I believe in spreading the joy

When I first introduced the Slice of Life challenge to my students two years ago, I made this Wordle for them. (I'm pretty sure I used a whole lot of ideas from TwoWritingTeachers' website.) A good number of the kiddos were up for the same challenge I was taking on, but most were looking for ideas.

I hesitated to propose the writing challenge to this year's students because I didn't want to compete with other academic responsibilities, i.e. a national oratorical contest, standardized test prep, and additional initiatives that I did not initiate. Many of them express that their plates are full. But emboldened by my four days of "slicing," I decided to tell the kids about it today and invited them to join in. I was pleased to see several of them perk up at the suggestion, and I was even more pleased to see my first writer post in less than an hour after school. He wrote about the smile he couldn't wipe off his face all day, and the grin on my own face grew wider as I read. Several others have posted since then: one about her dreams, another with a list of the many places she's lived, and more.

My prediction: Unless I require a certain level of participation, my "challenge" group is going to be small.

My resolution: To be happy with any number of kids who dig in because I'm as proud of my writers as a grandma at a piano recital.

"Reasons to be proud"...and the Worldle comes to the rescue once again.