Thursday, May 31, 2018

Reflection on a Takeover

How is it possible that May has ended? Amy & I stumbled onto this idea of inviting my sixth-grade students to take over this space and boy did they rise to the challenge. They hustled to get these blog posts written and revised and edited. They did this in a month filled with state tests and end of year craziness. They did this as an invitation with no grade or points attached. They did this with joy and persistence and enthusiasm. Each post inspired me. Each word carefully was chosen. Each photograph picked, especially for the post. 

I learned things about my students that I didn't know before this #6thgradeblogtakeover. I learned how many of them didn't consider themselves writers before this year. I learned how they share an addiction to pens with me. I learned their passion for writing comes from the freedom to express themselves inside the pages of their notebooks. 

Each entry delighted me. Each comment brought me such joy. My students. My bloggers. My writers. My notebookers. They showed up. They wrote and they accomplished so much. This challenge reminded me to give them more opportunities for an authentic audience to read their writing. It showed me, once again, how vital that is to writers.

Notebookers unite. We notebook-ed all year and we are so grateful for the chance to share our notebooks with the world! Thank you to each and every reader who read our words, especially those readers who left comments. Comments feed writers! We are leaving this month changed and inspired. If we weren't writers before, we are certainly writers now. Let's do it again sometime!

Thank you again to these writers from Michelle Haseltine's sixth-grade classes, for taking over Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  What a delight! Please check in each Saturday morning in May to see who wins each week's notebook giveaway!

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.  I welcome you!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you two for this project ... quite inspiring.
    Kevin

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  2. Excellent experience. Excellent adventure. Excellent teacher. I really enjoyed reading the blogs.

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  3. To take up this challenge in May during the end-of-year flurry is something to admire, Michelle. I know you're proud of your students, but this was an over-the-top challenge that succeeded beautifully. It was an inspiration to read each post, to know that your students will leave as writers! Congratulations to all and thank you and the class for a wonderful month of posts!

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  4. This has been such a present to the world. Thank you, Michelle, and thank you to the squad of pen lovers, poets, doodlers, dreamers, and every single person who posted or read posts or encouraged others. I feel extremely fortunate to have shared these posts and to have read every single one. I'll be putting them all together on a Padlet so that they'll be easy to access. And yes...let's do it again sometime. Love and gratitude (and PENS!) to all. xx, a.

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