Writing vs Basketball vs Influenza

The first meeting of the Writing Project was earlier this week, on Tuesday. All 12 students who had signed up came to that meeting. I was thrilled and the kids were enthusiastic.

The second meeting, 2 days later on Thursday was a different story. Seven students came. It turns out that 3 of them had also signed up for a Basketball class at that same time after school. Fortunately I became aware of this on Tuesday and so was able to talk to the students and their parents to let them know that they would need to choose which activity; the Writing Project lessons build on each other. By Thursday afternoon, 2 of the 3 decided to continue on with writing.

Basketball wasn't the only competitor, though. One of the writing students who came on Tuesday went to Student Leadership on Thursday. Sigh. Another student, who gets a ride home with the one in Student Leadership also didn't come because she thought she'd miss her ride so she rode the school bus home.

Another writing student had succumbed to the flu and was home in bed by Thursday.

And one other writing student just disappeared after school. I guess she forgot and went home. Really? You FORGOT? In some ways this was the most disheartening competitor situation of all.

I'd hoped to hook them all by the end of the first week... barely half of them made it to the second meeting. So, that's the class half-empty. But there is still the  half-full class.

E stopped me in the hallway earlier on Thursday and told me that he finished "the story" he began on Tuesday!
V began to dig into his long-ago history of when he attended kindergarten in Mexico during class on Thursday!
M and L huddled together over a discussion of where they've spent time during their lifetime in which mostly Spanish was spoken!
D took the reins at her table discussion and became the "scribe" for the other two members of her group... I hadn't pegged her as a leader. Nice surprise!
M2 (different M from the one above) enthusiastically persisted in working on his story map despite the distractions of J sitting next to him...
And J chose writing over basketball. What a surprise from this big energetic boy who can hardly sit still. Maybe his parents talked him into this, but I hope he had at least a little voice in the decision. I'll try my hardest to not let you down J!

Launching WP

The date of the Writing Project launching has arrived!!

A cart stocked with supplies sits ready to roll down the hallway to the school library at 3:30 this afternoon. The students' writing notebooks are standing ready in a plastic bin, name labels tucked inside. Various pens and pencils, sharpeners, sheets of brightly colored paper, a stapler, scissors, glue sticks and tape are all huddled together on top of the cart. 

Really? You don't use scissors and tape when you write?
        [Cut the colored paper in quarters, tape or staple one piece to the writing notebook's inside cover, 
        making a pocket to safely store homework reminders, writing prompts or other little slips of       
        paper containing assorted writerly ideas.]

If I just could have gotten a little more sleep, I'd feel completely ready; but at times like this the excitement pervades even a nightly suspension of consciousness. Not even a cat-nap in sight.