Hello HEO,
I have a dream.
My dream is that one day, all colleges and universities will cultivate professional learning environments where faculty bond, let go, and truly exemplify teamwork and collaboration—not only for the benefit of the students or the university, but also for their own peace of mind, joy, and fulfillment.
As a result, my goal is to create a writing community where faculty from near and far come together to reflect on their experiences in higher education, share their lessons, admit to their pitfalls and pratfalls, and support one another on a regular basis. I truly get excited when I think about it. Expanding that dream in its most gargantuan form would look like developing chapters of writing communities at colleges and universities worldwide.
The communities would be called The WIRe Community (which is an acronym for Week in Review). Oh, I have the whole structure of them planned out and have envisioned how impactful they would be.
Shhh…this dream is between you and me.
I have launched “Write with Me” Sessions on YouTube for now. I had this epiphany to break the concept into small episodes so that those who want to reflect each week can come to the playlist and choose the area where they need some encouragement or just want some structure. For the final session, I am going to include all of the prompts like a Pomodoro study session from my journal, The Professor’s Week in Review: A Journal for Weekly Reflections on the Higher Ed Experience.
I am excited about this because writing has been one of my favorite things since I was very young. I mean as soon as I could put sentences together, I entertained myself with writing. My paternal grandmother used to keep everything that I wrote for her—poems, cards, short stories—in a trunk in her attic and I felt so honored that she loved my writing, my gifts from the heart, so much. But, writing in a journal or diary is even more special because it is a private experience. I think of it as a self-care practice and I want people from all over the world to experience how invigorating it is to write about their work experiences each week and keep track of their journey.
I am certain that doing so would change the culture of academia, 1000-fold.
Well, without further ado, here is the first ‘Write with Me” Session. It focuses on the first prompt in the journal each week: “What went well this week?” So, this session is dedicated to acknowledging your triumphs. Yes, this is the session where you take the time to write about all of the good things that happened in your life over the past week. It is a great way to launch the deep thinking you will do in the pages that follow. It gets your juices flowing on a positive note.
I hope that you will join me on YouTube each Saturday this summer at 12:30 p.m. (EST) for a peek into what it is like to set aside time to think deeply about various aspects of your work experience in higher education.
Click on these links to order or download your journal today!
My Publisher: https://bit.ly/thewirejournal
Amazon: https://amzn.to/40W4U4y
Fillable PDF: https://bit.ly/thefillablewire