My students are working on an independent writing project. This semester, my goal was to write with my students like I used to do years ago. With so many classes, it has proven more difficult than I remember. At my previous school, I had over 150 students but only one prep. My lesson plan was the same for each class, so I was able to develop a writing idea alongside my students. At my current school, I have far fewer students, but I have four different class subjects to prepare for in addition to grading. The students in each class are focusing on a different type of writing, so I would have to come up with and pursue four different writing projects at the same time. While one writing project is feasible if I manage my time more wisely, four are difficult within the time I have. Today I wanted to do a demonstration on how to use a mentor text. Since I had no idea what I wanted to write, I had no idea what type of text I could use. Maybe, I would just give them a free day.
This morning, I continued watching a new series on Hulu called “Scamanda.” It’s about a woman who pretended to have cancer. She started a blog document her “journey” and used it to scam hundreds of thousands of dollars from the people in her community and church and who read her blog. I was just diagnosed with breast cancer last month and I wondered why it didn’t occur to me to start blogging about it. I have so many thoughts about what I’m going through and so many questions. I could use my blog to document my own journey. And then it hit me; I could develop a series of blog posts about my cancer and use that as my project to demonstrate for my class.
Could I really though? It’s been 2 years, 6 months, and 10 days since I wrote my last blog post. Can I really just pick it up again? Isn’t it getting a bit ludicrous? My blog is called Beginning Again. Can I just keep playing on that same theme? But then I thought about everything I have gone through in that 2 years, 6 months, and 10 days since I wrote that post. I got divorced, sold my house, moved into a new apartment and neighborhood, lost my mother, and was diagnosed with cancer. My life is significantly different now than it was on August 2, 2022–a whole series of new beginnings. When I got to school, I logged onto WordPress and started looking for mentor text. I checked some of the blogs that I follow and found that many of them no longer post entries. I guess I’m not the only one who give up on regular blogging. I finally found a blog I could use for my lesson. As soon as I finished my lesson, I began working on this post. I have decided I can begin again. Hopefully, it won’t be another 2 years, 6 months, and 10 days until my next post.
Beginning Again 