Where Do You Find Joy?

batman

What’s Really New? This has been a challenging semester and I just wrapped up the fifth week by going to bed at 9:30 and sleeping for 10 hours. I have yet to find my rhythm and worry that I may not because life. A semester of struggling in survival mode is not what I want for myself or my students. But there has been joy and it is that joy that has carried me through from the slant essays my students are composing to the writing marathons I’ve joined with friends. And always there is the joy that poetry brings to my life whether I am writing or reading or bringing into the classroom. Where do you find joy in hard times?

What’s New? Today I am filled with joy because I wrote a poem and posted it to the Lexington Poetry Month Challenge (my 8th year participating). Is there anything more delicious than crafting a poem that fills you with delight? I especially love this poem because I carved it out of a journal entry I wrote in the fall with my first year writing students. I loved the poem so much I wanted to share it with those students but restrained myself. I know some of those students would enjoy hearing from me again because we build a wonderful writing community but this is summer and I prefer to avoid my campus email and expect they do as well.

But June is also a busy month for the Morehead Writing Project so as I wrote in the original post I am also finding joy in my work. Last night I had to cut short my nightly visit to the park (to read, write, and walk) for work – but it was delightful work with Morehead WP teacher leaders to plan some amazing young writer programs. I capped my evening off with another conversation with the summer institute co-director about our preparations. Tonight I will miss my park visit entirely due to a planning meetings for the National Writing Project’s fourth Write Across America virtual writing marathon. But I love that work so much I’m not really sorry. So I am working this summer but so much of this work brings me joy. If you are looking for some joy by joining a writing community and seeking some writing inspiration I encourage you to sign up for Write Across America and learn more about previous year’s here. In addition to WAA, I’m also taking part in the Lexington Poetry Month Challenge for the eighth year. How are you finding your joy this summer?

Original: After spending the morning panicking at the thought of all I need to accomplish within the next seven days, I have decided to instead focus on the positive aspects of my life at this moment. I need to spend more time counting my blessings instead of my unfinished tasks (and I suspect I am not alone).

supermanYesterday was incredibly busy professionally and personally, but as this blog is more about the professional I will focus on those elements. I had the opportunity for some great one-on-one conversations with some professional writing students planning some very exciting (to them and to me) projects. I also got the chance to meet one of my online First Year Seminar students in person. The cap on the day was the chance to listen to my face-to-face First Year Seminar students discuss the cultural, historical, philosophical, and psychological underpinnings of comics and begin to develop research questions exploring these ideas. I get paid to discuss the Mythology of Superman and the Psychology of the Dark Knight and to help my students reach for their dreams – is there a better job?

Today I am busy grading literacy narratives from my FYS students and Activity Reports about their personal learning networks from my professional writing students. While I try not to think about the number of assignments I have yet to grade, I learn a lot about my students as well as their path to and from Morehead State through these assignments. Once I am immersed in them, it is easy to lose track of everything else. But I can’t lose track as I still need to prepare for a conference presentation – but there I will get a chance to tell other educators about the tremendous potential of comics to support a number of educational goals.

Tomorrow will be filled with individual conferences with my professional writing students as they plan their passion projects – pretty exciting work. I will also get the chance to meet some students interested in helping the Morehead Writing Project’s celebration of the National Day On Writing – which is going to be even more awesome and fun than last year.

Simply thinking about all that I have to do as the blessings they are has helped lower my blood pressure (really, I just checked). Where do you find the joy in your work? I am lucky because my job includes directing the Morehead Writing Project with all its awesome programs and this semester I am teaching terrific classes that challenge and inspire me (and students tell me the experience is mutual).

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

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.