The story that inspired Bird by Bird's title seemed very appropriate and applicable to me: a teacher who feels very inadequate to teach writing and who seems overwhelmed by the idea of writing. Basically, the author's little brother sat anxiously at the kitchen table trying to write a report on birds. While the assignment had been given months in advance, he (of course) had put it off until the night before, and now he sat stressing about how to even start; the task seemed so huge and daunting. His dad kindly instructed the boy, "Just take it bird by bird." What wonderful advice! I really enjoyed the author's voice in this book and how she makes an author's experience relatable. 

William Bernhardt has four books on writing instruction (Story Structure, Creating Character, Perfecting Plot, Dynamic Dialogue). This book had more of a "how to" feel to them than Bird by Bird, but I still felt that it was very helpful in teaching me how to connect character development into each step of the plot. Really, this is a great series, and each book is pretty short and could easily be read in a day or two. 

Ok, folks, week 2 of school has been significantly brighter :)

Here are just a few highlights that made me smile:

• During a discussion on the topics of Grit and Growth Mindset, students talked with their partners about the difference between "excellence" and "perfection". When we came back together as a class, one student explained, "Well, excellence is better because it is real. Perfection is impossible because you can alway improve." To that, another student responded, "True, perfection isn't attainable....except at Chuck-A-Rama. They have perfect scones."      OH. MY. GOSH. haha. I definitely laughed at this and thought of my (and my sister in laws') less-than-outstanding review of Chuck-A-Rama. It was such a ridiculous comment.
• On a reading survey, students had to answer the question: "What is one of your favorite books and/or genre? Why is it a favorite?"  In response, one student wrote, "The Book of Mormon because its 531 pages contain all I need to get through this life."   hahaha. I read this while grading papers at home, and I burst into laughter. This girl is already a little missionary.
• On Friday, a student came into my classroom before school started. He carried with him a pile of books. "Here, Mrs. Macey," he sweetly told me. "These are from your class Amazon wish list."  I was stunned. These generous parents had bought us 6 beautiful books for our classroom. Wow! I will definitely be sending them a thank you note this weekend.