Through lockdown and over the summer I have managed to establish some good writing habits. My journal is never far away and, consequently, is bursting full.
Every year, though, September hits me like a train and those writing habits evaporate - generally alongside taking in the first pile of marking. It really shouldn’t be so hard to find the ten or fifteen minutes in a day to sit, reflect and allow the pen to talk to the page, but somehow it always is. Even though I know that it is good me, not just for my energy and well-being but as ever-present, brilliant CPD that will make a difference in the classroom.
Because our month of lockdown prompts proved so popular, Jeni Smith has been busy putting together another series of ideas to carry us all through September and the start of the new year.
Jeni explains how important it is to find that space for our own writing:
Writing is often the thing that we set aside for other things, for other people. We make appointments for the dentist, to see an anxious A level student, to help a colleague. Make an appointment with your writing. If you have a calendar write it in there. Colour code it. Put it on your phone and set the alarm. You need only fifteen minutes. If that is all you have between one thing and another, set a timer just short of the time you have available and get going.
The prompts for September are a mixed bag. Most of them should just set you going for a fifteen minute workout. Some may grow into something more extended so you may not wish to do a new prompt each day, but continue from where you left off. Many of the prompts have your professional life as a teacher in mind. I am inviting you, if you are so inclined, to use writing to reflect on your teaching. You may find you use just a few prompts over the course of the month. Many can be revisited daily. In the end, they are only prompts. Use them however you wish. You may even find that you use them as children do when they tell you they are bored. After you have listed a number of things they don’t want to do, they suddenly say, ‘Oh, I know what I’ll do.’ Go ahead!
So, no excuses. Keep your writing habit going through the new term, or cultivate a new one.