Teachers Write! Weekly Check In #4

It’s week four and the end of Teachers Write and our summer of poetry and play!

It took me all week to get back into the swing of things. Not only was I transitioning out of vacation mode but I was also starting to get back into school mode. Not a lot, I do my best to enjoy my summer time because I know once school starts, I’ll be all in. But this week was August and I felt the call to start thinking about school again.

Here are a couple of pictures of some really peaceful moments: I rode my Vespa to early morning yoga classes and went for walks in nature. These times to connect with ourselves and to explore what that feels like are so important. 

While I was busy holding on to summer, I loved Nikki Grimes suggestion to pay attention to word choice and Margarita Engle’s offer to think about line breaks. My Teachers Write writing has been inspired from the guest authors so I decided to play with the paragraph above with Nikki and Margarita’s advice in mind. 

The Summer Switch

August hits and

it’s time

to get back 

into the swing of things

out of vacation mode 

back 

into school mode

I know 

once school starts

I’ll be all in 

I’ll enjoy the time I still have as much as I can

but I can’t ignore

it’s August and 

it’s time

to start thinking about school again

That’s what I accomplished this week! It feels really good to be able to write about what I’m feeling and then to flex my creativity and turn it into a poem. I know how important it is to be a teacher who writes but I also truly love how powerful it is to be a human who writes. I have a feeling you feel it too. Isn’t it awesome?!

Teachers Write Weekly Check-In Agreements:

1. We respect each other and the type of writing we each do.

2. We are positive and encourage each other.

3. We recognize and maintain this as a safe, inclusive environment for all.

4. We have fun!

Ideas for today in the comments section:

How did you do this week? Did you meet your weekly goal(s)?

What was the pit of your week? (The hardest part, the non-fun part?)

What was the peak of your week? (The best part, the most-fun part?)

My Weekly Check-In: I had high hopes for this week but I didn’t add words to my work in progress. I’m not sure what this means other than I took time to care for myself and that was important. I love writing and I wrote everyday, I just didn’t work on adding words to my manuscript. It’s there. I know it’s waiting for me. I know it knows I love it. What I needed most this week was to get back to my morning pages and my daily writing practice for me, as a way to connect with myself. I had take a little break from morning pages but it really is a lovely practice that I enjoy so I made sure to sit and spend time with my thoughts everyday this week and it was really lovely. I feel grounded and grateful and ready to start to shift back into schoo mode. I think because I know it is going to get really real here soon, I needed to really take time for myself this week so I’m glad I did. I often will write and pull cards to see what message comes up and that was really powerful for me this week. 

The best part of the week were those moments when I really let my thoughts flow. I felt connected to myself and like I could really hear what my inner being had to say and that was really lovely. I’m bummed I didn’t work on my work in progress but quite honestly, the week moved so fast and all of a sudden it was Friday and time to work on this recap. So I guess it’s good that I wasn’t hard on myself for not working on my ms, it just sort of went that way!

Thank you for joining in on the Teachers Write fun! And for stopping by to check in and share your writing life with me and other Teachers Write participants. Being part of this community has truly been life changing for me and I’m so grateful to have gotten to be part of Teachers Write for all these years!