DAY 1 OF THE MARCH SOLSC! #SOL20

Sunday March 1, 2020Monday March 2, 2020 Stacey Shubitz

Screen Shot 2017-12-02 at 6.09.23 AM — Write. Share. Give.

It’s my honor to welcome you to the 13^th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge! We have hundreds of participants from six continents signed up for this year’s month-long writing marathon. What a thrill it is to gather together to share our stories today!

Please fill out this year’s Participant Information Form if you haven’t completed it yet. This year, we are asking participants to register and commit to this Challenge no later than 11:59 p.m. EST today (in order to be in the running for prizes). This form will close tomorrow morning, March 2nd. In keeping with the spirit of a month-long challenge, it is important to participate fully all thirty-one days.

Each day you’ll find a section called “BE INSPIRED,” which will follow each day’s announcements. That section will include something like a link to someone’s slice of life story and/or a quote about writing.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

I’ve streamlined the essential information into a slideshow so the daily calls for slice of life stories aren’t cluttered with text. Even if you’re back for your 13th challenge, please read through the essential information before checking out today’s writing inspiration or leaving the link to your slice of life story.

But first, an important announcement from me:

A special welcome to the first-time Slicers who are joining us this year! Kelsey Corter, Marina Rodriguez, and Kathleen Sokolowski will be using the participant information form you filled out (Click here if you haven’t filled it out yet.) to match you up with a member of our Welcome Wagon.

The daily call for slice of life stories goes live at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time daily. Since we have participants on six continents, we consider the day over at midnight Eastern Time. Hence, comments can close as early as 12:00 a.m. (the following day) since the post has been live for 24 hours. Often, the daily call for slice of life stories will stay open until the next morning since our co-author team is usually sleeping just after midnight (since most of us live in the Eastern Time Zone). If you are posting the link to your slice of life story after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, then you should go to the next day’s call for slice of life stories and leave your link there.

BE INSPIRED

Amanda Potts of Persistence and Pedagogy demonstrates how sometimes we have to look a little harder to find slices of life worth capturing in “Pause.” Sometimes, the things we would never to think to write about are worthy of writing about are worthy of capturing with our words.

QUESTIONS

Need to contact a co-author with a question? Please email us rather than leaving your question within your comment (below). Thank you, in advance, for your patience with us. We receive a high volume of emails during the first few days of the challenge. We will respond to all emails as soon as possible.

If you have questions about the individual challenge, you may contact one of these co-authors.

If your last name begins with the letters A-G, please email questions to Lanny Ball at lanny.ball[at]gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters H-M, please email questions to Kelsey Corter at kelseymcorter[at]gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters N-Q, please email questions to Betsy Hubbard at betsymhubbard[at]gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters R-U, please email questions to Melanie Meehan at meehanmelanie[at]gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters V-Z, please email questions to Beth Moore, beth[at]elizabethmoore.work.

NOTE: As I mentioned in the video above, I am unable to respond to questions this year due to a recovery from surgery. Many thanks to my colleagues for picking up my slack!

If you have questions about the Classroom Challenge, which will take place next month, you may contact one of these co-authors:

If your last name begins with the letters A – M, please email questions to Marina Rodriguez, mrodriguez[at]csisd.org.
If your last name begins with the letters N – Z, please email questions to Kathleen Sokolowski mrs.sokolowski[at]gmail.com.

Please note: We’re unable to respond to challenge-related questions via Facebook and Twitter.

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