Celebrating Travel

            Thanks To Ruth Ayres, we have Celebration Saturday! Tweet at #CelebrateLu  and today at #AllWrite14
         Link up here!  

 At All-Write-literary conference in Warsaw, Indiana. What a marvelous time filled with verbs! Yes, VERBS (most important part of speech): talking, learning, laughing, yearning, thinking, listening, sharing, sitting, smiling, introducing, greeting, eating, writing, applauding, photographing, story-telling, hugging, commiserating, questioning, watching, walking, driving, discovering, snacking, reading, and, of course, CELEBRATING!

        Thanks to Ruth Ayres and Mary Helen for their warm, hosting welcome!  More next week when home with the laptop.

A Great Finale for All-Write!

        The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers, where many link their posts to share what’s going on in their lives, both personal and educational.  Come visit everyone's posts to check out their writing about their summers!

                After all the earlier sessions, all the talk at breakfasts, lunches and dinners, I attended one more session, that of Dr. Tim Rasinski, now teaching at Kent State University.  You can access his website here!  He also sent other sources of readings for students to use.  If you are interested, let me know.  I have them on Google Docs and can easily share them.  

More From All-Write - Summer Reading?

Slice of Life, first week of July.  Hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers, many link their posts to share what’s going on in their lives, both personal and educational.  Time is moving too, too fast.

                I wrote about the camaraderie of everyone at All-Write last week, and covered some bits of the first day. I had such a great time getting to know my fellow bloggers in the short time we had together!  

               This wonder-filled time the first day ended at dinner with friends enjoying Kate Messner speaking.  Her talk was about mentoring this time, the importance of it both for teachers and for students.  I realize that others have already written about the evening.  One important take away that I will repeat is this advice:  “Writing for my students provided them with a mentor text.  Writing with my students made me a mentor.”   And this night, I had a copy of Kate’s book, Real Revision, autographed.  I’ve already used parts of this in the past, and this night led me to the first session on Friday, Kate’s session about revision.

Finding The Right Word for All Write!

          The Slice of Life on Tuesday is hosted by Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz at their blog, Two Writing Teachers!  Thanks to these creative women, there is a community of writers who write so we may read and savor.  Join us!
      And tweet at #slice2013

          I flew to Indiana last week to attend the All-Write conference.  People who asked where I was from were surprised that I had come all the way from Colorado.  How could I not do this?  And I was excited to go.  It was, it was (I have to find the right word!) comfortable.  Have you bought a chair or sofa lately?  How many pairs of shoes do you try on before selecting the one pair that feels like it’s already been a favorite for a while? Have you gone to dinner with friends, and begun the talking before you’ve even been seated?  Have you created an old and favorite recipe?  Do you ever re-read favorite books, or keep poems that feel so right?   A few weeks ago, I spent a day with a long-time friend who lives far away.  We are fortunate if we get to see one another once a year, and sometimes it’s more like five years.  Yet when we are together, we fall into our own old friend language, that one that takes years to understand, the perfect ‘ear’ for each other. 

         I hope now you realize what I feel about the All-Write Conference where everyone was simply—and wonderfully—comfortable.  I was welcomed with hugs from the minute I pulled my luggage up to the check-in counter at the Wyndham Hotel.  Here they all were:  Ruth, Mary Helen, Betsy, Christy, Ramona, Elsie, Deb Gaby, Robin, Nancy, Bonnie.  How can those I’ve known for such a short while feel comfortable?  Because of our words over these past years, the words we’ve shared through our blog posts and through twitter (although I don’t do as much tweeting as I’d like).  And later, at dinner, there were more I knew (see Ruth Ayres’ post about the dinner here.)  Also, in the sessions, it seemed like old friends, again from posts and books and articles-words I valued, words I believed in.  Will you imagine what sharing words within a classroom can mean to that community?