Time to Reflect on Writer's Workshop

I'm serving a two week sentence...in bed. 

Here's the short version of the story. 

On Monday, I had surgery to remove my ovaries and tubes for cancer prevention. My family has an alarming cancer history and turning 40 in November meant that it was time for me to make some big decisions. My mom is an ovarian cancer survivor. She's brave. She's also the oldest living woman on her side of the family (and she's only 61). I made a brave decision about my health. And...I am confident that this was the right decision for me. I'm also grateful that my mom is here to help me make these big decisions.

Why post about it? Because, I'm not Angelina Jolie. I am grateful for her willingness to share her story. I'm just a plain 40 year old mom/teacher living on a two teacher income. Turns out normal people have to make big decisions about their health too.  It's not easy, but sometimes it's necessary.

 And now, this Type A teacher/mom is stuck in "resting" mode.

 Here's my view every time I open my eyes.

Meet Daisy, goldendoodle #1 in our family.

She likes to be very close to my face while I'm resting. 

My guard dog/foot warmer is not far away either.

Meet Kalli, goldendoodle #2 in our family.

I have big plans to try something that I don't normally do...watch movies.

I thought it would be a good idea to watch all the girlie movies that my husband would hate.

They are all wrapped in plastic, never opened.

So, I stacked them all up in my "things to do while I'm resting" basket.

I might try to watch some...one day soon.

Luckily, my husband and children are fabulous caregivers.

My own parents are super supportive and came to help on surgery day.

Our friends are delivering food, checking in and taxiing the kids

 while I'm out of commission.

My son even made a business card to highlight his helpfulness.

(excuse the punctuation error 

and I'm sure Martha Stewart would forgive his table setting placement 

since he is 7)

This time at home is giving me lots of time to look through

 the photos of my daughter at her recent dance recital.

Oh, how I love my little dancer!

And, I am sitting around doing the best I can to rest.

Today, I discovered a fabulous blog post that  helped me do some reflecting 

on writer's workshop time in my classroom.

The post is by Kari Yates on her blog, Simply Inspired Teaching.

The post is called Seven Signs of an Effective Writing Workshop. 

I love that Kari starts off by reminding us that writer's workshop is not a program or a package. It is a framework for teaching writing.  Kari suggests that there are 7 signs of an effective writing workshop.  Since, I have time (oy...) I decided to use these 7 characteristics to help me reflect on my own writing workshop time.  You can click on the image below to read my reflections.

I made the sheet below, just in case you'd like to use it to help you with your own reflections.  Focusing on the 7 Signs of Effective Writing Workshop by Kari Yates was really helpful for me.

I'm linking this post up with TBA's Freebie Friday! Off to take a nap...again.