Anne Elrod Whitney

Tired. Uninspired. Emotionally exhausted. Overwhelmed. Burned out. In a world where the pace seems to get faster and the problems seem intractable, more and more people feel they just can't go on as they have been doing. The truth is, we're much better at caring for our bodies than caring for our spirits. In Inkwell, writing instructor and professor Anne Whitney shows how writing--informal, low-stakes writing, in just a few minutes a day--can be a powerful tool for your spiritual self-care. While many people are intimidated by writing, or remember writing from their school days as difficult or scary, this book offers practical, meaningful writing tools that anyone, regardless of writing experience, education, or training, can use to grow closer to God and heal spiritual wounds. In writing activities that range from quick jottings to more extended narratives, from drawing to analyzing what you've written, you'll cultivate mindful attention, helping you to settle down, feel your feelings, and center on what is most important to you rather than on what feels most urgent.

When teachers write, good things can happen; writing helps educators to better understand themselves, as well as students, parents, and colleagues. This practical book illustrates how to encourage, lead, and sustain teacher-writers, especially in group contexts. In contrast to guides on writing and teacher research, this book is designed for those who support teacher-writers, such as teacher educators and literacy coaches. The authors offer descriptions of key practices they have developed over years of coaching, teaching, and collaborating with K–12 teachers who write about classroom instruction, teacher research, or advocacy for better policy and pedagogy. Knowing firsthand just how hard writing can be for teachers, they provide a repertoire of strategies to elicit writing, to support teachers as they write, to find audiences for the teachers’ work, and much more.