Within the Pages of My Notebook by Andy Schoenborn

Okay. Okay. I have stalled long enough.  I'm not sure why, but this post has been a challenge for me.  Wait, that is not entirely true.  I know exactly why the post has been difficult.

It is entirely too easy to encourage others to be vulnerable as a writer.

Heck, I even tweet about quite a bit!

But, choosing to share your writing insecurities is something else entirely.

I remember when I first started sharing my sloppy writing process on the visualizer in front of my students.  I was so nervous, and I worried a lot.

• I worried students would see my mistakes - I am no grammarian.
• I worried students would mock my dyslexia - a love for literacy and dyslexia seem odd partners.
• I worried students would perceive my half thoughts as noticings as crazy.
• I worried students would lose confidence in my ability to teach them how to write.

Still, I was compelled to push myself, knowing mentor teachers like Murray, Graves, Atwell, Newkirk, Kittle, and Gallagher were showing me the way. Eventually, I could no longer hide behind my fears.

When I overcame my anxiety, I noticed students appreciated when I wrote in the raw. It helped them to see that writing struggles were not theirs alone to bear. Sharing my writing helped me understand the moves I make as a writer as well.

As I paid close attention to my writing mentors, I noticed each of them sharing their process at conferences in plain sight. They sit in the front row, notebooks in hand, and capture ideas on the physical page. The most remarkable instance of notebooking I have seen was when Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle were speaking with Nancie Atwell.  As she spoke, they both down and wrote in their notebooks capturing as much as they could, and it all happened on stage!

Wow!

Meanwhile, I was busy tweeting, hoping to remember the tweets I like and telling myself I would return to them, but it never happened.  Digital note-taking, for me, stays in cyberspace, whereas my physical writing stays close by - usually tucked under my arm - right where I like to keep it.

When I met Michelle Haseltine, a middle school teacher from Virginia and - for my money - a quintessential notebooker, she gushed over the positive aspects of note booking whenever she had the chance.  Recently, she shared her pages, and they looked great!

Her notebook pages were neat and organized. They contained colorful ink, interesting pictures, and inspirational stickers. They are, quite simply, beautiful works of metacognitive art.  

Michelle's notebook looked nothing like mine. My notebooks are just for me. The writing is too loose. They are mostly illegible (even for me). In comparison, my notebooks are a mess.

  

Yet, they work for me.

I am a big idea person, and I find that I think much quicker than I write. I feel the need to capture my ideas as fast as I can, for fear the words may just float away and be gone forever.

My notebooks are like scratchings, in which I can stay on the surface of the ideas for a while to get them down, then go back, land for gold, reflect, and curate the moments I don't want to lose.

Good examples are my notes from Beers and Probst's Disrupting Thinking and Newkirk's Embarrassment.

I like to arrange the ideas in a 3 x 3 grid using an amateur photography technique called the rule of thirds.  By placing a subject (or idea) along the sight lines, they create a more dynamic view and become memorable. Taking it a step further, using Canva to create concise image resources makes it possible to share my noticings with you!

Not all notebooks are created the same. I wish mine were artistic expressions, but that is not the purpose. Just as each writer develops their own voice over time, each notebook is the unique signature of the mind who wrote it.

Yeah, my notebooks are sloppy and, for the most part, illegible but when I think of it as my signature, I am reminded of the prescriptions my doctors write. Their signatures are notoriously indecipherable and yet, their patents receive just what they need.

Within the pages of my notebooks, so do I.

Andy Schoenborn is a high school English teacher in Michigan at Mt. Pleasant Public Schools.  He focuses his work on progressive literacy methods including student-centered critical thinking, digital collaboration, and professional development.  As a past-president of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English and National Writing Project teacher consultant for Central Michigan University’s Chippewa River Writing Project he frequently conducts workshops related to literacy and technology.  Read his thoughts on literacy in the elafieldbook.wordpress.com, read his student’s poetry on livewrite.edublogs.com, and follow him on Twitter @aschoenborn.