"At any given moment, no matter where you are, there are hundreds of things around you that are interesting and worth documenting." This quote is on the back of the book How To Be An Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith. Doesn't that title draw you in? It caught my attention because I believe our goal as teachers should be to instill in our students a desire to explore the world around them. We want them to be interested in current events. We want them to want to read everything (well, almost) they can get their hands on. We want them to wonder. We want them to be curious. We want them to be lifelong learners. We want them to dream big and be fearless in following those dreams. It would be nice if they would write about their explorations along the way.
Some kids are lucky and have explorers of the world for parents. Others, not so much. We know this. But are we doing something about it? Are we modeling passion for living? It is imperative that we model this for our students. We need to live out loud and be transparent about it. We ought to be wishing, dreaming, wondering, writing and reading with and for our students everyday.
Speaking of everyday, I have met my goal of writing for 21 days in a row! (and then some!)Yeehaw! When I first challenged myself to writing everyday, I counted my posts often. (Make that really often!) I repeatedly asked myself, "Am I almost there?" Somewhere along the line, I stopped counting and stopped hounding myself. I got in the habit of observing things a little more closely during the day, contemplating the subject of my nightly post. (The morning writing doesn't happen as much as I had hoped. It has become something I do before bed.) I believe that's what real writers do. That's what explorers of the world do! To celebrate my personal victory, I am going to buy Keri Smith's book. I'll let you know how it is!
