Those carefree, long-lost summers -- zooming downhill on my bike with the wind whipping my helmet-free hair and peering into the murky water of the neighborhood creek, searching for tadpoles. Truly the good ol’ days!
I had a diary, just larger than pocket size, with a beige, cloth cover and red trim. It had dated pages, but the summer pages were the ones I filled. In the teen years, though, I couldn’t stand to read what I wrote -- to see my handwriting, my immaturity….so I ripped out all the pages!
I wish I’d hung onto that diary and the others that followed. Memories of my childhood are pieced together in bits and continue to fade.
I believe things will be different for my students. We have writers’ notebooks and in them, they write about what they love (always choice writing!) and I write along with them. Our share time can go on and on when we let it; those are my favorite days! Their notebooks are special to them; they enjoy going back and rereading what they wrote on a certain date.
Writing along with my students is the best part of the day, and I don’t want it to end this summer. There’s real power in picking up a pen and writing whatever strikes you.
This summer, I plan to wake up and write for 30 minutes (or longer if I feel like it). Summer days are great for this and if I keep it up, I won’t find myself struggling to piece together forgotten memories. I plan to share my writing (good and bad!) with next year’s students, as a way to encourage their daily writing habit!
As teachers, we can revisit freedom-filled summers, taking time to relax in the breeze and coast our bikes down hills. We can take it all in and write about it while reconnecting with our younger selves. In doing so, we make more powerful connections with our students. We also reconnect with ourselves -- in both the past and present -- and often rediscover the joy and power of writing while recording precious memories.
Danielle Waller is a fourth-grade teacher at Dunn Elementary in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a career changer with a background in journalism and public relations. Follow her on Twitter: @Danielle_Waller.
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I so wish I had writing from my childhood. I loved writing stories and poems. Each year I try to write more and share with students than the previous year. It is a continuous work in progress. Thank you for sharing your peek at the "good ol' days."
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