2020 #100DaysofNotebooking

12/19/2020

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:

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!

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.

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8/1/2020

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

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7/28/2020

The Importance of the Analog Notebook!

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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.

What is a notebook? (An analog notebook)
A notebook is a physical space in which a writer writes regularly. It’s a collection of pages-paper- where writers express themselves. A notebook is a place to collect, to think, to reflect, to risk, to escape, and to grow. A notebook can be a place for comfort. A notebook is a place to get what’s inside my head OUT of my head. It’s a powerful writer’s tool. A notebook isn't just one thing, it’s a place to be messy and try new things. It’s a place to struggle through uncertainty and celebrate successes. It’s where I learn.

This resource, the analog notebook, may be a challenge to manage in our COVID teaching lives, but it’s too valuable to let go. Writing on a laptop or a tablet isn’t the same as the writing that goes into the notebook. It feels different. The words we use are different. The entire experience is different. Let's think about why we need to continue with analog notebooks with students. Here are some of the most important reasons why I will notebook with my students this year.

Notebooking with my students is a time to process our ideas and thoughts, to express and grow our creativity, and to just try out new things! It’s a safe place where we can be messy- and in that mess, the creativity oozes out and helps us grow as writers. Notebooking time is a precious time for my middle school writers and the loss of that time will be felt.
There are many social-emotional benefits to keeping a notebook. Ask any writer who keeps a notebook (ask any writer) about the benefits of notebook keeping. It’s not the only reason to notebook, but it’s a valuable reason. Writing rants or doodling through a lecture, writing a letter or making lists...all of these notebook pages give the notebooker a feeling of accomplishment or freedom.
We need time away from screens! Whether we will be in the classroom or learning from home, I think we can all agree that time away from screens is crucial and necessary, especially now. Time spent with my notebook and a pen feels calmer to me and I know it will feel calmer for students and even for parents.
Use it as an opportunity for family learning. You could invite more family members to notebook alongside your student...just like when families read together!
Notebooking is a place to think and figure things out ON the page. I often begin notebooking with a question and when I’m finished, the answer is different than I thought. It allows notebookers to go deeper into their thinking and to be reflective in a safe place where there’s no audience.
The audience for the notebook page is the notebooker. This allows the writer to take real risks and be messy and get things wrong and continue to work it out until the answer becomes clearer. Invite students to share one page or one entry a week and allow it to be a time of celebration.
Notebooks allow focus without distractions. Working on a device means that distractions are available everywhere. We all fall victim to it. Notebooks are a page and a pen. The freedom to just be in the notebook takes practice but it builds writing stamina and focused attention.
It’s fun. We can really let go and be ourselves on a notebook page and that can be so much fun!

I urge you to go to your analog notebook right now and figure out what you really think about continuing this practice with your students. If you don’t have one, today’s a perfect day to begin!

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7/11/2020

My Own Mini-Writing Marathon

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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...

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7/10/2020

Writing Marathon

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Even when we have to be apart, we can still write together!

We will reschedule.

What to expect:

You will need a notebook and a pen (or many pens)!
The marathon will last for three hours.
To begin, declare yourself a writer. Say it. Out loud. “I am a writer.” This is a time when you SIT. WRITE. MOVE to a new LOCATION. REPEAT. SHARE. SAY THANK YOU.
Find a good spot to start and write there for a bit. (15-20 minutes is suggested)
Use the surroundings to inspire your writing.
Gather your notebook and pens and walk to another spot. Sit. Write again.
We suggest at least four locations where you can write.
We will offer ideas for writing, but write wherever your ideas take you.
Take photos of your time writing, the places you write, what you write. Share in our google folder! Share on social media! (More details to come!)
At 1 pm ET, we will meet on Zoom and everyone will share a Golden Line (their best/favorite sentence) from what they wrote. The only response to the writing will be “Thank you.”

Writing Location Suggestions:
If possible, find a place where you are able to walk around outside. You should plan to be in the same general area for the entire three hours so you don’t lose time driving around. We suggest:

Park
Go to a place you’ve never been before
Somewhere quiet
Somewhere Noisy
Where you can listen to the sounds around you
A spot with no windows
Somewhere familiar

What do I write?
You get to decide. Here are a few ideas:

Listen to the sounds and incorporate them into a poem
Write a letter to the town you’re in. What do you have to say?
Pay attention to the changing of locations and how that impacts your writing. Write about that.
Create a story for yourself. Give yourself a fictional reason for why you are sitting where you are, writing in your notebook on a weekday morning.
Make a list of sensory details. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, feel? Turn it into something.
Doodle. Write.
Do none of those! Give yourself permission to write ANYTHING YOU WANT TO WRITE!

Learn more about Writing Marathons:
What is a writing marathon? “It’s about the writer and the writing.” Writing marathons were created by Natalie Goldberg.

Want to join us?
Please sign up here to receive more information before our Writing Marathon Day, including information about the Google Folder, the Zoom link, and social media hashtags.

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6/30/2020

Challenge for July!

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July has some very important dates for us notebookers! July 1st marks halfway through 2020. July 18th is the 200th day of the year. If you've been notebooking daily, it's your 200th day of notebooking.

For many of us, we've missed a few days and some of us have paused our notebooking habit, so here's a challenge to bring us all back! I've created a BINGO board with ideas for notebooking. Download the board, tape into your notebook, and notebook!

Get BINGO vertically or horizontally or complete the entire board. YOU decide!!!!

Share your pages and your entries in our Facebook group! We'd love to see what you're creating! Can't wait to begin this new challenge...Happy Notebooking!!!

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5/20/2020

Happy Notebooking Month: Top Ten Ways to Celebrate!

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It’s time to celebrate. National Notebook Day is the third Thursday in the month of May and it’s been officially celebrated since 2016. That means this year it’s May 21, 2020. I know lots of people who extend holiday celebrations, don’t you? I mean the stores always have decorations out months in advance! My mother celebrates the entire month of August for her birthday. That's where I got the idea to declare May- Notebooking Month! For this entire month, you get to celebrate everything that is “notebook”.

There’s a lot to celebrate in the world of notebooking and there are the top ways we can celebrate! I’m sure you can think of more and if you do, please share your ideas.

10. Exchange notebooking gifts.
Find other notebookers and arrange a gift exchange. Buy a lovely notebook, find the perfect pen, stickers, washi tape, or even a book to inspire the notebooking. Wrap up the gift and share it with your favorite notebooker.

9. On the actual DAY, have a notebooking party!
Parties are the best! We’ve celebrated in class before with lots of fun notebook pages and sharing and snacks, of course, snacks! Have your own party! Everyone must bring their notebook. Be creative. Have fun! Celebrate!! And then notebook about it.

8. Begin a daily notebooking ritual.
The best way to celebrate is to show up to the page. Open your notebook every day in the month of May. Be reflective. Think about the routine or ritual you’ve created- or the one you’d like to create- around your notebooking time. Consider when and where you’ll notebook. Which tools will you require?

7. Reflect and reread past notebooks.
For those of you who are already notebookers, take time and reread a notebook. Go back to the beginning. Pay attention. Look for trends. What did you write about? What can you learn from your notebook pages? While I’m creating my pages, I rarely love them, but when I go back after time has passed, I usually find pages I love. What do you love? What do you want more of? How can you continue your notebooking? What will you change? Enjoy this journey into the past.

6. Find your preferred notebook.
Take some time and really consider what kind of notebooks you prefer: lined pages, blank pages, or dotted. Do you like larger notebooks or smaller and what about the cover and bindings? Hard cover or soft, spiral bound or not? There’s so much to consider. Look around and find the best kind of notebook for yourself. Splurge. Treat yourself to a brand new notebook!

5. Now the pens.
Once you have the perfect notebook, finding just the right pen becomes your new quest. Ink or gel pens? Maybe you prefer writing with a pencil? I like writing with markers and gel pens. Stabilo and InkJoy are two of my favorite brands. Go pen shopping! The right writing utensil can make all the difference.

4. Take time to put photos and ephemera into your notebook.
I have a pile of photos and stuff that I’m saving to put into my notebook. It seems like I can never find just the right time. Set aside some time and make those notebook pages with the photos and memories that you want to save. Add stickers or washi tape. Allow yourself time to be creative in the pages of your notebook. What a gift to yourself!

3. Use your notebook in a new way.
Open your notebook to write. Do you have your pen ready? OK, before you write, turn your notebook upside down. Write in your notebook upside down or sideways. Write on the page in a spiral. There’s something about changing your perspective that’s fun. You’ll see it in your writing for that day. It will have a different feel. Play with your notebook!

2. Go on a notebook outing.
Natalie Goldberg started something called Writing Marathons. Inspired by that idea, grab your notebook and write in the wild. Go to a local park and find a spot to write. Bring your notebook to a pub and write while you enjoy a sandwich. The possibilities are endless. Observe your surroundings. Listen. Write! Invite a friend to join you on this adventure!

1. Invite someone to notebook with you.
Being a notebooker is good, inviting others to join you on the journey makes it better. You can invite a younger writer to join you and spend time notebooking together or invite a friend, who already notebooks, out for coffee and bring your notebooks. You can join a notebooking group and find other notebookers too, like #100DaysofNotebooking!

However you decide to celebrate, make sure you take some time to write in your notebook. You are a notebooker! Happy Notebooking Month!!!

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5/19/2020

Celebrating Notebookers!

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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!

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5/11/2020

My Love Letter to the Ocean

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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.

Donnetta told us all about this book. This poetry book that she was enjoying! Eventually, we all bought the same book! In the Teach Write Accountability Writing Group, we all decided to write a poem from this book using the same idea. OCEAN...that's what we picked. It was not a smooth journey for me to write this poem, but I enjoyed it. My first attempt was awful! I didn't know where to begin, so I crossed it all out. The next attempt was too cliche. I'd written all of that before. I did NOT like it.

I tried again and something I liked better emerged...but it still wasn't right. Messy. Drafts. A few good lines...

A few hours later, I came back to it. After talking about it with another writer, I got a new idea. She mentioned that she used a memory to write her poem. That's where my final poem came from. I love early mornings on the beach all by myself, so that's where the final poem (from above) came from. Here's that notebook page...

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5/7/2020

Another Ordinary Day

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Today is Thursday. It's an ordinary Thursday...nothing to write home about, as they say. What do I notebook on days like this? When I notebook first thing in the morning, I think about my day ahead and what I might like to accomplish—so I wrote a to do list. Sometimes I will write an "I Get To" List and other times I make a "Done" list. List making is fun to do in your notebook!

Recording the weather and about my routine is something I like to do sometimes. Looking back on notebook pages with details about part of a morning routine, like walking the dog, always makes me nostalgic. As we live our daily routine, we think that we will remember forever, when the truth is we forget those simple moments so quickly.

What will you notebook about today?

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<<Previous

#100 Days of Notebooking
2020

Invitation to Year Two

August Notebooking Invitation

The Importance of the Analog Notebook!

My Own Mini-Writing Marathon

Writing Marathon

Challenge for July!

Happy Notebooking Month: Top Ten Ways to Celebrate!

Celebrating Notebookers!

My Love Letter to the Ocean

Another Ordinary Day

#100 Days of Notebooking2020

#100 Days of Notebooking
2020