I found the secret...

to at least 5 minutes of total calm with my kids!

In past years, I've tried journal writing with my classes, to get them motivated to write about anything. I don't care about the spelling, or whether it's all grammatically correct, or even what it's about. I just want them to write. But every year they've balked. It seems like even the word "journal" causes panic. But the guys don't respond well to "diary."

So this year, starting on the first day, I've been doing Quick Writes. The rules?
1. Teacher doesn't read unless student wants (we have a coding system, and I respect their privacy).
2. Prompts will be provided to help those who need it, but students can write about whatever they want.
3. All forms are acceptable: narrative, poetry, song, script, you name it.
4. Writing takes place for 5 minutes a day, and students may not discuss their work, or quit writing during that time.

Today is the third day in a row I've done this, as I'm still teaching them the ins and outs of how this will work, and I want them to fall into the routine. Today, after the required 5 minutes of writing (and of complete and total silence), the timer went off and there was a chorus of moans!!!

Hey...!!!!

They wanted to write more!

They weren't done!

Could they have more time???

So for those who wanted it, I put another 5 minutes up and you know what? Over half of them wrote for another 5 minutes!!!!

And it worked with my afternoon class too!

I feel as if I've found the golden ticket to sanity. After this week, I won't do it daily (they'll burn out), but it's fantastic to watch them so involved in their work. And it's a blessing to have those 5 (or 10) minutes a day to breathe, regroup, and restrategize.

Beautiful.