In this heartfelt letter to her departing student teacher, Mrs. Smith reflects on their time together and offers words of advice and encouragement. She emphasizes the importance of being a model reader and writer, staying open to unexpected teaching moments, embracing the messiness of learning, fostering a culture of kindness and community, and remembering to have fun in the journey of teaching.
Author: Tara Smith
I teach Writing Workshop, Language Arts and Social Studies to sixth graders at a middle school in suburban New Jersey. This blog is my attempt to capture all the "stuff" that goes into my teaching life - the planning, the dreaming, the reading, the preparing, the hoping and (above all) the kids.
Please note that the content of this blog is my own. It does not reflect the opinions of my employer.
WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: IT’S SOL TIME!
WRITE a slice of life story on your own blog. SHARE a link to your post in the comments section. GIVE comments to at least three other SOLS bloggers. Several Slicers are heading up to the Highlights Foundation for an Unworkshop for few days in late June. Consider joining them if you'd like to drop everything for… Continue reading WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: IT’S SOL TIME!
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THROWBACK WEEK: HOW DO YOU PULL AWAY? LET GO OF THEIR HAND
Nurturing independence in writing workshop is one of the hardest things to do, and one of the tasks I struggle with the most. Betsy's post from last May, "How you pull away? Let go of their hand", is a beautiful guide to doing just this - in the primary grades, as well as in middle school. *********************** Letting… Continue reading THROWBACK WEEK: HOW DO YOU PULL AWAY? LET GO OF THEIR HAND
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WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: IT’S SOL TIME!
WRITE a slice of life story on your own blog. SHARE a link to your post in the comments section. GIVE comments to at least three other SOLS bloggers. “Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.” ― Gloria Steinem
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Workshop Routines: Sometimes It’s Time For The Reset Button
Sixth graders have short-term memories. Just when I’d thought that I’d nailed down efficient routines, and I was sure that my writing workshop was going to run smoothly for the rest of the year… my kids returned from Thanksgiving Break and appeared to have forgotten everything about those routines. Every. Single. Thing. Monday’s writing workshop… Continue reading Workshop Routines: Sometimes It’s Time For The Reset Button
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WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: IT’S SOL TIME!
WRITE a slice of life story on your own blog. SHARE a link to your post in the comments section. GIVE comments to at least three other SOLS bloggers. I am so grateful to be a part of this writing community. Week after week, we write and share and take time out of our busy… Continue reading WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: IT’S SOL TIME!
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Flash drafting our way to a “best first draft”.
We are trying something new in our memoir unit this year: flash drafting our way to a “best first draft”. The main reason for this is that for as long as I’ve taught memoir, I’ve always had a handful of students who would reach the midpoint of their first draft and then just stall. Our… Continue reading Flash drafting our way to a “best first draft”.
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Notice & Note and Memoir: When Reading Workshop Meets Writing Workshop
We were in the midst of a lively mentor text analysis of James Howe’s “Everything Will Be Okay” for our just-launched memoir unit. I was thrilled to see my sixth graders making note of the way in which Howe had woven in various characteristics of memoir (the mini-lesson of the day!), but less than thrilled… Continue reading Notice & Note and Memoir: When Reading Workshop Meets Writing Workshop
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Work Smarter: Use checklists throughout a unit of study …and beyond
I’ll begin by being honest - I don’t like checklists. It’s a personal thing. Checklists make me anxious, they fill me with the fear of impending failure. As soon as I’ve taken the time to assemble a checklist, I am filled with a sense of dread. I wonder, how am I ever to accomplish any of… Continue reading Work Smarter: Use checklists throughout a unit of study …and beyond
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Writing About Reading Begins With Thinking About Reading
Some weeks ago, when the school year was brand new, I wrote about setting up our Reading Journals for a year of writing about our reading. Now we are approaching the end of the first marking period, and the truth is that we are just beginning to be ready to write about our reading. I… Continue reading Writing About Reading Begins With Thinking About Reading
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Write, share, give: It’s SOL time!
“Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.” ― Julia Cameron, The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life And, just a quick reminder about the SOL dinner: We’ll be dining at McLoone’s Pier House on… Continue reading Write, share, give: It’s SOL time!
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Teaching Writing in Middle School: Notes from the Saturday Reunion #TCRWP
By the time I arrived at Cornelius Minor’s TCRWP workshop, State-of-the-Art Workshop Teaching of Writing in Middle School, harnessing Methods Specifically Described in the New Units of Study, I had been up since the crack of dawn, and had already spent several hours racing from one great workshop to the next trying to learn as… Continue reading Teaching Writing in Middle School: Notes from the Saturday Reunion #TCRWP
