For the past three days, I have been part of a team of teachers visiting a neighboring district to learn more about this district’s English/Language Arts curriculum and its implementation. This was an incredibly rewarding experience, and I will be thinking about everything I learned there for days and weeks to come.
One of the questions we asked the teachers we visited was “What is the writing life of a student here?” I’ve been thinking about how I would answer this question for students in my district, as well as how I would answer it for myself. This seemed like a good place to begin the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge.
I can honestly say that I owe my current writing life to the Slice of Life challenge. Late one Friday night seven years ago, I wrote my first slice more on a whim than anything else. That post led to more posts, and eventually I began attending conferences, meeting authors, and ultimately, publishing poems of my own and of my students.
So what is it about Slice of Life that enabled me to build a rich, rewarding writing life? Being part of a community of supportive writers is perhaps the most important thing slicing has given me. From the beginning, the encouraging comments and feedback have nurtured me as a writer and given me the confidence to continue writing. I think about this every day when I confer with my students about their writing.
Another critical quality of slicing is that, in terms of what to write about, the sky is the limit. Writers are free to write about whatever they want, using whatever genre or format that suits their topic. Just as I appreciate being able to make my own choices, I know students want this freedom also. That being said, I also appreciate the suggestions the Two Writing Teacher team members provide throughout the month. Sometimes it’s just hard to face a blank page without any guidelines. This is true for our students as well.
I also appreciate the many mentor texts shared by all slicers. Whether its a line of text that launches a dive into childhood memories, or a poem that provides a structure for a poem of my own, mentor texts are an essential component of any writing life.
These are just my initial thoughts about this question, but I’ll be returning to it over the course of the month. As John Ciardi said, “a good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of ideas.” I look forward to watching the “greening of the landscape” with you.
Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Kelsey, Melanie, and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every Tuesday. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Reading to the Core 
This community … I am with you. I wasn’t sure if I would make time to write this year either, but I will. I am. My stories may fragment or be rough and unfinished, but I enjoy the practice. And I sure love the people. Happy writing to you!
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Oh my! We posted on the same thing, although you did so much more eloquently…I almost didn’t slice this year but like you said, “it’s a hard habit to break!” Cheers to another year and happy slicing!! 🙂
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I love how you framed this post with the question, “What is the writing life…” I also owe whatever measure of a writing life I have to this community. It’s so amazing. Your writing always inspires.
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It’s the community that keeps me slicing too. So encouraging and thoughtful. I just caught up with all my blog comments today and it gave me warm fuzzies! Connecting with friends I haven’t “seen” since last March, checking in with the friends I write with every week, seeing some new faces. I need to think more about how I can apply the lessons learned from slicing feedback to conferring with students. That’s a great insight!
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I could have written this same post! This community is why I have a writing life of my own and I too am grateful. Thanks for being here and sharing your thinking, writing, and joy.
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What is the writing life of a student here?
What a great way to look at and think about your school community. We are slowly starting to think about this in our school-building on what it means to be a writer.
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This most resonates with me, too. I think I will pose this question to my students tomorrow.
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Catherine, looking forward to reading your posts and enjoying the support of this writing community.
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So glad you are back, Catherine. I’ve met so many amazing people through this challenge, including YOU. Here’s to another year of building our writing community with a month of writing and reading.
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This community is truly remarkable! I wouldn’t be writing without it. 🙂 ~JudyK
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Love this. I’m just getting started. It is all so daunting. I have been on the verge of writing for years. I know that if I write more often then, I will enrich myself and my students and be less driven by our testing culture. Thanks for writing this. It is do nice to know others on the same path!
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I owe my writing life and my close writing friends to the SOL community. This is a beautiful post.
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This is my 4th year and I can truly say that I’ve learned so much with the SOL community. I really missed everyone when some personal difficulties interrupted my the Tuesday slices this past year. Here’s to the next 30 days!
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It seems like we all could write this post – ditto! I haven’t written a “slice” for so long! I miss this group of writing friends, and I hope everyone will welcome me back. Let’s have some fun!
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What an inspiring view of our blogging lives. I am so inspired by the freedom of our blogs and the writing of so many others, many who now feel like friends.
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