A Late Slice (with Blueberries!)

As I read through everyone's slices, coming to the conclusion that I have not a slice about which to write, I look up to see that my fiance is watching Mike Rowe learning how to bake a blueberry pie from two older pie ladies.  On Mike's head is a homemade, blueberry-shaped SLICE of pie! It must be a sign.  The time to write my first Slice is now!

"Dirty Jobs."

Teaching is a Dirty Job.  Sometimes we have to look silly (Mike has a PIE on his head).  Sometimes we have to act silly (Mike just said, "Get your PIEorities straight!"). 

Pies and cheesy jokes and antics aside, teaching requires getting our hands a little dirty sometimes.

Today, I had what Oprah calls an "ah-ha" moment.  My students begin our Language Arts block by writing in our Writer's Notebooks.  Sometimes their warm-up is freewriting, sometimes it's word play challenges,  sometimes it's a quote related to our current read aloud, sometimes we read a poem and write our reflections.  When I picked today's warm-up (I set them up the weekend before), I had no idea that it was just what we needed today. I used a poem called "Watermelon Days" from 100 Quickwrites by Linda Rief that ended with the line "Watch as the watermelon day passes you by. / And love life while you have it." As we reflected on this poem, students shared their writings and thoughts on how this line connects to the main character of our read aloud Life As We Knew It as well as their favorite memories of warm August days from their childhood. Though no one said it, I know we were also thinking about students, students' family members, and even teachers we have lost this past year.  No one needed to say it.  The moment hung in the air, so tangible, we could taste it like the sweet watermelons of summer or the tart blueberries in Mike Rowe's pies.

All of the dirty little aspects of teaching also make up this life that we have, and I wouldn't trade one dirty little moment for another day with my kiddos.