The First Blog

Hours of unrestful sleep: 8.5
Number of loads of dishes it will take to clean the kitchen: currently 2 (but could be more)
In the Attic: What does one write on a first blog?

I'm experiencing the beginnings of a cold. All night, I slept/woke with my mouth wide open, because air passage through my nostrils was blocked. So when my daughter finally woke me up at 7:30 AM, my lips and throat were parched. I needed a good drink of water before I could even form my first sentence. In one piece of my dream, I remember I was apologizing to someone for my snoring.

Binta's typical Saturday begins with Disney Playhouse. She's a big fan of the Wiggles, and I have to confess, so am I. On occasion, I've been known to put a Wiggles CD on even if she were not around. I know, it's sick.

My Saturday began with Step Up to Writing, by Maureen E. Auman. (I know, that's REALLY sick!) Our school district has newly adopted this writing program, and we spent yesterday with no students, receiving training on the program. It is district inservices like these that bring to my attention how hard it is to sit and listen for 8 consecutive hours. Although we did receive an hour (yes, that's 60 whole minutes!) for our lunch. Such a luxury when you live in a world where your 30 minute lunch ends at exactly 1:05, whether or not you've finished eating or made it to the bathroom. Anyway, I picked up the "Classroom Reproducibles" manual, returned to my cozy bed, and thumbed my way through it. However, one thought kept reoccuring to me as I looked through all of the clever, cutesy diagrams and images.

This summer, I joined a single parent website, in which I met one individual in Australia who wrote particularly well. We developed a summer relationship through email correspondence, sharing bits and pieces of our personal histories with each other. My writing took on a fervor that I hadn't identified since my poetry writing back in high school. For the past 10 years or so, I've desperately wanted to sit down and write about the little and big things that go on in my life. But the thought of turning on the computer and opening up a Word Document only to write a little piece that only I would see seemed pointless. I'd rather clip my toenails. (Which I frequently did). When I think about the energy my writing had this summer, I realized that having an authentic audience allowed me to write so well. I knew that every piece I wrote would be read by someone, and was working to put a little more of myself out there with each message that I wrote. I noted to myself that when I returned to the classroom, in the fall, I would need to find ways to make my students feel like they were really writing to someone.

Which brings me to how I put down "Step Up to Writing" and ended up going straight to my computer to research how to create a Blog. My hypothesis is that I will be better able to tap into what is going on with the writing process (and therefore become a better teacher of the writing process) if I myself experience writing on a regular basis. I went to my friend's blog (thanks, Amy) and proceeded to "Create Your Own Blog."

Periodically, I will continue with this little "educational experiment" of mine, unloading some more bits and pieces from the Attic. As for now, the diswasher has quieted. It's time to unload, only to load once again.