Episode Details

There's nothing quite like knowing exactly what you're going to do on the first day back after break as you cruise into the winter vacation. Giving yourself that mental cushion means that maybe when you wake up in the middle of the night over break, you can think about what cookies you want to make in the morning and which book you want to read by the fire instead of what to teach on the first day back!

Because it's OK to take a break.

So in today's short and sweet episode - because I know you're BUSY right now - I want to suggest an easy lesson for the first day back - the one-word project.

I first heard about the one-word project fifteen years ago when I was living in Bulgaria. Struggling a bit to adjust to my new surroundings in post-Communist Sofia (Bulgaria's capital), I started listening to Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love on my regular jogs around my neighborhood, Mladost 1-A.

It helped to listen to Elizabeth Gilbert process her life in Italy, India, and Bali as I tried to process my first foray into Eastern Europe.

One of the things she talked about - I think it was during her time in India - was this idea of choosing a word to define the year ahead. Unlike a six word memoir, which stems from all that we have been, the one word project helps us envision the future we want and choose a way to guide ourselves into it.

Now this project could be incredibly quick if you just pass out paper and invite kids to choose a word. But I'd scaffold the process a bit to make it more meaningful.

You might start by having students write some reflection on the past year, 2023. What was most meaningful for them? What did they learn that they valued? What do they want to build on that really mattered to them? What would they say their theme songs were in 2023?

If they're up for it, you might let them share with a partner, or add their theme songs to a big list on your white board.

Next, turn their attention to 2024.

You know how I feel about one-pagers. I think the combination of visuals and text can really help highlight meaning. So I suggest you invite students to start by just jotting ideas in a notebook for possible words they'd like to use and ideas, goals, and visuals of their own lives that relate to those possibilities.

Then you can share a one-word prompt that invites them to write and illustrate their one word. They'll want to write that defining word in big bold letters, then illustrate it with the smaller goals and steps that will help them to truly live that word in 2024.

Maybe some of your students aren't big on paper and markers? No problem. The one-word one-pager works great on a platform like Slides or Canva too. In fact, if you're hoping to help students get onboarded to Canva in 2024 this could be a wonderful starter project.

If you'd like to share a basic template with them to help them get started, feel free to use the one I used for the model above! You can find it here.

Once your students have created their one-word visual, either on paper or digitally (and printed them out), I highly recommend you turn them into a display! Covering a wall (with permission from students) in the words your students hope to use as guiding lights for the year can help keep them front of mind. You can even revisit them every few months with some reflective writing about how things are going with regard to their goals.

If some kids prefer to keep their words private, that's totally understandable. You might suggest they tape them into the front of their notebook or hang them by their b