This morning I felt tired, sleep deprived tired, but thanks to my 7th graders, that feeling didn’t last long.

At the start of the week, my ELA classes began working on a writing piece as part of the wrap-up to our reading of Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry. They respond to three prompts and found text evidence to support their responses. Next, they choose a prompt for their essay and created a rough outline of how they wanted to organize their writing. Yesterday they began writing.

Today was an indepedent work day, and boy did they work. They were writing more than I have seen them write all year, and I felt energized. One by one students came to me with their questions about thesis statements, topic sentences, paragraph breaks and more. What was the most exciting thing was that students were bringing their work back to show me their changes, some more than once.

This year has been tough on all of us in Room 208 with all the COVID protocols and some days focusing on work is the last thing anyone is able to do, but today my little corner of the world felt almost “normal.”

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.com.