My First Rejection Letter

Well, I have to say that this has got to be my best Genius Hour project yet. It has been the one I've stuck with the longest, and the one I feel I've worked the hardest at. So why am I a bit bummed? I received my first rejection letter on March 24th...

I didn't cry. Not one tear. I wondered why, because I cry at everything - good and bad! I figured it out this week, as I CONTINUED to write the book. I don't NEED to write a book. I never did. This woman contacted me, out of the blue, to see if we could come up with a book idea. I have told Bob time and time again that I can't write a book - everyone else has already written the ones I'd write about, and they know so much more! Together, we've figured out that I'm a great CURATOR. I curate ideas and steal them to use in the classroom.

So why am I going to continue to write this book? I like it. I enjoy putting ideas on paper (well, Google Docs) that people might actually benefit from some day. I enjoy organizing it so it makes sense. I enjoy ... dare I say it? ... the challenge. It's tough. But guess what? I have NO deadline! No one is pressuring me to write a book! No publisher may ever pick it up! When I'm done, however, I'll be able to say, "I wrote a book." This, in itself, has become my motivation this week.

Here is the new spreadsheet (the older one is the other tab) - with my new goal of 25 minutes a day of writing on average. I believe my reading will stay consistent - it's much easier to get in 20 minutes of reading than writing - so I took that off the chart. I'm going to try for a one-month goal of 25 minutes a day........ Therefore, no updates on this blog until the first of May! If I can accomplish this goal, I'll share my writing with two other publishers to see what they say... (I'll brace myself prior - eek! - but I will be writing a book, no matter what they say!)

Losing Interest

I'm not losing interest in reading or writing, but I am losing interest in keeping track of my reading and writing. It may be because I haven't done much writing the last two weeks...

I missed an update on this blog because I was sick, but I also didn't do much writing... unless I can count the blog post I wrote for my original blog today and revisions I made to the first chapter I sent into the editor to review. She was rough on me - it's so good for me - I have to remember that!!

So... although interest is lacking in writing these blog posts and keeping track of my writing minutes, I can see that I need to get back to writing. Reflection helps us figure out next steps, correct? So I'll just go frost my dad's cake for his 80th birthday celebration tonight, and then grade genius hour updates, and then plan for this week and THEN get to writing......

Updated Spreadsheet Here

Moving On

I've changed my note-taking for this reading goal of mine, as it was tough, and not what I was used to doing. I'm used to just reading, and in "real life," that's what I'll be doing. I am NOT used to starting and stopping a timer to see how long I've been reading. Now that I have baseline data, and since I've exceeded my goal of 20 minutes a day with no problem, I decided I'd only record once I got up to 20 minutes a day for this past week. Therefore, on the spreadsheet, you'll see that I read more than 20 minutes for each day, but that's all you'll see. I also stopped calculating the pages I've read. Since my goal is not page numbers or books read, this number doesn't matter to me at this time in my life, so I skipped this section this past week.

It's time to move on. What does the next week look like for me? Since I've proved to myself that I do, indeed, read what I'm asking students to read, I wanted to see if I can write for at least 20 minutes a day, as well. What do I normally write? Some days I write blog posts, even if I save them as drafts. Right now, I'm working on getting all the ideas I've done in the last five years down in some sort of order. Some times I can sit on the laptop for hours writing, and some days I've got nothing. I'm wondering how much I write at this point in my life outside of school, and how much I can expect of students to write outside of class. (I will also continue to check to see that I'm reading at least 20 minutes a day, to know that writing will not take the place of reading... or will it?) These questions are not just for curiosity's sake, but also for a product at the end. Who knows - maybe I can publish the changes I've implemented in the last five years?!