Entries

When I joined the School District in 2008, I had a summer professional development in writing workshop. It was based on the work of Lucy Caulkins from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. In the professional development, we had to model what our students would do, which included keeping a writing notebook. Within the writing notebook, we had to write “entries” – brief passages of ideas that we might develop into longer pieces in the future. 

I have several posts in progress, and I can’t decide which to develop. I’m going to post entries. Maybe my readers will help me decide. Maybe the process will help me decide. Here are the entries. 

1. End of the school year: The end of the school year is very hard for teachers. They are just as eager as the students are to reach summer break, but they have to keep the students engaged through the last days. Max’s high school had literally nothing worthwhile going on in most of his classes during the last ten days. I blame it on the fact that it’s a big school that does nothing to make small units of teachers and students.  When I taught, regardless of the school, my team came up with worthwhile and creative ways to keep the students engaged through the end of the school year. 
2. Scholarships: First with my eder son, Ethan, and now with Max, I have developed expertise in the area of scholarships. The summer before Ethan was a senior in high school, I started an exhaustive search for scholarships. I had read somewhere about a student who had applied for and received so many scholarships that she covered her entire college tuition for four years. I signed up for the top rated scholarship email service. There are three types of scholarships. Sweepstakes scholarships, needs based scholarships, and special category/leadership scholarships. 
3. Students can change: One of my principals told me that educators sometimes don’t know when their efforts reach their students. I have been fortunate to know when my attempts to connect with a student had failed, but years later, I either saw the change myself, or heard about it.  
4. Keeping it real: You have told me that you find my blog posts meaningful and inspiring. It is very gratifying. I am very lucky that every month you all tell me how my writing affects you. It’s true that the vast majority of the time, I’m grateful to be alive despite my condition. However, there are times when I feel immensely sorry for myself. 

If you feel inspired, let me know which entry or entries you would like to hear more about. Barry already told me that scholarships sounds boring.