Slicing for 30 days: It Made a Difference

Almost there. To the finish. Here are some ways Slicing has made a difference for this middle aged third grade teacher (in no particular order):

In the Classroom:

• I shared with my students that I was participating. They think of me as a writer.
• Now, to them, we are all writers. They talk with me as if this is an assumption.
• I always have ideas to write about. But 30 days…Now I actually empathize with my students who are stuck.
• So many aspects of writing are more easily taught from recent experience. It’s no small thing that I’ve had to go through the process so many times in the last 30 days. I could go on.

Personally:

• Thank you for the free therapy. Needed to get some of these things off my chest.
• The community of writers here was a welcome break from the current events and social media I usually check out when “scrolling.” The previous sentence was a gross understatement.
• Reading others posts gave me mentor texts, sure. It also helped me see different ways of seeing/being seen.
• Seeing this as an artistic outlet is something I will take with me.
• It’s been wonderful to be challenged. I took risks in writing that I don’t think I would have. I’m a better writer than I was 30 days ago.

Early on, I read posts about the community of writers and did not understand. At the end of 30 days, it feels a bit like the end of summer camp. Is that weird?

Author’s note: First two week’s of slicing me would have worked through this list to put things in some sort of order. I might have looked for an alliterative pattern or at least a common sentence structure. This is me at the end of 30 days and 2 days from Spring break. Although, I still re wrote the title 5 6 six times.

–Obligatory and often forgotten: Thanks to twowritingteachers.org for the Slice of Life challenge.