A Special Note to Dad!

Join other slicers too this week over at the Two Writing Teachers Blog-for Stories from the Heart!

A Note Slice

Writing...so hard yet so rewarding...such joy and sorrow...sharing the inner thinkings of a soul!  I've been thinking a lot about writing lately...I want to write but avoid it-finding a million other things to do instead!?!  I read about it, see others do it and wish so badly to be there too!  I know I can't be there unless I try...

So, I found this quote for inspiration:

“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”~ Maya Angelou

Then I saw my daughter trying to communicate her ideas through a little note!  She knows that writing is a "message sending problem solving activity".  I felt inspired by her work!  I had to share her latest attempt!

Dad, drive safely

She created this message before Kevin (her dad) left for the grocery store..."Dad, drive safely".  She clearly wanted to be sure Kev knew to drive safely on his weekly trip to the grocery store.  

What would you say to this writer?  She asked for help--and I hesitated to be the teacher and jump in!  I took a deep breath, sat back and let her work it out with Kevin.  It's ok to just observe sometimes, right?  I feel privileged to have witnessed her work.  I knew it would be the inspirational slice of life to jump-start my writing habit.  Just right, just write!  "Thanks, Nat!"

What are you reading Monday

Growing as a writer by wearing different lenses as a reader!

Ok, I have been very behind on my reading in the novel world. With The Hunger Games coming out as a movie (haven't seen it yet), I wanted to investigate what it was all about. I bought it on Thursday, started reading it on Saturday-didn't really want to put it down but had to at times and finished it tonight. I devoured it! I really couldn't get enough of it-keeping me so tensed up, I think my muscles hurt from it. As I was reading last night, I had to stop so I could get some sleep but it had me so wound up that it took a long time to finally nod off...

After spending so much of my time during the past month, observing author's craft, I read this book like I've never read before. I wondered a lot about the words...thought more deeply about how authors have their characters remember, or share memories and would wonder what or why this would be important for the character to share...envisioning this story through different lenses was valuable. It made me realize that I had become a couch potato reader-just sort of lazily meandering through books...I now hunger for a different sort of reading experience as I think more deeply about how authors filter the flow of their works.

I want to thank all of the writers from The Slice of Life Challenge for their posts as well as their comments for helping me to grow my thinking as a writer. I hunger for so much more...leaving the couch potato reading role behind...

Dear Teacher...

Slice 27 or 31


Dear Teacher,
I am a cunning little fox. I have out-smarted you. I sneakily found a way to avoid doing the reading of the book for the ditto book report you so happily assigned. I made up my own book (title, author, and plot)! I wrote this all out for you to read teacher just so you’d know I really read my book. Did you know this author teacher? Did you know this book? I wonder why you never looked up my book to see if it was real? Why did you give me an “O”? What is your purpose in assigning this work teacher? Is it so you have pretty work with which to decorate our walls? Are the walls teaching us something or temporarily decorating for visiting eyes to see?

Please teacher, make our work meaningful and authentic. Please take an interest in us… We have tons of great ideas to share with you and each other if you’d only listen and let us talk. Do you know our interests teacher? Why don’t you ask us instead of just telling us things? Please stop making us do workbook pages and ditto sheets-and enough with the coloring*** (it’s for babies). We want to be real readers and writers. We know it won’t be easier for you teacher, but it will truly help us grow, learn and be prepared for the future.
Thank you,
Your Second Grade Student

The student...



is...












me...


when I was a second grader.

This is truly from a the heart second grade student who really did make up a story just to fill in a book report.

***Here is a link to an article about the crayola curriculum...
http://mikeschmoker.com/crayola-curriculum.html