This year I introduced my students to the concept of a Writer's Notebook. We are still introducing the idea - I think it will go even better as the year goes on - and next year - once the kids (and I) get more used to how the notebook can work.
I made this switch because I read a great book (surprise, surprise) about using them in a classroom. I loved the idea of my kids having something they can take with them, somewhere they can keep their ideas, somewhere they can safely try new things and new expressions of themselves and their creativity. In our first week writing specific entries in the Notebook, my heart just swelled as I watched 24 heads bent over their notebook and listened to 24 pencils scratching across the paper. I almost couldn't contain myself as I listened to them share what they wrote. I love these kids. I love the stories they represent - the potential.
Just as I am getting excited about this idea of keeping a writing notebook myself, and helping my students get in the habit of it too, I found this - a pin board on Pinterest about Art Journaling.
It inspires me - it makes me want to draw and color and keep an art journal myself. I am NOT an artist and my stuff won't look a quarter as amazing as these. But - I think - an art journal could be a place to try anyway. It could be just for me - a safe place where I can be a horrible artist but not care - a place to experiment and try something new....
Maybe there's an art journal in my future....
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