love

This afternoon I opened up a National Geographic catalogue that I got in the mail and turned immediately to a page that was selling Kanji birthstone necklace pendants. I spotted April's and thought, that looks familiar. And it was. The symbol for April was love.

Once upon a time I broke up with my high school sweetheart and my amazing friends in college bought me a necklace with the Kanji symbol for love on it. I loved the symbol and the simplicity of the necklace and wore it day in and day out for the next five years (with a brief respite where I wore a turtle necklace that I got on a trip to Hawaii because my sister's favorite animal is a turtle and it made me feel close to her at a time when I moved across the country). Then one day my necklace broke.

My necklace broke on January 3, 2006. I know this because it happened when I took off a hoodie before bed on the day that I began my Team Leader year of AmeriCorps*NCCC. I'm not generally a superstitious person, but I will say that I find it coincidental that the day that my Love necklace broke was the day that I met my mister. Perhaps it was the universe's way of saying that I didn't need a necklace to remind me that I was loved anymore. 

Whatever the case, the mister and I started going on runs together (probably the fastest I have ever run in my life and the slowest he ever ran willingly), going on hikes, and throwing the occasional date night in to get away from our campus. And while we may not run together very often anymore, we do still go on hikes and have an occasional date night to get away from teaching and grad school. 

And here we are, eight years later, and I still don't need a necklace to remind me that I am loved. I am reminded every day by my amazing mister. But sometimes it is nice to be reminded of where you came from and how you got to where you are.

Life is an adventure. It is not about everything always fitting neatly in a box or about following a plan to the T. It is about embracing what you encounter, living in the moment, and being willing to take on whatever comes your way because in the end every moment of every day shapes who you are and how you view life. And I choose to embrace my adventure in love and all of the amazing things that have happened in my life because of it.

beyond crazy

Wow. Last week was C-R-A-Z-Y. 

Most three day weeks are a little crazy. They start out well for me because I have a long weekend. I enjoyed some nice runs and a short hike with my mister. I knocked out a lot of work that had been piling up, and I relaxed some. It was nice.

On Tuesday, I was able to get 14 out of 18 parents through the parent teacher conference process. In the meantime, Mrs. S and I managed to tear all of the pages out of student workbooks and get them organized by week for the remainder of the school year. I hate tearing and sorting the pages, so this was amazing. I usually do it all by myself, now I don't need to worry about it again until next year. Oh yeah. Awesome.

Then the kinders came back on Wednesday. We started out exceptionally well. Then an announcement was made, "Attention teachers and staff. We might have an assembly at 9:00. We'll let you know." Then the health assistant came into the classroom, "The nurse is at our school today, she needs to do a hand washing presentation with the students." When 9:00 rolled around we were called to the auditorium. For a laser light show. It is science, sure, but on a short week? Apparently our old principal scheduled it before she left and didn't tell anyone. So, we lost an hour of instruction on an already short week. Then we were called to the nurse's office for the hand washing presentation. Needless to say, kindergarten cancelled our morning recess so that we could get a little bit of learning in. The rest of the day went pretty well, thankfully.

We squeezed a whole lot of learning into Thursday to make up for lost time, and in order to be ready for Friday assessments. The kiddos did a great job, they loved our story of the week, they picked up on the basics of base ten relatively well, and we had computer lab. My students love computer lab. It was a success. Unfortunately, I also had to come up with sub plans for Friday because this lucky teacher was called for jury duty. 

What an end to the week. Not only was I called, I was selected. So while my kinders were working away on their assessments, I was listening to a new attorney defend what was possibly his first case. It was somewhat interesting, but the lawyers unfortunately used what us jurors came to call turtle talk. They spoke more slowly than I do with my kinders. Now, that's saying something. All in all, we spent 12 hours in the courtroom. At 8:15 we decided that the defense had presented enough information to make us reasonably doubt the guilt of his client and wham-o, said lawyer won what was possibly his first trial. (I will say that a positive result of the experience was that I was able to crochet during every break we were given and finished half of a case to organize my crochet hooks!)

The court was nice enough to bring us dinner while we were in deliberations. At that point we were all okay with a burger and fries. However, a couple of hours later either the stomach flu that has been going around school caught up with me or the burger just didn't sit right. Either way, I spent the night on the bathroom floor. Super awesome end to a super awesome week.

Now we have arrived at Monday. Sweet, sweet Monday. A day of new beginnings and fresh starts. Some kiddos did end up in the office, but I'm positive that this week can't be any crazier than last. Here's hoping!

explosion

Not to worry, there haven't been any literal explosions. But, figuratively, my life has exploded. This semester is taking over my life with the addition of 20 hours of service work added to my graduate course load. Additionally, the school district has decided that all of the teachers should take an online course in assessment. I'll mention only briefly that I took a three hour graduate course in assessment this summer. So yes, it is easy (as my principal said it should be if I have just taken a class), but it takes up that little bit of free time that was nonexistent to begin with.

While life has taken a turn for crazier, I will say that I enjoyed my first afternoon/evening of volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club on Friday. I was immediately roped into painting nails and I was able to talk to a lot of fourth and fifth grade girls about what they like to do. Surprisingly (or not), it's not that different from what my kindergarteners like to do - with the exception of liking boys. As much as I'm dreading the loss of a little bit of me time, I am looking forward to getting to know this different group of students. Life will resume again in a couple of months - but until then, blogs may come at a very limited rate.

one hundred

I have survived the first one hundred days of the school year! So have my kinders. We've had our highs and lows, but I like to think that we're kicking this year's behind.

Counting 100 Objects (They were a little off, but we got it sorted out in the end!)

Aside from being the hundredth day of school, we also had the pleasure of having Explora, a pretty awesome science exploration organization, come and lead some experiments in reflection and symmetry for the kindergarten and first grade students. The kiddos loved it, and I think that anyone in the hallway where they were working knew it. If you want to entertain a kindergartener for an hour or so, give them two small mirrors taped together and let them explore.

Friends Playing With Mirrors 

I See You!

How Many Do You See?

Symmetrical Wormy Reflections

I personally enjoyed closing out my hundredth day with setting a PR on the Pyramid Trail (55 minutes,woohoo). I had had to leave school early to check in at the Boys and Girls Club about volunteer opportunities (yes, volunteer opportunities...). One of our grad classes this semester requires 20 hours of community service work, so the mister and I decided that reconnecting with our After School roots would be fun. Once I got that squared away though, I went and did a little trail running. And it felt great.

A Quick View From the Top, Before Running Back Down (to beat the sunset of course)

breathe

Sometimes, we just need to breathe. I have been noticing lately that I have been getting frustrated with my kinders that just aren't getting it. I think that the reason I am getting so frustrated is because so many of my little learners do get it. Yet, there are three that just baffle me. I keep trying and trying, and still, nothing.

One of my grad classes this semester is on the psychology of learning. I really do try to employ best practices every day, during every lesson that I teach. I keep things moving, I try to keep the kiddos involved, there are hands on activities. I try to create lessons that appeal to different learning styles and abilities. And, for 14 out of my 17 students, they get it. And, they get it fast. And then there are those three that just do not get it. Not through regular instruction, not with modifications, not with additional small group instruction, not with guided practice, not with intervention work. And I get frustrated. I shake my head. And then I ask myself why.

Yesterday I was reflecting on the week. I thought about how my emerging students (those that are just above my struggling learners) and about how we laughed in small group when they were working on figuring out consonant blends. They made silly comments, I laughed at their reasoning and corrected them, and then, when they had their reading assessment on Friday, they were all proficient.

This got me thinking that maybe I just need to breathe. I need to relax. I need to have fun. While they may not be getting the instruction that I am providing, maybe if my kinders have a personal connection to the material through laughter something will click. And, laughter is a much better response in education than frustrated head shakes.

namaste

Today, just two weeks after entering my classroom, my lovely little girl from Nepal and her family came into school to say farewell to our class. We are sad to see her go, but I am glad that her father found a job. Unfortunately it is in Albuquerque. But, I suppose this is the way things work in education, and in life in general. People enter our lives and then they leave, we can only be thankful for the time that we get to spend together.

planning

Today when my grade level came together for a planning session a wonderful thing happened. We planned out the remainder of the school year. I am in heaven. Our language arts pacing was already determined by the district, but math has kind of been moving along on a week-to-week basis. One of the other teachers was getting worried about whether or not we would be able to cover all of our required material in the remaining months of school, so we sat down and figured it out. I love, love, love the fact that I can now plan as far in advance as I can find the time to. I can sort and file worksheets accordingly. I can, in essence, be a planning nerd. There, I said it. I'm a planning nerd. And I'm okay with that!

And now I'm off to an evening of grad school. (This is partially why I am a planning nerd, so many things to do, so little time.)

spring

I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but it seems as if spring has come to Gallup. Last week we had afternoons in the fifties, contrasting heavily with the mornings in single digits, but that's spring in the desert. 

Spring has also come to the Hall House. With this spring semester we found ourselves exhausted by the start of a new semester of grad school and we found ourselves sifting through items that we rarely use and making trips to Goodwill to donate that which was still in good condition. (We even managed to drop off our goodies without going in to replace it all, as is our usual modus operandi.)

It has been fortunate that we had a three-day weekend following our first week back to our very busy lives. We have been allowed to mix work with fun, cleaning with relaxing, and all in all, have a pretty balanced weekend. Sure, there are chapters to read and papers to write, but we're taking things at a more relaxed pace which is nice.

For me, this is quite the change. Perhaps a good one. I generally go full force, right out of the gate. But, maybe after so many years of go, go, go, I'm figuring out how to apply my slow and steady running strategy to life. When I have a due date that is several weeks away, I don't need to be working on the assignment now. I can balance my drive to be successful in school with the joy that I find in long, lazy runs and afternoons of crafting.

Spring is here. A time of new growth, of blossoms, of sunny afternoons. For me, it may just mean a time of growth in how I approach life. Spring is good.

you work

Yesterday morning, during sharing time, we talked about things that we like to do. My students talked about liking to play, ride bikes, play sports, and do art. When it was my turn to share, my kinders immediately said, "You like to run!" (They've been paying attention!) I said, "Yes, I like to run, and I will go run this afternoon after work." They looked at me flabbergasted. "You WORK?!?" 

I suppose that it is a good thing that they do not think of school as work. And for the most part, I don't really think of school as work either, unless I have been here for over ten hours. I love my job. My kinders are fantastic and they surprise me every day. If this is what work is, I'll take it!

* This was intended to be posted yesterday, but I got a little carried away with said run!

writing

Today we wrote and I just could not resist sharing some of my students' creation. This week we are reading a story called Bear Snores On and my kinders are loving it. We decided to take our bear conversations one step further and write about what we would do if we were bears. Some of them got it, some did not. Whatever the case, we wrote happily for 30 minutes.

"I would sleep."

"I would eat fish." (I'm pretty sure no caption was needed here.)

"I'm going to take care of my cub."

"I find berries."

"I went fishing. I got lost because my mom wasn't with me."

Don't you just love it! I know I do!

to be seen

Today I get to fully embrace this fall break thing. By putting in my time yesterday, I can sit back and soak up the freedom of not having lesson planning to worry about. I am also fortunate in that I do not have any major grad school assignments looming over me this weekend. I can breathe. What a wonderful feeling!

This afternoon the mister and I are headed to Chinle and Canyon de Chelley. If you just tried clicking on that link, you'll understand why I titled this post "to be seen." Thanks to the government shut down it is to be seen what I will be able to experience in and around the canyon. One component of this trip that does look to be in my favor is that the canyon is technically Navajo land, the government shutdown cannot take away tribal lands, even if it can shut down the visitor's center.

The mister has a 55k race through the canyon tomorrow. He will have the opportunity to run where many gringos do not have the chance to go. He will be able to pass through native lands and run to the base of Spider Rock. I am so excited for him to have this opportunity and cannot wait to hear about his experiences.

In the meantime, I will soak up whatever components of the Navajo culture that I can. I will drive around the rim and see what there is to be seen, assuming that the government cannot shut down the roads that go to people's homes in the canyon. I will also enjoy the cultural celebrations and presentations that will take place this evening after race packet pick up. We've also decided to turn the next 36 hours into a Navajo cultural celebration by also stopping in Window Rock, the capital of Navajo country, to visit the historical museum and zoo on our way to the canyon.

I'll let you know what the government shutdown is doing on Navajo land tomorrow! Until then, here is a photo of the canyon that the mister took last May when we visited.

collision

Today, teaching and grad school collided. This isn't exactly an unusual thing, but today it happened in an exciting way.

For my reading class I have been assigned the task of doing a miscue analysis on one of my students. Essentially, this entails having a student read a selected text that is slightly higher than their reading level. You analyze their reading to identify strengths and weaknesses in their reading so that you can develop a plan for helping the student improve their reading.

Today, I chose my highest reader to help me with the task. While students were working on a fall craft project I pulled him out for about ten minutes to have him read to me. I chose a story that we will not encounter in our independent readers for nine more weeks and he did an amazing job. He sounded out words and blended them almost effortlessly. He made self corrections when something didn't seem right. He worked through challenging passages and made it to the end, averaging 12 words a minute. It was fantastic for a beginning reader. I was am so proud.

Now I just need to go through and re-listen to my recording of him so that I can write up my report. I have a feeling that that will not be quite as exciting for me to do, but I'll be glad to have an idea regarding how I can help him continue to excel.

Sometimes it is fantastic when two worlds collide!

dead battery

It happens to all of us. The battery dies on something. In recent years I have heard complaints of batteries dying on Kindles before someone is able to finish a book, or the battery on their phone dies before they are able to take a quick photo of something that is priceless. Today, the battery that died was mine. Well, my computer's battery died as well, but that wasn't until after my personal one did.

It take a lot of energy to teach. Last year, I think that I lived in a little bubble of confusion that kept on bouncing me along, somewhat effortlessly. It's easy to have energy when you do not fully realize the implications of your position, how to meet the goals and objectives of your position, and when you don't really understand what you are doing wrong or how you can fix it (or at least try to fix it). 

This year I am tired. I had the summer to really evaluate what it means to be a kindergarten teacher. I have a better understanding of my goals, and as a result I am pushing my students further. To do this, I am also pushing myself further. I spend time trying to develop dynamic lesson plans that fit within the district mandated curriculum. I put myself out there to try and keep my kinders engaged in a less than exciting lesson that just needs to be taught. I spend endless hours looking for new and exciting resources. I write grants. I develop hands on materials (manipulatives). I teach.

Today, I was super excited to see my kinders after being away from them yesterday. We had a fantastic morning that was focused on oral language development (a fancy way of saying that we talked a lot). We did center work. And more center work. And we celebrated National Book-It Day. Then we did more centers in math class. Then I had a meeting. Then we did our exciting smartie pants end of day wrap up (I swear, I'll actually write about this one of these days). Then my kinders left. And with them, my energy vanished. My battery died on the spot when the last student climbed into his father's truck.

Still, I went back to my classroom and had a meeting with my mentor. As a second year teacher I am a part of a mentoring program to help me to become a more effective teacher. This means more work. And of course, on top of that I have grad school work. And lesson planning. Do you get the point? I am exhausted. 

This afternoon though, my computer's battery died. This year I have taken to leaving my charger at home. Today, I found good reason to do this. When my battery died, I had to leave (well, not really, but it seemed like a good excuse).

The good news is that we have fall break next week. Four whole days of no teaching (just planning, grad school, yada, yada, yada). I am ecstatic. 

the things they say

Today my students began brainstorming for a week long writing project that will end in an illustrated piece that answers the question, "If you could be anything little, what would you be?"

As I sat down with my most advanced students, I happened to yawn. One of the students commented on the fact that I must be tired and I replied, "Yes, I am a little bit tired." Almost immediately after I sat down I described the prompt for the morning's center. One of my bright little kinders looked and me and said, "I am a little tired." It took me just a moment, these little guys are too fast sometimes. I had been thinking they would reply like the lower students in class, "I am a little butterfly," or "I am a little fire truck." No, this one spit my words back at me and had me laughing. I love their sense of humor and how quickly they catch onto things.

Happy Monday!

get it done

As usual, the weekend has been full of getting things done. School things, home things, life things. It's nice to have the weekends to help make the rest of the week run more smoothly.

Yesterday I had a fantastic day of food, fitness, and a little bit of fun. I took a break from my usual long run and did some walking to accommodate for a slightly sore ankle. I walked downtown to the farmer's market and co-op and came home with a couple of bags full of goodies. Our countertop filled up with fruit, veggies, homemade jam and bread. 

After dropping off those goodies I drove out to the state park and hiked my favorite local trail, Pyramid Rock. With all of the rain that we have been getting the desert is green, green, green. It's fabulous! I followed up my hike with a trip to the grocery and wrapped up shopping for the week. 

In an unusual mood for making food, I started prepping food for the week. I got fruits soaked (in water and white vinegar to help them last longer and clean off any junk that they acquired in transit) and put away. I prepped a veggie lasagna with squash, eggplant, and mushrooms. I made hummus from scratch. I made beans (also from scratch, a habit that we acquired in Peace Corps). Things are looking pretty spiffy around here considering we have two nights of grad school this week that we'll need quick food for.

We topped off the evening by going out to Gallup's monthly Arts Crawl. We saw a friend perform with the local belly dancing group and watched some other friends workout with a local fitness group called Iron Warriors. We also got rained on. After checking out our favorite art stores/galleries we decided to call it an early evening and got to the car right before a blinding downpour began.

Today has been equally productive with cleaning and laundry done before noon. Grad school has been thrown into the mix, with the mister wrapping up one of our group assignments for our technology in education course. We've had some more good food and are building up energy for a busy week to come.

Happy Sunday! Remember to rest and rejuvenate!

salsa anyone

When Grad School and Elementary School Collide

It was magic. Today when my kinders finished their language arts assessment I told them that I had a surprise for them. They had to clean up their table spaces and then come sit with me at my round table. When they sat down we talked about how they had homework every night to help them get smarter. Then I told them that I had homework to do to for my school. When I told them that they were going to help me with my homework I received some anxious looks. Then I told them that my homework was to have them taste different kinds of salsa. Those worried looks went away pretty quickly.

I pulled out our salsas one by one. They evaluated the appearance, the texture, the taste and the spiciness. Some students started out saying that they didn't like salsa, but when their friends kept on saying how good they were, almost everyone jumped on the salsa train. Some salsas they liked, some they did not, but whatever their response to the salsas, they loved the tortilla chips.

After they evaluated four different kinds of salsa, I set the bowls of salsa and chips on another table and let them go at it. Today marked progress reports day, so I thought it was a bit of a celebration. We're half way through the first quarter of school and they have worked extra hard. Today, we played ate hard.

Some of the best comments from my kiddos during the thirty minutes of salsa party madness:

"Ewwww! That looks like poop!" ~5 year old boy responding to the appearance of salsa verde

"Mrs. Hall! I can tell my dad that I like salsa now!" ~5 year old girl after eating chips heaping with salsas of all flavors

"Mrs. Hall, you're the best teacher ever!" ~Numerous kiddos slurring through their salsa high

Needless to say, the day was pretty rad. 100% of students scored 80% or better on their language arts assessment. More than 50% scored 80% or better on their reading assessment. Roughly 90% scored 80% or better on their math assessment. We ate chips and salsa. One student had asked his mom if he could bring a snack for all of his friends in class, so we also ate Goldfish at the end of the day. And the kiddos earned playtime at the end of the day (after eating Goldfish). Yeah, that's how every Friday should be! 

 

life

Sometimes, it happens. Life takes over no matter what your plans are. When I started this blog at the beginning of August, my plan had been to write a little something every day as a means of reflecting upon my teaching experiences and life in general. The highs, the lows, and whatever happens in between. Friday evening I decided that while this was a fantastic idea, sometimes I also just need me time. Or we time.

On Friday, after work, I ran around town trying to complete some errands - some I completed successfully, some not so much. I got home and was able to stock the fridge with hazelnut milk (my newest food addiction) and put quarters away for laundry. I had failed at getting the mister and I registered for a race at the end of September, due to the chamber closing early and then only having registration forms for the bike portion of the weekend of events, no signs of the ones for the half marathon. Life, it happens, and not always as planned.

That evening the mister and I did something unusual for the school year. We sat back, ate some delicious homemade lentil lasagna, and watched a movie. Yes, we relaxed. Knowing that we had a long weekend in front of us we didn't feel pressure to knock out just a little bit of work before hitting the sack. We looked through our Netflix queue and finally watched The King's Speech. It was well worth the time out from our busy lives. During the movie I also finally finished making a blanket for a friend of ours from Costa Rica who is due to have a little girl any day now!

Yesterday morning I went about my normal Saturday morning routine and checked off a beautiful 10 mile run through the high desert. During the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of rain for the desert and I was surprised by the abundance of green. I was also fortunate in that it was an overcast morning so I did not need to battle the heat of the sun, though I did have to deal with some stomach problems. Oh well, life happens, and you keep on keeping on. I finished up my 10 miles in just over 2 hours, which I was quite pleased with (the last mile was accompanied by the howls of coyotes in the distance). This is my longest run on record in well over a year, after battling injury after injury. 

After I left the trails the mister called and we decided to go to Albuquerque for the day. This is once again something unusual for us. I think that I went to Albuquerque "just because" once last Thanksgiving with friends, but the two of us have never done it. Sure, we've been to the city since moving here a little over a year ago, but for things like going to the airport, to run races, or for medical appointments. Yesterday, we shopped. I the past year I have lost a little over ten pounds, and therefore was in desperate need of clothes that fit me well. We also took care of some things on our list that we've been putting off, such as buying new towels and other basic household goods. We topped off the day with a delicious Japanese/Sushi dinner. It was a true treat for us.

And now, life goes back to normal. This morning I worked out and cut tags off of new items and prepared things for laundry. The mister threw together some home fries and a crustless veggie quiche. We are moving past our 36 hours of "freedom" (granted by this long weekend) and settling into work: grading papers, updating student data folders, creating newsletters for the month of September, reading for grad school, doing household chores. 

We may take a break from life on occasion, but it always finds us in the end. Enjoy your long weekend (if you are fortunate enough to have Monday off)!

sunday

Today's pile

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of sitting down and doing some crafting. I could relax, without any worries, and just be. On Monday, the realities of being a teacher and a grad student sank in. Classes started and with them, the pile of work grew exponentially. This Sunday, I am able to go about my normal morning routine, but I know that instead of sitting and relaxing and taking some me time, I will be sitting and reading, or writing, or finishing up the last little touches on my lesson plans for the week.

This semester, the mister and I decided to take three graduate courses. This may sound slightly insane (and perhaps it is), but by doing this we will only need to take one course when next summer rolls around. It will be a month long course as opposed to one that consumes the whole summer. While we may be kicking ourselves for it now, I think that we will sit back with a sigh of relief next summer when we are able to head east and enjoy some time with friends and family that we have not seen in far too long.

On today's plate I have reading for a class appropriately called The Teaching of Reading, some more reading for Introduction to Special Education, and I will probably sit down and pound out a couple of assignments for our "bonus" class, Technology in Education. This "bonus" class is one that everyone has told us is tedious and somewhat annoying, but from what I have seen so far, this also means that it is easy. I have completed some of the assignments already, such as "Write a 5 page paper about yourself," and "Write a 5 page paper about your family." Others include, "Use Paint to create four pictures that tell a story and insert them into PowerPoint." I think I've got this.

On a positive note, it is just after 9:00 and I have worked out, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, vacuumed, and started laundry. The mister is plugging away in the kitchen so that we have some tasty treats to eat on the run (i.e. during a 15 - 20 minute break during classes on Monday and Wednesday nights), and so our Sundays go. Welcome back to reality. 

writing

I love to write. Almost as much as I love to read. I like to put my words onto paper (or the screen) and reflect on what has come out of me. Whether writing is being used as a form of entertainment and creative expression or to compose professional documents, I simply love it. I also learn best when I am able to write down how I am processing information or picking out key details in texts. Words are, therefore, pretty important in my life - whether I am writing them or reading them.

Today I finally had time to do my first unstructured writing activity with my students. A prompt was put out there ("What did you do this week?"), but I did not hold my kinders to it. What I really wanted was them to experience putting words (letters) on paper and expressing themselves through writing. Last year, this activity would have resulted in a flash flood of tears from more than half of my students. Today, I was blown away.

As I walked around the room and asked students what they were writing about I was pleasantly surprised by what I found on their papers. Every single student had written letters. Better yet, nearly a fourth of them had written actual words! They used the high frequency words from our last two weeks of school (I am), they read the room (without prompting, I might add) and wrote the words that they found on the walls, they wrote words that they have seen frequently in books (the), and one even sounded out words to the point that I could actually tell what he was trying to write. These little guys are on fire! 

I wish that I had remembered to take a picture of a couple of the samples before I left school, but I have filed them away in data folders so that I can track their growth throughout the year. I am planning on doing a monthly free write assignment where they can write about whatever they want. I will hopefully have the time to do unstructured writing more often, but I want at least one sample that I can keep each month to tuck away. 

It has been a great week and an excellent Friday. I cannot wait to see what next week brings!