This is supposed to be a place I can come to write about what's happening in my life as a parent and student teacher, and maybe even a writer and reader.
And it's Spring now, so here goes.
In my eighth grade class, we are asking our students to write poetry every day and we also give them prompts to guide them in their in-class writing. It's bringing up -- for them and for me -- some questions about the craft of writing. I know it's there, but I often feel like the kids who'll write, "I don't know what to say, hey, it's fun here and I like to skateboard." It's not that I'm uninspired, but my brain is full of all sorts of other things. Maybe I can make found poetry from this list:
"To do:
Buy shop vac
get shelves for the basement
Call utilities companies to let them know we are moving"
Wow?
We are moving in less than two weeks, so, on top of getting paperwork together for student teaching, I am full of the details involved in said move. I try not to reminisce about my great college days of sitting in coffee shops, reading Dickinson and smoking cigarettes. They were not, I'm sure, the "glory days" I remember them to be -- but I was writing, creatively, on a daily basis. There's definitely something to be said for that practice.
Here's to Spring and the renewal of my writing life.
This is a phrase we utter often in our house. It helps all of us -- helps to sort through the good and the bad; our two-year-old daughter uses it too and we are reminded of our own faltering.
So here I am. I keep another blog, just for my daughter, but I really wanted a place to write about other 'things'. I hope this can be a place I come as a respite. Over the past 18 months I've written countless reflection papers for my graduate program. When I complain to my husband that I don't write enough, he kindly points out that I've been writing a lot...but it's not what I really want to say.
Let's see what happens here.
