Writing Resolutions from PAWLP

By Janice Ewing

Most PAWLPers don’t wait until New Year’s to engage in reflection and goal-setting; nevertheless, this time of year especially lends itself to those pursuits. For example, one PAWLPer said, “I firmly resolve to write something every day that is not just a compilation of events, but actual insights of life that I’ve noticed and contemplated.”

Here’s a sampling of some more of our Writing Resolutions, collected at our December Continuity and Leadership meetings:

• This year I resolve to follow the writer, not the rules. Reene Martin

• I would like to continue to foster an appreciation for being a writer within the schools in which I work. Kim Kraf

• In the next year I resolve to share more of my personal (outside of school) writing with my students. While I write with them regularly, I want them to know and see that I write outside of our classroom as well. Kelly Virgin

• I plan to spend a period of time each morning to write in my writer’s notebook with no goals other than to record my thoughts, feelings, and observations. In other words, I want this writing time to belong to me – not to a professional project, requirement, or obligation, and no deadlines attached! Lynne Dorfman

• Model. To “live” the writing process, start to finish, with my students; to write beside them (to quote Penny Kittle), ask for their feedback, and work together as a collaborative writing community―to make the writing process more visible. Tricia Ebarvia

• Every year we roll out a historical fiction book club. This year I am going to include a writing component in which I have my students write short historical fiction stories of their own creation. Sharon Williams

• My resolution for the New Year is to look into the practice of Bullet Journaling. From what I’ve learned so far, it is an all-in-one-place system for recording tasks, holding onto thoughts and ideas, and organizing your life in a creative way. Looks like it takes some thinking, time, and effort to set it up (monthly, weekly), but in the end will save me time from my now multiple lists, calendars, and notes galore. Perhaps it will motivate me to focus more on process than productivity during this retirement stage of my life. What do I really want to do with my free time? Planning and reflecting to get the necessary things done while finding more time to learn new things.  Rita Sorrentino

• My resolution for the New Year is to write more with my grad students, including poetry. We often read and respond to poetry, finding connections with our teaching lives, but we have not written much poetry in class. This is out of most of my students’ comfort zones, and I’d like to try to change that. Janice Ewing

• Always so busy organizing place-based experiences for my students―I resolve to participate in place-based writing with my students. We will experiment with different genres on the spot―and use mentor texts to help us see, feel, taste, hear, inhale, and embrace the places we visit. Mary Buckelew

Janice Ewing is an adjunct for Cabrini College and a co-director for the Pennsylvania Writing & Literature Project. Janice co-facilitates PAWLP’s “Continuity Days” and this blog. She is an avid reader and writer, and especially enjoys writing poems.