guidelines as we have for the past two years. Kindly review them prior to March 1st.

Adults-Only in the Individual Challenge: The individual challenge is for educators at any stage in their career. We realize some of you may have a child or a student who you’d like to invite to participate in the Challenge alongside you. If this is the case, we invite your children or individual students to participate in the Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge. As of 2016, individuals under the age of 18 who are not part of a classroom community must have an adult sponsor to participate. As an adult sponsor, you will be the person who leaves the link to your child’s or student’s blog post, on their behalf, on the daily call for Classroom Slice of Life Stories. Beth will discuss this policy in further detail on Friday, January 27th in her Classroom Challenge overview post. Should you have further questions about this policy, please contact Beth, Betsy, Deb, or Kathleen since they’re co-hosting the Classroom Challenge.

Badges: We’d be honored if you display the Slice of Life Story Challenge logo Betsy created in 2013 (and updated this year) on your slice of life blog posts. If you’d like to download the button, right-click on it and select “save as.”

Since this is the 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, we’ll be issuing special badges, throughout the challenge, to recognize writing accomplishments. Here is a sampling of some of the badges you might be able to collect:

Early Morning Slicer

Grateful Slicer

Late Night Slicer

New Slicer

Original Slicer (These folks received their badges via email in 2016.)

Welcome Wagon Volunteer

More information about the badges will be disseminated throughout March.

Are you excited about the 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge? Do you need some motivation to commit? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.