Story Walk #SOL21

On most Tuesdays I blog and post to the Two Writing Teacher Blog . Teacher writers read and then comment on at least three others posts.

I have been working with the 4 year old kindergarten in my building this year. One class I visit weekly for a writing and reading lesson. These little ones are embracing their author and illustrator identities whole heartily. Today one of the first questions I got from students today is “Why is your hair black?”

I decided to dye my hair black from blonde again. It is October, it is almost Halloween, and it feels more like me right now.

In my town the library does a story walk in parks and other public outdoor spaces with a children’s book. Pages are printed and dotted along the path so kids can walk and read. I decided this was a perfect project to do with some classes in my school.

The 4K teaches with themes. Trees has been a great thread through the weeks. We have read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Caps for Sale. The students were learning about deciduous trees today!

When we did Chicka Chicka Boom Boom we talked about what else could be in the tree besides letters and coconuts. Lemons came up and then we called it a lemonade tree.

Today we talked about what silly things could go into trees and that is what they each wrote about.

Here are some the ideas:

Door tree

Macaroni tree

Pizza tree

Toy tree

The lost stuff tree

Shoe tree 

Sock tree

In order for the students to draw a tree they were advised to trace their hand which was a great way to have them do it.

The teachers wrote the sentence on the page and then they are going to be displayed on their lockers for everyone to read as a story walk.

It is exciting for everyone to see the great work these little ones are doing.

I cannot wait to see what they write next.

October 20, 2021 by TammyB Categories: Challenge, creativity, Delights, Gatherings, holidays, MYNEXTRIGHTTHING, Mywriting, Questions, reflection, Slice of Life Leave a comment

Endings and Beginnings

Today is the last day of September and I am excited that tomorrow is October! Lots of great things are happening in the month for me!

The Storyaday prompt today is to look behind and forward. I revised the story I wrote in May this morning. There are several stories I revised this month through the prompts that will need to get final pass throughs and sent off into the world. I have two stories out to a reader for feedback. As soon as she is done with them I will rewrite and then send them off. I have some goals before the end of the year!

The next challenge for October is OCTPOWRIMO so I will write a poem a day. I have been reading a lot of poetry and enjoying it. There is a new podcast called The Slowdown which is hosted by Ada Limon who I adore. She has her own commentary before reading the poem and it is delightful. Her voice is amazing.

My #last100day2021 project is continuing. I am creating a #100dayMFA for myself. I am tracking all the writing life activities I engage in every day on a beautiful spreadsheet. I did my writing this morning but right when I felt I was on a roll was when I had to get ready for work. I did write a piece in my own PUSH group last night that I liked. I will transcribe that sometime over the next few days and see where I am at with it.

I am preparing for NANOWRIMO in November in my mind. There is a project I am kicking around in my head that came from a conversation with Kim Flodin. I highly recommend her intuitive readings. It was an eye opening process for me.

What are your creative plans for October? I would love to hear!

September 30, 2021 by TammyB Categories: #100dayproject, Challenge, creativity, Gatherings, Mywriting, podcast, Poetry, Reading Life, Short Story, Writing Challenge, Writing Exercise, Writing Group, Writing Prompt, WritingLife 1 Comment

23 on Tuesday #SOL21

On most Tuesdays I blog and post to the Two Writing Teacher Blog . Teacher writers read and then comment on at least three others posts.

23 Things I Did This Morning:

1. Woke up at 4 a.m.
2. Had coffee
3. Wrote in my notebook
4. Responded to writers in Slack
5. Listened to the MFA Writers Podcast
6. Showered
7. Found my green pants
8. Straightened my hair
9. Drove to work
10. Did door duty
11. Made schedules for two reading coach visits next week including links to tools and documents needed
12. Drank more coffee
13. Answered email
14. Updated my calendar
15. Looked at reading reports
16. Delivered a student book to a teacher
17. Read The Very Lonely Firefly to a class
18. Facilitated writing and illustrating for the class
19. Picked up a 4 year old student who is reading
20. Made log entries for the work I did yesterday
21. Changed the schedule after hearing from one of the coaches
22. Had a conversation with the EL teacher about reading assessment
23. Went to a grade level team meeting

It is interesting to see what I do when I list it out…

September 28, 2021 by TammyB Categories: Challenge, creativity, Delights, Gatherings, holidays, MYNEXTRIGHTTHING, Mywriting, Questions, reflection, Slice of Life 6 Comments

Ten on Tuesday #SOL21

On most Tuesdays I blog and post to the Two Writing Teacher Blog . Teacher writers read and then comment on at least three others posts.

Tomorrow is the first day of fall and I am thrilled.

Here are ten delights about AUTUMN:

1. twinkle lights
2. cozy blankets
3. coffee, but sometimes hot cider
4. crows
5. candles
6. thick stew with crusty bread
7. thick Irish wool sweaters
8. reading the book In November to my students
9. layers of clothes
10. the crisp breeze flowing through colorful leaves on my walks

I would love to hear what fall means to you in the comments.

September 21, 2021 by TammyB Categories: Challenge, creativity, Delights, Gatherings, holidays, MYNEXTRIGHTTHING, Mywriting, Questions, reflection, Slice of Life 8 Comments

What’s On Your Plate?

What: A Virtual Dinner Party.
Where: Deb’s Blog, The Widow Badass.
How: Share a breakfast, lunch, appetizer, dessert or dinner idea.
Why: Spread inspiration and shake up our meal routines.
When: The first Wednesday of every month (beginning April 7).

Thank you to my friend Antoinette over at Stories Served Around the Table for joining in and letting me know!

The goal is to spread meal inspiration and share dishes that we have recently enjoyed. Breakfast, lunch, appetizers, dinner, dining in, dining out…all ideas are welcome!

Here are the preferences:

1) an open, anything goes theme,
2) photos of the final dish/es,
3) links to the printable recipe.

Last night for dinner my husband made me chicken and mushrooms. It was divine. I fast and have committed to one meal a day. This works for me and my body type. As long as I eat good food I am not hungry and I do not feel bloated.

I naturally gravitated to this way of eating when I was a hardcore runner, I just didn’t know it had a name.

I prefer to think of it as a delay, not deny approach to eating.

I am also back to running which seems to be the only way that my body will drop these last extra pounds.

There is nothing like fasting to make your food taste better! The chicken was perfectly cooked as were the mushrooms. There was just enough brown gravy. I have been staying away from as many carbs so my side was my green drink. A concoction made with broccoli, strawberries and blueberries. It is cold and delicious and was a nice treat after my warm afternoon run!

This is not the exact recipe but one similar.

What was on your plate?

June 2, 2021 by TammyB Categories: Delights, fasting, Food, Gatherings, Questions, reflection, Weight loss 8 Comments

#SOL21- Kindergarten Has Become A Gamble

Tuesdays is the day for the Two Writing Teachers post.

It is the time of the school year that I reflect about what has gone well and what I want to change in the fall.

I feel like I have pivoted so many times it has been 3 years rolled into one. I changed teaching positions in January of 2020 and I haven’t had a “normal” school year since I moved to Wisconsin. What is normal anyway? Dealing with children is always a new adventure.

The last month makes me feel split. I teach some students in person and some online. On one of my walks the other day I was thinking about Dr. Richard Allington and his reading research and how I used to teach.

I met Dr Allington and had dinner with him one year at an International Reading Association conference. He is no nonsense and brilliant.

I had modified everything for virtual learning, including my writing instruction and kept feeling like something was missing. My students love writing time and are creative but I was skipping something.

I used to do something called Family Meeting. It was circle time and when I did calendar and all those snippets of standards you need to review every day in order for them to stick. We made patterns and tally marks, etc.

I also read the one of 4-6 read alouds for the day and then we would write a response to the book and I would focus on one skill. Students would then write their own version independently in their own notebooks. It worked well and the kids learned to experiment with writing.

Yesterday I added the group chart back and then had them write. It went smoothly and the feel of writing workshop was productive.

We used It Looked Like Spilt Milk and then wrote a story about what spilt blue paint would look like. Then they set off with their own colors. One had a spider that morphed into something else. Someone else had dancing butterflies.

I don’t have too many days left with the kids and I am trying to test in math and reading. There are some students that only show up on the in person days and some that randomly come to class no matter what mode we are in.

It is a gamble every morning.

I am looking forward to the summer and resting. I need to recharge for the fall. There is uncertainty as to what that is going to look like as no decisions, or discussion, is happening until next month in my corporation.

I will live my writing life this summer and go kayaking and ziplining and walk in the sun. I am going to Disney and celebrating my birthday next month and I am looking forward to it.

I am not certain what is in store for the fall, but I cannot control that right now and I do not have the energy to worry about it.

What are your summer plans?

I am teaching a Fabulous Flash Fiction class June 9-13! You won’t want to miss it. You can register here. Space is limited, so don’t wait! Spaces are filling up.

May 25, 2021 by TammyB Categories: Challenge, creativity, Delights, Gatherings, Kindergarten, Mywriting, Reading Life, reflection, Writing Challenge, Writing Exercise, Writing Group, Writing Prompt, WritingLife 1 Comment

The Delight of Connections

Finding our tribe is important. It helps us belong and feel comforted that there are people that are like us. Having diversity in the group helps us learn from people who are different from us as well. No two people are exactly alike and that is a good thing!

I will be teaching kindergarten this fall, hopefully in person. I will be incorporating play, centers, loads of writing and reading, priming, EL education, and protocols. This is not an exhaustive list.

One of the things I do is incorporate my personal passions into my classroom. If there is something I become obsessed with – like llamas, for instance – they find their way into my teaching. I believe this shows my students that the things they love are important as well. I had a student one time that put a pickle in her stories. For some reason, she was obsessed with them. It became a fun game how she could incorporate them into her writing and her speech. She learned she could play with words and it was accepted in the room and encouraged.

My education experience feels unique and I want to close that gap. I am sure I am not the only one who is a writer, a coach, and a classroom teacher. I plan to go back to coaching after a year back in the classroom. I believe the classroom experience makes me a better coach especially in a new district. I continue to write and publish. This makes me more of an authority to my students when they know this information when we have writing workshop.

My students will see themselves as readers, writers, and problem solvers on day 1.

My goal is to form a mastermind of like minded educators in order to fuel each other to take risks and learn from what we experience with our students. Does this appeal to you?

Comment or email me at tammybreitweiser@gmail.com – I would love to connect.

July 18, 2020 by TammyB Categories: Challenge, Coaching, creativity, Delights, Gatherings, Justlife, Kindergarten, School Life, Writing Challenge, Writing Exercise, Writing Group, WritingLife 2 Comments

Weekend Coffee Share

It has been a fast week! I almost forgot it was Sunday time rolling back around. I think today I will have caramel syrup in my cup. I feel like having some sweet. What would you like to drink today?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you this week was full of meetings at work. There were after school meetings and lots of conversations with teachers about planning and ILearn our state mandated test. I did a lot of running around between the 3 buildings I go between as well.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I am excited Storyaday is starting next weekend. I do this challenge twice a year. In May and September I write a story a day. My online writing group came out of this challenge and I speak with at least one of the Superstars daily.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I took a writing class for 2 days. It pushed me out of my comfort zone a little. I had a hard time with the prompts which surprised me. They should have been within my wheelhouse. The prompts came later in the day and I was forced to write later in the evening after thinking about the prompt which is not my ideal time. I do have two new prompts to work with moving forward though. I will for sure use them again. It was fun to play. I did get two drafts done plus a third partial because of the class.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you the idea of making space has been on my mind. There is space for community and interaction. I am the type of person who is quite solitary but I can build up ideas to a point where I want to share. Most of the time this is through writing, but sometimes I need people. I need to carve out space for things that energize me which I have not done well with since school started back.

Making space for writing, reading, and exercise is important as well. Honestly, sometimes just taking a moment of stillness too. I have so many priorities!

I am part of several communities but the interaction is not always at the level I crave at the moment. The 2 day class didn’t allow for the type of interaction among writers as a longer one allows so connections were not really formed sadly. I still haven’t quite figured out how to do that either which is part of the problem. Medium is a community as well and I interact with other writers through their pieces. I have my AW group also.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I got into a flash fiction class for the end of September which I am excited about.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I picked up some great books at the library this week including The Little Swedish Kitchen! If anything it will inspire a story. I also picked up There, There have you read it? I keep hearing wondering comments about it.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you …this is your prompt! Finish the sentence for me. What have you been thinking about?

You can read the entire post here.

August 25, 2019August 25, 2019 by TammyB Categories: Gatherings, Mywriting, Short Story, storyaday, Weekend coffee share, Writing Exercise, Writing Prompt 5 Comments

Weekend Coffee Share

Thank you for joining me for coffee today on this hot hot summer day! I am so glad you are here with me and it is to be a day full of sunshine.

I am having my regular strong black coffee. What would you like today? I have some iced tea if you like, or do you want something stronger today?

To read the rest of this post please click here. Please comment and clap (I believe you can clap up to 30 times).

June 30, 2019 by TammyB Categories: Gatherings, Justlife, Mywriting, NANOWRIMO, Questions, Reading Life, Short Story, Slice of Life, Weekend coffee share, Writing Challenge, Writing Exercise, Writing Group, Writing Prompt, WritingLifeTags: weekendcoffeeshare 1 Comment

Birthday Weekend Coffee Share

I am excited you have joined me for coffee today. It is Father’s day in the US and my birthday. I think we will have some birthday cupcakes this morning to celebrate but no singing.

I am having a Butter Brew coffee with a shot of espresso for the occasion. What would you like today?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you this week has been full of ups and downs.

To read the rest of this post please click here. Please comment and clap (I believe you can clap up to 30 times).

June 16, 2019 by TammyB Categories: Gatherings, Justlife, Mywriting, NANOWRIMO, Questions, Reading Life, Short Story, Slice of Life, Weekend coffee share, Writing Challenge, Writing Exercise, Writing Group, Writing Prompt, WritingLifeTags: weekendcoffeeshare 9 Comments