Write: It's good for you! · writer's notebook

Start a Notebook (Or Dust Off an Old One)

Ruth Ayres

Summer always gives me a chance to reflect on my practice in a little more relaxed kind of way. For one thing, I’m pretty much caught up with my school work. This doesn’t happen between the first day of school and the last. Even over breaks there is work to do. And yes, I have work planned for the summer, but it isn’t as pressing like things are during the school year.

Thinking over my work this year with teachers, I’m realizing once again the thing that transforms teachers from writing teachers to teachers of writers is when teachers become writers themselves.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to publish your writing. It doesn’t mean you have to spend hours a day writing. It doesn’t even mean you have to write something you want to show other people.

It does mean taking time to put words on the page. This summer I’d like to encourage you to start a writer’s notebook (or dust off an old one) and regularly spend time collecting words. I’m toying with the idea of offering a writer’s notebook prompt each week during the summer. What do you think? Would that be useful to you?

Spending time doing some of the things we expect our students to do (as opposed to making plans of things for them to do) is one of the best forms of professional development. Need some ideas to get started with your own writer’s notebook? Just use our search box (in the top right corner, under the header) and search writer’s notebooks.

Now off you go, happy writing.

Published by Ruth Ayres

Unhurried. Finding the magic in the middle of living. Capturing a life of ridiculous grace + raw stories.

16 thoughts on “Start a Notebook (Or Dust Off an Old One)”

  1. Pingback: Sundays for the Soul: Get Ready « TWO WRITING TEACHERS

  3. It would be terrific if you would do a weekly writer’s notebook prompt. I’m not a teacher but I am a parent and I believe modeling the behavior you want in your kids applies to parents as well. I’m ready to dust off the notebook and give my kids the writing tools they need for summer too. Thanks in advance for the inspiration!

    Like

  5. I grow more as a writer when I’m prompted – because I either love the prompt and quickly respond or I hate it and I spend a lot of think time – and learning time – figuring out why. Bonus either way!

    Like

  7. As you do a summer review, please remind yourself that your every word and every action carries so much weight in the lives of the children you teach. I grew up on welfare with a mentally ill mother and an absentee father. Yet, today, my siblings and I have all broken the cycle of poverty and abuse because of people like you! Teachers “seeing me” confirmed my value and gave me the chance to go on, one day at a time, until I was a college graduate. It doesn’t take much. One sentence scribbled in my weekly journal by my hs English teacher sustained me even while we had to shoplift food and clothing to survive. Thank you for your work. Even in your worst hours, never doubt your significance.

    Like

  9. Like, like, like :).
    Teachers of writers is key! It’s a paradigm shift…
    One of my plans this summer is to write in each genre we’ll be teaching next year…we can’t know unless we jump in and try!

    Like

  10. Sure, I would love the prompts. I always love Laurie Halse Anderson’s August Write Fifteen Minutes a Day that she does in August with a daily prompt as well. Even when I am not able to do them every time, whenever I do, I always learn something else about myself as a writer and think of new ideas.

    Like

  15. I’d like the prompt each week. I am becoming a teacher of writers and have made it my goal to write every day–and a blog entry every day. A prompt would really help me realize that goal!

    Like

  16. Yes, a prompt each week!!! I would enjoy that. It will help with those days when I’m just stuck in my writing all the way around!!! Yahoo!

    Like

Comments are closed.