LELA House

Tag: self care

  • #IntrovertEducator

    #IntrovertEducator

    I’m an introvert. My journey through self care as an educator speaks as much to my introversion as it does to my love of reading and journaling.

    I have adored my work in education. But it is hard, draining, even debilitating. I’ve loved my students and colleagues, and I’ve fully spent myself on my work. This typically left me irritable and unavailable at home. I was at my worst for the people to whom I wanted to give my best. So I fought against my innate introverted nature, which told me to rest, read, create, and write. Instead, I attempted to be who I thought I should be. I could function, and even excel in different areas at different times, but I didn’t thrive.

    To thrive in all areas of their lives is my hope for all educators, and self care plays an important role in that. Not every educator finds rest through reading, writing, and creating. Not all educators are introverts, but I know I’m not alone. So I’m trying to support introvert educators by encouraging them to make the time they need to read, write, and create.

    But it’s not enough.

    It’s not enough to encourage you to read, write, and create without giving opportunity. I’m working on that with some upcoming LELA House events. Similarly it’s not enough to give opportunity without giving time.

    I can’t make time, but I can provide opportunity, encouragement, and resources. I believe if someone had suggested I make some time for myself and offered me the chance to pursue my passions, I might have thrived rather than survived. I didn’t recognize what I needed, and being an exhausted introvert educator in an extrovert world made me question myself and my place in education.

    Everyone who rests by reading, writing, and creating isn’t an introvert, but I bet a lot of you are. And if you’re like me, you could use a community of other introvert educators – who understand your conflicting needs for solitude and camaraderie; how reading, writing, and creating rejuvenate you; how your superpowers show up differently; how you can love what you do and find it draining.

    So let’s talk about it. What’s your life as an #IntrovertEducator? What do you need to make it through the day? Leave a comment to join the conversation.


    * * *

    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.  

  • Benefits of Early Morning Reading and Journaling

    Benefits of Early Morning Reading and Journaling

    I breastfed my son until he was 15 months old. From birth until 15 months old, he only took a bottle once. When I dropped him off at daycare, I nursed him before I left. When I picked him up, I nursed him before heading home. He preferred to spend the day on a hunger strike than to drink from the bottles of liquid gold I sent with him every day in an insulated bag.

    Then one day he stopped. As he started solid foods, he nursed less, but his nursing cessation came without warning. One day we followed our typical nursing schedule, then the next day he didn’t want to nurse any more.

    My body freaked out.

    I had lived on a hormone high for four years straight – my pregnancy with my daughter, nursing my daughter, my pregnancy with my son (btw – nursing is not an effective form of birth control), my pregnancy with my son, and nursing my son. The sudden drop in hormones after nearly half a decade of a hormone high spiraled my body into chaos. Specifically, I developed allergies. To everything.

    I already had many allergies, but they expanded when I stopped nursing. I gained allergies to foods, chemical products, and fabrics. Unfortunately, learning about these new allergies took trial and error. Especially the fabrics.

    Coinciding with my son’s nursing cessation, I got a new job teaching at a local university. I dressed professionally for work, but that meant wearing synthetic fibers. By the time I got home from work every day, my skin itched and oozed, with layers of skin sticking to the inside of my clothes as I peeled them off. I didn’t realize I had developed an allergy to these fabrics, however, until one day after work I threw on a 100% cotton t-shirt and felt a reprieve from my discomfort. I began expanding my cotton clothing collection and experienced greater relief with each item. My skin, however, remained covered in weeping rashes.

    Then one night a dream changed my life. I no longer recall the dream, but I know when I awoke, the word l’arge-a-neen filled my mind. I didn’t understand, but I journaled about it and consulted my dear friend Google. I discovered the term l-arginine. L-arginine is an amino acid with a variety of properties, including playing “an important role in cell division, wound healing, immune function, the release of hormones, and the production of growth hormone” (https://thedermreview.com/arginine/). I found a body cream with l-arginine as an ingredient and moisturized my skin back to good health.

    Without journaling and reading that morning, I wouldn’t have captured the answer God sent in my dream. I would have gone about my day, forgetting my dream, and never learning about the cure it revealed.

    Early morning reading and journaling can serve you well. You can capture your dreams from the night before, find inspiration for the day to come, and give space to your hopes and plans – all before the bustle of the day begins.

    The best time to read and journal is whenever works best for you, but if you’re looking for a place to start, give early morning a try.

    ***
    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.  

  • Celebrate Self Care

    Celebrate Self Care

    Sixteen days ago I began writing for a BYOB (Blog Your Own Book) challenge. The challenge is to write a blog post each day for the month of August, so that by the end of August, participants will have written the bulk of the material for a book. Today I am celebrating my courage to put my weird ideas about reading and journaling as educator self care into the ether, my consistency, and my small steps (writing one blog post may not seem like much, but when it turns into a book it certainly does).

    And I want you to celebrate yourself, too.

    Celebrate the courage you’re showing by choosing yourself. Most educators put themselves last, but you are choosing to give yourself time and space to rest, reflect, and grow.

    Celebrate your consistency. Forming a habit is difficult, but taking one small step day after day helps you reach your goals.

    Celebrate your small steps. You wrote in your journal today? Good for you! You read for five minutes? Way to go! I’m not one to celebrate mediocrity, and please don’t get me started on children getting trophies just for showing up. Nevertheless, stepping into something you’ve not committed to before is daunting. 

    I applaud your efforts. Transformation is hard work.

    Real-life transformation doesn’t happen like Cinderella’s “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” scene, which yields temporary change in Cinderella’s circumstances. Rather it plays out  like Mulan’s “Be a Man” scene, which reveals Mulan’s strength of character.

    I celebrate your strength of character. I celebrate you. You should, 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 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.  

  • Post-it Journaling

    Post-it Journaling

    I considered lumping yesterday’s post about reading everywhere with today’s post about where to journal. As with reading, you can be prepared to journal wherever you find yourself, as long as you can access a manual or digital means of writing.

    This falls short, however, when thinking of privacy. I can journal everywhere, but I don’t always want to. I like to journal when I’m alone and don’t have to stifle my emotions. I also prefer to journal when I don’t have to worry about looky-loos peeping over my shoulders. These prime conditions mean educators have precious little time for journaling.

    Enter Post-it journaling.

    Keeping a pack of Post-its on you transforms your ability to journal. The keys to Post-it journaling are to write only one idea per Post-it and to create an organization system.

    Let’s say you’re in a faculty meeting. You’re already feeling some kind of way, and then, with one minute remaining in the meeting, that one colleague you can’t stand asks a question when the speaker says, “Are there any questions?” Pull out your pack of Post-its, and write “Ooh, I can’t stand that so & so.”  You have now begun to Post-it journal.

    Writing your emotions helps you process them and move on from them, whether you write them on a Post-it or in a journal. No one in an academic setting (or most any other setting) will question your spontaneous use of Post-its. They will assume you are taking notes of the proceedings, particularly if some of your emotions show through your body language. People who write on Post-its while looking pensive, excited, or even frustrated during a meeting look like they are digesting the information presented. I do not advocate losing focus during important meetings. When you lose focus, however, Post-it journaling will serve you in two ways. It will lessen your distracted time. Remember, writing whatever is on your mind allows you to process and move on. Instead of stewing in your emotions, you deal with them and return your attention to whatever is appropriate. Additionally, nobody will assume anything is amiss, so you retain your privacy while looking professional.

    Student asks you for the tenth time what the assignment is? Post-it.

    Colleague tells you some devastating news? Post-it.

    Your responsibilities get expanded again? Post-it.

    You can smell lunch on someone’s clothes? Post-it.

    You have a brilliant idea? Post-it.

    Post-it journaling works in your agitation and your genius. Not only does writing help you process emotions, it also helps you process and generate ideas. I wrote nearly my entire dissertation on Post-its. I don’t recommend doing so, but having a bank of single ideas on individual Post-its allowed me to see specific facets of my work and reconfigure them easily. I kept a large notebook of my Post-it ideas, separated the pages of the notebook into categories, and added, removed, and adjusted each Post-it as suited my purposes.

    I recommend you keep a notebook (more inconspicuous than a fancy, leather-bound journal) for your Post-it journaling. Slap the post-its into your notebook as you write them throughout the day. At the end of the day, return to your Post-its, read them, reflect on them, and determine how to move forward. Moving forward typically falls into one of three categories.

    1. You reread the Post-it, and you’re over whatever prompted you to jot down your note. Discard that Post-it, acknowledging its faithful service. It allowed you to note your feelings, process them, move on, reflect, and find closure.

    2. You reread the Post-it, and you’re convicted by it. This occurs when whatever you wrote on the Post-it causes you to rethink the situation and your response, recognizing you should use better strategies the next time. Pray about it and plan to do better. Discard that Post-it, acknowledging its faithful service.

    3. You reread the Post-it, and your spirit remains troubled (for ill or for good – maybe you’re still upset, or maybe you’re still excited). Create category pages in your Post-it notebook and adhere the Post-its appropriately. This begins your compendium of ideas and emotions to work through and flesh out.

    Fitting journaling into an educator’s day may seem impossible, but Post-it journaling improves its probability. What do you think about Post-it journaling?

    * * *

    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.  

  • Read Everywhere

    Read Everywhere

    So far we’ve explored reading and journaling as educator self care, the benefits of reading and journaling, and some logistics of reading and journaling. Since we’ve covered the problem, the why, and the what, today we’ll begin diving into the where. First, however, I have a tale of vacation vomit to share.

    Around 8th or 9th grade, I went on vacation with a friend and her family. On the trip were her mother and father, her brother and his best friend, and the two of us. We had just spent a fun day at the beach, but unfortunately, our outing ended when my friend got stung by a jellyfish. We loaded up the van and were driving to get her some medical attention when my stomach started gurgling. I thought I would be fine, but by the time her dad parked the van, I realized I was wrong. We parked, and her parents had just opened the door to help my friend out of the van, when I shoved my friend out of the way, launched my head into the fresh air (my fingers gripping the van’s frame to stabilize myself), and expelled the entire contents of my stomach onto the parking lot. The two boys marveled at how readily they could recognize the bun and pickles from lunch.

    While growing up, my parents taught me never to vomit all over everything – to always have a vomit plan, because you never know when the need will arise. Reading is similar. You never know when an opportunity to read will present itself, so you should be ready in case it does.

    So where should you read? Wherever is safe – at home, in the car (when you’re not driving or can listen to your text), at school, at work, on a bus, on a plane, in line at the grocery store, while brushing your teeth (I saw my daughter doing that once and thought I really need to up my reading game). You get my point. One key to fitting reading into your day is releasing the notion that reading has to happen in a quiet, relaxing spot. Another is to have a plan.

    You can read just about anywhere, as long as you’re prepared to do so. I often wonder where people like to read. I’m sure Kamala Harris will enjoy reading in the White House for the next 4 – 16 years. What about you? Where do you like to read?

    * * *

    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.  

  • 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.

  • Read What You Need

    Read What You Need

    “As-Salaam-Alaikum!”

    That’s the first thing I remember my friend saying to me. I suppose that’s a good way to gauge the interests and mindset of a perfect stranger, because that stranger’s response will say a lot.

    Many responses would have been reasonable, particularly confusion, considering the audience (me) was not Muslim and did not speak Arabic. Fortunately, recognition colored my response.

    So what I said was, “Wa-Alaikum-Salaam!”

    We both laughed and thus began the friendship of two black girls in an all-white high school.

    This friend appeared in my life unexpectedly. The major event of having a new student show up during junior year, and a new student who hit the trifecta of being black, female, and in a class with me blew my high school mind. We became friends, and for the year we went to high school together, we shared many such greetings.

    “As-Salaam-Alaikum!”

    “Wa-Alaikum-Salaam!”

    We almost always greeted each other with those phrases. And sometimes if we passed in the halls, we would raise a black power fist in solidarity, recognizing our common struggle.

    Who would have thought two black girls sojourning in a predominantly white high school would find each other thanks to the Autobiography of Malcolm X?

    I loved that she had read this powerful book, and I loved that she assumed I had as well. Even though the magnificent film of the same title starring Denzel Washington would come out soon, it was because of the book we knew to exchange those greetings.

    I credit the Autobiography of Malcolm X with several things in my life, and the most important one is that it helped me make a friend, and this friend helped me bear out many of the lessons in the book in my life.

    Like many people, after reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X, I launched into a militant phase, but I didn’t understand how to express the conflicts and emotions I had internalized, because I had also internalized WEB DuBois’ notion of double consciousness. My friend helped me reconcile the various facets of my personality.

    I led a double life in high school. Both lives authentically represented aspects of me, but neither allowed me to express all of my complexities. There was school Roshaunda, on the one hand, and church Roshaunda on the other. In more descriptive terms, there was the Roshaunda who existed in a white world with school friends, and then there was the Roshaunda who existed in a black world with church friends.

    School Roshaunda almost never expressed what it was to be young, gifted, and black. Church Roshaunda almost never expressed what it was to be a band nerd. My new friend helped me realize I should reconcile both worlds.

    And that led to some interesting situations, namely getting into repeated arguments with the KKK member who sat behind me in history class and being sent to the principal’s office for assaulting a teacher.

    Fueled by Malcolm X’s words, I couldn’t remain silent while the boy behind in me in history class made repeated disparaging remarks about black people. My inability to sit silently while he maligned an entire race of people usually manifested in my besting him with both logic and advanced vocabulary. He found this frustrating, to my delight.

    One day I laughed a little too much and discovered he was a Klan member. He told me, proudly and ominously, of his membership in the organization. That, too, made me chuckle. It surprised me people were still joining the Klan, and I said as much. Pre-Malcolm X Roshaunda never would have engaged that boy, but post-Malcolm X + new friend Roshaunda didn’t back down from the challenge.

    I later tackled the challenge of a discriminatory school policy. The school banned students from wearing anything on their heads, intending to deter gang affiliation by prohibiting people from wearing caps, bandanas, and even hair bows. The rule only seemed to apply to the school’s sprinkling of black students.

    In civil disobedience, I wore a yellow bandana tied around the base of my ponytail one day. During an assembly, I felt a hand tug on my bandana. Thinking it was one of my friends, I reached back and grabbed the hand. A disembodied voice told me to let go. I quipped I would not release the hand until the hand released my hair. The voice commanded me to release it. I didn’t comply. The hand yanked me up while the voice insisted I needed to go to the principal’s office immediately. I turned to find a teacher I didn’t recognize trying to rip out my bandana, citing the policy prohibiting headwear.

    I told her I would gladly go see the principal if she would accompany me, so I could explain to him how she singled me out while bypassing all the white girls wearing enormous bows in their hair. She seemed flummoxed as we marched down the hallways together. I successfully made my case with the principal and returned to my classes with my bandana still adorning my coiffure.

    I didn’t fight every battle, but I learned I could voice what concerned me, even if I had relegated those concerns to opposing aspects of my personality. Reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X taught me kujichagulia and availed me to a friendship that showed me it was just fine to express it.

    Had I not read that particular book at that precise moment in history, I would have missed out on a friendship, and I wouldn’t have developed the confidence to combat injustice. Reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X changed my life, but I didn’t expect it would when I selected it from my mother’s bookshelf.

    Read widely. You never know what texts might affect you, but if you rarely venture outside of your usual genres and authors, you’ll never find out. You discover additional aspects of yourself when you read beyond your comfort zone, and you learn how different people use language, harness culture, and create society. You’ll find connections between disparate concepts, because you’ve exposed yourself to a breadth of ideas.

    Read narrowly. Diving into a series, an author, a time period, or a genre develops depth and richness. You will feel the thrill of never exhaust your ability to learn about a subject while you gain mastery in it.

    Read suggestions from other people. Ask people what they’re reading. They will regale you with their latest literary finds, and you’ll amass a list of pre-vetted books to enjoy.

    Read what you need. The day I selected the Autobiography of Malcolm X from the other books nestled beside it, I had seen it on the bookshelf for years. I enjoyed unlimited access to the books in our house and had scanned Autobiography’s black and red spine numerous times. I don’t know why I picked it up that day, other than it was what I needed to read. My mother once told me children only ask questions when they are ready to hear the answers. Her wisdom seemed cryptic when she said it, but after having kids, I understand. I think books can come to us in the same way. Autobiography had been available to me, but I didn’t choose it until I was ready.

    No matter how you choose reading material, give yourself the chance to experience everything it offers.


    * * *

    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.  Subscribe to receive a word of encouragement each weekday.

  • 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.