slice of life challenge

I have to say that I've been a little nervous for this to start. Not because I don't like it or it's not good for me as a person and a writer--just because the commitment makes me squirmy. Can I really have something to say--something I want to share, that is--every day for a month??? I'm not sure. And, so, I've been thinking about it. And this is my solution: I am taking pictures with my cell phone whenever I see something interesting. I figure those are my back-ups (and now any readers will know when those appear!) for days when I'm not sure that I have a meaningful slice to share. I feel less anxiety now.

I also have to say that I've been a little excited for this to start. My first time participating was March of last year. It was a challenge I shared with my students (and one I am sharing with this year's students, too). I was a little nervous about posting on the twowritingteachers site because I didn't know the other slicers. I wasn't sure how my students would respond. In both cases it was an incredible experience. I should have anticipated the benefits of the regular writing and sharing of that writing, both on the website and with my students.  I mean, I know the value of regular writing and I know the importance of informal writing and I know how sharing writing changes us as writers. I don't know why I was so surprised and moved by how it felt last year. How it felt to go to class and know more about my students in personal ways (and have them know me in those ways, too). How it felt to share my thoughts with people who didn't know me at all, people I know only from screen names. How it felt to see replies to my posts!!! I didn't know that would matter to me. I was so excited that I kept telling people I met about the experience. And, at a conference, a colleague listened to me babble on and then said, "You should write about the experience." So I did. Not only about the slice of challenge, although that's what got me started, but about the whole writing regularly and sharing. I had a friend who added some of her classroom experiences to what I wrote and we sent it to English Journal. And it's coming out this month. Appropriate timing, right? So, I'm excited, too because I know that really good things happen from stretching myself in this way. Yea, March and slice of life and Ruth and Stacey.