Where do you find refuge?

What’s New? This fall semester has been kicking my butt from the first week of classes when I caught COVID-19. In hindsight, I should have boosted over the summer. The virus (and others) has been rampaging through the dorms and classrooms all semester. I have never been able to catch up and it feels like my students (many of them have also been sick) are white knuckling in survival mode too. It it not even midterm yet and I am already dreading the spring if the fall is this bad. All of this to say that I have needed my refuge more than ever. Looking for a little refuge of your own? Join the National Writing Project’s Write Across America to learn if it offers you the respite it offers to me. Sign up today. Learn more here.

As a teacher I strive to make my classroom a refuge and to show my students that writing can be a solace. Student reflections tell me that I succeed because I focus on the humans I am teaching and helping us all land softly.

Original: My work for the National Writing Project is work. No question. There is a lot of tedious, stressful, logistical, brain-hurting, cat-herding work that comes with directing a National Writing Project site. But this is always balanced by what NWP gives me.

Teaching is stressful. Working in education is stressful. This has always been true and a particular challenge at this point in the school year (just ask Vicki Davis as she explains how to make it to the end of the year). Just today one of our Morehead Writing Project site leaders referred to our site as a refuge. For me, those hours and days when I can forget the stress and tedium and just focus on writing and writers are definitely a much-needed respite that helps me maintain my tenuous hold on sanity. I know this is true of others as well.

respiteThe leadership of the Morehead Writing Project is dedicated to making our programs an oasis for the educators and writers we work with and for. There is a great deal of unpleasantness in education today – for teachers and students – and we all need respite. Far too much emphasis on testing and too little time for learning let alone creativity and play. Our goal has always been to foster the growth and development of our teachers and writers by focusing on writing and the teaching of writing, but now, in these troubled times, our goal is to offer respite.

For much of my service to the National Writing Project, I have felt that this work has offered me sanctuary and protection from the uncertainties and vagaries of academic life. As a site director, I try to extend that protection to the teachers I work with celebrating their leadership and contribution in hopes that their administration will recognize them for their education rock star status.

Now, when I feel battered and bruised by my administration and life, I find solace in my writing project work. Tomorrow I will spend the day with 100 writers. We will share our passion for writing, we will explore our world, and we will slam some awesome poetry. I need this day and I need a lawful outlet for my anger.
solace
Which takes me to the question I opened with: where do you find refuge? Do you agree that teachers, students, writers, humans need places of refuge to heal before they can grow? I invite you to find solace with the Morehead Writing Project. We offer programs for students, teachers, and writers throughout the year. Learn more by visiting our web site.

Photo credit: Francisco Antunes via Compfight

Author: Deanna Mascle
#TeachingWriting and leading #NWP site @ Morehead State (KY): Passionate about #AuthenticWriting, #DeeperLearning, #PBL, #Ungrading, and #HyperDocs.

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