The Promise of a Blank Notebook

I started a new notebook last week while I was on my EMWP Gone Rogue writing marathon, and this poem was my first entry. 


The Mess is Greater Than The Sum of its Parts

Two new notebooks ready to be filled with The Mess

There's a dirty little secret
among English teachers
that we don't like to share
with the world.
OK, maybe that's not true.
It's not so dirty and we
share it all the time.

We love notebooks.
We have excessive amounts of them.
More than we could possibly fill
in one lifetime.

But we prefer them
pristine
and
blank

instead of
messy
and
lived in.

A blank notebook represents
promise and potential --
of all the brilliant thoughts
just waiting to pour forth
from our ample minds.

But a written-in notebook represents
failure
and
&*@# ups
They shout at us,
"YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"

And so
we tend to like
the idea
of a filling a notebook
but not
the execution of it.

Writing in a notebook
is an act of
faith and bravery.
It is a place where we must
face our inadequacies
head on
and then challenge them.
It is a place for
discomfort and discombobulation.

And so we admire our blank notebooks
sitting in our closets
with no intention of actually
filling them with our
messy ramblings.
Even though we force
our students to write in one
every
single
day.

So dear teachers,
just remember this:
When you
struggle and agonize
over the words you
put on the page,
question your own abilities
and make excuses that
you're just too busy
to write today --
just imagine
what your students
must be feeling.

#WriteBesideThem

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Write Beside Them

At the beginning of the year I told students that one thing I could promise them this year was that I would write with them.

Today I had a student say to me, "Mrs. Shaum, remember when you said at the beginning of the year to call you out if you weren't writing with us? Did you do the article of the week that you assigned us today?"

Oh, you mean this article of the week?

I have been a scattered mess of a teacher this year. I'm ill-prepared, unorganized, and impulsive. But I have remained consistent with one thing and that is that I write with my students. And I am better for it.

I recently read a wonderful blog post by Pernille Ripp called "Before You Assign That Homework - What Students Wish You Knew" and everything in that post is what I practice as a teacher - particularly doing the assignments I dish out to my students. Do you know how you show your students that the work you assign them is valuable? You do it with them.

Slice of Life is brought to you by Two Writing Teachers

Changing my writing tune

I have come to realize two things during this new school year from being at a new school and having a fresh start:

1) Writing with your students isn't just a nice idea; it's a necessity if you want to see their writing improve.

2) Commenting on second drafts instead of final drafts has given my students a way to focus on better revision strategies for their final drafts.

At my former school I touted my expertise to my students and colleagues as the writing guru, citing the seminal work of inspiring teachers that came before me like Tom Romano, Nancie Atwell, and Penny Kittle. But the truth of the matter is, I frequently found myself frustrated with the lack of motivation my students possessed in moving from one draft to the next. The problem? I preached to them my gospel of writing, but I wasn't living it.

This year I am making sure to be mindful that my actions are much more powerful than my words when it comes to assigning writing and have already seen its benefits in spades. I am currently grading my 8th graders' "This I Believe" essays and am so impressed with how much they have revised from one draft to the next and the risks they are taking with their writing. That all happened as a result of writing with them and giving them feedback before their final drafts.

Today, we started a short writing assignment after I showed my class this inspiring video from graphic novelist Cece Bell:
 
El Deafo is a beautiful book because it takes something that people would normally consider a disability and turns that idea on its head. Cece took her deafness and made it into a superpower. My

8th graders started this assignment earlier this week with a journal prompt about if they were a superhero, what would their superpower be, and were also asked to give themselves a superhero name. Today we took that seed of a journal topic and expanded on it, watching it grow into something more substantive.

The day I assigned this as a journal topic, all three of my classes didn't seem to be all that into it. They wrote a couple sentences in their notebooks and that was that. But today was a completely different story. The one thing that was missing from the equation was me. I hadn't written anything yet. So once again, I had to shed my armor of professional distance to expose the soft, vulnerable underbelly and share with them my rough draft of my superhero power.

Not only did I see I change in motivation from one day to the next, but I also got some really helpful suggestions for revisions of my own writing. I had students coming up to me excitedly sharing their ideas, and also asking me for suggestions. At one point during my first class period, I stopped to listen to the chatter around me and not one conversation strayed from talk of superheros. At one point a student raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Shaum, I think once we're done, we should all share our superhero names and powers and then write a story where they clash with each other."

Oh the sweet, melodious music of writers. I'm so happy I've finally joined the band.

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayers