Reoccurring Themes
Updated: Mar 19, 2020
I just went through my blog archive to do a few things: record all of the titles I have used, document the number of posts from each month, and analyze trends in my writing. I noticed that there are several reoccurring themes. I suppose it’s because I find inspiration (to write) about many of the same things, such as art, education, gratitude, and wellness. Speaking of gratitude…
So, I’m a big fan of Instagram. There are so many inspiring people whom I will likely never meet face-to-face… but they put some great content out there, and I am grateful for them. I was fortunate enough to find a gratitude challenge from the user @positivelypresent (Dani DiPirro) just in time for the beginning of November. This challenge was set up with the intention of participating anytime throughout the year, but I think it’s very timely with Thanksgiving coming up (how is it next week already?!), and the end of the year approaching. We should practice gratitude on a daily basis anyway, but it’s nice to have specific prompts to guide the focus. Here’s the list for 2018:
I have been posting my gratitude challenge photos on my personal Instagram page. My friend and her sister just started a podcast a few months ago (2 months ago to the day, as a matter of fact!) and their most recent episode focuses on Gratitude.
At school this year, I am continuing my focus on wellness-related topics with students on the rotation day. Each quarter, I will see certain classes for an extra day, in addition to their regular art class. I try to integrate the various topics with an art and/or writing prompt. Most recently, third grade students created lists and illustrations of what they are grateful/thankful for. Other wellness-related lessons can be found in previous posts here and here. I think that it is so important to teach children the importance of wellness in general, and how to access it from different venues (i.e. creating art, deep breathing, movement, etc.) I plan to share some useful items on my Resources for Educators page under the category of Wellness.
What are some reoccurring themes in your life?