Here's to the almighty stretch!

These past two mornings, I practically hobbled to the bathroom.  Then I went straight back to bed for an extra thirty minutes of television.   I channel surfed, hoping to find something so engaging that I might be able to justify a full hour of “inspiration” before I started thinking about my to-do list.

Actually, I’ve been pretty sore this entire last week or so. My lower back aches, the back of my legs ache, my neck and shoulders ache.   Probably because school starts in two weeks and I’m pushing to do everything that didn’t get done around the house during the school year.  We’ve been moving furniture, redecorating, and painting.  And as a result, well... let’s just say that I’ve been getting re-acquainted with muscles I haven’t visited for a while.

This morning, while lying there, I could feel my lower back throbbing.  I instinctively pulled my knees to my chest, right there in bed.  It felt wonderful!   I could feel my spine lengthening and the achiness leaving.  So while catching up on the overnight news, I stretched my legs, my lower back, my arms.  And you know what?  After only twenty minutes, I was actually eager to get up, and when I did, my aches were nearly gone.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about those aches and writing and about how some of my students struggle to begin writing, looking for "inspiration" or just procrastinating, the same as I did. 

I’ve also been thinking about how to integrate more writing into my curriculum, especially writing that I don’t have to grade.  Heaven knows I don’t need to bring home more papers to mark.  So does Kelly Gallagher, who spoke at an Indiana Writing Project event in June and mentioned having students write four times more than teachers grade in order to make them more proficient.  I’ve set that as a goal for myself and my students.

So… what if I changed my bland “Writing Warm Up” at the beginning of class to our “Writing Stretch?” 

Effectiveness is often a result of careful marketing.  Maybe I’ll create an extended metaphor with my students that goes something like this: 

So, class, over the summer I’ve been feeling the effects of getting older. My muscles and joints don’t always work the way they are supposed to, and I’ve been getting lazier and lazier because of the pain, especially in the mornings.   Unfortunately, being lazy doesn’t help me get much accomplished.  It ends up causing me to take MORE time to accomplish my goals.  But what I’ve discovered is that stretching in the morning actually helps me move more easily.  It ensures that my joints work the way they are intended.  It gets me ready for the tasks at hand, and it makes me more efficient and more productive.  And best of all, I can do it at home, without anyone around.

Sometimes our school lives are so busy that we have trouble flexing our writing muscles.   A daily writing  stretch will do the same thing for us that my morning stretch does for me.  It will ensure that our minds and our fingers work more easily, the way they can and the way they should.  It will make our writing more efficient because we have already begun getting ideas on paper, and more productive because when an actual writing task is presented, we will already have ideas to start from.   And best of all, no one needs to see what we have written in our writer’s notebooks because what we do benefits us.  It is not a performance or a final draft.

So, here’s to the many benefits of a good long stretch!   May we enjoy it and reap its benefits in all its forms!