Diana Clay's blog

Am thinking deep, contemplative thoughts as a method of trying to verbalize what exactly the National Writing Project means to me. I’ve been affiliated with NWP for about fifteen years now. My first experience was when some local Teacher Consultants presented their demos in those “one and done” type of professional development sessions conducted at the beginning of the school year for other teachers. I was hooked because they shared ideas that could be used not only in their language classes, but in everything from art to music and across all grade levels.

We're are now on the next to the last day of SI 2010. Our morning write was once again a picture prompt. These I recognized. Scenes from West Virginia in different seasons elicited a variety of responses. Tracy gets the humor award, however, for leaving the prompt and writing about her Mom's fascination with a clean house and her aversion to house cleaning. We now know why she works almost year round. I heartily concur.

It is now Thursday. I attempted to post this blog yesterday, to sum up our day, but was unsuccessful. Right after lunch I noticed that our site was moving very slowly. I tried again later with the same result. I typed in my observations, then when I attempted to preview and add, I got a notice that drupal was down temporarily. Of course I told Tracy, and learned this morning that while Peggie was doing some maintenance she learned that our site was hacked again. That surprises me. Why would anyone, a computer geek out there, want to hack the site of a bunch of teachers?

Tuesday--third week. At first it seemed like it would be forever getting here, now it seems the time has just flown by. That is, once I get here in the mornings. But, when I first wake up, all my old, arthritic body can say is, "Please--let me sleep longer!"

Week three, the final countdown, has begun. We are missing several of our fellows today. Seems like Monday brought some problems. April has child care issues, Jerriann has an unhappy tummy, and Reggie broke a tooth. Jill started the day by locking herself out of her house, so had to come in late, and Velma has a really red right eye, (like that alliteration?), so had to leave early to try to find her eye doctor and a prescription.

It is now Monday morning. With our unique afternoon on Friday, I failed to blog the day, so I am going to try to jog my memory and write now about that day. Our morning prompt reflected on the professional rather than the personal. Wondering if this might be a piece that I want to revisit and expand to include in our anthology, but will have to wait since I left my case of jump drives at home. I hope it is in my computer case.

I actually was not the last one to arrive in the SI room this morning. Hooray! Crystal wasn't there, however, so I had a few moments worry to be assured that a repeat of yesterday's fear of a premature Rapture didn't resurface. :) Our morning write was to create a mission statement you wish your school had. I wasn't ready to get too serious, and his reference to singing to a tune sent me on a tangent. I created mine to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbillies," even though it is a show that I did not watch and do not appreciate. I had to open another tab to get the words.

Once again I was skidding into the door under the wire. What? Tracy's seat was empty? Bad night for her with family in the ER. Morning prompt was another picture. This caused many of us to write about ancestors, grandparents, or parents. Never thought I would remember Mom's old photo album in a writing remembrance.

As I am coming around the corner from section B to A, as quickly as my fat little legs will go, I hear April close the door. OH NO! I jerk that door open and excuse myself once again. Sliding into my seat, I listen carefully for her directions while observing that there is coffee in the pot. Soon--soon I can partake. We start the morning with fortune cookie prompts.

Another week has begun. Happy WV Day to those who are celebrating today since yesterday was Sunday. Happy First Day of Summer, although we've had summer weather for a month now.

Morning write by April had the potential to bring tears as we wrote about making a difference in the lives of our students, but we all seemed to write without that depth this morning. I personally was just getting ready to get into it when it was time to stop. How true that you have to write out the bad stuff to get into the day.