LELA House

Category: journaling

  • Let Life Inspire What You Journal

    Let Life Inspire What You Journal

    A new pair of shoes got me re-evaluating my whole life today.

    The shoes arrived a few days ago, tantalizingly packaged in a black and white box. I recognize the black and white design of my new shoes matching the box was coincidental, but I appreciated this synergy as I unboxed my new kicks. I haven’t purchased new sneakers in quite a few years, so my excitement level ratcheted toward high.

    I wore them around the house during my regular quarantine activities – washing dishes, doing various chores, pacing (because that’s exercising, right?), working at my desk, watching tv, snacking. The shoes were not uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t say they felt good. When you imagine a comfy pair of shoes that feel like walking on a memory foam mattress topped with cotton candy, these were not they. But I wore them all day with no discomfort, no rubbing, no blisters, no slipping, nor any of the other qualities I find abhorrent in shoes. I do not believe in a breaking-in period. I need shoes to fit comfortably right out of the box, or back they go. Today, however, I took them for a test walk in the park. It was not a test “run,” as I only move faster than a brisk walk in emergency situations.

    The advertisement touted the shoes allowed your feet to respond to the ground, that wearing these shoes offers the benefits of being barefoot with the protective features of a shoe. I noticed nothing special as I puttered around my house, but I immediately observed a difference when I stepped outside and onto the sidewalk. Apparently hardwood, tile, and carpet give more than concrete; I suffered the solidity of the sidewalk as I never had experienced before while wearing shoes. It didn’t feel uncomfortable, just new. I pondered this newness as I followed the sidewalk down to the corner, where I had to cross the street to enter the park. It surprised me to discern more flexibility from the street than I had from the sidewalk. What I experienced when I stepped on the blacktop park path, however, shocked me.

    The blacktop offered unforgiving resistance. Walking on it hurt. It didn’t hurt because the shoes felt uncomfortable. It hurt because my entire body reacted to the jarring surface with each step. The shoe company lauded its shoes allow your feet to respond to the ground by flexing and gripping, which allows your joints and body to absorb and disperse energy. I could feel my feet and body trying to do their jobs, but the blacktop wouldn’t allow them to do their work. I typically avoid walking through grass if I find a nearby pathway, but I didn’t today. I probably spent a third of my morning walk in the grass.

    Walking in the grass felt glorious. My toes flexed, spread, and gripped as I traversed the terrain. My body responded in kind. I experienced an unaccustomed balance and alignment. I recognized my body working and responding differently, efficiently. When I returned to the blacktop pathway, I noticed in ways I didn’t realize I could. Near the end of my walk, I followed a mulch pathway. That’s when I began rethinking my whole life.

    As I walked, I pondered why humans ever began ripping out earth and replacing it with concrete, but I understood the need for pathways. When I stepped on the mulch pathway, I wondered why more pathways aren’t mulched. While I could sense the bits of mulch through the soles of my shoes, I also experienced the soft ground and the variations in the terrain. I had found my memory foam, cotton candy experience.

    By the time I returned home, I wanted to rip out the sidewalk to nowhere that bisects my backyard and replace it with a mulch path leading to the garden I plan to plant. I also had ideas for the school I want to start. Instead of sidewalks, mulch pathways will crisscross campus. I thought about the ladies who love to wear their high heels and how difficult it is to walk through mulch in them. Toward them I thought, “I know your heels are sexy, but they’re not good for you, boo. Walk around in sensible shoes and stow your stilettos in your backpack for when you need style.”

    Now I understand standard shoe design protects your body from the hard surfaces of modern living, not just your feet. And I question modern living all the more.

    Instead of writing all of this in my journal, I shared it with you. This tale of discovery hits nearly all the suggestions I have for what to write as you stare down the blank page or blinking cursor of your journal.

    • Write about your events of the day.
    • Write your thoughts, emotions, reactions, and intuitions of the day.
    • Write your problems.
    • Write why you’re grateful.
    • Write how you want to progress on your goal for the next day (I wrote about long-term goals, instead.).
    • Write whatever you want to.
    • Write your prayers. When they’re answered, write that, too (I didn’t hit this one.).
    • Write what you need in the moment.
    • Write to remember.

    Journaling can seem overwhelming at times and frivolous at others. As educators, however, giving yourself moments to reflect on how you experienced your day will revive your stores of energy for the next.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early alerts for upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.


    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She offers life coaching and writing coaching to educators, as well as other opportunities for educators to practice self care through reading and writing. Check out her LELA House website to learn more about her services.  Roshaunda lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.

  • Pros & Cons of Manual and Electronic Reading and Journaling

    Pros & Cons of Manual and Electronic Reading and Journaling

    When you go to Braums and order a hot caramel sundae, the person scooping your ice cream will ask if you want whipped cream and a cherry. The only acceptable answer is, “Yes, please,” because you want both. Whipped cream is delicious, and so are maraschino cherries, but one could never substitute for the other.

    When choosing to read and journal manually or electronically, the only proper answer is, “Yes, please,” because both provide various benefits.

    Electronic Reading (on a device)

    Portability – You can read on devices you regularly travel with (phone, tablet, e-reader).

    Capacity – You can store or readily access hundreds of books and periodicals on an electronic device.

    Immersive experience – You can block out the world by listening to your reading material through headphones, and many devices allow you to take notes and follow links directly in the interface.

    Eye strain – Prolonged exposure to the light from electronic devices can cause eyestrain.

    Battery life – You must charge an electronic device, eventually.

    Manual Reading (physical material)

    Retain information – You retain information better while reading physical material, because you’re engaging more of your senses.

    Sensory experience – The feel and smell of books lure many like a siren song.

    Eye strain – You experience less eye fatigue when reading physical material.

    Portability – You can tote a book with you just about anywhere, but it’s not as convenient as a phone.

    Capacity – Books take up a lot of space, so you can’t bring along an entire library everywhere you go.

    I like to read on my phone if I’m catching up on news articles or reading something that doesn’t require my full focus. I will read on my Kindle or laptop if I’m reading something that requires more brain power. I do most of my device reading during the day. At night, I read a physical book as part of my bedtime routine.

    Handwriting

    • Comprehension and recall – You process information more deeply during the physical act of writing, so it’s easier to understand and remember what you’ve written.
    • Freedom – You can ignore formatting boundaries when you write longhand, enabling you to sketch, doodle, and live outside the lines.
    • Avoid distractions – You are less likely to face distractions when you aren’t on a device with notifications vying for your attention.
    • Time-consuming – It often takes longer to handwrite something than it does to type it.
    • Fatigue – You may not be used to writing longhand, and you can grow tired and experience cramping as you build up your handwriting muscles.
    • Penmanship – You have to write in a way that you can read what you’ve written at a later time.
    • Cumbersome – You have to plan to write on the go, if your preferred method includes ensuring you have paper and pen at hand.

    Typing

    • Fast – If you are a touch typist, typing is fast.
    • Comfort – You probably spend a lot of time at a keyboard or keypad, so typing may not feel as tiring as handwriting.
    • Formatting – You can easily format text you have typed.
    • Security – You can back up your journal to ensure you don’t lose any content, and if you’re using an online journaling app, you can even add increased security features to keep others locked out of your private world.
    • Legible – Your typed page is easy to read.
    • Distractions – You can lose your train of thought when typing on a device.

    If I have a lot on my mind, I’ll type, because I can get down the information quickly. If I’m wrestling with a concept, I’ll write longhand, because it gives me the mental space and sensory stimulation to cogitate.

    I begin a typical day reading my bible app on my phone, then reading from my physical bible and journaling in a physical notebook. I’ll catch up on news and events on my phone, then begin my day. During the day I read articles on my phone and laptop. And as inspiration strikes, I’ll write on post-its then move to my online journal to record my breakthroughs. In late afternoon or early evening, I’ll write again in my online journal. About 45 minutes before bed, I put away my electronics and pull out a physical book. For both reading and journaling, however, I’ll use the most convenient platform to serve my needs in the moment. More important to me than the platform is my readiness to read or journal when need and opportunity arise.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She offers life coaching and writing coaching to educators, as well as other opportunities for educators to practice self care through reading and writing. Check out her LELA House website to learn more about her services.  Roshaunda lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  

  • Two Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing – Reading and Journaling

    Two Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing – Reading and Journaling

    In ninth or tenth grade, I wrote a story on the life of a piece of pocket lint. I don’t remember details about that piece of pocket lint, but I know it had an epic journey, and I felt good when I turned in the assignment. When my teacher returned my story to me, a big red F glowed across the top of the paper with a note that read, “You wrote a wonderful essay, but the assignment was to write a short story.”

    Ouch! Thus I learned I’m a natural essayist. Over the years, however, I’ve learned to write a decent story (and a better essay) because of immersing myself in reading and writing.

    Improved writing may not seem like a desired outcome for educator self care, but educators write a lot. Take as Exhibit A the comment my teacher wrote on my essay. She succinctly and simultaneously praised me and critiqued me. That comment was a beautiful piece of rhetoric, fully capturing my teacher’s personality. I had this teacher for both 9th and 10th grade English, and she didn’t mince words. She told us what she thought, but she also encouraged us to improve. I didn’t enjoy having her as a teacher, but I’m glad I did. She daily modeled the power of language.

    Language, via the written word, is a large portion of educator communication, whether it’s in a lesson plan, on a smart board, in an email with a parent or colleague, in a journal article, or what have you. The self care of reading and journaling encompasses the bonus of becoming a better writer, which makes life easier. Who doesn’t want that?

    The two best ways to improve writing are reading and writing.

    Reading exposes you to various styles, genres, and tones. It also immerses you in grammatical and mechanical patterns of the language. Reading builds your vocabulary, and it inspires you by example (both what to do and what not to do).

    The more you do something, the better you get at it, so naturally, journaling improves your writing. When journaling becomes a habit, you unlock your own writing voice because you’re working in a private space without an audience (meaning you’re not worried about how you seem to others). It’s in this space where you develop your unique writing voice, with its own rhythm and use of language, that you can then use with a wider audience. Using your own voice in your writing makes your message authentic and alive.

    As I contemplate my writing growth, I realize voice excited me about my essay on the life of a piece of pocket lint. Your writing voice reflects your personality, how you see the world, how you describe the world. I’m a person who assumes pocket lint has grand adventures. Quirky? Sure. But uniquely me. My writing reflected that.

    Up to that point in my life, I wrote and read copiously, perhaps compulsively. After that experience, however, I turned away from writing and fanciful reading. I became more cautious in my subject matter and expression. Returning to reading and journaling later in life redirected me, and now I more freely unleash my voice in my writing. I’m better for it, and I like to think my writing is, too.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She offers life coaching and writing coaching to educators, as well as other opportunities for educators to practice self care through reading and writing. Check out her LELA House website to learn more about her services.  Roshaunda lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  

  • Reading and Journaling Improve Mental Acuity

    Reading and Journaling Improve Mental Acuity

    My first job out of college was as a hall director and director of minority affairs at a small college. I later added early alert coordinator to my list of duties. I loved it, but ever restless, I left to pursue full-time graduate studies. While in graduate school, I taught composition and African American studies courses. I spoke one day with a mentor, explaining to her I wanted to work in both the academic affairs and student affairs sides of higher education. I loved my co-curricular work in residence life, and I loved my teaching work. She told me doing both would be impossible. I understood her point, but I never accepted her premise.

    Before completing my doctorate, I got a job directing a writing center at a different university. To say I loved my work would be a gross understatement of the truth. Writing centers are magical places that support writers, readers, learners, students, faculty, and anyone who stops by. I got to teach courses, work with students and faculty directly on their writing, supervise a staff of students and professionals, plan the trajectory of a campus-wide service, and dip my toes in the activities of the other services under the academic resource center umbrella. Plus, I had amazing colleagues. I neared the nirvana of working in both academic and student affairs. But I got swept by a tide of restlessness that propelled me in a swift trajectory from position to position.

    Next I worked as an assistant director of the academic resource center, which was a great dual appointment between the student-facing center and the faculty development center. I also served as the campus plagiarism czar. Then I became a high school teacher, the hardest job I’ve ever had. I loved my students, and I loved teaching them, but I didn’t love the thing that is being a high school teacher. Everyone told me my second year would be better, but one person, my department chair, told me I should stop. She said, “Roshaunda, your passion for your students and your expertise are clear. But you don’t like being a teacher, so you shouldn’t keep doing that to yourself.” I belatedly realized she was right. I left teaching high school a worn out wreck. Reading and journaling helped sustain me, but they didn’t make me fit into something I wasn’t designed for. I figured I must only be designed to run writing centers, so I got a job running the writing center of a large online university. I loved it, but I got restless. Now I’m a life coach and writing coach who supports educators through coaching and various reading and writing activities.

    During this decades-long cycle of gaining experience and managing restlessness, I read and journaled. At various points I did them habitually or sporadically, depending on my mental and emotional state. Once I started teaching high school, however, reading and journaling became daily habits that I’ve realized I need. Reading and journaling helped me understand myself better, improve mental clarity and focus, increase empathy, and enhance my creativity and problem solving ability.

    Self Knowledge. As you read, you learn what you like and resonate with as you explore authors, characters and genres. Journaling helps you discover trends in your thoughts and behaviors as you track your personal development over time. Regular journaling creates a historical record of where you were, where you hoped to be, steps you took, and where you are now.

    Clarity and Focus. Reading forces you to concentrate for extended periods of time and practice following storylines and arguments, thus improving your clarity and focus. Journaling helps you transfer ideas from your head to paper, which opens up mental capacity to think, process, and solve, rather than using up all of your mental space for storage. Increased clarity and focus also yield improved ability to understand and pursue your goals.

    Empathy. Reading about other people’s lives and struggles helps you put your own challenges into perspective and empathize for others. Writing from your own perspective, then rereading and reflecting on it, helps you understand other’s perspectives more readily. Journaling about gratitude similarly improves your ability to put yourself into someone else’s place.

    Creativity and Problem Solving. Reading improves your analytical skills and memory. Following a complex storyline or argument requires you to store, recall, and reconfigure information. Reading also opens you to various types of problems and ways to solve them you may not have experienced in your life. These lessons boost your creativity and problem solving acumen in everyday life. Exploring your thinking and psyche through journaling reveals and produces patterns you didn’t realize existed, which unlocks your creative problem solving in all areas. Also, playing with words and language and style boosts your creativity. Boosts in creativity spill over across your entire life.

    Through years of reading and journaling – years of honing my insight, clarity, empathy, and creativity – I realized I am desperately passionate about education in all its facets. I want to know everything about PK-12, higher ed, public, private, secular, religious, students, faculty, administrators, and anything else education has to reveal to me. I want to understand how and why we as individuals, families, institutions, and as a nation journey through our education system. I strive to know what we mean by good education and knowledgeable citizenry. I am called to create ways to support educators and learners both inside and outside of classrooms, regardless of how impossible the task may seem. Restlessness didn’t propel my job changes; desire did – desire to experience, understand, and grow the field I love. I’ll recognize my next leap for what it will be, a strategic step in my transformation journey.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She offers life coaching and writing coaching to educators, as well as other opportunities for educators to practice self- care through reading and writing. Check out her LELA House website to learn more about her services.  Roshaunda lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  

  • Reduce Stress Through Reading and Journaling

    Reduce Stress Through Reading and Journaling

    Studying for my doctoral comprehensive exams was beastly. I don’t recall how many books I had to have mastered, but it neared 100 – a collection of primary, secondary, theoretical, and other texts. Directing my comps study was a professor whose literary interests aligned with mine, actually the only person in the department with significant overlap in our areas of study. He guided my book selection and preparation, and I thought I could be honest with him.

    I thought wrong.

    I had three comprehensive exams: a foreign language proficiency exam, which I recall; a written exam, which I seem to have blocked from my memory; and an oral exam, whose horrors sometimes haunt me. Prior to my oral exam, I told my director my areas of challenge, hoping he could impart some wisdom to propel me forward. In his defense, he probably did, but I don’t recall. I remember the experiences of the oral exam, however.

    It began well enough. The panel of professors asked questions about the books on my list and the field generally, and I answered them. One professor asked why I wanted to study 19th Century American literature as opposed to British literature. I told her because I enjoyed it and I didn’t particularly enjoy British literature. She pressed. I didn’t have a proper answer, so I talked a bit about how I could relate to the experiences in American literature more. I may or may not have said something along the lines of “Some people like chocolate; some don’t. There’s no accounting for taste.”

    After limping over the hurdle of taste, instead of regaining ground, I got run over by busses hurtling toward me at ferocious speeds, with my comps director sitting maniacally at the wheel. He asked questions about every area of challenge I had disclosed to him. Every single one – like he had studied a list of my shortcomings to publicly flagellate me with them at the earliest opportunity. In hindsight, I recognize this maneuver exposed me to the gaps in my understanding of the field, and believe me, I rectified those gaps. At the time, however, it just turned a stressful situation even more so. Despite the difficulties, the panel decided I had displayed sufficient knowledge to pass. I relaxed my tensed shoulders, thanked everyone, and prepared to leave. Then my director delivered the coup de grâce.

    He stood and offered a speech about how comps directors normally chair their students’ dissertations, but that he refused to do so and would not work with me again. I did not understand why, but by the time he finished his speech, I didn’t care. I definitely responded with something along the lines of “What a relief. I didn’t care for working with you either.”

    I thought my stress would end with the completion of my comps, but it became more pronounced. I needed someone to chair my dissertation, but no one in the department shared my literary interests; moreover, no one wanted to work with me. I drifted in doctoral limbo for the next several years with no direction on how to move forward to complete my degree, growing more stressed and more detached from the department with each passing semester. I turned to my old friends reading and journaling, who had pulled me out of previous quagmires.

    Reading reduces stress. Losing yourself in the pages of a book and focusing on the characters’ problems rather than your own is relaxing. It simultaneously helps you practice gratitude as you connect with and examine what is happening in the book and subconsciously compare that to your own life circumstances.

    Journaling also reduces stress. Writing about your emotions helps you to address them, which helps you to see negative feelings in context (rather than out of proportion). It also helps you focus on what you’re grateful for, which improves well-being by helping you see what resources, support, and joy you have in your life.

    As you read, you connect with and examine the action taking place in the story and the interior world of the characters. This external analysis hones your ability to clarify your own thoughts and feelings. Similarly, journaling is a great tool for investigating and reflecting. Writing without judgment and without censoring, journaling allows you to access and entertain ideas and emotions you normally hide, even from yourself. When you journal regularly, your brain skips the preliminaries and takes you right to the meat of what’s going on inside you.

    Both reading and journaling also help you sleep better. As part of a nighttime ritual, these acts can signal your body it’s time to wind down and relax. Having screen-free time before bed improves sleep, and curling up with a physical book or journal is a great way to accomplish this. Journaling before bed helps you move your worries from your brain onto paper, which reduces the mental noise that may keep you up at night.

    In addition to my pleasure reading and journaling, I read my bible and kept a devotional journal. The spiritual reading and writing centered me, encouraged me, and strengthened me to stay on my path.

    Completing my doctorate took more years than it should have, but I probably would have given up if not for reading and journaling helping me to stave off the stress. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize reading and journaling as self care and didn’t associate them with my stress reduction and eventual success. I abandoned my habit of reading and journaling daily when life got better. Now, however, I recognize both practices as vital to my well-being and engage in them proactively to lead my optimal life. If I can, so can you.


    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

  • Journaling and Reading Offer the Benefit of Risk in the Safety of Privacy

    Journaling and Reading Offer the Benefit of Risk in the Safety of Privacy

    My friend had planned an escapade and somehow convinced me to go along. I would get permission to spend the night at her house. I spent much of my time at her house, anyway. I ate dinner over there, probably as much as I ate at my house. Check. After dinner, we would take our sleeping bags out to their backyard fort to sleep under the stars. Check. Then we would sneak out of her back fence, walk halfway to her boyfriend’s house, and meet him and his best friend at a predetermined location for my friend and her boyfriend to do whatever it is 8th grade lovers did in the 1980s.

    We executed steps one and two flawlessly. I’m surprised I made it through dinner without tipping off her parents, though. I had on all black, because I figured I needed to be in ninja mode if I were sneaking out of houses and walking through town in the middle of the night. And I was jumpy. Her parents probably chalked it up to my being an 8th grader, as 8th graders are not known for their rational behavior.

    Things got dicey once we got out to the backyard. We hauled our gear into the fort with no difficulty, but as we descended the fort’s ladder prior to leaving the yard, my friend’s dogs started nosing around us. At the time she had three basset hounds. Two were named Bonnie and Clyde, but I forget the name of the third. All three were related in some weird incestuous way my friend assured me was normal for dogs, but I remained skeptical. I suppose the dogs sensed our nervous energy, because they wouldn’t leave us alone. They wanted to play, nipping at us, yipping, and making it impossible to leave out the back gate.

    We eventually got the dogs into a far recess of the yard and sauntered over to the gate with about as much cool as Baby saying, “I carried a watermelon” in Dirty Dancing. We dashed open the gate to make a break for it, but the dogs bounded through before we could shut it. Two stage whispering 8th grade girls and three yowling basset hounds took to the neighborhood streets that night. I’d never seen my friend’s dogs move more quickly than a jog, so watching them bolt through the streets like they had zombies at their tails mesmerized me.

    The dogs separated into two different directions. My friend went after the duo, pausing long enough to shake me out of my reverie and shoo me after the other one. At that point in my life, I’d never had a pet – not a fish, not a hamster, nothing. I ran after that dog with no idea what I would do if I caught up with it. It turned out I would do nothing. In the time it took me to catch up with one dog, my friend had caught the other two, corralled them in her yard, and found me still running after the last dog. She collared it, and we rushed back to her yard, lamenting our long-past rendezvous time.

    We eventually made it out of the back gate only to find my friend’s boyfriend and his friend standing on the other side of the fence waiting for us. About 30 feet away from my friend’s back gate was a median marking the entry to the neighborhood. We settled there, with my friend and her boyfriend on one side of the neighborhood sign, and his friend and me on the other. Despite my ninja gear and nerves, we spent the entire night in our neighborhood, never venturing beyond territory we explored every day.

    Yet that was the riskiest thing I’d ever done. I was certain my mother would kill me if she found out. My mom did a lot of things, but one thing she didn’t do was play. I don’t know that I’ve ever told her this story. If I don’t post any more blogs, you’ll know what happened.

    What I planned to do that night was stupid and deserving of my mother’s ire. What I did, however, really wasn’t that dangerous. I never left my neighborhood. I literally was never more than a few minutes walk from my house. I wasn’t alone. Even when my friend and I separated, I was always within shouting distance of a neighbor who knew me. It wasn’t that late. We probably left my friend’s backyard around 10p and returned around midnight.

    I took risks, and I learned from them. But I did so in a relatively safe atmosphere. Certainly we risked detection and punishment, and we also risked violence (sexual, physical, and other) from the boys we met. I don’t mean to minimize this, but in our particular neighborhood, at that particular moment in history, with people we knew, the likelihood of a poor outcome was reasonably low.

    Writing and reading can seem similarly risky, but done in the safe atmosphere of a journal and your own personal space, the danger is low. Be honest. Be curious. Don’t censor yourself. Your journaling and reading are for you.

    Many of us understand the risks of writing. What if someone sees what I write? What if they don’t like it? What if they don’t like me? What if I offend them? What if I’m not good at writing? What if this is bad? Who am I to write on this subject? Who am I to consider publication? All of those fears from your internal critic can keep you from writing, but a journal isn’t a public forum. A journal is a private, safe, judgment-free space for you to write out your heart. To try out new styles. To test out new genres. To tackle unusual ideas. To dive into your soul. To find out who you really are.

    Reading comes with its own risks. What does it say about me that I only read this genre? What will it say about me if I try out different genres? What about genres I’ve always been afraid to try? What if I fall behind on my necessary reading by pursuing pleasure reading? What if this is frivolous? What will I learn? How will that change me? Who will I become? Those fears also stem from your internal critic, but your personal reading time is your safe, judgment free space to reinforce neural pathways. To explore. To think. To wander. To dream. To learn. To grow.

    If I could go back to 8th grade, I wouldn’t agree to traipse around town to meet up with some boys, but I also wouldn’t erase our adventures that night. They showed me parts of myself I didn’t know, and the risk was worth the reward. Likewise, you are worth risking confrontations with your inner critic to gain the benefits of transforming yourself through the safe spaces of journaling and reading.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.


    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

  • Reading and Journaling are Low Entry Threshold Endeavors

    Reading and Journaling are Low Entry Threshold Endeavors

    I minored in education in college. I started on the teacher certification track, but I couldn’t make myself take micro economics. I signed up for micro every semester for my first three years of college. I went to the first class, left at the end of class, marched to the registrar’s office, and dropped it. Students couldn’t complete the teacher certification track without taking micro economics, so I eventually switched to a minor in education instead, saving the registrar and myself from unnecessary headaches. I didn’t realize at 20 years old that nearly a quarter of a century later I would get my teaching certification.

    Becoming a high school teacher was a high entry threshold endeavor.

    Because I hadn’t earned my certification as an undergraduate, I needed to earn an alternate route certification. Doing so required having earned a doctorate in my subject area. Fortunately for me, I met that qualification. In hindsight, however, taking micro economics as an undergraduate would have been a much quicker, easier, and cost-efficient undertaking. I don’t recommend anyone spend nine years working on a doctorate, while meandering through not one, not two, but three different dissertation chairs. Nevertheless, the dissertation journey enabled me to pass the first barrier to my certification.

    Next came the Praxis – a complex set of examinations. I studied; I practiced; I passed (or as I like to reminisce – veni, vidi, vici).

    Earning my Ph.D. in English and passing the Praxis, while the most difficult aspects of my alternate certification route journey, were the least painful parts. Well, earning my doctorate was painful at points, but that pain belongs to a separate process.

    Next came months and months of administrative anguish. Months and months of submitting forms, waiting, resubmitting, calling, emailing, resubmitting, and on and on, until finally one day in February, I checked the state website and saw my teaching certification.

    Through the years I had taught on the college level, which I knew differed from teaching high school. I also did some informal teaching aide sort of work in my mom’s high school classroom from time to time. And I talked with a lot of high school teachers. From those experiences, I went into teaching high school with no delusions about how difficult it would be. I knew it would be the hardest thing I had ever done.

    I was right.

    I sank, and I swam. I failed, and I learned. I wasn’t the best teacher my students could have had, but I also wasn’t the worst. I was myself, though, and I loved them hard. My love for my students got me through many rough days, and it got quite a few of them through as well.

    Becoming a high school teacher was a high entry threshold endeavor. Incorporating reading and journaling as educator self care activities is not.

    Journaling at its most basic requires something to write on and something to write with. Paper works just fine as something to write on. If you don’t have paper, you can use a cardboard box, a napkin – anything that will hold ink, graphite, or other writing medium. (I don’t recommend towels; they don’t work nearly as well as napkins – I particularly favor the brown paper napkins offered at fast-food establishments). A pen will do as something to write with. If you don’t have a pen, you can use a pencil, crayon, marker, chalk – anything that will mark your writing surface. You can get fancy and use a notebook or even a leather-bound journal. You can use special pens. You can type into a Word document; you can use an online journaling app. I have done all of these, but you don’t have to. To journal, you just need your thoughts, something to write with, and something to write on.

    Reading is similarly simple. You need something to read. You can read online, on a device, or a physical product. You can even listen to audio. The world offers endless ways to consume text – newspapers, novels, cereal boxes, text books. I’m not here to judge your pleasure reading; I just want to encourage you to do it.

    We’ve explored educators’ need for self care and discussed reading and journaling as viable avenues of self care. Reading and journaling have relieved my stress and restored my equilibrium, and I bet they can help you, too. Why not try them today? We’ll begin discussing the benefits of reading and journaling next.

    ***

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

  • Reading and Journaling as Real Life Self Care

    Reading and Journaling as Real Life Self Care

    I began reading and journaling daily when I taught high school. I started each day with my bible and a notebook, and I ended each day with my online journal and a paperback book. I’ve been beginning and ending my days the same way ever since, and I’ve tracked my evolution through my journal entries and reading choices.

    I journaled the following in 2015.

    “I had a good day. I’m tired, but I’m not completely wiped out.”

    “What a day. Parent-teacher conferences. I’ve blogged and written. I even cleaned a sink. Off to bed. Goodnight.”

    “I actually had a good day today.”

    “Today was a good day. My classes went well. My observation went really well. I got a lot of positive feedback and some good tips to implement.”

    “I had a better day today.”

    “Jesus.”

    My journal entries then were often brief. As I’ve learned to use journaling proactively to fend off stress, rather than reactively to climb out of the abyss, my journal entries now dive into my emotions and insights, not just my daily occurrences. My reading has evolved as well. In 2015, I could only handle fluff. Today, I still read fluff, but I temper it with meatier choices.

    I’m a learner. I’ve always wanted to know and understand, and I realized the more stressed I got, the more I neglected that natural inclination. I neglected it because I felt I needed to spend time on responsibilities piling up around me. I failed to recognize the less time I spent feeding my need, the less capable I became of handling my life stressors.

    Most educators are learners, like me; and while we know of many ways to learn, many of us turn to reading and writing as our first avenue of learning. The written word is a vital vehicle for people to understand one another and to feel understood. It is a transformational tool with the power to reshape individuals and entire societies, both through the writing itself and through reading the written product. Reading and writing are life-changing, revolutionary acts. As educators, we understand the transformative power of reading and writing, but we may not consider how these revolutionary acts can help us break the cycle of educator exhaustion and begin self care.

    Reading and writing are two parts of the same process; both deal with message delivery. Sometimes we read and receive messages from others; sometimes we journal and receive messages from ourselves. Either way, gifting ourselves with the time and space to read and write is a viable means of providing educator self care.

    ***

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has a bonus worksheet. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the worksheets and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.


    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram.