November Preview, with a Special Invitation for Teachers

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all in the path of Hurricane Sandy, including our own Jeanne Marie. As a last-minute sub for her, I'm posting a quick preview of a special event we'll be sponsoring in November. We've decided to expand last year's Ten Days of Thanks-Giving into a full Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving, and we're hoping many of you will again join in the celebration, especially if you're a teacher or fellow blogger. This post includes an invitation to teachers who'd like to incorporate the event into their November lesson plans.  

Before I explain how to participate, let me share some background: In October, 2011 Esther blogged about a poetry form called a Thanku--a thank you note written in the from of a haiku. Her post inspired the TeachingAuthors team to sponsor our first ever Ten Days of Thanks-Giving last November. During those ten days, all our posts included thank you notes to someone special. In my post, I shared the following Thanku addressed to my teacher and mentor, Sharon Darrow:

Your encouragement
yielded a harvest beyond
my expectations.

We also invited readers and fellow bloggers to share their own thank yous via comments, emails, or blog posts. At the end of the ten days, we posted some of those thank you notes on our blog, along with a round up of links to other blogs that had participated in the event.

We plan to do the same this year, with some minor modifications. As I mentioned, we're expanding the event so that it will run for two full weeks. This year's Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving will take place November 16-November 30. We will again invite our readers and fellow bloggers to participate by writing a thank you note of no more than 25 words via prose or a poetry form of your choice. (We'd love to see more Thankus!) But this year, we ask that your thank yous be writing-related, expressing your gratitude to a writing teacher who helped you or to a writer you admire. You may consider following Sherman Alexie's #1 bit of advice in his Top 10 Pieces of Writing Advice:

[1] When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author. Be effusive with your praise. Writing is a lonely business. Do your best to make it a little less lonely.

Now, to all the classroom teachers out there: We invite you to give your students the same assignment-- to compose a thank you note to an author of their choosing. Please limit the assignment to 25 words of prose or poetry. (If you're planning to have them write their notes as Thankus, see Esther's original post for inspiration.)  We'd love for you to share some of your students' notes with us, either via a comment, email, or your own blog posts. We'll then include some of their work (or a link to your blog post) in our final round-up on November 30. The kick-off post on November 16 will include complete details on how to submit to us.

For all our readers: We hope you'll also participate in our Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving. Again, watch for our November 16 kick-off post for complete details. And if you know any teachers who may be interested in participating, please share this information with them as soon as possible.

Finally, for those participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) or Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo), good luck!

Happy writing!
Carmela