National Day on Writing 2012

Today was a day for celebrating what we write. Seems to me that this is also a pretty good day to start off our shared ninja-teaching blog! But more on that later. For now, let me regal you with moments of writing wootfulness. And yes, that is definitely a word.

On the way in to work today, I caught of glimpse of this video by superstar twitter-pal Kevin Hodgson:



Beyond asking my students to blog about their writing today, I wasn't sure how I wanted to celebrate. It's just been that kind of week, y'all. Kevin, who you should definitely be following on Twitter (@dogtrax) gave me the little boost of inspiration I needed. Also, I really like stealing ideas.

Last night, I wrote a blog post to my students, which you can read here. Basically, I got all teary-eyed and told them that they matter. And then I wrote them a poem. The fun part about writing the poem is this: one of my students recently wrote a poem inspired by Sharon Creech's Love That Dog but based on Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan. Creech took the time to comment on my student's poem and that became an avalanche of poetic inspiration in the classroom. I thought I should get in on the action. And yeah, it was pretty fun to watch my student's eyes light up when she read the dedication at the bottom of my poem today.

They read my post and responded with posts of their own, writing things like "I couldn't shine without the rapid sound of graphite on paper," and there's even another poem inspired by Love That Dog about a sister and pancakes. What amazes me so much about all their posts (37, to be exact), is that the only "prompt" they were given was to write about what they write. And they did. Each in their own way. Some long, others short, all creative and each unique.

All in all, a very good day. To close out this fabulous day on writing, here's my freebie-Animoto video I made from some of their work this year. And by the way, welcome to our blog. Jenny and I are excited to share a little of the reading and writing love happening in our rooms every day.

Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.