Chapter Seven: Mrs. Holiday Writes Back

Posted byAllyson ApseyPosted inUncategorized

September 6, 2017

Kip,
I really love your goals. When I was in college, I learned a valuable lesson about goals. The best goals are SAMIC:

Simple

Attainable

Measurable

Immediate

Contingent only upon yourself

Let’s look at your goals to see if they meet this criteria. So your first goal is to make at least one friend. I think that is pretty simple, and it definitely is attainable. It is easily measured because if you have one friend at the end of the year, you have met your goal. You can start working on your goal right away, so it is immediate. The only thing I wonder about is the last part–is it contingent only upon yourself?

Friendship is often described as a two-way street, where both people have to put in equal amount of effort to keep the friendship going strong. So, I wonder if this goal could be contingent only upon you? Maybe we could change your goal just a little bit to have it more focused on your own behavior? What do you think about having a goal of learning about friendship and what it takes to be a good friend?

As for your other goal, I am hoping that you will really learn in English class and in homeroom this year. Will you promise to let me know if you are not learning new and exciting things? Student feedback is important to me because it helps me get better all the time.

Please let me know if you like the idea of shifting your first dream to be more contingent just on your own behavior by focusing on learning what it takes to be a good friend. I would love to help you with this goal!

Love,
Mrs. Holiday

Dear Student Editors,

I am so excited to hear what you think of Mrs. Holiday’s journal entry to Kip!

  1. What did you think of as you read Mrs. Holiday’s advice?
  2. What about SAMIC makes sense to you, and what leaves you a bit confused?
  3. What SAMIC goal do you have for yourself?
  4. What details do you think I should add?
  5. What ideas do you have for Kip’s response?

Please put your edits in the comments on this post. I will comment back to you and make changes to the chapter based upon your feedback. I can’t wait to learn from you!

Published by Allyson Apsey

Allyson is an award-winning school leader, author, and inspiring national speaker. She travels the country to work as an associate for Creative Leadership Solutions.

54 thoughts on “Chapter Seven: Mrs. Holiday Writes Back”

  1. By:Payne and Brody From Mrs. Rubins 4th grade class

    1. Have really nice friends.

    2. You should add more about what Mrs. Holiday wants kip to write about.

    Liked by 1 person

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  2. The way I thought about Mrs.Holiday’s advice is it must have been something she learned a lesson on in college. What makes me confused is what does contingent mean? What SAMIC goal I passed is I finally have a friend. Other than that I don’t have a new one for myself.What details I think you should add is what score Kip got.It would be really cool how Kip feels when she figures out her score.[If Mrs.Holiday does do scores]. For Kip’s response is maybe she should be really happy when Mrs Holiday tells her how good she did on her writing.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Hi Julie,
      Thank you for the specific feedback! I really appreciate it!! It is helpful to know that the word “contingent” is new to you. Have a wonderful holiday break!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  3. Hello Mrs Apsey!
    i love youre book so far
    What SAMIC goal do you have for yourself?:
    Well its for me and my friend to have less fights
    and thats about it!😊

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. By:Gabby
    In Mrs. Rubins 4th grade class
    Dear Mrs. Apsey I think Kip should respond by telling Mrs. Holiday she has made a friend her friends name is Susan and that Cody has been being mean to her. She should also say she does want to meet her goals but meet them over time and she would like to use Mrs. Holiday´s goals because she needs a way to look forward to something like like finishing her goal. She should also thank Mrs. Holiday for her advise of SAMIC. Mrs. Apsey Iv´e said it before and will say it again you are a serendipitous gift in our lives and a really nice person juggling writing this book and reading our responses we would love to say thank you!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you for the feedback Gabby! I like the suggestion you have for Kip to give positive feedback to Mrs. Holiday. I always love reading feedback from you! Have a wonderful holiday break!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  5. What ideas do you have for Kip’s response
    By Lillian from Mrs. Rubin’s 4th grade class

    Since you said in the response that the year is 2017 what cover for the book are you going to do is your book going to be a movie too?? Also I was going to ask for more info about Britt. And when Susan let’s Kip ride her horse. Great chapter don’t have any other questions.,

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Lillian,
      I appreciate your feedback, especially for more info on Britt. Other students were asking for that too.

      I am excited to start working on things like cover design over the course of the spring. Having the book become a movie would be a dream come true!

      Thank you so much for your feedback! Have a wonderful holiday break!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  6. Mrs. Rubin´s class Miah and Bella

    2. What about SAMIC makes sense to you, and what leaves you a bit confused?
    Bella:
    SAMIC does not make since to make since to me because I do not understand the word
    ¨Attainable¨.

    What did you think of as you read Mrs. Holiday’s advice?
    Miah:
    I think she is being nice but she is kinda changing Kips goal so I think that she should just leave her goals alone and just let Kip have her own goals.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Bellan and Miah,
      Thank you for your feedback. Did you look attainable up in the dictionary? It means a goal that you can reasonably reach–one that can be attained. Have a wonderful holiday break!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  7. By:KayseS. What SAMIC goal do you have for yourself? Mrs.Rubins class. My dream goal is to be a Navy Seal medic I´ve always wanted to be in the army. And hopefully I accomplish that goal.

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. By Kendall Tenyer
    From Mrs.Rubin’s class

    I think that Mrs.Holiday’s feedback was really good but I do have one thing for you I think it should have longer than it is right now.

    SAMIC makes sense to me because it was all capital and if it is capital it means that it is 5 different words in that word SAMIC.

    My goal for myself is that I want to be good in class what I mean is that I talk a lot I goof around a lot and I don’t pay attention sometimes so that is what my SAMIC goal is going to be for me.

    I think that you should add like that it was the best goal she got today and that she is going to give you a caught being good ticket or something like that.

    I think that Kip should write Thank you at the beginning and then say that she is really nice for saying that Kip’s writing is the best and then she should say that going to write more than ever before and at the end she should say that she is going to write another note to Mrs.Holiday so Mrs.Holiday will be her best teacher in the whole school. And she is going to stand up and make friends that are not going to stab hr in the back and find a different friend than her.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Kendall,
      Thank you for all the great feedback and for sharing your SAMIC goal. I know that you can make the improvements you were talking about. I am so honored that you are reading my book and helping me improve it!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  9. By Nick
    In Mrs. Rubin” class

    I think that Mrs Holidays advice is helpful because she is giving good information for Kip because kip could see if people want to be her fiends so she could have allot more fiends then.
    And I like Mrs. Holidays goals and they could help Kip over time. With problems she has. I wonder if Molly and Kip have kept a equal amount of effort with each so can be equal with each other. I connect with this Chapter because I have my own goals.

    Sincerely. Nick

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Nick,
      I am so glad that you have created your own goals. That is admirable for a fourth grader! Thank you for reading this chapter and for giving me feedback! Have a wonderful holiday break!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  10. By : Julie, from Mrs. Rubin’s 4th grade class

    I do think that you could add mare detail and the SAMIC thing is a little confusing to me because it uses a lot of complex words that are a little hard to pronounce them but not all of them .Yes I do think that Mrs. Holidays advice is good because Mrs.Holiday has already helped Kip before and that SAMIC thing is a good strategy so yes Mrs. Holidays advice is good in my opinion.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you for your feedback Julie! I did notice that other fourth graders were having some trouble with the SAMIC words. I will keep that in mind as I edit this chapter. Have a wonderful holiday break!
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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    1. Thank you for that feedback Lakshitha!! Contingent means that something will happen only if certain other things happen. We want to make sure that when we set a goal, it is only dependent on our behavior because we cannot control others. I will work to explain this better in the chapter.
      Love,
      Mrs. Apsey

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  14. Hi! I like the idea of SAMIC. However, we had to look up the definition of contingent. So maybe if you explained the definition of contingent, then ‘Kip’ (the reader) can understand better.
    Can’t wait to read the rest of it!
    Thanks,
    VC + Julia

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Tess and Chloe, I will be sure to explain that better when I edit the chapter. You are not alone in wanting a clearer definition about it! Thank you for the feedback! Love, Mrs. Apsey

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  18. Dear Mrs Apsey,
    We think SAMIC is a very fine acronym to remember for your goals. A goal we have in mind is to do attainable work. It is important to not go too hard on yourself.
    SIncerely, Lily and Paige

    Liked by 1 person

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  19. I thought this is really good, but I think Kip will want to keep her goals like they are and having the teacher help her might over complicate things, but what do we know, we aren’t authors. Thank you for writing this cool story.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Matteo and Alex, Great question, and you are not the only ones with that question. I answered that in these comments and I will be sure to clarify it when I edit the chapter. Love, Mrs. Apsey

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  21. Answering #2:

    We wonder if goals have to be immediate, and whether or not that should be included. Also, a little clarification on what ‘contingent’ means would be preferred.

    Another idea we had is that SAMIC should be altered to fit a word that is well known, for better remembrance.

    Thank you,
    Anna and Aidan

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello Jacob and Taha,
      Thank you for your question, and you were not the only ones wondering about this. Check out my answer in the comments to see if that helps and when I edit this chapter, I will explain it better. Love, Mrs. Apsey

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  23. Dear Mrs. Apsey,

    We think that for Kip’s response she should say something about her friendship with Susan and how Cody has been acting.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  24. Dear Mrs. Apsey,
    While we were reading this we were also thinking of our goals for the end of the year, and a SAMIC goal we have for ourselves is keeping a strong friendship bond between us.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hello! You are not alone in wanting more information about contingent. I will explain it better when I edit this chapter. In the meantime, check out my answer in the comments to see if that helps. Thank you for your feedback. Love, Mrs. Apsey

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  26. Dear Mrs. Apsey,
    I think a lot when I read Mrs. Holiday’s response. I think that she is a very nice person, and that she wants all of her students to have a great education and have fun while learning. She also wants to make sure Kip’s task is do able
    -Ev

    Liked by 1 person

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  27. I think after reading it, that the last one is very strange because it almost seems like she doesn’t want there to be friendships forming in her class. Otherwise they seemed quite reasonable.

    Liked by 1 person

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