Living Life Twice

  Writer Joan Didion famously said our (writer’s) notebooks give us away. We are revealed by the contents. Our notebooks are a place to collect, then take those collected items and use them to spark further original writing. As Ralph Fletcher, writer and educator reminds us, we use our notebooks to breathe in (collect) and breathe out (generate). With these thoughts ringing in my ears, I envisage notebooks brimming with words and ideas across a range of subjects and genres. The notebook is a place to experiment, take risks, make important discoveries, or excavate memories and ideas from deep within. It can be a place to have fun with words. So why is it that in some classrooms when students take out their notebooks the pages reveal a picture far removed from the images I have just outlined?     Why does one get the impression that the notebook in these school settings is only realizing a small part of its potential? Why is the critical ingredient –‘writing,’ so lacki...

In my many conversations with teachers, the subject often turns to writing beyond the classroom. I urge both the teachers and their young writers to write beyond those four walls. -Write around the school, and weather permitting occasionally write outside of the classroom. Write at home.  Make a conscious effort to write somewhere else, somewhere different and see what it brings to your writing experience. Taking the time to write in a different location allows a broader range of sensory elements to influence your mind, your writing.  Consider your notebook as a travelling companion. Tuck it under your arm and write in wild, unfamiliar spaces. Actively challenge the notion that writing is something we just do at school.  Make it a form of portable magic, just like reading. Let's re-imagine writing as a free-range activity! Some writers need a special place to write. They can only write in that space, that particular location -by the sea, in the mountains, in a cottag...