At TCTELA Annual Conference 2016 in Austin I was inspired by Varian Johnson’s writing schedule. Varian suggested creating a schedule to write everyday- even if it is for 10 minutes create a space to write and think. Other writing teacher bloggers such as Two Writing Teachers https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges/ challenge us to document our lives by writing short story or event each week then building those stories into what they call A Long Story Slice of Life Challenge.

Saturday January 23, 2016
Jacqueline Woodson inspired me and a few hundred other teachers by sharing her insights and practices as a writer, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. She reflected on how precious and unexpected life can be and how important it is to take action. She announced, “Don’t wait to take action to change the world.” In my life, taking action starts with a becoming critically aware of the world around me and opening spaces for my family, my friends, and my students to question their roles and responsibilities as future educators and citizens. Sonya Nazaro did just that when she sought out to learn about the lives of children migrating from South and Central America. Sonya wrote several New York Times articles on this issue and a best selling book titled Enrique’s Journey– describing the life of one boy in search of his mother. After hearing Woodson and Nazaro talk about the actions they took to improve our society, I wonder what can I do to support these young people as they enter the U.S., more specifically as they enter Texas. As teachers and teacher educators, we can bring the stories of these young people to life by reading about them in our classrooms honoring their struggles and finding ways to push back against stereotypes about immigration in the U.S.