Wreck This Journal: Free

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Today is the last day of school.  My students are long gone, finals are graded, the gradebook is done, and my classroom is locked up for the summer.  When the door closes behind me it feels a bit like this:

Summer Break feels a lot like bright, wild scribbles!

Every year, just before I leave, I set aside a moment for reflection. I stand in the middle of my classroom and marvel at how fast the year has gone.  I close my eyes and hold the memories close. This is how I say goodbye each year.  My classroom is full of so many trials and triumphs.  It’s been a difficult year full of change (many of which have me questioning where public education is headed), but it’s also been a year of eyes lighting up and creative minds finding their voice.  While the atmosphere outside of my classroom leaves me demoralized in many regards, my students are the reason why I can still say I love my job.

For the next two months I’m free to “scribble” with reckless abandon. Well, more so than usual!  I’ll be writing, creating, and listening to my muse with zero distraction.  The feeling of total inspiration is a lot like making those vibrant scribbles in my Wreck This Journal.  There are no rules and the release is exhilarating!  I’ve repeated this exercise a couple of times because it is so cathartic.  I highly recommend it for anyone with a stressful job or those who enjoy making a mess of color!

Happy Summer!

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Try it!  Make a page of scribbles and post the picture on your blog.  Put the link in my comments section so we can all share in the joy of wild scribbles!

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c.b. 2012

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37 thoughts on “Wreck This Journal: Free”

  3. wild scribbles with no thought to direction or correctness. Love it. Have a great summer. Looking forward to all that you will create during this time. When I taught school, I would take my watch off on the last day and not put it back on till the first day back.

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  4. Congrats on making it through another year and not allowing the public school system suck out all of the joy in teaching. I can only imagine what a challenge it is. The kids are lucky to have you.

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  6. Have a wonderful summer! You’ve earned – ALL teachers earn their summer off! I know I could never do that job. 🙂 I may get around to scribbling later. That looks like fun!

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  10. Enjoy your break. As has been said, ALL teachers deserve two months off in the summer! It’s been awhile since I scribbled with wild abandon. It’s been just about as long since I even held a crayon! I love the colours you’ve chosen for yours. 🙂

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  12. Your students are so lucky to have you as a teacher! I hope you enjoy the summer and in addition to writing, that you restore your soul so that you can keep teaching. Your creativity, enthusiasm and caring is what is missing from the administrative educators who make public school teaching so demoralizing.
    Love the scribbles, too!

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    • Sometimes I want to invite administrators into my classroom for a week, (not the usual 10 minutes they pop in once a year to evaluate my abilities), so they can see what they are trying to stifle. It infuriates me, yet at the same time makes me more determined to continue what I’m doing. The best way to make your point is to prove what you’re doing is working, right? 🙂

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  13. The words “stifle” and “demoralize” say too much. What are the solutions? What can prevent “the crush”? Too many rules and regulations? too much emphasis on testing? Too much expectation put on the teacher? Too many worksheets on the students? I think it’s time to scribble, a lot!!

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    • All of the above (though I rarely put a worksheet in front of my students – they create every assignment we do).

      It’s definitely time to scribble and I’m already letting those colors fly free. 🙂

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  14. I work at a school, too, and I’m looking forward to having that break with more time to write. We have two more weeks to go. I’m the assistant to the head of a small private school, so I wear many hats. But summer means I go in later and leave earlier, no phones ringing off the hook, and an hour lunch (instead of the usual “Oops, I missed lunch today) to sit in the rose garden with my laptop. Yes, Happy Summer it is.

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    • Happy Summer, indeed! 🙂

      I sometimes go into my classroom during the summer and I’m always amazed at how much quieter the building is when there are no students. This year, however, they took my keys away (they are repainting and doing inventory, so they need our keys), so I literally can’t go in this summer. It will truly be a full break!

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  16. I can empathize with your feelings of reflection-trials and triumphs, and how quickly time goes by. I’m glad you still love your job and that your connection to your students remains vibrant.

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      • I still love the kids, but unfortunately for me, with the added rules/laws of Sped., all the bureaucracy tipped the scales to where I couldn’t make enough headway with the kids to stay. That’s okay. This frees me up to do more, with more people, and be more joyful in the process!

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