Good morning, friends! And welcome to our final week of Teachers Write 2021. Today, we’re going to spend some time scribbling about two things – goals and gratitude.
As I write this, some of you are a month away from the start of your new school year – some a little more, and some a little less. And to be honest, there’s still so much uncertainty swirling around the COVID-19 pandemic, our response to it, and what that will mean for you and your students this year. When so much is out of our control, it can help to focus on small things that are within our power, and I hope that’s where this week’s writing will take us.
Let’s head back outside for this one, okay? Take your notebook or laptop and head for the yard or the deck or the porch, or maybe just an open window if that works best. Take some deep breaths, and then I’d like you to spend five minutes (you can set a timer if you’d like) in response to this prompt:
This school year, I will…
Here’s the catch. Everything you write needs to be within your power. So it’s fine, for example, to write about how you’ll share a picture book with your kids at least once a week. That’s something you can do all by yourself, whether or not you’re meeting readers in person, and you don’t have to rely on other people to make it happen. You can write as many small goals as you’d like, but make sure at least one of them has to do with your own self care. That old rule about putting on your own oxygen mask first, so you have the ability to help others, is relevant in this time we’re all living through. What’s one small, specific thing you can commit to do in order to keep yourself feeling whole and grounded, whatever happens around you this fall? Maybe it’s ten minutes of morning yoga or a fifteen minute walk at lunchtime. Maybe it’s simply pausing for three deep breaths before you get in the car or set out for the bus each morning. Maybe it’s setting a timer for ten minutes each evening to write something that has nothing to do with your work.
Your second assignment for today is to write a thank you note. Those of you who attended our Authors Happy Hour earlier this month remember Linda Urban sharing a little about her new novel, Almost There and Almost Not. One of my favorite things about this book is how the main character, California, learns to write thank you notes and exercises her newfound gratitude muscles frequently. The letters range from heartfelt to hilarious, but they all manage to find the positive in a tough situation. We can do that, too.
So set another timer now – ten minutes should do it – and write a short thank you note to someone who brightened your day or your week or your trip to the grocery store recently. (The ghost of California’s etiquette-book-authoring aunt would tell you this needs to be hand written, but I’m fine with you typing and emailing if that’s better for you.) You can send this, or it can be just for you. But write it because there’s research – like, actual research – showing that people who express gratitude are happier and healthier. In the study, subjects assigned to write about gratitude reported feeling happier, which might not be terribly surprising. But they also exercised more and had fewer visits to the doctor’s office. Practicing gratitude literally made them healthier people. And that’s an idea worth exploring as you head toward a new school year. You might want to share some thoughts on this at Jen’s last weekly check-in on Thursday.
One quick reminder – this isn’t part of Teachers Write, but for anyone who wants to explore writing picture book biographies in more depth, there’s still space in my virtual writing workshop “Out-of-the-Box Biographies,” which is happening tomorrow with a video replay and handouts available through the end of September.
I hope that for many of you, part of a self-care plan for the coming year will be taking some time each day to work on your own writing. If that’s the case, you may want to revisit some of our writing prompts from past Teachers Write summers. You can find those here.
Finally, I want to wrap up our Summer 2021 session with a big thank you. Thank you for joining us this summer and especially for the work that you did all year, providing a sense of normalcy and hope for the young people you serve. I’m wishing you good health, inspiration, and joy in sharing stories as you head into the new school year.
Keep writing!
All best,
Kate