End of year rituals are as important as the settling in period in any writing workshop. This year my class and I are parting ways at Christmas after four terms together. We have been through a lot. I’m happy to say that despite our ups and downs, many of them have well and truly caught the writing bug.
For a while now I have been thinking what better way to remember our time together than with the gift of a personalised notebook in which to ‘squirrel away’ their thoughts and ideas (Young & Ferguson 2020).
I commissioned a keen artist in the class to sketch a front cover. She came up with this little red squirrel which shares her own writerly touches. These were reproduced and now adorn thirty pocket-sized notebooks ready to be given out next week.
Writers need a place to collect and scavenge; to store and gather. My only hope is that they continue living the writer’s life, and look back on our extended year together fondly.
My message to the children inside the notebook is heartfelt, and I truly believe I have learned just as much from them this year as they have from me.
By Tobias Hayden @TobiasHayden