The story of how I froze for 30 minutes trying to write a class newsletter.
“Convey the state of the class this month”
That was what I had written in my notes. But I couldn't write it.
I opened my notebook, tried to write the title, and stopped. I froze for 30 minutes in front of the word “this month.”
I am not good at writing class newsletters.
It has always been this way. I know I “have to write it.” But I stumble every time at the “what to write” part.
Reports on events, how the children are doing, notices for parents—I have the “materials” for each. But how to arrange them, what to make the “main” focus, what words to start with. I can't decide on those, and time passes with the page remaining blank.
This school year, I tried consulting an AI one month.
I pasted the materials I had accumulated in bullet points. A moment from a field trip, a child who has started speaking up more, the fact that many children are still taking time to write. I just listed them as they came to mind.
I asked, “If you were to think of an opening for a class newsletter from this, where would you start?” I didn't say “Please write it,” but phrased it as “Where would you start?”
I was a little surprised by the answer that came back.
“I think an opening that starts with a moment from the field trip would be easiest for the readers (parents) to visualize. Concrete scenes are easier to get into than changes in daily life.”
That was all. There was no rewriting, no suggestions, nothing else.
But with that one sentence, I thought, “Oh, I see.” I had been thinking too much about “what is important” and hadn't been thinking about “what is easy for the reader to visualize.”
I started writing from the story about the field trip.
I wrote about the 15-second scene where a child spoke to another child who was opening their lunch box alone while they were divided into groups for lunch.
Once I started writing, I couldn't stop.
What I had been frozen over for 30 minutes, I finished writing in 15 minutes.
The AI didn't write it for me. It just gave me a hint on “where to start.”
But that hint was something I had been trying to find on my own and couldn't. I was lacking the way of framing the question as “where to start” rather than “what to write.”
I received feedback from a parent about that issue.
I was told, "I heard about the lunch part of the field trip from my child, but from your perspective, teacher, it was a scene like that, wasn't it?"
What the child had said at home and the scene I had witnessed finally connected. It had been a long time since I received feedback like that.
Once I know "where to enter from," I can write.
That was all it took. But I hadn't understood that for a long time.
By asking AI, I feel like I can see a little bit of "why I always freeze." Before thinking about "what to write," I think first about "who is reading this and what will they imagine?" When that order changes, the way I start writing changes.🐱
This article is written based on the author's own practice. Please follow your school's regulations regarding the format and frequency of class newsletters.
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