For the month of March, each day I am writing and posting a slice of my life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers.
Slice of Life #23: Day 10/31:
Ten Observations
Today is the tenth consecutive day of slicing and publishing. After my year long writing hiatus, it feels good to write daily.
One of my favorite poets and authors is Georgia Heard.One of my favorite writing resources is Writing Toward Home. I adore how Heard reminds writers that powerful writing often begins with what you notice. In fact, Heard encourages writers to record ten observations a day without commentary.
Since it is my tenth day of slicing, I decided to write ten things that I observed yesterday at school.
- As she stared at her phone, she slyly smiled.
- Mr. __________ pronounced my last name incorrectly (despite that I have corrected him before).
- A discarded blue detention slip rested on the carpeted classroom form.
- As I watched two students work, their feet swished and rocked underneath the desk. Another student's knee bounced up and down.
- A student offered spearmint gum to another student. No conversation happened during this exchange - just eye contact.
- A group of girls recorded a Tik Tok dance video during lunch
- A student who picked up a wrapper on the floor (left from the class before him) and threw it away without asking
- A teacher kneeling next to a student, helping him with his research paper
- A high school senior sipping water through a brightly colored dinosaur cup
- A stack of papers three inches high on my desk, begging to be sorted.
What did you notice today?
love this slice! Cool observations :)
ReplyDeleteNoticing is what gets me through the March challenge. I can relate to the writing hiatus. I always tell myself I'll slice on Tuesdays after the challenge but I don't. When I started the challenge this year my last blog post was back in October of 2022 when my father-in-law passed away. Maybe this year I'll do it!
ReplyDeleteTrina, all these details about students speak to their kindness, their sensitivity, their humanity, their goodness. I want to know them all, but I'm especially concerned about the student whose teacher didn't pronounce their name correctly. Ugh! I always tell students to correct me when I get their names wrong. Here's what I noticed yesterday: the wind. We've had advisories for two days; the way democrats eviscerated Gym Jordan and Matt Taibbi during the Weaponization hearings yesterday; Ken's ambivalence about choosing his new glasses.
ReplyDeleteI liked your list of snippets. You were an attentive observer. I noticed today: the icicles dripping in the sunshine.
ReplyDeleteI noticed several instances of alliteration that make this list read like a poem, like "she slyly smiled" and "carpeted classroom" and "senior sipping." The little details, too, like the bouncing knee and the dinosaur cup, put us right there with you in this (these) moments.
ReplyDelete