This is My Challenge by Michelle Stein

Although my students and I are not yet done with our school year, I find myself imagining my locale a few weeks from now. Crystal clear Gulf Coast waves, the sounds of terns, pelicans, and sandpipers, the heat bouncing off the sand all conspire to convince me that I should be permanently at the shore. On the beach, the pace is slower. The words come more easily when uninterrupted by the growing to-do list that governs my days.

How can I capture this serenity that allows creative musings to flow so easily from the keyboard or pen?

This is my challenge.

I haven’t yet found a way to integrate daily writing for wellness and pleasure into my routine, despite previous attempts. One year, I committed to the #Oneword program. The word was vision. Another year, I worked through The Artist’s Way, diligently letting go of emotional baggage I no longer needed. I wrote three pages, longhand, religiously. I was working part-time then. Now? I am at school by 6:30 a.m. During the summer, when the pace is languid, I am able to devote time to write. But reality calls to me and my writing time gets shoved under a pile of must-completes for home and work.

How do teachers, consummate caretakers of others, prioritize caretaking of self? After all, that’s what writing is all about: allowing ourselves to process, to be metacognitive, to reflect, to heal. Summer is the perfect time to build a routine. I know the challenge to maintain a writing program once school begins anew will be mighty. For me, I think success will depend on a reasonable goal. Write once a day. No minimum, no topics. Just write.

I think I can do that. Want to follow my progress? Once a week, I will post on my blog how it’s going.  Let us support one another in our drive to be exemplars for our students.




Michelle Stein has been teaching at the Davis Academy Middle School in Atlanta, GA for over 17 years. She loves to grow her PLN via Twitter @steinatdavis. You can find her class blog at www.tdams6thla.blogspot.com and her professional blog at www.steinology.weebly.com. 

Writing & the Web by Michelle Stein

I try not to be the Sheriff of Lexicon, but reading the growing volume of incorrect writing on the web makes me cringe. As I age, however, I notice I am becoming more tolerant of linguistic mayhem. We know that language evolves. Who am I to say what is and isn’t “correct”? Why should the language spoken in Victorian England be deemed more correct than the urban dialect that has become hashtags, abbreviations, and slang so pervasive in the stream of commentary? Some would say this is yet another example of our cultural demise, but simplicity is a hallmark of efficiency, not a lack of knowledge.

Each year, I find more social media shortcuts appearing in student writing, for example, the ampersand (&) instead of 'and,' b/c rather than 'because', u for 'you'. At the beginning of the school year, I explain to my students and their parents that with formal structured writing, students are learning a new language that is not native to them. Until about fifth grade, the books that students typically read are short bursts of text constructed similarly to social media conversation. Text-messaging and the short-clipped alpha “bites” are how they communicate. Lengthy sentence structures and multisyllabic vocabulary are not what flow naturally from their mouth or pencil/keyboard.

My strongest writers are those who are also voracious novel readers. While this is not new information, it did make me stop to evaluate which students have early and easy access to social media. You won’t be surprised to hear the students with the strongest writing ability have limited access to a smartphone or social media apps. These students are exposed to longer writing with greater frequency than their screen-addicted peers. Therefore, I am challenged with teaching the “efficient” writers to say more, while society is telling them to say less. No wonder it is so hard for them to write. Even as I write this post, I am struggling with saying enough to get my point across while simultaneously maintaining the required word count. I’ve got my work cut out for me, both as a writer and in the classroom! Got any suggestions? Ping me ;)


Michelle Stein has been teaching at the Davis Academy Middle School in Atlanta, GA for over 17 years. She loves to grow her PLN via Twitter @steinatdavis. You can find her class blog at www.tdams6thla.blogspot.com and her professional blog at www.steinology.weebly.com.

Alternative Poetry by Michelle Stein

Our creative writing unit weaves Shakespeare, poetry, short stories, and recitation together seamlessly in an attempt to grab and engage. I want students to feel, viscerally, the power of alternative self-expression. This hook of personal engagement captures both the writer and audience. Because the age group I teach is all about self-exploration and independence, the opportunity to “intentionally” break the rules of grammar hits their sweet spot.

Students get a taste of a wide variety of poetry. For three weeks, no matter what content we cover, I read a poem aloud to begin the class. Sometimes we discuss; but more often, I simply let the poem do the talking. (Click here for my list.)  My favorite assignments are all non-traditional: newspaper black-out poetry (thanks to Austin Kleon), Spine Poetry, Visual Poetry, and our Verses on the Green recitation day. Verses on the Green is a morning in which all students recite a poem from memory before an audience, weather permitting, outside.

Finally, one of my favorite alternative writing projects utilizes the benefits of collaboration and the random nature of Exquisite Corpse. Students sit in a circle of desks, each with a sheet of lined paper. I provide either a part of speech or a topic; each student writes a word or phrase that fits the category, folds the paper over so that entry cannot be seen, and passes the paper to the left. When the paper has returned to the first student, we read them all aloud. The poems can be silly, but more often than not, are breathtaking in their power of the written word. By the end of the unit, students have new outlets for their personal thoughts, beliefs, and creativity. More importantly, they bring a much-needed dose of beauty to our world. 

Michelle Stein has been teaching at the Davis Academy Middle School in Atlanta, GA for over 16 years. She loves to grow her PLN via Twitter @steinatdavis. You can find her class blog at www.tdams6thla.blogspot.com and her professional blog at www.steinology.weebly.com.