What is Slice of Life? A Reflection on #SOL18

This March I'm challenging myself to write daily by participating in the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge (#SOL18). For a full description of the challenge visit the Two Writing Teachers website. Although this is not the only place I write, a quick glance at the posts on this blog will confirm that my writing comes in fits and starts. My long-term goal is for writing to be a daily practice. I'm far, far away from that goal.  #SOL18 is a first step. 

In the past, I've appreciated the Slice of Life Challenge as a reader, so I have a general sense of the genre. This (edited) graphic from the Two Writing Teachers site clarified for me further:

To increase my accountability, I've encouraged my students to participate as well. As a group, they love writing, so it wasn't a particularly hard sell. They are very busy, however, so inspiring them to write consistently on weekends and over spring break is going to be a significant part of the challenge. The implications of that "inspiration" piece are manyfold.

I know what I need to do to inspire my students to succeed with #SOL18, and what I need to do requires that I go "all in." To help them be successful, I need to push myself to take some significant risks. I need to...

1. ... reach deep down inside myself to commit to the writing, 
2. ...articulate my struggles and my process,
3. ...open up and share my writing. 

It's all risky.

First, committing to the writing. To make room for the writing I need to risk failing in some other areas of my life. Other things must go on the back burner. I finally understand the implications of the verb in the metaphor "carve out some time." I need to make time for my own writing and I need to dedicate sacred instructional time to having an ongoing, month-long conversation with students about it. I need to avoid the trap of assigning writing more than teaching writing.

Number two is challenging in a couple of ways all by itself. Above all else, writing takes courage. For me, articulating my struggles includes admitting that I don't always make sense to others when I write. I make mistakes. Things come out wrong. I reveal too much. Or not enough. I offend people. My students need to hear that, but articulating it leaves me vulnerable. And the "articulating" part of articulating my struggles and my process is significant for me. I'm most comfortable when I'm quiet, not when I'm expressing myself.

Articulating the process means I need to take the time and make the effort to do what I am doing now, which is write about the process first to clarify and organize my thinking. To communicate my process meaningfully, I need to identify discrete parts of that process. For example, getting a little distance, taking the perspective of another, and rereading my writing again and again while I struggle to maintain that lens is critical to helping me make sense to others.

Number three, putting my own writing out there, is fraught as well. Opposing forces pull at me. In order to write well I need to overcome monkey-mind and be authentic. Yet when my audience is students, my authentic writing isn't always appropriate or interesting for them. So in the past I've kept the internal editor turned on in the background, weakening my writing. I worried that if I wrote authentically I might not be able to use it with kids and I'd have to go back and create something specifically for that audience--and I worried that I wouldn't have time to do both well.

I haven't figured out the sweet spot yet, but writing this post has helped. It has helped me realize that the worries are themselves a product of monkey-mind. I simply need to share the pieces that will hold my students' interest most. I would love for them to be fascinated by what I have to say, but it's far more likely that they will be fascinated by what their peers have to say anyway. I can be okay with that. As long as I'm inspiring them to write, and I'm building toward my own daily practice, I've met my goal.

Finally, writing this post has reminded me of the power of Teachers as Writers, which is the heart of the Slice of Life Challenge. In the end, my struggles as a writer are not different than my students' struggles. And when I am in the arena with them, I am a better teacher of writing.