Slice of life writing challenge - Day 1

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I spend a lot of my time searching for teaching resources- I am really interested in teaching writing resources right now and on my search tonight I found a wonderful website TWO WRITING TEACHERS who do amazing things in the classroom with writing. While on thier site I found a challenge for writing. It is called the Slice of life writing challenge. The definition of a slice of life writing peice is:
A slice of life story is a category for a story that portrays a "cut-out" sequence of events in a character's life. It may or may not contain any real plot, and often has no exposition, action, conflict, or denouement, with an open ending. It usually tries to depict the every-day life of ordinary people. The term slice of life is actually a (more or less) dead metaphor: it often seems as if the author had taken a knife and cut out a slice of the lives of some characters, without concern for narrative form.
I was talking to my friend Tracy tonight about her 30 day Yoga Challenge and how she got through it. She talked about being accountable to someone, and my idea was to write in my notebook for 30 days but it's hard to be accountable to anyone for that unless I could find someone to bug to everyday to see if I have written anything yet. I feel that this blog and this slice of life challenge is exactly what I need to get motivated and to complete my goal of writing for 30days and hopefully making it a habit that I can't break! So here goes nothing.

I am not a morning person on Saturday mornings, my phone started buzzing at 8:00 telling me to get up and get to the skating rink. One of my students that I taught during internship was competing in a figure skating compitition and I wanted to go watch.
I walked into the rink and memories and feelings of nervousness and excitment came flooding back to me of when I was still competing. I had tears in my eyes thinking about how much I miss it.
I missed my girl skate which was disappointing but we had a good visit. and I stayed at the rink for a good hour hanging out and taking in all the excitment. I wanted to run home and get my skates on and my purple sparkly dress and skate to center ice and perform. I bought myself a new pair of skate guards (purple of course). I wonder if they have a "used to be's" skating compitition out there. :P That would be something I would love to do.
I want to say thank you to my mom for making all my beautiful costumes and driving me to all my skating compititions and test days.
That is a slice of my life today.

5 comments:

GirlGriot said...

What an excellent slice of life story! ... and I'll bet you could find a competition!

Unknown said...

I'm delighted you've chosen to participate in our Challenge Ashley. Your first story is great as I'm sure the rest will be.

The best part: You're going to have a great collection of small moment stories to share with your students when you start teaching full-time. Yea!

--Stacey from Two Writing Teachers

Ruth Ayres said...

Ashley --
I'm glad that you are joining us and that you've decided to write via blogging. You're in for a wonderful adventure!

I enjoyed your reflection on your slice of life today. I'm always struck by how the current stuff in my life brings back the past (if only I take the time to remember).

I'm looking forward to "getting to know you" through your slices of life over the next month. Good luck with your writing & your journey to teaching. It's a great profession!

Ruth (TWT)

Pam Barnhill said...

Ashley - Good for you! Getting all your resources together before you hit the classroom. And, there are skating contests out there for "used to bes" and even "never weres". I learned to ice skate as an adult. There are large and active organizations within ISI and USFSA both for adult skaters. I moved far away from the ice and miss it often. I can relate to your story. *sigh*

Blink said...

I love that you are attending your student's event. This is something I try to do as much as full-time teaching and a family allows. You see a whole other talented side of that student, don't you? Great slice.