A new year is approaching and another is ending. Beginnings are an opportunity to change, to grow, to reflect, and to learn. Have you always wanted to keep a notebook? Have you started and stopped? Do you have a notebook that sits on your desk empty? Here’s a chance for you to develop a habit of notebooking with the second year of 100 Days of Notebooking! #100daysofnotebooking

The challenge is simple: get a notebook and a pen and write in a notebook for the first one-hundred days of the year. That’s it. We’ve created a supportive community so you aren’t notebooking alone! Join us in our Facebook group, #100DaysofNotebooking. You may share your notebooking pages or just posts about your journey as a notebooker...and that's it. No need to sign up. Just show up!

Take THIS as the sign that you’ve been waiting for...it’s your invitation to begin (or continue) your journey as a notebooker.

Notebooking is an essential part of my life. I’ve been notebooking since I was in the fourth grade and now eighty-eight(ish) notebooks later, I am still going strong. Why do I notebook? Why might you start? Here are a few reasons:
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1. Notebooking brings peace of mind during times of stress.
2. Notebooking is an opportunity to take risks in writing. No audience...unless you decide to share something.
3. Notebooking provides me with time to reflect and remember. 
4. YOU are the boss of our own notebook. Take time to figure out what you want from this time. 
5. Because of time spent notebooking, these words are easier to say,
“I am a writer.” ​ 

YOU have a story that’s worth remembering. Invest in yourself. Take a few moments each day and sit with your notebook. It will change your life. I promise!
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And...if you’d like some extra support, you are invited to join me in an online class that I’m facilitating through TeachWrite for notebookers of all skill and experience. YOU are welcome. YOU are invited. We will share our tips and tricks with notebooking. We will share our struggles and brainstorm possible solutions. Interested? Here’s the link for more information and to sign up: Notebooking 101 with Michelle Haseltine.

Here'July has ended and a new month has begun. My hope it that the BINGO challenge was something that motivated you to notebook. I saw lots more notebookers posting in our FB group again. Before we move on to August, I'd love it if you stopped and took some time to reflect on your notebooking for July. This is not a time for judgment, just for noticing. What pages do you enjoy? What are you proud of as a notebooker? Where do you wish you'd done something different? What's your plan for August notebooking? 

Challenges are just invitations. They are jumping off points. YOU are in charge of your own notebook. YOU decide what goes into it and what doesn't. These challenges are to help support you if you don't know where to begin. You are a notebooker. YOU are a writer. Now, let's get moving into AUGUST!

For August, I created this puzzle page. There are sixteen different notebooking ideas included and I wanted to organize them in a new way. How could you use this puzzle? (I made this with Jigsawplant.com.) 

Be creative. Make the whole puzzle today or put it together piece by piece and only do one notebook entry at a time. The most important thing is to HAVE FUN with this! Here's a link to the puzzle's URL if that's easier for you. Here's a link to the entire puzzle: augustnb.jpeg

We are in a global pandemic. The upcoming school year is filled with uncertainties and unknowns and it can be frightening. School is something we’ve always been able to depend upon without much thought. Now, teachers are scrambling to make successful learning environments for the students. Teachers do this...they rise to the occasion. While doing research for my own teaching, I’ve discovered something that's been troubling to me...it’s the digital notebook. I’ve seen post after post and tweet after tweet with fancy templates to create digital notebooks that students can use when we return to school. 

Taking our classes online is a real challenge. We will have lots of success and many failures too...it’s all part of the learning process. I’d like to urge you to be thoughtful about digital notebooks. Analyze your reasoning for why you’d like to implement the digital notebook and how it will help your students and their learning. 

Let me pause here before I go on and express my deep love for digital writing. I mean, I’m doing it right now. It’s powerful and it can reach a wide audience and it’s faster than notebooking. It’s different. What I write in a digital space is nothing like what I write in the pages of my notebook. I want to be clear about my feelings. It’s not that I want to abandon digital writing...not at all. The digital space has provided many new and valuable opportunities for all writers, including me. My plea is simple: to continue with both kinds of writing. My fear is that analog notebooks (paper notebooks) will be thrown to the side and forgotten. I implore teachers, as they are preparing and planning for the upcoming school year, to continue to utilize an analog notebook as a tool to use with their students.

Today I completed my own mini-writing marathon. I grabbed my notebook, pens, and walked around my neighborhood. I am lucky enough to live next to a town center with shops and restaurants and places to gather together. I've lived here for twelve years and I feel like I never took time to appreciate the beauty of where I live. For me, today was a huge success and something I plan on doing more often. I am going to set a goal for myself to take myself on a mini-writing marathon as least once a week. 

I took lots of photos, so here's my mini-writing marathon...

One of my favorite things about the notebooking group on Facebook is how we learn from each other. There are so many creative and interesting ways to make notebook pages. One of my favorite things to do if I can't think of what to write, is to browse through the photos. There are so many pages, I don't even know where to begin. I find myself constantly inspired by the pages of other notebookers! Every day I find something new to try!

A couple of weeks ago, Stacy Nolan decided that she was going to write a letter to herself in her notebook. What a brilliant idea! I thought. I decided I'd try it too. The first letter I wrote to myself was a giant failure. I hated every word. Nothing about it felt right or good...I abandoned the letter. The next week, after seeing more and more of Stacy's letter and after listening to her speak about them, I decided to try again. 

This time the words flowed much more smoothly. I felt more connected to this kind of writing and my letter felt like a success. I even started writing other letters. It's a practice that I continue a few times a week and I am finding the letters to be helpful and a place where I discover things about how I'm feeling. 

​I'm so grateful to the notebooking community over on Facebook. We'd love to have you join us! Thursday is National Notebooking Day...it's in two days! I want to celebrate my fellow notebookers and their bravery for showing up to the page and sharing their journey! I am a better notebooker because of all of you!

My Love Letter to the Ocean

The sky is
still inky black-
I sit in the Adirondack chair
alone
on the porch-
breathing in your
briny scent
and listening.

All I can hear
is the rhythm
of your waves.

I hold my breath
for just a moment-
knowing
you’re out there
even though
I can’t see you.

Until-
the sun decides
to begin the day
soon the black
turns purple and pink-

Now I can see you- 
and I can’t stop myself
I stand
and walk towards you-

The sand is cool
between my toes
and the salty air 
kisses my cheeks.

At last, 
we’re together again-
you wash over my feet
in a greeting-
absolving
loving
welcoming me home.