SOL and #TeacherPoets

SOL prewriting in class:

Before our spring holidays my students suggested that we should plan and draft our SOL-s at school, and revise and publish at  home. I suggestion I welcomed because this gave me time to write too.
On Monday, first day back from the holidays, we used post-its to collect possible topics:

My post-its

Then we used 1-3-10 technique to do prewriting (can't remember where I saw the idea):
First we wrote for one minute. Then we had three minutes to revise the 1-minute writing and after that we had 10 minutes to revise and add to the 3-minute writing.

the 10 minute writing continued on the following pages

Slice of Life: #TeacherPoets learning experience
(my 10 minute revision and a bit more)

As the clock approaches six on Saturday evening I settle myself comfortably on my kitchen sofa. I plug my headphones into my I-Pad and adjust them on my head. They don't yet completely hide the UNO playing noise from the living room, but I am sure that once the video starts I will be able to ignore the voices. I open my laptop and open the page with workshop instructions and another window for #TeacherPoets on Twitter. My faithful journal is waits next to me with a sharp pencil on top of it. The video screen is still black with white numbers counting down to live stream.
Anticipation grows. Michelle and Betsy will share their poems and let others review them today. Such brave women. I have read what was for the assignment and have some poem ideas in my notebook. But never on earth would I be ready to share them with anyone, yet. (Oh, how I love the "yet".)

When the session starts, I become oblivious to the world around me, the light, the noise, the smells, I enter the virtual world. It's really strange to see Christopher Lehman (Chris) and the others moving on the screen. It feels as if we are all in the same room, technology has connected us.

Chris shares how looking at specific object, noticing and recording details and thoughts can lead to a poem. The first step is trying not to write a poem, but rather write and then wait for the revision to create a poem.

My teapot has been on my mind a lot. Others start sharing their objects and observations on Twitter.
Red, round, and small are the first words that come to mind. Most boring words ever. But I keep writing. Strange how suddenly not only words come, but I start seeing why the teapot matters to me, what feelings and questions surface.

messy work in progress

Maybe next time I will work up my courage to share the poem that hides in my teapot.

Afterthoughts:
I am glad that I had the opportunity to plan for my slice at school. The kids also responded well to the post-it and 1-3-10, some of them wrote way more than they usually do for a slice. I think it has to do with the in built revision and set time for writing.

The #TeacherPoets workshop was the first time when I tried Twitter chat and Twitter actually made sense to me. I am at awe with the people who have dared to publicly show their poetry thinking and writing process. Learning together with other teachers in this virtual community is thrilling, fascinating, exciting and warm.

You can watch the second session of #TeacherPoets here.