As I grew older, my journal entries became deeper, longer, and broader. I was no longer just writing about my everyday activities, although I did still talk about them as well. I began to add in the emotional conflicts that I experienced or observed with my friends, and talk about crushes and embarrassing situations. One of my favorite entries from middle school was written shortly after I found out that I had been accepted into the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra for the following year.
5/9/05
Dear Diary, guess what? Last wednesday I had my auditions for Junior Symphony. I did pretty good. Missed one note on my solo, one note in sight reading, (which I later discovered was an F) and started my scale without two notes per bow. Pretty good. I auditioned in front of Mr. W. only, so it was kinda freaky. I have an audition tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. Well, tonight, I got a phone call from Mrs. F. saying I made it to Junior Symphony!!! So, I don't have to try out tomorrow. Pretty cool, huh? If I was quoting from one of the books I'm reading right now , I would say it's a God thing. It's just soooooooo awesome to have made it. By the way, right now I think A's pretty much a jerk. He can be nice, but he's still pretty much a jerk. Saturday we had a tournament for soccer in Lansing. We played two of the toughest teams and got 1rst! It was an awesome second game. We were tied 2 to 2 at the end, then had sudden death 15 min. overtime, then a shootout. In the shootout, we made all 5 of our goals. Anna was our goalie.She stopped their fourth one, but the ref said it hadn't counted because she stepped over the line. So, the girl shot again and made it. Then Anna stopped their last one and we won! My face got really sunburned. In soccer, we haven't lost a single game yet! I'm really liking soccer, if you can't tell. The only minor disappointment is that I have to play forward or midfield instead of defense. I scored a goal a few weeks ago! Well, I'm running out of room, so gfn! Beth :p
P.S. I'm teaching myself how to play guitar!!!
As I continued writing, my journal became a refuge for me to express my emotions. I wasn't comfortable with sharing a lot of what was going on in my head with others, so I wrote it all down. My journal was a place where I could be certain that I would be "listened" to, where I wouldn't be cut off or drowned out by someone who was louder or more interesting. I knew that no one could make fun of what I was thinking or feeling inside of my journal, so it became a safe place to release everything. This included responses to devotion reading, prayers, dating philosophies, poems, and sketches of papers for writing classes. I was never afraid that the writing in my journal would not be good enough, since I was the only one to see it, and some of my best writing happened inside of it. After reading the poem "Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll, I was inspired to write my own nonsense poem in my journal:
5/9/05
Dear Diary, guess what? Last wednesday I had my auditions for Junior Symphony. I did pretty good. Missed one note on my solo, one note in sight reading, (which I later discovered was an F) and started my scale without two notes per bow. Pretty good. I auditioned in front of Mr. W. only, so it was kinda freaky. I have an audition tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. Well, tonight, I got a phone call from Mrs. F. saying I made it to Junior Symphony!!! So, I don't have to try out tomorrow. Pretty cool, huh? If I was quoting from one of the books I'm reading right now , I would say it's a God thing. It's just soooooooo awesome to have made it. By the way, right now I think A's pretty much a jerk. He can be nice, but he's still pretty much a jerk. Saturday we had a tournament for soccer in Lansing. We played two of the toughest teams and got 1rst! It was an awesome second game. We were tied 2 to 2 at the end, then had sudden death 15 min. overtime, then a shootout. In the shootout, we made all 5 of our goals. Anna was our goalie.She stopped their fourth one, but the ref said it hadn't counted because she stepped over the line. So, the girl shot again and made it. Then Anna stopped their last one and we won! My face got really sunburned. In soccer, we haven't lost a single game yet! I'm really liking soccer, if you can't tell. The only minor disappointment is that I have to play forward or midfield instead of defense. I scored a goal a few weeks ago! Well, I'm running out of room, so gfn! Beth :p
P.S. I'm teaching myself how to play guitar!!!
As I continued writing, my journal became a refuge for me to express my emotions. I wasn't comfortable with sharing a lot of what was going on in my head with others, so I wrote it all down. My journal was a place where I could be certain that I would be "listened" to, where I wouldn't be cut off or drowned out by someone who was louder or more interesting. I knew that no one could make fun of what I was thinking or feeling inside of my journal, so it became a safe place to release everything. This included responses to devotion reading, prayers, dating philosophies, poems, and sketches of papers for writing classes. I was never afraid that the writing in my journal would not be good enough, since I was the only one to see it, and some of my best writing happened inside of it. After reading the poem "Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll, I was inspired to write my own nonsense poem in my journal:
Grizzled Lake
The grizzly goober guzzled lake
was rolling in its tide,
with frattzles foozling in its wake,
so filthy, the flotsam high
The murky mudworms mulked their munch
as the slithering sulls slew along,
and the Babwars blunked their blithy wunk
as the tetlers tuled their trong
Twas a blimy day at the guzzled lake,
as the boy walked along the shore,
the googalas gazzled him through the trees
as the manshees mozzled "nevermore!"
The imminent warning, which the boy ignored,
was his first and last mistake,
for none who took lightly the manshees' mozzle
could ever hope to escape
As he took his next step on the sterkling shore,
a sokmire soozled his toe.
It grashled and gruzzled and fuzzled until,
the boy had disappeared below.
Below the snurgling slimy lake,
that brought many to their doom.
This perpetual story of Grizzled Lake,
will forever end in gloom.
I believe that being able to write in a place that is safe is one of the most important things that teachers can give to their students. I was never told to journal by a teacher, but I would have eagerly seized the opportunity. So many times students are forced to write something that they know will be seen and criticized by another person. This knowledge makes writing into something that it should never become, rather than helps to accomplish the goals which we have for students. If we truly want students to become literate, persuasive, confident, and in love with writing, then we as teachers should consider giving them opportunities to write things that will never be critiqued; a chance to develop their own voices. For me, like many others, that place was my journal. This is similar to how Nancy Atwell approaches teaching writing in her classroom. Although many of her students aren't persay, journaling, they write with the knowledge that she will not be the one critiquing their work. They are the ones responsible for deciding what they could change about their writing, how they want their voice as a writer to sound, what techniques to use, and the genre they will write in. Even though Atwell will give them help in accomplishing whatever they want to achieve through their writing, she aids them through suggestions rather than instructions. I hope to create a similar atmosphere in my future classroom.