Writing does not have to be painful and can actually be quite rewarding if it comes from your heart.
I will be sharing bits and pieces of my blog posts with my classes as we go through the process of becoming good writers together. Perhaps I will use a current one, a post not even published yet, to help with the editing part of the writing continuium. I could go to any story I've written in the past four years and share it with them in order to help me get across the idea that the writing down of their thoughts is "ok" and sometimes very healing and therapeutic along the way.
This blog is a personal narrative and in a lot of ways has been my saving grace in times of trouble and some pretty deep despair. I have always been honest as I wrote it and the words that a reader sees are my own true thoughts and feelings. When I have been at my very lowest points, for example in 2011 after the bike accident that nearly ruined my left arm, writing helped my sadness and eased my feeling of despair. It helped to talk about it and at times to cry about it too. I wrote of it many times in my 197 posts from the year 2011.
The following paragraph came from an August 24th post of that year as I spoke of the initial moments right after my infamous "I'm gonna jump that curb and crash my bike on the driveway" incident.
The following paragraph came from an August 24th post of that year as I spoke of the initial moments right after my infamous "I'm gonna jump that curb and crash my bike on the driveway" incident.
"I can remember most of it quite vividly, especially the part where I have to get my sorry carcass off the ground. I knew I was in some pretty heavy-duty trouble when I had to reach down and "scoop" my left arm up so I could stumble to the pickup. By the time I got to the truck, Grahame was already coming back with my keys for the trip to the ER." (August 2011)
There was a time during my nine months of recuperation when I thought that I could never put my hands flat on a table like that ever again. It's a scary feeling to realize how much you have taken something so simple as this for granted all of your life.
I want my students to know that they can chronicle their life's adventures by writing it down down on paper and that they can share those moments in time with others. Right now they are strangers to me and I know precious little about who they are and where they have been. One of their first assignments will be to tell me about their family and what they like to do for fun with one another. I've written of my own family many times throughout this blog. I have shared the joy of growing up the 6th child out of 7 and of calling the great state of Kansas my home.
Sometimes very sadly, I have shared the fact that my parents are no longer living and that I miss them very much. From deep inside of my heart, I have cried out from time to time as I have written of how much I still really need them to be around. Perhaps someone from "the 120" has already had to experience the very same thing. It happens, you know? When we least expect it, our parents are taken from us and whether we are 9 or 59, it still hurts. I have written of both my folks several times and I will share snippets of their posts to help teach the writing process.
A paragraph from a post from June 4th of last year is shown below when I wrote of my mom after coming across the journals that she kept for many years prior to her death in 2007.
I was going through the very last of my things back in Hutchinson last week when I came across them lying in a plastic tub. There amidst a thousand other things I saw four of the old journals that my mom had written in during the years just prior to her death in 2007. I had completely forgotten that they were there and as I scooped them up into my arms to place them into another box of things to go back to Colorado, I stopped for a moment and paused to remember her. I didn't cry this time and I think that in itself is a very good thing.
(August of 2014)
Life is a very great adventure and during my 59 years here on this great planet called Earth, I've seen many of them. My students are just now in the beginning stages and their ventures out into "the great unknown" are slightly more limited than mine have been. But through this blog I can share with them what I've done and in turn through their writing they can tell me all about the things that they too have seen.
Their teacher has done a few crazy things in life that perhaps some would have questioned at the time.
Crazy things like driving over 2,000 miles all of the way from Wichita, Kansas to Portland, Maine via Owego, New York all in the course of 5 days, just to see my very first lighthouse is right there in black and white. I'm not sure whether I'll tell them the part about doing it all alone yet but if they ask I'll have to be honest. I can share that trip with them and show a few of the great pictures just by going back to my blog posts from May of 2012.
From May 28th of 2012, upon arriving at the New England village of Owego, New York
There was a time during my nine months of recuperation when I thought that I could never put my hands flat on a table like that ever again. It's a scary feeling to realize how much you have taken something so simple as this for granted all of your life.
I want my students to know that they can chronicle their life's adventures by writing it down down on paper and that they can share those moments in time with others. Right now they are strangers to me and I know precious little about who they are and where they have been. One of their first assignments will be to tell me about their family and what they like to do for fun with one another. I've written of my own family many times throughout this blog. I have shared the joy of growing up the 6th child out of 7 and of calling the great state of Kansas my home.
Sometimes very sadly, I have shared the fact that my parents are no longer living and that I miss them very much. From deep inside of my heart, I have cried out from time to time as I have written of how much I still really need them to be around. Perhaps someone from "the 120" has already had to experience the very same thing. It happens, you know? When we least expect it, our parents are taken from us and whether we are 9 or 59, it still hurts. I have written of both my folks several times and I will share snippets of their posts to help teach the writing process.
A paragraph from a post from June 4th of last year is shown below when I wrote of my mom after coming across the journals that she kept for many years prior to her death in 2007.
I was going through the very last of my things back in Hutchinson last week when I came across them lying in a plastic tub. There amidst a thousand other things I saw four of the old journals that my mom had written in during the years just prior to her death in 2007. I had completely forgotten that they were there and as I scooped them up into my arms to place them into another box of things to go back to Colorado, I stopped for a moment and paused to remember her. I didn't cry this time and I think that in itself is a very good thing.
(August of 2014)
Life is a very great adventure and during my 59 years here on this great planet called Earth, I've seen many of them. My students are just now in the beginning stages and their ventures out into "the great unknown" are slightly more limited than mine have been. But through this blog I can share with them what I've done and in turn through their writing they can tell me all about the things that they too have seen.
Their teacher has done a few crazy things in life that perhaps some would have questioned at the time.
Crazy things like driving over 2,000 miles all of the way from Wichita, Kansas to Portland, Maine via Owego, New York all in the course of 5 days, just to see my very first lighthouse is right there in black and white. I'm not sure whether I'll tell them the part about doing it all alone yet but if they ask I'll have to be honest. I can share that trip with them and show a few of the great pictures just by going back to my blog posts from May of 2012.
From May 28th of 2012, upon arriving at the New England village of Owego, New York
One of the nicest sights to see this day was the sign announcing I'd finally made it to this place in southern New York, a village called Owego. As you can tell by the sign, it's no "spring chicken". Owego is rich in heritage and tradition, a very proud community. I'm so glad to have spent the day here.
Where I am from, Kansas, we're just glad to have seen our communities celebrate their centennial birthdays. Owego has been here for, wait a minute cause I'm doing the math, 225 years. You can't be here that long without establishing some very deep ties and traditions. (May of 2012)
And from the following day, a post from my final destination and the site of the beautiful Portland Headlight in Maine.
It was every bit as beautiful as I imagined it to be. I was not disappointed in the least! I took several photos, but am including a few with this blog. I hope someday to see it again before I die.
Wow, I look EVEN shorter than I normally do! I went up the first adults I could find and asked if they would take a picture of me by the lighthouse. Little did I know that they were from France and spoke hardly ANY English but we managed to communicate with one another and got the photo regardless. Good folks, just visiting the New England states, like me. (May of 2012)
One week from Monday school will begin here in our part of Texas. All next week teachers will meet together to plan and get things ready for the first day of school. It will be a very busy time for all of us. I have much to learn and only a very short time in which to do so. Much lies ahead of me to accomplish and so I plan to take a week away from writing in this blog post. Even though I love writing each and every day it is good once in a while to go away from it. Time away is not a bad thing but one thing is for certain.
I will be back.
It all started with a bike ride across the state of Kansas in 2011. More than 900 posts later (about 890 more than I ever intended for it to be) I am still writing.
And from the following day, a post from my final destination and the site of the beautiful Portland Headlight in Maine.
It was every bit as beautiful as I imagined it to be. I was not disappointed in the least! I took several photos, but am including a few with this blog. I hope someday to see it again before I die.
One week from Monday school will begin here in our part of Texas. All next week teachers will meet together to plan and get things ready for the first day of school. It will be a very busy time for all of us. I have much to learn and only a very short time in which to do so. Much lies ahead of me to accomplish and so I plan to take a week away from writing in this blog post. Even though I love writing each and every day it is good once in a while to go away from it. Time away is not a bad thing but one thing is for certain.
I will be back.
No comments:
Post a Comment