By Jessica Deitcher (she/her), educator in New Westminster and faculty associate at Simon Fraser University
On the edge of entering my 17th year as a teacher, I take stock of what I have taught over the years, a routine practice to figure out what is worth teaching again. There are certain projects I have done over and over with my students that are always successful. Model-making is a favourite, and papier-mâché is chaotic but definitely a highlight.
But above all, there is one project that takes the cake. It is a project that I have now done ten years in a row, and I don’t foresee stopping anytime soon. It is something that has become so much bigger than what I intended it to be. It is now so intertwined with my own life that I can’t imagine not doing it.
Ten years ago, I began a project called Homework Journal.
At that time in my career, I was moving out of a Grade 1 classroom into a Grades 4 and 5 classroom. I worried about all kinds of changes from primary to intermediate, but I was most nervous about the parents. I feared they would expect lots of tests, scrolls of percentages leading to letter grades—and homework! I thought I would have to give homework, even though I didn’t really believe in it. What would I do?
I devised a plan. Homework Journal would be something to appease the parents. It would be a personal journal students could take home every weekend and write about whatever they wanted. It would satisfy parents’ desire for “homework” each week and it would, in fact, build the habit of doing work at home (which I did believe in).
However, I would let my students decide what to write. I would not correct their work, nor would I assess it based on grammar or spelling. Journal entries could take the format of any writing style: prose, bullet-points, lists, any way to get writing on the page. Journal entries could also be written about anything: playdates, hockey practices, movie reviews, family recipes, favourite Pokemon cards, made-up stories, the fly on the wall—anything. I hoped that Homework Journal would excite my students because they completely controlled their journal’s content.
To make it more worthwhile, I included some non-negotiables.
I, the teacher, would journal alongside my students to prove its worth. If they had homework, I did as well. Also, my students could read my journal to gather ideas for entries or just to see what happens in my life. Lastly, I would read every single one of their entries. After each weekend, when all journals were handed in, I would write a little Post-it note back to each student. I never skipped reading their journals.
My plan was set. With my new class that year, we began Homework Journal the very first week of school.
We started by giving titles to our journals and writing small introductions as to what “readers” might find inside. In mine, I wrote, “Inside you may find adventures, journeys, dreams, and ideas.” My students were ready for their first entry, as was I.
Monday rolled around, and I remember my students enthusiastically handing in their journals to me. I remember them eagerly waiting for me to read what they had written. I remember them reaching for mine throughout the week to browse my first entry. I remember their faces when they received their journals back, anxious to read my Post-it notes, smiling at the small messages. I remember some of my students striking up conversations regarding those messages. I also remember them being excited for entry number two.
Even after that very first week ten years ago, I understood that something special was happening.
With the continuation of Homework Journal over the year, I noticed shifts in our classroom. The sharing of stories between teacher and student was having an effect. Our classroom community grew closer. Students became more thoughtful with each other, and more tolerant. They would bring issues to my attention more often so that we could have class discussions regularly. Homework Journal was orchestrated so that I was the only one reading each student’s journal, but because students were consistently sharing life stories with me, they also began to feel more comfortable in the classroom space. I witnessed some incredible revelations in their journals, which translated into more confident, self-assured students. I noticed that sometimes students would write about things they could not say out loud and could only share in their journal. Certain students wrote about vulnerable parts of themselves in their journals, knowing their stories were safe. They were beginning to discover parts of their identity through journaling, growing into their Grades 4 and 5 selves more and more with every entry.
What was meant to be homework has now turned into the most meaningful, mindful, social-emotional practice of my life.
And the Post-its? They developed into little one-to-one conversations every week with each student. They became constant teacher-student communication, especially in a busy classroom. They became routine connections. Homework Journal was becoming so much more than journaling.
Unexpectedly, for myself, journaling was becoming an amazing self-care practice. I was learning to reflect on various experiences in my life and savour specific memories. Journaling has allowed me to understand my thoughts and feelings, and process certain life challenges. Journaling has literally been there for me for over a decade of my life. From documenting my wedding plans, to writing about each country we visited on our honeymoon (all twelve); from to-do lists, to done lists; from mere doodles and random thoughts on a page, to capturing moments throughout my pregnancy, and then devoting an entire journal to my son’s first year of life (still continuing to do Homework Journal on maternity leave); from numerous travels, camping trips, and family events, to finding out I had cancer (and trying to journal about it in a way that was appropriate for elementary student readers): I have journaled about all parts of my life just as much as my students have. What was meant to be homework has now turned into the most meaningful, mindful, social-emotional practice of my life.
Someone asked me recently who I would be without my journals, and I know I would be someone completely different. Journaling has brought me to where I am today. Like my first Homework Journal introduction page, there have been countless adventures, journeys, dreams, and ideas documented over the years; it’s a body of work where I have collected data on what makes me me. It has allowed me to develop myself into the person (and teacher!) I have always wanted to be. I cannot imagine my life without journaling.
With my recent move to teach at Simon Fraser University, I found another layer to journaling. I learned that adults have as much to gain through journaling as elementary students. Stay tuned for the second part of my story in the next issue of Teacher, where I share my experience practising journaling with preservice teachers in SFU’s Faculty of Education.
You can follow Jessica's journaling journey on Instagram at @joyous_journaling.