Tap Tap With my gradebook in hand, I meander between the short desks, checking on my grid as students show me that they brought their homework. I finish and proceed to my desk, bending over to input my class’s attendance on my computer. I feel a tap tap on my arm. “One second,” I say. Tap…
I pulled three cards from my prompt deck, and all three are pretty good, I think. Interestingly, I took a workshop that required a reflection paper on the one about adding value to relationships (one point: humor is necessary for genuine connection). But since I had to write an actual paper on the topic, I…
Yesterday, I read a well-known book with my first-grade group called Is Your Mama a Llama? It’s about a llama looking for others like him, who would have a llama for a mama, told in a fun and predictable rhyming pattern. “Is your mama a llama?” I asked my fried Dave. “No she is not,” is…
Learning to read is a magical process: we recognize letters and assign them sounds and then smash the sounds together into words. Then we read many words in sentences and in paragraphs, not only decoding the them but extracting meaning from them. It’s pretty trippy if you dwell on it too long. Seeing as learning…
Last week, my fifth-grade reading group and I finished a classic novel. I’m not going to say which one it was because I’m not going to say very nice things about it. The story itself was fine. It followed a classic narrative structure and was occasionally gripping. The problem was… Well, it was boring in…
This week’s prompt over at Carrot Ranch gave me an idea immediately. I think the story is one teachers will relate to, as it recalls my days as a second- and third-grade teacher. The prompt is this: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a honeymoon story. It can be between a couple before, during…
I have exciting news! Remember that writing conference I went to a few weeks ago with Jenny and Dan? Well, I thought to myself, Self, I write books and know things. Maybe I know things the conference organizers would like to see in workshops. So I applied, and guess what! My proposals were accepted and I’m officially…
This morning, I taught the third grade class in the kids’ area of my church. The lesson was about Biblical figures who persevered through difficult circumstances and those who encouraged them along the way. To go along with that, we completed a seriously cool project with the main point being this: when times get tough,…
Yesterday, I read this great article by Nat Russo about how important it is for writers to master the craft before we start defending our style. Click on his name to read the whole thing (which I recommend), but here’s a chunk of it: You’ve heard people do this. When you offer constructive criticism, they’ll…
I’ve never done a year-end post on the blog, but you guys made this an awesome year so I thought one was warranted. First, some stats as of 12/28. This graph shows overall stats for the past three years. You can see why I said 2015 was awesome. Including pages and a few reblogs, 103 posts were…
Allison Maruska 