The First Official CELEBRATE This Week Link-Up

15 Comments
Welcome to the first official CELEBRATE This Week link-up!

Grab the button.

Discover. Play. Build.

Discover. Play. Build.

I’m glad you are here and hope you will join the CELEBRATE link-up. Here are the guidelines:

Every Saturday share a celebration. It can be anything (or several things). A photo, a page from your writer’s notebook, a favorite lesson, a success story, student writing, a recipe, a new book for your classroom library — just find something to celebrate. It doesn’t have to be big, in fact, unlikely celebrations are some of our favorites. Check out the posts from last week’s practice CELEBRATE This Week link-up. They are filled with inspiration!

Link-up your celebration. You can add a link to your own blog post here in the link-up list. Maybe you don’t want to write a blog post, but you’d still like to join the CELEBRATE link-up. Let’s use #celebratelu (lu stands for link-up) on Twitter. Another option could be sharing your celebration on the {Discover. Play. Build.} Facebook page (although I’m still trying to find my footing here).

Browse through the links. You’ll find inspiration and good ideas and more ways to celebrate your own piece of the world.

Leave some comments. This is how a community forms. Let others know you’ve stopped by and celebrate together.

I can’t wait for the connections that are just waiting for us. I’m hoping that by the end of the school year classrooms will be celebrating together because of the connections formed in the CELEBRATE link-up community.

I hope you’ll grab the official button and join in the Celebration!

Celebrations in My Corner of the World

One. I taught third grade writers a little about dialogue this week. Here is one way we celebrated in a writing conference.
This student was working on putting paragraphs into her writing, specifically when there was a change in speaker. Look closely at her first attempt…she put a paragraph in the middle of a word! We celebrated her attempt (and that beautiful editing mark) and then had a little laugh about the problem with paragraphs happening in the middle of words. Then she went and tried again. Although she didn’t start a new paragraph every single time there was a new speaker, she was much closer to conventional.
Two. Deb Gaby and I worked out a plan for professional development for middle school teachers regarding Thinking Voice and showing evidence of thinking in content areas. 
After we brainstormed and organized our thoughts, I exclaimed, “Deb! This looks like the outline for a book!”
She smiled. “Really?”
“Maybe. Let’s try to write a little and see what happens.”
I’m so very thankful to have a colleague who is also a very good friend and is willing to follow little trails of thinking just to see what might happen. Not only that, it’s not every day you have a book outline fall into your lap.

Three.

I’m in Pennsylvania for the KSRA conference and drove a little from the airport to the conference. It was a beautiful drive and I saw colors I’ve never seen before in the changing leaves.

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celebratelu, celebration, challenge, favorite bits

15 Comments »

  3. Ruth, even the thought, the idea, of another book must fill you up with joy!
    I love how you celebrated your little friend's attempt at paragraphing. Look for where they're using, but confusing, right? Lots to celebrate!

  5. What a fabulous week to celebrate! And I need to have you come live and teach near me. You can point out where the seed for a book lies dormant, since I am blind. 🙂 And you can teach my own boys writing, which would be amazing.

  7. Thank you again for starting this focus on celebrations. There are so many things to celebrate in our everyday lives….sometimes we just need to look for it.

  8. Hi, I am new to your blog, but happy I found it. I love celebrations too and already participate in another hop that celebrates 10 Things of Thankful. I love to write and am a former educator too.

  10. You are the best at encouraging fellow writers! You can see what is not always obvious to others.
    Love the dialogue lesson. I have been working on this with many students recently. Love these first attempts.

  11. I love that you included pics. Seeing the student work really demonstrates the power of celebrating the work in-progress there! I am charmed by the way we can really see you and Deb at work–cutting and sorting. Your thinking is visible. And a book tease? I am all in favor of that collaboration!

  12. Ruth,
    I am so glad you are doing this. It's fun to look at life through the lens of a celebration. Interestingly, it makes me realize how much there really is to celebrate every single day.

    It sounds like you had plenty to celebrate this week. We drove to North Carolina this weekend across the Blue Ridge Mountains so I was able to see some of those beautiful colors you celebrated. They were SOOO worth celebrating.

    Cathy

  14. Happy to join in. I just started this two weeks ago inspired by Colby Sharp. Thanks for creating a community to share the positives.

  15. I so love this idea. “Whether you look for the best or look for the worst, either way you will find what you are looking for.” Thanks for the reminder to look for (and celebrate!) the best!