Sheila Sims Iding
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." Wordsworth
It’s one of my favorite quotes about writing…and writers…and having heart.
When I was lucky enough to be chosen to be part of the Red Cedar Writing Project at MSU 3 years ago, I was lucky enough to tap into my love of writing. Ever since I was little I loved writing. I wrote mostly poems at first but I did enough writing that my dad almost begged me to go into journalism in college. He knew I loved writing before I did. Wise man.
When the boys were growing I wrote them books and stories and letters. When each one started high school, I wrote them letters in a book to journal their high school days. They didn’t know I was writing their high school journal. I gave it to them when they graduated to take with them off to college. It was a special gift for them...for me.
When they left for college I also wrote them each a book of Life Lessons to help them remember what was important growing up…and moving on in life. I tucked that book under their pillow in their first dorm room.
I have written stories for my classroom. One about Oscar (and short “o” words) and one about Oliver and the life lessons of a dog. Both have been useful additions to my classroom and both have been great releases for my desire to write. And I have written many photo journals and books mostly to appease my love of writing...and an eagerness to celebrate and preserve memories.
My writings aren’t eloquent or sophisticated or even grammatically correct. I write about simple things and I break grammar rules all the time on purpose if I think it helps the flow of the thought on paper. I even make up words because word “makingup” is fun. My writings aren’t published anywhere…but they are published in my heart.
Even before the Red Cedar Writing Project, I had a classroom blog. This classroom blog. The one you are reading. I would write a few things each week about the comings and goings and in-betweens of Care Corner. But once I started the Writing Project, I began to write about life things in addition to classroom things so I started “My Writing Project” blog. http://writingprojects.weebly.com/ It was there that I share the life “breathings of my heart”. It is there that the above quote is written as the motto of that blog.
To challenge myself as a writer, I wanted to try something different with this year’s Care Corner blog. I wanted write a blog every single day of school. Every. Single. Day.
I knew it would be challenging some days to find the words, the idea, the time, the picture, the thoughts that go into a blog. It was hampered by the fact that I didn't use pictures of my kids' faces and I couldn't use names. All for the sake of media security. Of course I wish to "protect" the kids but I wish I could have put a name to a story and/or a face to the spider-holding, the puppy tending, the Rosary leader. The security made the writing more challenging.
I knew there would be days when three amazing things happened and I would have to choose to write about all three, choose to write about one or divide and conquer.
There were days I had my idea by 8:10 in the morning from something a Care Corner kid prompted. There were days standing in the car line at the end of the day that something would grab my mind. And days on the way home where I had no clue what to write.
But, it turned out, there was always something to write about. Some days were more interesting than others. Some writings more complex. Some longer…and some brief. Some made me weepy as I wrote and some made me smile with each word. Some were touching…some were sad…some silly and some just first grade business.
Some were religious, some were personal and some may have been too opinionated. But every day there was something to write about. Something to share. It’s the essence of spending your day with first graders. There is always something.
I thought I was doing the daily writings, not only to challenge myself, but for the parents…to give them a little window into the world of a Care Corner Kid. Everyday. And many parents told me that is exactly the purpose it served. I am so very grateful for the parents who read the blog and appreciated the intent. Some parents never read the blog…and that’s okay too. Many former parents read the blog and reminisced about former Care Corner Days. And some teachers and colleagues read the blog and shared their thoughts with me.
The main purpose of the Care Corner blog has always been for the parents. The writing every day was for the writer’s challenge…but still it was to serve the parents. I probably won’t write a daily classroom blog next year. It was a lot of work...and I will admit I was thankful for the snow days. Next year I may do a daily photo journal instead and go back to the once or twice-a-week blog writing. There will always be a Care Corner blog…just not every single day.
As I close this final lesson…this final Care Corner blog writing of this school year…I realize that, while I did it for the parents, I did something special for myself. I created a special journal of an entire year in Care Corner. An entire year of special first graders with amazing parents who filled 165 lessons with incredible memories. Day-by-day, I created a special keepsake because I could fill the “…paper with the breathings of my heart.” Every. Single. Day.