Stewart Stars Start September

Welcome to 6th Grade!

I am hoping you had a restful and fun summer and you are ready for school to begin.  That is kind of a boring and generic opening... Hmmmm, what could I say so that you will be excited to be in our classroom this year?  Where do I begin?

I am taking a class to learn how to write Blogs for my classroom community and this is my first post! I am excited to incorporate this into our classroom throughout the year, to share all the fun and exciting things we will do.  I am not really sure what to say on here or where to begin.

This seems to be a case of writer's block.  Have you ever experienced writer's block?  You know, the feeling,  the teacher begins her lesson and explains how you will be writing a story about something you know. Ten minutes ago you had some great ideas and knew exactly how your story would go. You grab your computer to start and all of a sudden your mind is blank.  It goes black.  Nothing is going through your mind except for the wondering of how long until lunch.  You look around and you can see everyone else writing away.  Their fingers are moving as fast as a mouse on a wheel.  The panic starts and your hands sweat and your heart beats a little faster.   You look at the clock.  How much time do you have?  Will you get it done? What if you don't? Will the teacher make you stay late? Will you fail?  Your mind is racing but you still can't think of what to write about.

 That is how I feel right now.  So much information is coming in and everyone is talking around me.  I want my blog to be interesting.  I want to show my classes how excited I am but where to begin.
My fingers move along the keyboard and letters go across my screen, jweoilkdnafdhhkdjhasdkj, but they don't make sense. It's not a great beginning or a way to entice my reader into reading my blog.  I think about how I guide my students to begin their writing.  I know that I have had lots of students who have struggled and I know that once they get started an idea comes, they can do it. So I remind myself of those kids.  Then I remember, KIDS!  Kids are my audience.  The focus in my blog needs to be to the kids, my incoming students!  Ok!  I feel some ideas coming. I brainstorm some things that I think they will want to know about...   What students want to know about the upcoming year.  I make a list!
They will want to know about me, how much homework, class expectations, when will they see friends in other classes, what we will do in science, what are their switch teachers like,  they want to share their ideas, show their work, feel successful, and the list goes on and on.  I feel better. The ideas of what I will write about on my blog are coming and I can barely type fast enough to get them all down!  Phew, I really didn't think I would overcome this writer's block, but once I got my fingers moving and really focused, I knew what to write in my first blog!  This is going to be a super, fun year using this blog with our class and sharing all the great things we will do in 6th grade and prepare you for moving onto Masco!   I can't wait!

Welcome to 6th Grade!