Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?
Hal Borland
This is a series of photo images from my morning walk today in the gardens.
The last week has been hectic. It was busy at school, busy at home, and busy over the week-end. When I get overwhelmed with what to do next, I write. I organize my thoughts. I also take time to breathe in the beauty of my surroundings.
When was the last time you learned something new? How did you remember it? Did you write it down? I am a teacher and I learn new things every day. Oftentimes I learn those things from my students. I have to write things down to keep them in my brain. I tell students the importance of taking notes and commenting on text is to learn. Not only to learn, but to keep it in the brain.
I went to a dynamic workshop last Thursday/Friday. He shared information about brain research and said we might remember 40% of what we learned when we walked out the door... unless we wrote it down. Then it would stick with us longer. I took good notes, then tonight I retaught all that I learned to another person. The notes were the learning. Yes...I remembered most of it. Yes... I wrote and also learned. Above is the hallway leading to my classroom where we write to learn every day.
I write to remember. Sometimes it is just a grocery list, a to-do list, or events on the calendar for the upcoming week.
I wrote to remember how I felt when my first niece was born. I wrote to remember what I learned while doing a Master's degree. I wrote to make people laugh when I emceed an event. I wrote to tell my friend she meant the world to me.
I write to remember how important the act or words to paper or screen needs to be modeled for students. I write in a journal to remember what happened in a teaching day. I write to let parents know what is going on in the classoom.
I also write to remember small moments. When my puppy came home, my older dog died, my mother got cancer, my friend moved away, we traveled to a beautiful campground, or I prepared a beautiful dinner. I remember when we saw swans on our sister trip to Walla Walla. i want to remember these small moments so I write them down.
Why do you write?
This week the National Writing Project is celebrating National Writing Day on October 20th. The theme this year is " Why I Write".
I write to help make sense of my world. I write to bring meaning to the photographs I take obsessively every hour of every day. I write to calm myself down when I am somewhere I don't want to be. I write to remember. I write to organize. I write to account for my life. Again, I write to make sense of my world.
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