Sunday, June 17, 2018

Behind again for no good reason #100DOSW18

Well, despite my good intentions, I am behind again. But, I’m getting back on the horse today. Here is my poem based on Wislawa Szymborska’s poem “Possibilities.” Enjoy!

On a side note, I am away from home until June 29th. I get to be part of the University of Wyoming's new program called WYCOLA which aims to help teachers become better coaches for new and early career teachers. I am quite nervous as I only know one person, but I will make it. My anxiety and my introvert tendencies will be put to the test over the next two weeks. I know I will be fine once we get going but right now, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. This happens any time I do something new and I know how to get through it. However, I would appreciate your prayers and good thoughts as I start this new learning. Thank you!

Thursday, June 14, 2018

18 vs 43 for day 17 of #100DOSW18

Hi! I am barely making it today. I helped my mom unpack most of the day and then saw Book Club with some friends. Unpacking is not always fun but my mom and I enjoyed our time; we are sore though from lifting and moving boxes and tubs. The movie was quite funny and just what I needed.

Today, I spent time writing about how I have changed since I was 18. It went deeper than I anticipated and I may continue with some of the topics but I probably will keep those private.


Until tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Day 16 of #100DOSW18

Last night's post rambled so I hope that this one doesn't. I do want to quickly share my notebook with you though because it is so cute!
I adore polka dots so I had to have this one!

I bought this at a bookstore in Yakima, WA. It holds pens and sticks inside notebooks. HOW COOL!

From the slideshare made by the creator of #100DOSW18

Ideas to help get started with different prompts (love this!)

My cover page which I did before printing, cutting, and gluing everything in

I also had people ask why I was handwriting everything even though I was sharing online. Well, I tried doing some writing online last summer and I didn't love it as much as holding a pen and notebook and seeing my words flow. Plus, I have my students keep a notebook so I want to show my students how mine looks when I introduce writing notebooks in August.

Now for today's writing: 

It is based off of an excerpt from Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds which is a fabulous YA novel in verse. I inserted my name and rewrote it on page one and then added my reasons for why on page 2. I hope you enjoy!


Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Summer Goal: #100DOSW18

WARNING: lots of pictures of my writing and not super focused blogpost but please bear with me as I share my struggles of writing.

I have said before that my writing habit is not the greatest. I did the month long Slice of Life challenge through twowritingteachers.org in March and it went well. Then, April started and writing stopped. May came and went with end of year excitement and tears and stress and joy. The whole time I have been telling myself that I need to write every single day, but it wasn't happening. Imagine my surprise when a random Facebook post said that there would be a 100 Days of Summer Writing challenge and it starts after school gets out. I thanked God for the push I needed and signed up. Then, I looked up the person who puts it together and looked at her website and saw that it was a real thing. Whew! I also joined the Facebook group dedicated to this challenge. Then, I bought a notebook! I mean after all, I had to have a new notebook even though I have MULTIPLE writing notebooks that are not full. It's a new notebook for a new summer and just for the challenge! I knew that for the first several days I would be out of town, so I packed my notebook and new pens (a gift from my bestie!) and set off on my trip waiting for day 1.

The morning of May 29, I logged into Facebook and found the prompt and then sat there. I had several ideas and wasn't sure which would be the one I used. I decided to ponder it for the day while I enjoyed time with family. As everyone went to sleep that night, my idea popped into my head and I went with it. I read it to my twelve (almost thirteen) year old niece and she LOVED it! Score 1 point for me!



The next morning, I found the prompt and drew a blank. I thought about it all day and came up with something. It's not great but I did spend time thinking about how I use media and how I want to use it differently.



Day three was another prompt I wasn't exactly loving, but I spent time writing while at the pool watching my nephew swim.





Day 4 came and went without me writing at all. My excuse was that I was traveling, but in reality, I had lost my excitement. I did write the next day, however.




Then, I didn't write for day 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. Excuses this time included: more travel (true-14 hours in a car!), I wanted to spend time with my husband (true-I hadn't seen him for 10 days), I was tired, I didn't have any ideas (true because I hadn't looked at the prompts), I had to do laundry, etc. I also wasn't happy as to how my notebook was looking. I didn't have it set up with the prompts and I wasn't loving having to look it up every day. So, I printed them all out and glued them in my notebook which took three days because I got distracted by my dog and cat and husband and binge watching Madam Secretary. Yesterday, though, I took my notebook and pen to the pool and wrote! I finished an introduction that is scary (not my typical genre) and wrote to a missed prompt as well. And today I did the same thing! I am on a roll and I will keep it up! I am posting on here to keep myself accountable as well as linking it on Facebook and Twitter. Here is to a great summer of writing!

Here is my scary story:



Missed prompts:


Today:


That's a lot for today. As I think about how I've done, I am not happy that I skipped so many days, but I will finish this. I also don't love most of what I wrote, but most writers don't love everything they compose. I do love my first writing (the letter to Santa) and the scary writing. In fact, I am thinking about finishing that story. Not today, but someday soon-ish.

More tomorrow!