Earlier in this challenge, I wrote a post about the importance of setting the conditions and then getting out of the way One of Those Great Teaching Moments. That’s exactly what you did, Two Writing Teachers, for me during this 31 day Slice of Life Challenge.
The conditions:
Write for 31 days straight and post your blog on Two Writing Teachers SOLC.
There will be other “Slicers” to help you through the challenge. (I think it was pretty much guaranteed that there would be comments and encouragement along the way.)
There are people to answer any questions you have. As a matter of fact, there are many people to help.
There are prizes (This condition didn’t really matter to me. I’m not motivated by prizes for some reason. But they are there if it helps someone keep writing!).
The “get out of the way”:
There were no consequences if you didn’t write one day. OK…Maybe you wouldn’t be in the running for a prize. (I am proud of myself for writing every single day, but I didn’t do it because I was afraid of a consequence.)
There was choice. You told us we could write what we wanted to, when we wanted to, and how we wanted to.
There was encouragement, but no one was telling us what we had to do.
You provided peers and mentor texts (in other slices) to give us ideas and some scaffolds, but you didn’t take over.
For me, this is the teaching that works best. I felt like I accepted the conditions and then knew I had to hold myself accountable for the work. I knew I could reach out to others for ideas and encouragement, but I knew I was responsible. I think this is why I now feel SO proud of myself. I worked hard. This was challenging work. I wrote every day. I tried my best. I grew (the writing was not great, but I think I got a little bit better).
Thank you, TWT for setting conditions and getting out of the way! I’m already trying to figure out how I can keep this habit going.