I Need to Write a Book

For several years I have been entertaining the notion of writing a book. Many times I have decided a topic is book-worthy and declared, "I should write a book." However, I haven't settled on a single topic and haven't set aside the time to write, so no book has been written. I was lamenting this fact to my colleague Rachel on a long road trip today and sharing some of my ideas with an occasional "Oh, I just remembered another book idea!" peppering our conversation. Rachel suggested I should write my ideas down as a first step in getting a book in print. Here are the ideas, in no particular order.

I am an advocate of student collaboration across grade levels. My middle school students have conversed about books with high school seniors and found the collaboration so satisfying that we did something similar for students in fifth grade. My students created math trails for second graders and helped kindergartners identify coins and count things. My students read to preschoolers. They responded as Secret Santas to the Santa letters of first-graders. They wrote creative pieces with anti-drug messages and the high school drama students performed them for the annual DARE program. Finally, my students have conversed with adult mentors who personally encouraged them to go on to college and careers.

I enjoyed using I and fun activities to enhance learning. A doctor puppet was Dr. Grammar who introduced episodes of Grammar Hospital where the staff takes apart sentences to identify their parts. A bloodied rubber hand was the "helping hand" I could offer students when they needed help. This idea is the closest I have come to writing a book with many ideas already written down; however, I need a tighter structure.

My Al-anon sponsor is an English teacher so I had to write my way through the twelve steps. I ended up inserting a lot of my poems into the narrative so I have a memoir of sorts. A Poet Writes Her Way Through the Twelve Steps

I have introduced women in Al-anon to writing poetry, and they act as if it has been lifesaving with a core group returning bi-monthly to write poetry. I could create a book of exercises.

Lately I have been collecting books on art journaling, but I haven't found any books that are directed to teachers for use with their students. I am collaborating with an artist to create a workshop on the topic. We might as well write a book too.

Now that I've written the list, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Exhausted and too overwhelmed by the enormity of the project to even begin or energized and enthusiastic that the list is at least something of a beginning. One day at a time, one page at a time.