Teachers Write Check In 07/28/2019

Hello writer friends! I hope you had a great last week of writing with Kate and the Teachers Write community. I am so happy to be back to blogging! I shared two posts this week in my Exploring Identity series and I also shared a mini-review of a few educational books I'm reading that included a giveaway. That felt like huge progress!

One thing I've learned over the years when it comes to writing is to follow where my heart leads me. I've spent the last year giving myself A TON of grace after finding out last year that my agent was closing her agency. I wrote it about in last year's end-of-Teachers-Write post. My message then to myself and to everyone reading was to keep going. Giving myself grace was how I did that. 

As much as I had plans to draft a novel last summer, it didn't happen. And then I thought this year I would get to it or revise my third novel, but it didn't happen. And then this summer, I thought for sure I would finally crank out a first draft of another novel, but again it didn't happen. 

Even though I didn't write what I thought I would write this summer, I did find my voice again in my blog posts and that feels pretty amazing so I'm celebrating. Hooray for giving myself grace and celebrating progress. I hope you can reflect on this summer with Teachers Write give yourself grace for whatever didn't happen and celebrate what you did accomplish. Celebrate and keep going!

Did you catch all of Kate Messner's posts this week on using Kekla Magoon's The Season of Styx Malone as a mentor text? She had some great insight and advice for packing in information, dialogue, and figurative language. I hope you join me tonight to talk about Kate's ideas and share your own thoughts! (More info below!)

A reminder of my rules for Teachers Write Sunday Check-Ins:

1. We respect each other and the type of writing we do.

2. We are positive and encourage each other at all times.

3. We recognize and maintain this as a safe, inclusive environment for all.

**I reserve every right to put the smackdown
on anyone who messes with our positive energy.**

Ideas for today in the comments section:

How did you do this week? Did you meet your weekly goal(s)?

What was the pit of your week? (The hardest part, the non-fun part?)
What was the peak of your week? (The best part, the most-fun part?)
What are you looking forward to beyond Teachers Write?

Join us for our last virtual check in!

Sunday, July 28th

5:00 pm PST / 6:00 pm MST / 7:00 pm CST / 8:00 pm EST

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/279769890

You'll need the link above to join the meeting. Please know that you'll have to download the Zoom app on your phone or computer and then click on the link and it should take you right into the meeting. You don't have to sign up or sign in but it will ask for your name. My advice is to sign in about 10 minutes ahead of time so you can troubleshoot. Let me know if you have any questions, my email is jen (at) teachmentortexts (dot) com.

Thanks again for sharing your journey with Teachers Write with me! I love being part of this community and meeting teachers who write. Keep writing! Keep shining!