The Importance of the Analog Notebook!

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. 

1. 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. 
2. 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. 
3.  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. 
4. 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! 
5. 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. 
6. 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. 
7. 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. 
8. 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!