Scrapes and Scars

  

I am delighted to be hosting Spiritual Journey Thursday this month. This month our theme change/transformation--a perfect theme for the season. Please link up below if you would like to join us.

I thought I knew what I was going to write about this month, but you know what they say about best laid plans. All that changed after reading Ruth Ayres' lead from last week's Choice Literacy newsletter. And this post is more of a brain dump than an organized, coherent piece of writing.

Ruth wrote about her son Jay and his powerful story about chasing dreams and not letting his past control his decisions. She wrote about how difficult and frustrated teachers can become with students who experience deep trauma. Their decisions and choices don't always make sense. She explains that this happens "when a child is scraped by darkness at the start of life"

The words "scraped by darkness" stayed with me the entire day. After school, I told a colleague about what she wrote, and he says, "I wonder why she chose scraped by darkness instead of scarred."

Of course I have no idea why she chose those them, other than the fact that she is a master at stacking words. But these words have lingered on my heart.

For days, I thought about the differences between the words scrapes and scars. Most scrapes are temporary and can change, but scars are permanent. I touch a scar on my knee, and I can go back to the night I knelt on a needle, and it broke off in my knee.

We tend to forget about scrapes because they can sometimes heal and become invisible, but scars are a constant reminder of pain. I think about the "scars" from my relationship with my dad. I cannot touch those, but I know they are still there.

I believe that we have both scrapes and scars because God wants us to understand the role they play in our lives, in our faith. I know I have been scraped and scarred in my relationships with others as well as with Him.

But it is through His grace and my relationship with Him that I become healed, changed, and transformed.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Looking at the Heart

Deadlines. Seems I've had many of those these last few weeks.

But this morning, with visions of fall break swimming in my cereal bowl, I felt like I could breathe a little easier, take things a little slower. Lesson plans are done for our two-day week, grades are finalized for the first grading period. I seem to be caught up...at least for the moment.

My fingers feel the itch to write something besides my Master's work and my research study. I thought maybe a blog post might be on the morning agenda, seeing how it is the National Day on Writing.

As I clicked on my own blog, I found my way to Ruth Ayres' blog. In her blog post, she wrote about her encounter with A.S. King at a literacy conference this past week. It seems they both presented on similar topics, as Ruth also presented about kids in trauma and how stories heal. Once again, her words went straight to my heart.

Then I saw this tweet over in her sidebar. See those words, "what if we looked at the heart instead of the behavior?"  I read those eleven words, and I lost it. The release of the frustration and the helplessness and the feelings of defeat from the past few weeks just took over.

Then came the guilt, exposed by these same words.

I have students who come from hard places:   places without love and loved ones, places without safety, electricity and food, and places without hope.

I know that.

But lately, I have been looking at their behaviors instead of their hearts.

I have been taking the easy way out.

I have been blaming them.

I have been looking outward and not inward.

...and that needs to change.

I wrote a post about how everyone needs a Ruth in their lives. I still believe that, but I think it is time to change that statement to "How can I BE a Ruth?"

Thank you, Ruth, once again for sending your words out into the world and for opening my eyes and my heart in those moments when, yes, I need a Ruth.

#EnticingWriters Blog Tour

I am thrilled to be able to share with all of you Ruth Ayres' new book, Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers.  Earlier this week, Tammy and Clare wrote a great review on their blog, Assessment in Perspective. They give you the highlights of each section and share several quotes that are sure to linger in your thoughts.  

On Wednesday, Michelle, at Literacy Learning Zone, shared an interview with Ruth. In her post, Ruth answers questions from teachers about the writing process.

Today, in true Ruth Ayres style, I simply tell a story...or two.

I have always been a believer in "things happen for a reason." The week Ruth asked me to help welcome her book into the world, two situations happened. I believe each was meant to happen for me to fully understand the impact of Ruth's book on my thinking and my teaching.

The first was a conference for a new student who had recently been placed in our foster care system from a nearby county. She lived in deplorable conditions with parents who were drug users.  She bounced from foster home to foster home, and eventually landed with us.

She comes from a hard place.

The second happened during writing workshop in my classroom. We began a narrative unit, and I sat down next to one of my writers as she told me her story. Her mom was a drug user while she was pregnant. She had three other children and was incapable of caring for all of them. My student was later adopted, and she told me being adopted was the best thing that had happened to her.

She comes from a hard place.

Both of these students are still healing. Both situations made me realize that I not only wanted to read Ruth's book, but that I NEEDED to read it.  

I know I am not the only teacher to have children sitting in my classroom who come from hard places. We all have students just like Ruth's children: Hannah, Stephanie, Jay, and Sam.  

But do I understand how trauma alters children's brains? Do I know how to help them heal from their hard pasts? Am I a faithful and fearless teacher who can help them write a happy ending? Am I willing to take a leap of faith to entice all students to write their stories?

Ruth's book, Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers helped me in my struggle to find those answers.

INTRODUCTION

I first heard the introduction of Ruth's book last summer at the All Write Conference in Warsaw, Indiana. Ruth sat down on the floor of the stage with the microphone in her hand. Her voice quivered as she genuinely shared a part of her heart through her children's stories.  As tears were shed in that silent auditorium, she also reminded us that we, as teachers, have the power to change lives.

PART ONE

Ruth teaches us about brain research and how children from hard places can learn to heal. When we take the time to to provide for the needs of the children in our classrooms, "we prove to them they are valuable and worthy" (p. 21). Ruth reminds us that we don't always "see" the trauma students experience, yet their brains begin to heal when they know their needs are going to be met. Many times those needs are met by teachers.

PART TWO

Ruth shares her life as a writer and a workshop teacher and how becoming a writer made an impact in her teaching. For me, chapter seven was a power chapter because she states that being a teacher who writes is what eventually enticed her students to write themselves. "Of all things I can do to affect my writing instruction, this is the most important" (p. 48). Ruth reminds us that children who experience trauma, can begin the healing through story. And when teachers understand the impact of having written, we can help them heal.

PART THREE

Ruth gives us seven leaps of faith. She unsurprisingly prefaces the leaps with celebration, "Celebration lives alongside the messiness of learning; we simply must learn to see it" (p.83). The best part of this section is the feeling that Ruth is there holding my hand and saying, "You can do this, and I am going to show you how."

Earlier this week, just when I thought this blog post was finished, I experienced yet another encounter with a student writer. She was writing a narrative about the time her dad left her. She felt unwanted and unloved. We had conferred about the direction she wanted her story to go. I sat down next to her because I saw she wasn't writing. I asked her, "How's it going?"

She lowered her head, avoided my eyes, and reluctantly replied, "I don't want to write."

"Why?" I asked her. And as she shrugged her shoulders, I thought of what I had read and learned in Ruth's book and I told her, "You have a story on your heart, and I am here to help you write it."

I think about these students and their hard place stories. I want them to heal. I want them to be able to write a happy ending. And I want to be a part of that healing process.  I can no longer ignore my students' needs or pretend they do not come from hard places or live in fear. Instead, I can take the stories, ideas, and strategies that Ruth has shared in Enticing Hard-to-Reach Wrriters, and give them hope.

This...this is why I NEEDED to read Ruth's book.

Thank you, Ruth, for reminding me of why I became a teacher. Thank you for writing this much needed book and for sharing your children's stories with us. I know I am a much better teacher, writer, and person for having read it.

I leave you with Ruth's inspiring and empowering words:  

"Take the time to see their stories.  

Remember, you have the power to change the course of lives.  

All children deserve to know 

that they can write a different version of their stories."

Stenhouse Publishers has graciously donated two copies of Ruth's book to be given away at EACH stop on the blog tour. Please leave your thoughts about Ruth's book or share your story of enticing writers in the comment section below. Two lucky winners will be selected using a random generator after November 24th at 11:59 EST.

If you purchase a copy of Ruth's book before November 30, 2017, you are eligible for a free registration to her online Enticing Writers Book Club. Email your receipt to enticingwriters@gmail.com to join the fun in January 2018!

Thank you for stopping by today! Check out the entire Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers blog tour. You won't want to miss any of them.