The Winning Has Begun!

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It’s time for another update, and so close to the last one!

Exciting times are among us, y’all. EXCITING TIMES. I invited students to update their word counts and revise their goals, and there are some BIG CHANGES TO TELL YOU ABOUT.

I SPEAK IN ALL CAPS WHEN I’M EXCITED.

Total Words Goal:452,03361
Total Words Written:104,162
% of Total Goal22.57%

104,162 WORDS!

WHAT!? I literally cannot believe how much that number jumped just today alone!

The % of total goal amount increased significantly because quite a few students lowered their word count goals, and I had 2 students back out completely (I only asked that question to those who are falling behind on school work). 

AND THEN

Continue reading →

Whoaaa, We’re (Almost) Halfway Through NaNoWriMo…

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Whooaaaa, I am SOOO BEHINDDDDDD.

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It really blows because up through day 6, I was ON A ROLL. I was keeping up with the recommended word count per day everyday. And THEN the weekend happened. I came into it with every expectation of getting ahead, and then it just didn’t happen. To be honest, I slept a lot this weekend. I call it self care, though, because after the three day weekend, I woke up this morning feeling quite ready for the week.

This week is always a harrowing one at school (especially middle school). It’s the week before Thanksgiving break. It’s only a 3 1/2 day week, so keeping the kids on task is a challenge for sure. We’re wrapping up the end of a project right now, so today was not so bad. I also think my not being in a terrible Monday (but not monday) mood helped.

So before I roll into an update on my students, I’m just admitting to the world that on Day 13, I have 11,000 words (and I should have 21,667 words). I’m NOT giving up on the big goal. I am off ALL next week, and even though we’ll be traveling back to Virginia to see my husband’s family, we’re super broke so I’m pretty sure I’ll have a lot of down time to work on my novel. I REFUSE to give up on this story. It has so much potential. I’m just stuck in the slow part right now. It’s about to move on from that though so I’m going to keep trudging on until something happens.

AND NOW. For the update many have asked about in comments: MY STUDENTS! Continue reading →

Cinco de NaNo

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and I’ve seen some great strides!

Not just for myself (like I finally figured out what my story is about LOL), but for some of my students! Gah!

I gathered as many word counts as I could today, but we had a district assessment, so I wanted to be sure the focus was on that, and that NaNo writing stays secondary to classwork. Sadly, I could not make NaNo the sole focus of the month, because our fiction unit already occurred, and we’re tested on expository writing, but there are still plenty of students helping us come closer to our goal! Continue reading →

On the Second Day of NaNoWriMo…

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this author gave to youuuu…

a sparkly book cover and a kinda-but-not-really-synopsis of her project this month!

I'mNotOkay

“Life is a big question mark, and anyone who thinks they have all the answers is wrong.”

Life after high school is a scary place, full of dark, twisty caverns of unknowns and questions. Mariah can’t seem to see past the darkness. Instead of fighting against the world, she’s in a constant battle against her mind. How can you win in the real world when your mind keeps telling you you’ll always be a loser?

Something about creating a book cover makes me feel really attached to a project. Like I can’t just forget it exists, because it has a cover. It almost exists as a book already.

I also LOVE sharing book covers when I make them, which then causes all my friends and family to constantly ask, “When can we read your book?” Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo Eve

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We are roughly 4 hours away from the Central time zone start of NaNoWriMo, and I. am. pumped. Probably more pumped than I’ve ever been for this month. (Although, I think my first ever NaNoWriMo is 2007 is right up there.)

The excitement of some of my students has me feeling that same excitement. I’m not even concerned about how I’m going to stay on top of grading and parent contact over the next month. I’m gonna write my novel!

After one last day of new joiners, last minute backer-outers, and word count goal changers, here are the final numbers. Continue reading →

My Students are NaNoWriMo-ing…

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…and I’m so excited about it I can’t even contain it.

Image result for nanowrimo 2018 participant

Hello friends! Long time no blog! (I feel like I’ve had this intro in the last few postings, but it’s still true so.)

I am teaching 7th grade English (specifically writing) this year, and I offered my students the opportunity to participate in NaNoWriMo this year (through the Young Writer’s Program). My 4th period has a 30 minute advisory period, so for those students this is our project for the next month and beyond. For others, it was completely optional.

There is still one day to join in or change word counts, but as it stands right now, I have 65 students participating (35 by choice!), and we are setting out for a total of 497,700 words. (I’m trying to convince someone to raise their goal, or someone else to join in, so we can be shooting for 500,000 words!) Continue reading →

Monday Musings #13

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Outback

(I started this on Monday. It took me a day to finish it haha!)

This is my first year teaching, and I have one big complaint to make:

Why do we have to raise kids to only be expository writers and not creative writers?

This is the biggest complaint of all teachers, right? We have to teach to a test, not teach our kids things they’ll use in real life. Not all kids are going to grow up to write academic papers in their career for their entire life.

Should students be writing expository often? Obviously. Most college writing is expository in nature and it should be mastered before you get there.

But how do we raise the next JK Rowling when creative writing
 is barely touched in school?

Continue reading →

I Read 6 Books in 2017…

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But I accomplished so many other things I had never planned for, so is that really something to be ashamed of?

Hello friends! Long time, no post!

So I logged into Goodreads on 12/29 and was so depressed when I saw how far from my minuscule 30-book goal I still was. 30 books is barely one per 2 weeks. I had friends accomplish their 75-100 book goals! What! Continue reading →

Stop Being A Negative Nancy

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I wish the world was full of more positivity. Can you just imagine? Where instead of saying, “Hey, you’re doing that wrong,” all the time, we say “Hey, great job doing that today. Thank you for your effort!”

Instead of “omg her hair looks hideous,” we say, “omg! I love your shoes!”

Just close your eyes and imagine yourself at work. Wouldn’t that one positive comment sit with you for the entire day or week, and make you want to work harder? Or at least more happily? Continue reading →

Fiction Friday (on Wednesday) #6

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FICTION FRIDAY

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted one of these!

So I’ve decided to focus on reading this year. Especially now that I have made the decision to pursue my teaching license. I realized that I’m going to have to teach books to students (instead of being taught), and that in order to do that, I probably needed to read those books myself first haha.

I googled middle school reading lists in Texas and found one district website that might be helpful. You can check out the list here if you’re interested.

I decided to start my reading adventure with The Giver, and now I’m working my way through the entire series (which I did not even know WAS a series until I got to the end of the original). Only the first two show up on the reading list, but now I want to see how this ends. 🙂

I’ve also got a lot of books that either followers have sent me, or that I’ve received from Kindle First, that are still sitting on my iPad unread, so I’m trying to work through some of those as well.

So far this year, I’ve read 4 books. I update and rate everything on my Goodreads account (feel free to add me).

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If you can recommend any books for me, particularly grades 6-8 (heck I may hate middle schoolers but I’m hoping to try those out first), leave them in a comment below! 🙂