A couple of years ago I participated in the #100DOSW (100 Days of Summer Writing). Although I didn’t quite finish – did I even get halfway? – the mentor texts were invaluable, such as Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball.” The following school year and summer school session I used Kobe’s mentor text in class (pictured below). Students are so creative; they blew me away!
Next week is spring break, and when we return, students will no longer be virtual on Wednesdays. The options will only be five days face-to-face or five days virtual. Today, I feel I’m saying goodbye to something I’ve come to love. The “Dear Basketball” format seems most fitting. So, here goes –
Dear Wednesdays,
You gave this teacher her dream of more time. And I’ll always love you for it. But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer. These next two days are all I have left to give. My body can take the expectations. My mind can handle the productivity. But my heart knows it’s time to say goodbye.
Multifaceted Musings 
I really enjoyed the format for this text–what a great mentor text! It was the perfect way to capture your feelings!
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Thank you so much!! 🙂
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Two thoughts….first, I love Kobe’s short film and just showed it to my students! Secondly, I feel the potential loss of our precious Wednesdays, as we are currently waiting for the Decision about what our next phase will look like. Thank you for this!
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Yes, the animated short is phenomenal! I always get teary eyed 🙂
Like another commenter said, the anticipation is the worst part. Whew! This back and forth is a lot to handle.
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I also love this text as a mentor. Today was our first 5-day week. It was a hard bandaid to pull off. It was nice to have the time to collaborate and plan. I also know it was hard for our kids who were used to a more laid-back schedule on Wednesday. Soon the bandaid will be pulled off, and the anticipation is the worse part. I hope the pull is smooth and the pain leaves quickly.
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THAT! The anticipation is the worst. I have no real idea of what to expect. Even though the students are being offered five full F2F days, my admin believe we won’t see that much of a difference because attendance is so poor as it is. It’s a weird space to be in. Thank you for reading!!
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Although it is hard to lose something, it is important to move on. Now seems to be that time for so many.
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It does – I’ve been seeing others say the same about their experiences with hybrid learning.
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Oh, Britt. I am sorry that this is going away for you. What a nice chance to pause and recalibrate for the remainder of the week. On April 5th our in-person folks (who have been in-person 5 days a week, but half days) will begin 4 full days, but keep Wednesday as half days. Our PD schedule was planned out for the year, so the district decided to stick with it.
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Thank you, friend. The back and forth feels so jolting – I wish we could just finish the school year how we all started or even how we switched to the hybrid choices. Sigh – I suppose all good things come to an end, huh?!
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Britt, I participated in the same summer writing challenge with my daughter (she had to do it for AP English). I shared this mentor text and animated short with my students this year and they wrote their farewells. I love your idea and think that I will be writing a farewell to hybrid learning. We do back to full in-person learning on April 26th. Thank you for the inspiration.
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I love that you did the summer writing with your daughter, how cool. I would love to do that with students, too! How’d your daughter share her writing with teacher or the class? Or was it just a suggestion for summer writing?
When I share the mentor text, I play the animated short as well. There’s a part toward the end that always makes me teary-eyed. Imagine the year Kobe and his daughter passed and I shared this a couple days after? Ugh, it was heartbreaking.
Glad I’ve inspired some potential writing!!
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Britt, I, too participated in the that Summer Writing Challenge (Small World). My poem was “Dear Teaching”! I’, sorry your Wednesdays are going away.
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Whaaaat, you did that too?! How funny. I wish they were still doing it – they’re not, right? I tried Googling it so I could put the link in this post, but couldn’t find anything.
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I tried finding it again also. I haven’t seen anything. That challenge was pretty much my introduction to writing. I found TeachWrite/TTW that summer also.
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Hmm sounds like a challenge for TTW to take up?!! 😏😏 I also think I found one of the groups that summer; maybe it was 100 days of notebooking though. Had Michelle already started by then? I can’t remember!
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I started #100daysofnotebooking in January 2020. I’m not sure if she had started it before that.
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I love this format.I hope the loss of your Wednesdays isn’t too challenging in an already challenging school year.
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Thank you so much! I’m hoping I can catch the time somewhere else 🙂
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This is an inspiring format and when used with Kobe Bryant as the mentor text – well, it surely has to be popular with students. My son drew Kobe and his daughter when they passed away. He was inspired by Kobe’s work ethic. It was quite a tribute, just as using his words as a mentor text is. I like how you wrote something as well, I hope you can share it with your students!
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Omgosh, I love that your son drew Kobe and his daughter! When they passed away, I didn’t know if it would be soon to do this activity, but I did it anyway – a couple days later. It was a hit in the most wonderful yet tearful way.
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I can’t wait to try this prompt! Thank you for sharing and for inspiring my writing!
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Yay, I’m so glad it inspired writing!!! It’s super fun to do. In front of the kids, I also wrote one to Covid Quarantine, ha!
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Such a cool idea using that mentor for your Dear Wednesday slice. That extra time was invaluable I’m sure. I hope you find slivers of time to make up for it. More change is so hard.
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Thank you so much. You’re right – the extra time was so wonderful. I wish we (as an educational system) could learn from this, ya know?
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That’s a pretty cool way to signing off to Wednesdays! Now, all you need is a *mic drop* and you are set!
It’s an interesting change, but a change all the same, so the sign-off is a great way to prep yourself for what’s coming next!
Thanks for sharing this with us! 🙂
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Mic drop 😂😂😂😂😂
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I love the prompt! Am going to save this AND your student’s example to inspire them!
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Yay!! I’m so glad this can inspire others to write! 🙂
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