Happy new year!

A year ago this week, I declared 2013 to be the official “Year of Writing.” True, I wrote a very important piece last year that took up an amazing amount of my time, but I have since decided to dub every year of my life the “year of writing.” I would like to spend my time in 2014 writing more and different pieces, as opposed to only one the entire year.

To celebrate what hopefully will be quantity and quality, I am going to post my writing goals every month. These will be pieces that I hope to write this month. Hopefully the blog will keep me accountable. I am going to try to make January pretty prolific , so we’ll see how that goes. Here’s what I hope to accomplish in the first month of 2014:

An Article About Teaching Human Rights

The teacher I worked with in my dissertation study taught a thematic unit called “Human Rights.” I really want to use my observation data from my time with her in this unit and write a piece about what it looks like to teach about human rights in elementary grades. I need to read more to write this article, for sure since it wasn’t a focus of my actual dissertation study.

An Article About Civic Engagement Among 5th Graders

A main finding in my dissertation was about how teaching a project-based service learning unit helped develop 5th grade students’ civic engagement. I have a LOT of data for this, and even some text drafted. So this will take some time for me to cut & polish & add.

Plan an Article About Using Read-Alouds in Social Studies

One of my favorite professional experiences of 2013 was presenting at the National Council for Social Studies with my colleague, Stephanie. Our research interests about using literature in content areas are pretty similar, so we put together a poster presentation. I had so much fun talking one-on-one with teachers (as opposed to the stand-and-deliver type of presentation) about their interest in reading more about this. At the end of the allotted time, we just looked at each other and thought– we have to write about this more! Hoping to make this thought a reality.

Revise Two Pieces I’ve Already Drafted

I have an article coming out in the fall of 2014 that needs a few tweaks. I also wrote another article that needs a lot of tweaks before I submit it for publication.

Blog!

Of course, I want to write more about writing. I am teaching a writing methods course starting Monday, so I know I’ll have lots to share from my students and my own experiences teaching writing. I can’t wait.

Let’s hope 2014 is productive!