Goodbye to Kindergarten

I am sad to say goodbye to my kindergarten student M. She taught me so much about how kids learn and how much pride kids have in their learning. the last thing she said after we finished our lesson was "My mom is going to be so proud of me!" And I was proud of her too. She has a sibling in 5th grade that she looks up to. All of our sessions started with news about her brother. I think he inspires her to stretch herself. It reminded me of my little sister's first day of kindergarten, when she came home in tears because they didn't teach her to read that day. It just wasn't fair because Gayle and Peter could read!

Getting over my fear of writing.

Being in an elementary school in a lab situation has been both challenging and immensely helpful. Having real students to practice fills in the gap that I experienced in my September placement with the fourth grade. My questions were what can these kids do and how do I know they can do it? What did they do before? How do I stretch them to be even more competent readers and writers. By demystifying the learning process and looking closely at words themselves, I have put gas in my own creative tank.

Terror was in my blood with the vignette assignment. I was so relieved when my first vignette was well received by my writing group that I read it to my family at dinner. They are a much tougher crowd, and yet even that went well. This started me thinking about who I am as a storyteller. My personal stories are quite dark, but I see a lot of humor in them. The characters just can not help themselves, no matter how many experts are brought in. I believe I can write, even if I can't type. My mom would be so proud of me!