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Hi, in this blog, I finally deliver to you the complete short story... Happy #MultiFriday! 

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Hi, in this blog, I finally deliver to you the complete short story... Happy #MultiFriday! 

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Spurring questions I hadn't anticipated.

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Listen to audio in Farsi first. Loose translation below.

Every day when Eloisa and Ezzy want to read, we start with the books of Oge Mora. One of them is about a woman who makes a delicious stew and then serves it to the whole town, until she doesn't have any for herself. In the end, the community comes together to feed her. Yesterday, we got a third - about a woman named Mary Walker who learns to read above the age of 100.

I imagined Ezzat would ask about learning to read after much life strife - about never being too old to learn, and how challenging it can feel. She herself is currently learning to read.

But no. Ezzy asked how a body could survive so long. How can someone over 100 walk? How could someone over the age of 100 talk?

Maybe she has these thoughts on her mind because my Khaleh is sick, and Ezzy knows her body is failing. She is much younger than 100.

While I wanted to discuss the incredible resilience of Mary Walker having survived slavery and hardship, and learning to read when she was 114 years old - I too have the same questions as Ezzy.

Why do we lose some people young, while others stay far longer? Why do some people's bodies fail? Mary Walker outlived her own four sons.

The book brought a conversation in our house I had not expected, or readily considered.

Thank You, Omu

Slice of Life, Day 26

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It is no secret that I love Oge Mora's books. Here is an excerpt of a piece I wrote about using this beautiful book in classrooms:

Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora is a lovely, nourishing story about an older woman concocting a delicious stew that ends up feeding the entire town, until she herself doesn't have any food for her own evening meal. But the community takes care of her and ends up celebrating communal friendship as a result. Guiding questions like the ones below support skill-building around informed empathy, ensuring that students see Black joy on the pages-not just stories of slavery and civil rights struggles. In moving beyond a sliced trope of diversity and allowing students to talk about positive, character-building narratives with inclusivity of voice, teachers can build the muscle in students to have frank conversations about injustice. Depending on grade level, students might stop and jot or draw their thoughts about these questions ahead of talk time.

How does the character take care of others?

What meals have you shared with others you love?

How does the community take care of one another?

In what ways does the community thank and show appreciation for each other?

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Merci, Omu - Farsi Friday - nqc literacy

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Listen to audio in Farsi first. Loose translation below. Every day when Eloisa and Ezzy want to read, we start with the books of Oge Mora . One of them is about a woman who makes a delicious stew and then serves it to the whole town, until she doesn't have any for herself.

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Hi. Terje from Estonia. A slice about spring morning walk.

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Hi. Terje from Estonia. A slice about spring morning walk.

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Päike paitab pehmelt põske. Vesi vuliseb vaikselt jões. Pardipaar paterdab kaldal. Tihased vilistavad vallatult. Pungad puudel on punnis. Kõnnin kenal kevadhommikul, jalg kerge ja meel helge. Jalutuskäik enne kaugõppe päeva laeb mind energiaga. Tulgu, mis tuleb, prageu on kõik ilus ja rahulik. Rõõmsat kevadet!

English translation:

(I do my best with the translation. Some words and sounds and playfulness get lost. I hope that the light and happy feeling still comes across)

The sun gently stokes my cheek. Water quietly murmurs in the river. A duck couple waddles on the shore. The blue tits whistle playfully. The buds on the branches swell. I walk on this spring morning, lightness in the feet and brightness in the spirit. A stroll in the morning before the distance learning day charges me with energy. Come hat may, right now everything is beautiful and calm. Happy Spring!

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Slice in Estonian. Recording and translation included

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Päike paitab pehmelt põske. Vesi vuliseb vaikselt jões. Pardipaar paterdab kaldal. Tihased vilistavad vallatult. Pungad puudel on punnis. Kõnnin kenal kevadhommikul, jalg kerge ja meel helge. Jalutuskäik enne kaugõppe päeva laeb mind energiaga. Tulgu, mis tuleb, prageu on kõik ilus ja rahulik. Rõõmsat kevadet! English translation: (I do my best with the translation.

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Happy #MultiFri! Thank you, Jennifer, for your encouragement! I wrote my first Spanish poem. https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/2021/03/26/la-cuchara-favorita/

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Hi, I post about a strange hobby that I have nowadays!

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Heidi, Momma to Bilingual Babes and EL Teacher

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Heidi, Momma to Bilingual Babes and EL Teacher

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Hi all!  I'm Heidi, raised a monolingual English speaker, converted to a language lover sometime in my 20s.  My Spanish is far from perfect, but it's representative of the bilingual, multiethnic family we've got, and one of the things I love sharing most with my ELs!

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I have a friend who years ago titled her blog "A Beautiful Mess." Her phrase often comes back to me in the midst of the crazy moments of our days, where time also somehow stands still. Having read another slicer's reflections on their morning routine yesterday, I was especially attentive to the slivers of beauty that run through our crazy mornings.

"Mommy, rub my fuzzy friends on my face," Adam says with eyes squeezed shut. I willingly oblige, soaking in this cuddly part of the first moments of his day.

"Buenos días, Mommy," Nathan adds as he rolls over stretching to his full length.

"Alright, which friends are reading with us today?" I ask, knowing it will be the same as every other day this week. Sure enough, wooly mammoth, snow leopard, tiger, and taggie are hand selected from between the twisted sheets.

I hustle the boys off my bed, urging them to the next (and always the slowest) part of the morning.

"Potty and clothes, boys. Let's go."

The game I play daily with Adam to get him from one room to the next is not one I particularly appreciate. But the hug he rewards me with upon bending down to put his shirt on is.

"Do you like my tight hug?" he asks.

I squeeze back a little tighter, "Son mis favoritos."

"Adam, your zapatos aren't on right! Izquierdo, Derecha. Let me help you," Nathan says bending down by his brother.

I pause, soaking in the brotherly love, knowing at some point they'll be back to bickering, teasing, and taunting each other.

We rapid fire our way through Nathan's checklist.

"Water bottle. Mask on your lanyard. Ipad in your backpack. Lunch box attached to your bag. Shoes? Coat? Alright, grab it all. Off you go. Hop in Papi's car. Have a great day!"

He tugs his backpack into place and heads to the door. I turn my back, packing Adam and my lunchboxes for our ride to daycare and work.

I pivot to see that Nathan has stopped at the door and turned to face me.

"I love you."

I freeze the moment in my mind.

"I love you too, Honey. Have a good day. I'll see you after school."

He waves and bounds out the door.

I usher Adam out to the garage, bags in my hand, his friends in his. Opening doors and shoving bags into their designated spots, I watch Adam run to the driveway.

He breathes in and blows out. Huge grin on his face, he twists to face me.

"You was right! It's a Dragon's Breath Day!" He turns his face back to the crisp air, exhaling and watching his breath form clouds. He is consumed with pure delight.

"Alright, into the car, Pumpkin," I say and he comes running. He jumps and chops the air with his friends, all joy and energy this Friday morning.

They are long, repetitive mornings. Alarms, wake-ups, wardrobe changes, struggles over the bathroom, breakfasts, bags, lunches, the mad dash to make it out the door to four different locations at once. But many days, I'm reminded just how beautiful this mess called life is.

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My eyes flutter open. I don't need to check the time to know it's 3 am. I tap my phone's screen anyhow. 3:11 am.

What is it with this hour? I think to myself, not for the first time.

For every single pregnancy I've had (we're on #3 now), 3 am is when the bell tolls for my bladder, which cues the restless sleep.

I awkwardly shift-scoot-roll from my right side to my back to my left side, push myself up on an elbow, and sit at the edge of the bed. I dance step my way to the bathroom, avoiding well-known squeaky boards. I pause on my return route and think, I'm already up, I may as well.

I fix the blankets that always fall to the floor off the open, non-wall hugging side of Nathan's bed. Sitting at the foot of his bed, I gaze at Adam, our whirlwind of a second born. Slowly, I lift up his legs and slide the blankets out from under him and then pull them up to his chin, making sure to tuck in every one of his stuffed friends as well (heaven forbid they catch a chill at night). I kiss his baby cheeks that will soon disappear and watch as he shoves a thumb in his mouth and twirls his hair in his other fist.

Back in my room, I check the time. 3:16 am.

And so begin the wee hours of 3-6. I lay back down, shift-scoot-rolling into position, knowing full well that sleep is futile. The bathroom will call yet again. Adam will wake up, his sleep ridden voice calling, "Mom-meeeeee!" He'll tell me his blanket fell off or that he can't find a specific friend. I imagine his favorite excuse for not sleeping - but it's so hard to sleep - and chuckle to myself.

Indeed it is , I think, shutting my eyes to the moonlight sneaking through the blinds.

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I have a friend who years ago titled her blog "A Beautiful Mess." Her phrase often comes back to me in the midst of the crazy moments of our days, where time also somehow stands still. Having read another slicer's reflections on their morning routine yesterday, I was especially attentive to the slivers of beauty that run through our crazy mornings.

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Japanese Speaker/3rd Grade Teacher in California

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Japanese Speaker/3rd Grade Teacher in California

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Hello, my name is Mari Miyagi. I speak Japanese and teach 3rd graders in California. I hope I can find another Japanese speaker in here! Here's my blog link: https://miyagi-sensei-teaching-journey.weebly.com/

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I am Pia, originally from Chile, Sapnish is my first language. I am bilingual, I wish I were multilingual though ;). I´m a school librarian in Redmond, Oregon. Here is a story I wrote in Spanish for a Spanish workshop I joined in Seville, Spain in 2018 and I am still part of it when time zones and real time let me.

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English Speaker / Spanish Speaker Wannabe

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English Speaker / Spanish Speaker Wannabe

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I am a multilingual blogger poser, but as an ELL teacher, I try to also learn language, so I can empathize. Also, I'll be retiring in southern California, so I want to learn more Spanish.

https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/2021/03/12/mi-primer-publicacion-espanol/

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Me on my own:
Yo hablo inglés solamente. Porque quiero aprender español. Con Duolingo yo aprendo mucho cosas interesante. Yo escribo esta post con no ayuda.

I went to Google Translate to see how I did...
Solo hablo ingles. Pero quiero aprender español. Con Duolingo, aprendo muchas cosas interesantes. Escribo esta publicación sin ayuda.

What I intended to say
I speak only English, but I want to learn Spanish. With Duolingo, I am learning many interesting things. I wrote this post without help.

OK, I don't speak Spanish. The last time I studied in school was in Grade 9 in a Spanish 2 class. Now, I'm doing one or two lessons a day in Duolingo, sometimes more.

I am on a 43-day streak! Woohoo! ( Mr. Wilkinson is at 800+ days in a row!) But as you can see above, I forget a lot of things that I'm learning. For instance, I said "mucho cosas interesante" instead of muchas cosas interesantes, which sounds much more beautiful when said correctly.

Here are a few more things I can say since I've recently passed Checkpoint 1 on Duolingo:

Yo tengo dos hermanos y cuatro hermanas.

Yo tengo dos hijas y uno esposo.

Este vestido azul es muy bonito.

Yo quiero hablar español.

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Me on my own: Yo hablo inglés solamente. Porque quiero aprender español. Con Duolingo yo aprendo mucho cosas interesante. Yo escribo esta post con no ayuda. I went to Google Translate to see how I did... Solo hablo ingles. Pero quiero aprender español. Con Duolingo, aprendo muchas cosas interesantes.

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Hi, I'm a Spanish teacher in Buenos Aires Argentina. Spanish is my first language. I love this idea and tried to share with you a bit of my writing...

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Hi, I'm a Spanish teacher in Buenos Aires Argentina. Spanish is my first language. I love this idea and tried to share with you a bit of my writing...

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I am Iranian + Arab American, 1st gen, so Farsi is my second language. Living in Chicago IL and blogging in English with lots of translanguaging. Literacy coach + mama of 4 multilingual, multiethnic kids. Hubby is Puerto Rican. XX

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Slice of Life is a 31 day project in the month of March to capture daily reflections, moments and ideas. Nawal's journey is purposefully multimodal to broaden access, so you can follow along by listening to recordings and audio tracks, engaging with pictures or reading the words. We believe this project, hosted by Two Writing Teachers, has implications for our literacy instruction in schools. Strengthening our writing muscles and identifying ourselves as writers helps us know better how to teach students to do the same. Noticing our own craft supports the teaching of it. The call to provide feedback to others participating in the project creates community and simultaneously informs our methods for collaboration and feedback in the classroom. It is our hope that selected Slices layered with audio and visuals might serve as mentor texts for students too.

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Slice of Life is a 31 day project for the month of March to capture daily reflections, moments and ideas. Nawal's journey is purposefully multimodal, so you can follow along by listening to recordings, engaging with pictures or reading the words. We believe this project, hosted by Two Writing Teache

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I am Estonian living in Estonia, teaching in English and blogging in English.

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Tuul tuuseldab õues, tirib tigedalt oksaraod puudelt ja loobib lund laiali. Vingub ja viriseb, vist röögikski, kui häält oleks. Kõik poevad peitu. Koerad ja kaarnadki peavad paremaks vaikselt varjuda.

Mina teen endale tassikese teed ja istun diivanile. Soe ja hubane, valge ja vaikne, naudin hetke kodus, enne kui algab mu kaugõppe koolipäev.

Punased tulbid vaasis lubavad kevade tulekut.

(translation in English)

You can listen to the recording here:

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Tuul tuuseldab õues, tirib tigedalt oksaraod puudelt ja loobib lund laiali. Vingub ja viriseb, vist röögikski, kui häält oleks. Kõik poevad peitu. Koerad ja kaarnadki peavad paremaks vaikselt varjuda. Mina teen endale tassikese teed ja istun diivanile. Soe ja hubane, valge ja vaikne, naudin hetke kodus, enne kui algab mu kaugõppe koolipäev.

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I'm an EL teacher, formerly a Spanish teacher. Spanish is my 2nd language. Here's a link to the tag that collects all the posts I write in Spanish!

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Reflections on reading, writing, teaching English Language Learners and Spanish, loving others, and working to be my best self every day.