Celebrating 2015

15 Celebrations for 2015

1.  My sister beat cancer!  It was such a scary year for all of us. From the time we heard about it in February through her surgery in June and the final rounds of chemo that ended in mid-November, she has battled and come out stronger.  Although she thinks she was a baby through the whole thing, I think she is the strongest woman I know.

2. Adoption Day.  Our oldest son brought the most amazing young woman into our lives back in the mid 2000's (I don't remember the exact year, maybe 2007 or 2008). She was a single mom with young twins--a boy and a girl.  Greg and I loved them all from the first time we met.  On November 30, those twins forever became Days.  The tears rolled when I got a call on my cell that day as each of them shared their name with me.  My husband still has the message on his phone.  November 30 will always be #WearetheDays Day in our family.

3. NCTE I have always wanted to attend NCTE, but it was always too expensive, too far away, not the right time.  Something always stood in the way. Until this year.  I was fortunate that NCTE was held in Minneapolis, only a two and half hour drive, and that my district paid for my registration and hotel. I sat and absorbed the wisdom of so many fantastic English teachers and authors. My brain was full every day. NCTE, of course, also led to ....

4. MEETING RUTH!  I know you all understand my thrill that we finally met face to face. I wrote in my notebook that it was like meeting a rock star....everyone knows Ruth and she knows everyone.  Such a fun time.

5. I attended my 40th class reunion in July. 40 years out of high school....WOW.  Maybe it's because I teach high school, but it sure doesn't seem like I've been out that long.  It was wonderful to connect again with people I haven't seen since graduation day.  So fun to reminisce with everyone.  Our class Facebook page is more fun now that we have all reconnected.  There was talk of a 60th birthday reunion since we will all be hitting that big 6-0 and I hope it happens.

Elementary school buddies!

6. Summer Trips:  We took several of them last summer and had a blast.  The only downside to these trips is wishing I was retired already so we could take off and explore more! We visited Door County, Wisconsin in June, and now I am addicted to Door County Coffee . We traipsed up and down the county, visiting lighthouses, wineries, and beautiful county parks.  A great getaway with our favorite traveling companions.

7. July found us in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Another quick little long weekend getaway. The highlight of this trip was a dinner cruise on the Mississippi. A beautiful night.

8. In August, Greg and I, along with Chloe, took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park. I just love our trips when we take off driving and don't really have any plans, just a final destination. We did plan ahead on motel rooms. Taking Chloe means we have to find pet friendly places, but that hasn't been too hard to do.  Chloe loves to travel with us and really likes all the people she meets.

9. I did a little "work" this summer also, and presented at the  TIC conference in Dubuque, Iowa.  The TIC conference is a tech in the classroom conference set up by our local education agencies.  Friends and I presented on setting up flipped classrooms. We didn't think we would have many people attend, but it ended up standing room only and we had to adjust our plans on the fly.  Just like in our real classrooms :)

10. At the end of October our Sandbar Beach friends traveled to our side of the state and we all met on the Mississippi for a weekend of fun. When we planned it, we didn't know how important it was for us to get together, but it was a time for us to not only have fun, but support friends who needed us more than ever.

And the final five?
11.  Iowa Hawkeye football season
12. Marshall Tucker Band with Mitch and Rainy
13. Girls Day at the lake
14. Storm at Sandbar
15. Concerts in the park
+1 Ribfest and times with friends

Connecting to JOY, ALOHA, BALANCE and ....

And I wait.

Every year. I wait.

I wait for that one little word to show itself.

Every year.

First, was CONNECT in 2012.  I didn't write publicly about that one. But I think it made an impact on me :)

In 2013, JOY came to me over our family's Christmas celebration.  JOY visits me daily. And I find I don't have to look for it much any more. JOY just shows up and I am smart enough to enjoy those moments.

• Writing JOY
• JOY after tragedy
• Family JOY
• Choosing JOY

At the end of 2013 my husband and I traveled to Hawaii with his sister and her husband.There were so many wonderful moments in that trip.  I kept a travel journal to remind me of the little moments that I never wanted to forget.  Two years later, I still look back on that trip as a life changing experience.  And on the last day,

ALOHA

 found me for 2014. I practiced my word whenever I could. I found that JOY joined in and that my one little words were forming a family.

• Remembering ALOHA
• Forgetting ALOHA

I learned to live ALOHA so well, that I was afraid to try on a new word for 2015. I was sure I would come up with one. But you know what? If you pay attention to the moments in your life, that One Little Word just appears in your life one day. And so it was, that BALANCE showed up just in time for 2015.

It wasn't a sexy word, but it was the word I needed at the time. I tried to slow down and enjoy every moment. You see, school and work were taking more of my time than I really wanted to give.  I was ignoring and putting off the other important parts of my life. I need to find a way to give equal parts of myself. I needed to enjoy moments in each part of my life without feeling guilty about the other parts.

• BALANCING life
• Celebrating BALANCE

Sometimes, I think that I didn't do so well with BALANCE. I feel like there is still work to do with this word. But as with the others, I know it hasn't left me. It just sits back and lets the new word enjoy the spotlight, enjoy the MOMENTS.

My One Little Word for 2016:

MOMENTS

It seems to fit my family of words well. In the last few days, it has just appeared in my mind. Making me think. Reminding me to enjoy it. Reminding me to not dwell in the past nor gaze into the future. To just enjoy the here and now. The MOMENTS.

I Just Can't Stop Smiling

Click here and celebrate with us

About 9:30 yesterday morning a Facebook message put a smile on my face and a happy tear in my eye. I haven't stopped smiling since. I'm not trying to be cryptic, but it's not my story to share, not really. So I'll keep my mouth shut, my keyboarding fingers quiet, a smile on my face and wait til it's OK to share. 

But after that good news, the day just kept getting better.

I finished grading my Creative Writing students' Digital Storytelling projects. Wow. Most of the kids did an amazing job. Some are heartbreaking. Some are disturbing.  And I'm not going to sugarcoat it, some are awful.  Well, not awful really. They just didn't spend the time on the assignment that it required, and what they ended up with was just incomplete. I'm sharing out more of them on our Facebook page and through Twitter #CWFierce if you'd like to see some more.

Here's one of my favorites:

Then I got home and checked my personal email. A letter for Chloe from Sam and a note from Ruth made my smile even bigger.  We're finally going to meet face to face! At NCTE! Next week! For Lunch! Ruth is one of my bucket list people, you know. I feel like we've been great friends for awhile, we just haven't sat down face to face.  And if meeting Ruth is anything like meeting Christy, well, we'll talk like we've known each other forever!

There are others on my bucket list also--and I've started connecting with them through Twitter and Facebook. I hope I have enough time to go to sessions!

NCTE.  It's this coming week, you know. And this old,  experienced teacher is going to be attending her very first one.  Sometimes, it seems like a waste for me to attend. I've only a year or two left before I retire. Maybe someone else should go. But then I think how much it excites me just to think about it and I know that this experience will rejuvenate me.  So I'll be spending the next few days scouring the program, scratching down sessions, crossing them off, scratching down new ones and waiting impatiently for the app to be released.

I've got my list of things to pack. I've extra boxes in the car to bring books home. I've got a rolling bag to drag through the convention (though that may be overkill). I've got the author signing list in my folder, books to take for the swap on Sunday, comfortable shoes (and I am shopping today just in case I need some new ones). I've read all the blogs I've found for navigating NCTE. Followed advice on Twitter. I am ready.

Can it be Thursday already?

Making Writing Fun Again

I've learned something in the last few years of teaching Creative Writing. High school students don't think writing is fun. According to their writing autobiographies, writing in school is dull and lifeless and done only according to teacher directions. No voice. No choice. No fun.

Sometimes, I forget that too.

This week was conference week and a great time to remind us all that writing is fun, creative and doable. These activities I used with my juniors and seniors and also with my eighth graders, who will also be writing fiction stories.  I have to say, the eighth graders are waaayyyy more excited about writing stories than the high schoolers are.

Monday we all wrote from picture prompts. I've been pinning these great pictures for awhile now and have used them in class several times. Kids get done with this assignment and always say, "That was fun."  The premise is simple. Students work in groups of three. They are given a picture with these directions:

WRITER #1: Tell the story about what was happening when this picture was taken

WRITER #2: Add to the first writer's story. 

WRITER #3: Share your thoughts or the life lesson. 

WRITER #1: Read the story. Edit and revise it for clarity. Give it a title. 

The idea and the questions aren't mine (as soon as I find the originator again, I'll be sure to credit!)

I give each writer three minutes and then they pass. When we've gone through the directions, it's time to share. And guess what? My high schoolers stand up in front of the class and read their writing! That's HUGE in my room.  So did my eighth graders, but it's not quite as big a deal with them :)

On Tuesday, my Creative Writing students wrote pass around stories in groups of five to seven (8th graders did this Wednesday). I gave them a story starter prompt (again, found some online), a sheet of paper and a clipboard.  Each student wrote one sentence and then kept passing the clipboard around for fifteen or twenty minutes. The eighth graders were so excited about these that one group acted theirs out!

Thursday was our last day of the week and my high school kids needed the period to share their digital storytelling projects with me, but the eighth graders wrote partner stories with Story Cubes. There are lots of ways to use Story Cubes, but I just rolled the dice and asked kids to write a story, trying to use all the images on the dice. The way this activity went, I'm pretty sure they will beg to finish them on Monday.

This all seems so simple as I write it that I'm not sure I should even share this post. But it's such a celebration of writing fun in a high school writing class that I just had to. If you had been there and seen the smiles, heard the laughter, you'd be celebrating too! 

Celebrating Friendship Through The Tears

Our Sandbar gang last weekend. A getaway planned before cancer struck. A getaway continued so we could share our strength with friends who need all they can get right now.

My sister, the survivor, is in white. These are her cronies, to whom I will always be indebted. They loved and took care of my sister when I couldn't be there.

You don't see them looking at these pictures, but tears have been shed lately.

Lots of tears.

Because cancer sucks.

The last year has been tough. My baby sister (God, she'll hate that) was diagnosed with colon cancer last winter. A grapefruit sized tumor was found. But rounds of chemo and radiation shrunk that tumor to nothing and surgery was successful. As she finishes her last rounds of post surgery chemo, we have lots to celebrate.  She is a survivor.

Her group of friends, the "Cronies" as they call themselves, have been amazing. They are her strength. They keep her smiling through it all. They are her other family. I love them for that.

A couple of weeks ago, our dear friend, Tom, my "other husband"  (the guy in the middle of the top picture) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He's got a tough road ahead. We all know it. But we celebrate that it was found earlier than most. That he has a gifted medical team, who are doing everything they can to beat this thing. 

Yes. Cancer sucks.

But cancer can't take away friends and family who love you. 

No matter what.

Why I Write

I often tell students that I don't remember not reading.  Well, when I think about it, I don't really remember not writing either. I've always loved putting pen to paper (Flair markers, thank you. Black or Brown are my favorite colors).  And I am a paper and pen kind of person...I love my computer and I love writing blog posts and connecting online, but when I really need to write, paper and pen are my go-to supplies.

When I need to sort out emotions, I write.  I look back into some notebooks and am amazed at the feelings that explode from them. I don't always remember the catalyst behind the page, but usually I do. Because it was important enough to write about.

I write to remember and reflect.  Oh, I write the usual to-do lists. There's a certain satisfaction in drawing a line through those to-dos. But the most important remembers that I write are those things I want to go back and savor again.  Special moments. Special people. Special emotions.  They need to be saved and brought back out again in moments of despair or crisis.

I write for fun.  I love playing with words and styles. I try out poetry. I write in my dog's voice (Hence the title, Coffee With Chloe), I write with my students (how can I assign something I haven't tried myself?).

I write to share. I share my writing with students. I write in front of them and I provide mentor texts. I share my blog with others online. Not because I think I'm so wonderful, but because writing about my experiences allows me to connect with others and we create shared experiences.

I write because it's part of who I am.
I wouldn't be me.
I wouldn't know me,
if I didn't write.

Small Moments

Sometimes,

when your world seems to be

crashing

in around you

when the universe 

throws so much at you that 

your JOY,

your ALOHA,

can't BALANCE things out,

you need to relish 

the small moments.

Beautiful morning mists 

hovering just above the corn

Unexpected gifts

just because they thought of you

Sharing the unshareable

with those who do not judge.

Facebook family messages

that make us laugh and smile

through tears for others.

These small moments

remind us how 

Grateful

we are for those who have

come into our life.