Small Celebrations

Today's thought is stolen, or rather borrowed, as I am giving credit where it is due (unlike a handful of students whose essays I graded over the weekend). There's not really much more to add to these concluding words from the book I finished this morning. Well...maybe this: take some time to read professionally...whatever you do. Find or create ten to fifteen minutes every day to better yourself by living vicariously through someone else's real experiences. You can avoid a few mistakes and discover a few new tricks. That said, here is what I found today about celebrating writers. I also think it applies to all aspects of life:

(taken from “Closing Thoughts” in Celebrating Writers: From Possibilities Through Publication by Ruth Ayres with Christi Overman)

            “‘…You have the power to decide if the day is going to be pleasant. It is completely up to you. You can make choices that lead to a pleasant day or choices that lead to unpleasant consequences. Either way is up to you.’

            “The same is true in our classrooms. There are many things we cannot control. We cannot control educational mandates. We cannot control fathers drinking and mothers leaving. We cannot control standardized writing assessments.

            “But we can choose joy.

            “This is the heart of celebration. We choose joy about the excess periods in a student’s writing, because a month ago there were none. We choose joy about the three meager lines of writing, because yesterday there were crushed pencil points and tears. We choose joy about the misspellings, because all of the sight words are accurate.

            “In the face of so much need, we can make a choice to celebrate. There will always be an error, a refusal, an inadequate paragraph. Student writing will never be perfect. We live among the mess. We can choose to wallow in the doom. Or we can choose joy.”

Book Connections:
1. Let the Celebrations Begin by Margaret Wild (Julie Vivas)
2. The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor (Peter Parnall)
3. Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

We'll see if anyone gets the connection with the picture:

(Taken from http://hazyoasis.deviantart.com/art/Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy-290665440)