Fall colors

Photo by Kim Douillard

October often feels like the longest teaching month of the year…and then November follows as a month short on teaching days and filled with assessments, report cards, and parent conferences. The month begins with an extra hour of sleep and continues with dark creeping in earlier and earlier each day. Short days and long nights call for extra ways to bring light into our lives.  

Poet Kim Stafford in his note about For the Bird Singing Before Dawn, describes writing poems before daylight, then hearing the first bird begin to sing. “The birds are my teachers, my elders, my guides,” he writes. How might you use this poem as a mentor for finding hope and joy when the days feel dark? If you and your students need some mental relief from the challenges of living and learning, check out this 3+ minute video of gorgeous birds and their beautiful songs.

With elections this week, how are you engaging your students in civically-minded writing? Take a look at this piece called Five Answers for the Modern Child. How might you use it as a mentor text for yourself or your students? You may also want to check out the resources for Dear Gov on the California Writing Project website.  How will you encourage your students to share their civically-engaged writing beyond the classroom? Reminder: the Dear Gov site will be available throughout the school year–not just during the elections this week.

How did you and/or your students participate in Write Out this year?  Please take a few minutes to fill out this short survey about your participation (we’d love to know about even the small ways you engaged)--what ideas do you have for next year? We welcome your voice!

Finding joy in quiet mornings and long nights,

Kim

Educators and their students are invited to participate in Dear Gov! Put together by the California Writing Project (CWP), this program is an opportunity to write to the next governor regarding issues that matter the most.

Visit the links below for more information on Dear Gov, lesson plan access, the submission link, and the teacher survey:

The annual Narrative High School Writing Contest invites current high school senior writers to showcase their talent through short stories, essays, or poetry. Participants must submit a story or essay under 600 words, or a poem between 10 and 50 lines. 

Winners can earn scholarships of up to $10,000 each and submissions will be open until ... Visit the links below for more information:

The Youth Alliance for Writers & Poets invites students ages 13-18 (9th-12th grade) to participate in there 2026 contest! Writing submissions must be up to 3,000 words and may consist of any genre, topic, or be previously published/submitted.

An important note for students is that in order to be eligible to submit their own writing pieces, they must be willing to judge two other writing pieces for each of their submissions. Submissions will be open until January 15th, 2027, 11:59pm.

For more information and submission details, please visit the links below:

Narrative's 12th annual High School Writing Contest information is now available! The submission portal will open on January 6, 2027 and close on or before January 29, 2027. 

Submissions must be original, unpublished poems of 10 to 50 lines that relate to the author's own experiences with the prompt When Everything Changed. 

Only the first 1,000 submissions will be accepted so make sure to submit your entries right away! Visit the links below for more:

The Walden Project invites students to participate in their Live Deliberately Essay Contest. This year's theme is: Where’s Your Walden?® Edition and there will be three age groups for submission (14-16, 17-18, or 19-21).

Writing pieces must be a maximum of 750 words and must be submitted using the online form only. Please visit the links below for more contest information and submission requirements:

The San Diego Area Writing Project (SDAWP) believes that socially responsible approaches to teaching writing support the education and success of San Diego's culturally and linguistically diverse student population. Our work ranges from professional development workshops to summer programs for young writers; we believe that writing is critical to learning and a vital tool for communication in all disciplines. 

We ask for your one-time donation or a sustaining monthly contribution to support all of the SDAWP programs. Your tax-deductible donation to UC San Diego Online Giving directly supports the San Diego Area Writing Project-Programs & Young Writers' Camps Scholarships Support Fund (4787). Donating to the San Diego Area Writing Project is your opportunity to support high-quality teacher education that guarantees the academic achievement of all of our students.