November 2020, Issue 4

Welcome Back!

What are we grateful for? What do we take for granted? In the month of November, it's important to take a step back to value the blessings we've had and share them with others, be it in the form of a poem, story, or Thanksgiving feast!

As for the LTWN Staff, we couldn't be more thankful for our kind community of teachers, parents, and students! Looking at the Fall Feast Poetry Contest, we're thrilled to have such talented writers who are open and willing to share their stories with the LTWN family. Even more, we've had many parents reach out to us to congratulate us on The Writing Nucleus! So, from the LTWN staff, thank you!

In this issue, we've combined the introspective feelings the Thanksgiving season might inspire with some fun activities and reads. But before you get into this issue, we want to ask you the same questions we asked earlier!

What are you grateful for, and what do you take for granted?

- Manav Davis, Editor-in-Chief

PRESENTING, THE FALL FEAST POETRY CONTEST! The Fall Feast Poetry Contest

Calling all students, K-12!

LTWN wants you to inspire it with your wit and wag. The Fall Feast Poetry Contest of 2020 seeks poems about the season of Autumn.

There are four different groups for the competition, and each group has its respective prompt upon which it should base its poem. The groups and their topics are as follows:

LTWN will select two winners from each Lower Elementary (Grades K-2) group whose poems will be published on Write a rhyming poem about the way that the LTWN Facebook page. autumn makes you feel. Think about using words that appeal to all five senses (sight, Second place winners will receive a sound, touch, taste, smell)! $25 Amazon gift card, Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5) while first place winners will receive a Write a haiku about your favorite activity $50 Amazon gift card. during the Fall. Remember, a haiku has three lines. There are five syllables in the first and Please use this link to submit your poem: third lines, but there are seven syllables in the second line. https://tinyurl.com/y3xgvl3u

Middle School (Grades 6-8) Only one entry is allowed per student. Write a poem in any style of your choosing. It must contain the following words: "change," The deadline to submit is "orange," "tumble," and "mystery." Nov. 15th, 2020! High School (Grades 9-12) Write a free-form poem based on the following question: "What does Autumn mean to me?" Get as creative as you'd like. Where someone might write in metaphors and memories, another might write in numbers and science.

THEN, OUR WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE! Writers-in-Residence

In this section, our three writers wanted to share their answer to these questions: What is something that you take for granted in your everyday life? Why should you be grateful for it? Here, take a look!

Imagine this: you wake up to go take a shower, and you only get cold water. Now what do you do? You are probably not going to enjoy it because you will be freezing the whole time, but you can make it work. Something I take for granted in my everyday life is definitely having access to hot and cold water. I know, it does not sound like a big deal, but it is just the opposite.

For some people in the world, even a cold shower is a luxury. Other people, unfortunately, do not have access to drinking water, which is something they need to survive. People in the United States are lucky to have access to warm showers and cold drinking water whenever they want. It is as simple at turning the knob a certain direction. It is easy to forget to be thankful for water because there have been very few times in our lives that we have not had it. When was the last time you had to take a cold shower? In all likelihood, it was a long time ago, for only a day or so. When was the last time you worried about where you were going to get your next sip of water? For many of us, this has likely never been a worry. Having access to water in general is a blessing in itself, but having access to hot AND cold water is truly amazing, and something I think many of us fail to acknowledge the value of. - Aneri P., Grade 8

Time is what moves us forward or pushes us down. I take this for granted every day. All of us probably take this for granted every day, but we forget the most important part of us because of our other priorities. We get so caught up with our own work, we forget what time has in store for us. Time is what decides how long we will be here, so we should be grateful for it. We never know what might happen to our time, but we can use it wisely. We can spend more time with our family and friends rather than spending hours on online games. That’s why I ask you to be careful with your time because it is the most precious gift that was given to us. Time is the reason why we have such a loving community. However, when time is used negatively on your end, it will affect you. Enjoy life while you can with your positive choices. Only then you will be satisfied.

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” - Steve Jobs - Sreenitya P., Grade 7

READ ON FOR OUR FINAL WRITER! Here is a more philosophical perspective on the things that we, as a planet, take for granted.

“Humans are immortal” is a fictitious belief and the sooner we realize this, the closer we would be to reality. I think a lot of us take “life” for granted and tend to procrastinate on the items that are on our wish list. In this mad race of never-ending personal and professional commitments, there is little time we invest in ourselves and ponder about our existence. We all overwork, over commit, and are over- ambitious since humans have made this world a competitive landscape. For a proactivist, they have a perfect plan outlined for their life which is commendable.

But dear friend, do you have a Plan B? Well, there is no Plan B because the assumption here is there is a lot of time left and there is no rush. “Not today, maybe another time” is what our mind wants to follow, but why not change this thinking as, “If not now, then when?” The world is going through a pandemic and the numbers of deaths are surging. Despite being aware of everything that is going on currently, do we take a moment to thank the Lord for adding one more day to our lives? Sounds melodramatic? Chat with someone who knows he has a limited time on this earth, and they can explain how valuable each day is. We do not need “Thanksgiving” to thank everyone in our lives, we do not need “Valentine’s Day” to express love but let us treat all days the same.

A “Thank You” story that I recently read reiterated that every materialistic item has a limited warranty. Andrew was extremely pleased when he was promoted as the Vice President for an organization. He was living in his dream house and had a perfect family. Well, sounds like a fairy tale so far. Andrew felt the same and started believing that he was the happiest person on this earth. Apart from work, Andrew’s passion was to volunteer and donate to charitable institutions. One day, when he was heading out after donating, a kid in a wheelchair raced towards him. He thanked Andrew and stated it was because of the wheelchair donation, he was now mobile and felt a step closer to his dreams. This was an “a-ha” moment for Andrew since he realized this was indeed the happiest moment and accomplishment in his life. Life is a temporary asset, let’s embrace it, value our relationships, time, money, and everything that is a part of this life. Here is my simple advice (which applies to me as well).

Live and celebrate like it is your last day on this earth. If you have a plan, execute it now. Spread positivity around you. Make your dreams come true. Live life king-size. Grab the right opportunity. Do good deeds."

- Divya K., Parent

HERE'S SOME STUDENT POETRY! Student Poetry “Thanksgiving" by Ryan H. - Grade 3

Thank you for all my hands can hold, My baby sister when she sleeps in my arms Sweetly sucking her thumb, And a stuffed animal named Berry.

Thank you for all my eyes can see, The beautiful sunshine in the sky, The green trees where I sleep in the shade, And the mountains tall and pointy.

Thank you for all my ears can hear, The sound of frogs croaking in ponds, Crickets chirping at night, And the sound of birds in the day.

Parent and Student Testimonials

"These mini-lesson exercises are very good to build a foundation for English storytelling." - Parent of Arjun S.

"It was a fun mini-lesson and my child loved every part of it. We wish to get more mini-lessons like this." - Parent of Navya M.

"We really enjoyed the Creative Hooks lessons and the teacher made the lesson very engaging." - Students in HS Freshman English.

"Thanks for going over the mini-lesson and giving us thoughtful comments. It helps me improve my writing every week." - Shreya S

NEXT, IS THE LTWN WORD SEARCH! LTWN's Thanksgiving Word Search

Here's a challenge: can you find all of these festive words?

APPLE DESSERT HOME AUTUMN DRESSING LEAVES BAKE FALL MAYFLOWER CASSEROLE FAMILY NOVEMBER CELEBRATE FEAST PIE COLONISTS GRATITUDE PILGRIMS COOK HAM CORNUCOPIA HARVEST There are eight more secret words in this puzzle. CRANBERRIES HOLIDAY See if you can discover all of them!

JOIN US IN THE STAFF LOUNGE! Welcome to the Staff Lounge!

In spirit of Thanksgiving, we asked LTWN staff the following questions: “How do you show gratitude? What are the ways you let others know you appreciate them?”

Here are their earnest responses!

"I love showing gratitude through my writing. I will send loved ones poems or letters; I also "I show gratitude by giving back. By being like to send friends surprise messages of there for others when they need me or by appreciation. With family, I will go out with doing thoughtful things. For me, these are them for that much-needed walk, or I will the best ways to show that I am thankful." give them the comic relief necessary to signal - Mr. Salvant that I deeply care." - Ms. Kolimja "The best way I know how to show gratitude is to live every moment with the realization "I show gratitude or appreciation to people I that my very existence is an extremely care about by either giving them a call or text unlikely event that is made possible by the to check up on them and see how they're precise alignment of various celestial bodies, doing. I also like sending a gift every once in a the Sun, the Earth, Nature and all its while with a special note or card written for creatures creating the right environment for them to tell them how much they mean to me to flourish. A small change at any level me." and the earth might not even exist, let alone - Ms. Kajal life on it or me." - Mr. Davis "I show gratitude through a smile, a touch, a kind word, a piece of candy." - Mr. Earley

AND NOW, A WORD FROM LTWN FOUNDER, MRS. DAVIS! A Word From Mrs. Davis!

Living Life With an Attitude of Gratitude

Dear Parents and Students,

Gratitude has empowered me to teach more effectively, appreciate my individual students, grow in my profession, and enjoy life. Utilizing gratitude, I am able to model one of the most important lessons in life, having a positive attitude, especially about the aspects of life that challenge me.

By exercising the “gratitude muscle” with a journal, students can harness positive thinking to increase their grades, goals, and quality of life.

Gratitude Journal

To get started, I recommend actually writing your own gratitude list for a few weeks and feeling its power. Then you can share your example and start the activity with your friends and other family members. You might start your gratitude journal by being thankful for being alive, for having food to eat and clothes to wear.

In addition, I suggest that students should be specific. For example, instead of writing, “Thank you for lunch,” I would write, “Thank you for the tomatoes and lettuce in my salad and for the cool, sweet iced tea with friends,” or “Thank you for the nutritious lunch made by loving hands.”

At LTWN, throughout November, students will be writing multiple things that they are grateful for and I am always encouraged and pleasantly surprised by what my students share. I get to learn about things going on in their lives that I might not hear about otherwise. This helps build a positive culture in our classroom. Exercising the Muscle

Gratitude seems to work like a muscle, and the physical act of writing a gratitude list helps develop gratitude muscles. And Professor Philip Watkins of Eastern Washington University says that those who are the least grateful seem to gain the most from making this effort. That’s good news for those of us who may find it hard to start a gratitude list.

Sometimes I really challenge the students by asking if they can be thankful for homework or chores. This challenge enables them to see what is good about homework—that it helps them learn and prepares them for school and life. Visible Change

Recent research by two leaders in the field of gratitude and education, Dr. Robert Emmons and Dr. Jeffrey Froh, supports the idea that gratitude improves the lives of students and adults. They have found several benefits for students and adults.

Keeping a gratitude journal on a daily basis helps students achieve higher grades; higher goals; more satisfaction with life and school; less materialism; and more willingness to give back. Keeping a gratitude journal enables both students and adults to be more optimistic, experience more social satisfaction, exercise more often, have less envy and depression, have fewer physical complaints, and sleep better.

I see these positive changes in my students. One of them saved her allowance and bought gratitude journals for her family. Her mom was in nursing school and very stressed. At the dinner table, they would share their gratitude for the day and grow as a family. The mom came to me and thanked me for teaching gratitude to her daughter and helping her family. She said it helped her get through nursing school.

I challenge you to try it yourself and see how it works. My friends who have written a daily gratitude journal for at least two weeks speak positively about the experience. Gratitude has transformed many lives. It is true that our focus can stimulate growth. If I focus on the good and I am grateful, more comes into my life. Conversely, if I complain and focus on the negative, more of that is drawn into my life. For me, the fruit of the focus on gratitude is happiness.

On that note, my sincere gratitude to each and every one of you for making Learn To Write Now one of the most engaged learning communities in the world.

Sincerely,

Aruna Davis