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Monday, July 13, 2015

Pencils with a Smile

I celebrate pencils too!  Today I am at my first class ever that deals with blogging.  We began by previewing various blogs.  I found A Day in the Life blog informative.  Leigh Ann Eck celebrated pencils and shared a story from a presentation from Ruth Ayres in her blog. This blog touched my soul because I strive to build relationships and safe communities with my students in my classes.  I am definitely from the "give them a pencil camp"! Many feel that the students need to be responsible by bringing their personal materials to class, but I want to assist my students by helping them deconstruct the barriers that keep them from writing, and sometimes the deconstructing can be as simple as sharing a pencil and a smile.  I am anxious to try the colored pencil in a jar behavior activity.  I found the statement below meaningful and applicable to building relationships and communities.
        "If we can recognize these behaviors, we can change our reactions.
                 When we change our reactions, we give them hope."
red_green_blue_pencils.jpg (2329×3000)

5 comments:

  1. I'm in your same "give them a pencil camp" and I will be checking out the "Day in the Life" blog. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Hi, Cindy! I appreciate your thoughtful response (I am still on the fence, trying to find a middle ground), and I like the elegant design of your blog.

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  3. Give them pencils. Give them ALL the pencils!!! :)

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  4. Best teacher gift I ever received was a gross of pencils from a parent/former teacher. Never ran out and always gave them pencils!

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  5. Congratulations on starting your blog. Blogging has changed my teaching and writing life in so many ways. Thank you too, for the shoutout for my own blog. I am so happy you are in camp give-them-a-pencil. Ruth's presentation was wonderful and I only hoped I could capture what she was sharing. Good luck on your new adventure.

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