January 3, 2021

Hello friends –

Typically, when a new year rings in with the fanfare of fireworks and ball drops, we take time to reminisce about the previous year. Lists populate every form of media: Top 100 Songs of 2020, Best Films of 2020, 100 Most Influential People of 2020, 10 Best YA and Children’s Books of 2020 . After 2020, a dumpster fire of a year, I need to look ahead, not backwards, with a mission of hope and resolve. Today, I’m making a brief but purposeful list of my action-oriented goals for 2021.

SCREEN OUT THE 24-HOUR NEGATIVITY. I will turn off the round-the-clock, breaking news cycle that’s filled my head with worry this entire year. I will stop the doomscrolling through Twitter and limit my intake of stress-inducing news. Yes, it’s important to stay informed, but a quick Axios read once a day ought to do the trick.

SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE WRITTEN WORD. Insead of sedentary absorption of news, I intend to reimagine my engagement with the world around me. I’ll write more frequently…on this blog, in the blank journal I picked up at Target this weekend, in letters to my parents, who’ve been locked up and separated in assisted living facilities, and in emails and postcards to my students. I’ll read more books–because books provide the cheapest and easiest escape hatch. I can walk in someone else’s shoes. I can be moved to tears, have my heart well up with joy, feel infuriated or frightened,  or be transported to an imaginary world–all within a few hundred pages. Best of all, it’s my imagination that envisions the characters and places–not a Hollywood hotshot.

WORK TOWARDS THE GREATER GOOD. Climate change. Poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity. Social and economic inequality. These monumental problems, thrust front and center during 2020, cry out for solutions. My students regularly talk and write about these topics. Bad news can cripple us…or it can inspire us. I want to humbly and honestly invest my time and resources to make a difference this year, which is why I’ve made it a priority to read a host of social justice books such as How to Be An Antiracist and Stamped and listened to the most extraordinary podcast series, Scene on Radio’s “Seeing White.”  Systemic inequalities have trenched deep caverns in our society, and I feel called to be part of the solution. I’m not sure exactly what that will look like in 2021, but I’ll be seeking consequential ways to affect positive change in my classroom and in my community.

BE AN OUTSIDER. This year has been unimaginably hard for everyone. The loss of life to Covid-19 is unfathomable. As of today, Sunday, January 3, 358,830 American lives have been stolen by this pandemic. Seemingly overnight, our world changed. In 2020, we pulled up the covers, shut our doors, and masked our smiles. I used to walk miles in a classroom. My new normal is sitting for hours in front of a computer. Now more than ever, I crave the outdoors. I need the birdsongs. I seek a sunset’s rippling waves of amber, magenta, crimson, and lavender. I long for rocky, muddy, grass-lined trails meandering through towering hardwoods. I want to feel my chest rise and fall, to hear dry leaves crackle beneath my feet, and to look across a percolating stream or overgrown field and see a flicker of motion–a bird of prey perched on bare limb, squirrels scampering over hundred-year-old bark, a startled fawn retreating to safety. I must be grounded by nature, the ever-changing constant that surrounds us. In 2021, being an outsider is definitely “in.”

MAKE KINDNESS AN ACTION WORD. If you haven’t already, you absolutely, positively MUST watch The Antidote, Amazon Prime’s uplifting documentary on human kindness. In a sick world that too often makes us feel powerless, this film is essential viewing. Kindness is an action-oriented choice. It requires us to step outside our bubbles to raise up another human being. It’s holding the door for a stranger. It’s smiling and initiating a conversation with the waiter or checkout person. It’s listening instead of talking. It’s doing something positive and worthwhile for someone else. Being kind isn’t always easy; there are curmudgeons and haters who may not acknowledge our kindness. Persist in generously sprinkling kindness. Not only is kindness good for our world, but research proves it’s beneficial to us, too. In a 2015 workplace study by Georgetown University, being kind to coworkers led to positive outcomes: improved job performance, being sought out for advice, and earning leadership roles. Unlike toilet paper, which was hard to come by for large swaths of 2020, kindness is readily available and doesn’t have to cost a cent. In 2021, I’m up for making kindness a superspreader. 🙂

CONNECT WITH OTHERS. Over the past three months, I’ve had the privilege of welcoming three Los Angeles-based advertising professionals into my Virginia communications classroom. That’s one positive of lockdowns.  I’m so grateful to Robin Higgins, Max Lasser, and Benjamin Apple for carving out time to share honest, impactful conversations with us over Google Meet. These three comedic standouts made my students feel important and valued in the midst of worldwide chaos. Thank you simply isn’t enough.

Teaching is an incredible profession. Not only am I surrounded by exceptionally gifted colleagues who put kids first, but I am blessed to interact with over 100 students every week; they have opinions and ideas to share, and ideals to develop. They’re stressed and worried, like the rest of us. Yet, they’re still showing up to online school, caring for siblings and family members, and working overtime to get through this pandemic mess. I want my students to know I understand today’s circumstances may feel insurmountable at times. That’s why I’m ever thankful for the effort they’re making. This isn’t what school should be for any of us, but we will make it through by acknowledging the struggle and celebrating whatever we can–both the significant and insignificant accomplishments.

Speaking of accomplishments…my small but committed communications class has published its most recent series of blog posts about Holidays and Festivities. Please take a look…

• Elizabeth, captain of Orange Boat, writes about her family’s Christmas traditions, including Jimmy, her family’s mischievous Elf on a Shelf.
• Fatima retells tales of Christmas past, when her grandparents hosted their annual holiday celebration, complete with secret recipes and a tree-topping success story.
• Grace goes Down the Rabbit Hole to elaborate on Christmas quarantining and Christmas songs and movies that are family traditions at her holiday-decorated house (check out her pup pic).
• Cameron drafts a list of five Christmas favorites, but you’ll have to visit this blog to read more about them – and see this writer’s Minecraft-inspired artwork.
• What do you get when you mix 30+ revelers of Irish descent with a fun-loving collection of holiday traditions? Ask Chess to Impress, who explains his family’s Christmastime Yankee Swap, lumps of peat, and Secret Santa.
• Keeley lives Life with Soul, especially at Christmas. Read about her family’s fuzzy-toed tradition.
• Angelina names five things that make her Christmas sparkle, including her family’s Scrumptious Bars recipe (which she shares in her blog post!).

This January, we’ll join the 100 Word Challenge, the free, weekly writing challenge for students 16 and under. Thank you to the folks at the Student Blogging Challenge for connecting me to this worldwide blogging activity. It’s one more way to connect with the outside world!

If you’re a teacher or student visiting this blog and made it all the way to the end of this long-winded post, please leave a link to your blog. We’d like to visit you and start a conversation. We’re also open to discussions over Google Meet. Tell me…what are your goals for 2021? 

Here’s to a meaningful new year!

Mrs. Rombach