01 April 2009

Slice of Life: Wrap-Up

The Slice of Life Challenge was a new experience for my class and I this year. I went into the challenge, and the month, with high hopes for both myself and my students. At the start of the month, 19 of my 27 students had signed up and I was ready to go myself. I gave them all a new notebook to use for their "slices," I set up a daily forums on Moodle to allow students to post their writings there (if they so chose), and my blog was ready and waiting for all of my posts.

In the end, here's how the numbers played out:
  • 31 slices! = 3 students
  • 25-30 slices = 2 students
  • 20-24 slices = 1 student
  • 15-19 slices = 3 students
  • 10-14 slices = 3 students
  • 5-9 slices = 1 teacher :>)
  • 4 or fewer slices = 7 students
This afternoon my students and I celebrated our efforts. I think the biggest lesson I learned personally is that the writing life is all about discipline. Making oneself sit down and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) on a daily basis requires determination and an ability to stay focused on the task at hand (especially when the online world presents so many other options). Maybe I'd get more writing accomplished if I did it on paper? Something to think about for next year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes writing is all about discipline. Something I am still working on- keep it up!

BK said...

And it's fun and good to celebrate together the exhilaration of it all.
That's great that you shared it with your students,
Bonnie