Escape: A Trip Outward and Inward

Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of maintaining two careers. Both which I love. Both which take extreme energy and focus. Both I want to excel in.

Being a teacher is my calling. When I’m with my students I am filled with joy and love. They give my life purpose and make me feel like I’m making a difference in this world. But…they also wear me out. Being “on” hour after hour while trying to meet the needs of thirty-plus individuals can be exhausting. I often come home after work and collapse into a nap.

Writing is my sustenance. When I am one with the words, everything else just fades away. Responsibilities, fretting, and the horrors of the world all go into soft focus. But finding enough time and space to write can be a challenge.

That’s why I’m taking a trip outward and inward. I’m going to the remote Carrizo Plain, the largest native grassland in California. With diverse wildlife, and a high concentration of threatened and endangered species, a trip here should inspire.

Let the journey begin!

(Photo by David Stroup)

A teacher, Laurie Woodward is the author of several novels including Forest Secrets, and the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles. She also co-wrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes her novels on the Central Coast of California.

Weaving Love: A Poem

We are the weavers of children

Whether wading, treading, or drowning

Each child needs

A lifeline

As they struggle in turbulent effluent.

Sometimes suspension bridges splinter

And they hang mid-air over purgatorial precipices,

Bodies flailing and thrashing.

And so we come,

The weavers,

Bringing strong cordage and twine of seraphic gossamer

To silence their cries and give them hope.

For we know the secret.

We have only to pluck the hairs from atop our heads,

Begin intertwining them with peaceful future words

And thus create:

Blankets to keep them cool on hot summer days

Or safety nets for acrophobic trapeze artists

With love we

Spin arks to race arid currents,

Or create buoyant suits that deflect each incoming wave.

As we weave at our numinous looms,

Our fingers deft

To find places where weft meets warp

And make fibers of

Ethereal clouds to moisten parched radices.

Even when eyes grow weary of patterns too subtle for children to see,

Or when aching backs and cramping forearms make for troublesome twining

And our hands become bloodied by sharp sutures from the unknowing

Or the insane,

We must endure

We are the weavers,

Intertwining and intersecting,

Spinning fibrous cable that children cling to

Or wrap around waists

Before plunging into cavernous incarnations

To discover,

In the depths,

A reflection of the future

A reflection of themselves

A reflection

Of the peace weaver they can become.

Christmas Compliments

Looking for an easy Christmas project that also promotes a peaceful community? Try Christmas Compliments!

Objective: The learner will practice sentence writing by creating a paper stocking and writing compliments about four other students.

Materials: Class set of Stocking reproducible, markers, crayons, pencils, lined paper, scissors, board, chart paper or electronic whiteboard

Procedure:

Explain to students that they will be decorating a paper stocking. Hold up and show blank stocking to students. Ask for suggestions of colors, ways to decorate etc.
Allow students time to decorate and cut out their stockings.
When complete, tell the students that one of the best gifts they can give to another is the gift of being a friend. Ask them what friends do. Write responses on board.
Once there has been a response like, “a friend says nice things,” tell them that they are going to do just that. They are going to think of nice things to say, then write about each other.
Assemble the students into groups of four or five. Instruct them to think of nice things about the people in their group.
Review what a sentence is, that it must have a subject and a predicate or who and what they do. Also remind them about capitals and periods. If cursive is an area of focus review correct formation of some troublesome letters.
Instruct students to first give oral compliments to the members of their group before writing them down. Invite them to be creative and focus on the uniqueness of each person.
Allow time for students to write sentences.
Once sentences are complete the students cut them out in strips and paste them onto each other’s stocking as if a gift were spilling out.

Evaluation: Were students able to come up with compliments for each other? Were they able to write in complete sentences?

Follow up: Stockings could be displayed on wall and different compliments read by teacher or students.

A teacher, Laurie Woodward is the author of several novels including Forest Secrets, and the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles. She also cowrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes her novels on the Central Coast of California.

Embrace the Fulcrum: A Poem

The intermediary

The one

The fulcrum borne on our shoulders.

How do we sustain such a crux?

By saying:

This is the moment

Embrace it.

For you are the axis of two worlds.

Creation Dreams: A Video

Artania: A fantasy series that inspires the artist within. At the same time it teaches kids about the major periods in art history with lands representing each. From the Renaissance Nation to the Land of Antiquities to the Impressionist Republic children will meet famous artists and watch their masterpiece creations have adventures. Mona Lisa comforts while The David hurls stones at monsters. Egyptian hieroglyphs battle to keep this world safe as tapestry-inspired dragons take to the skies.

Do I Make a Difference?

Do I make a difference? Has my work changed anything? These are the questions I recently asked myself before going on the Dave Congalton Radio program. For several years now, I have taught groups of fifth and sixth graders assertiveness, peer mediation, and communication skills but didn’t know if there’d been any lasting effects. So recently when Dave asked me for interview ideas I asked him if he’d like to talk to one of my former student volunteers.

Dave agreed so I contacted sixteen-year-old Mikayla Thompson, a former friend mediator, about doing the show. She said she’d love to appear on Dave Congalton Hometown Radio to look at the long-term effects of early intervention. Mikayla Thompson was just ten when she volunteered her recesses to stop bullying on our campus. For two years of elementary school, she worked with a core group of students to promote peace on campus. Using scripts I wrote, non-violence techniques, and assertiveness training these kids helped to make our school a better place.

I knew those kids helped our school while they were there but I had no idea if the prevention and intervention tools we taught had any long term-term effects.

But I hoped.

On Monday, November 19th I picked Mikayla up for the ride to the KVEC Studio. What she shared then and during the next two hours blew me away. Not only has she stood up to bullies for these past six years but she also has comforted victims, helped her siblings work out conflicts, and gone on to volunteer for the Make a Wish foundation. She was a resilient child. I was so proud I couldn’t stop grinning.

During the interview she was poised, thoughtful, and kind as she shared some of her stories. Not only had early intervention made a difference in her life, but Mikayla was paying it forward and helping other teens to cope. For the entire interview, click on the following link:

Interview with Mikayla and Laurie

Tips for parents and educators:

Be on the lookout for changes in behavior. If a child suddenly becomes withdrawn or reluctant to attend school, they might be experiencing bullying.
Ask specific questions about how he/she is interacting with others.
Be vigilant with social media. Cyber-bullying is on the rise.
Role-play ways to deal with bullying as in the Peace Card.
Seek help. My website, Artania.net has scores of free lessons and ideas.
A teacher, Laurie Woodward is the author of several novels including Forest Secrets, and the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles. She also cowrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes her novels on the Central Coast of California.