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Book 2

Introduction

About this project

The Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute is proud to present the very first Online Writing Project anthology. Modelled after the successful Bay Area Writing Project at the University of Berkeley, California - this year's Writing Project took place online with the intent of providing teachers of the Western Cape Education Department a safe place where they could develop their own personal writing.

The theme of this year's Writing project was very significant. Writing for Healing allowed teachers a chance to delve deep into their own experiences and it gave them a chance to express their feelings by putting pen down onto paper.

About the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute

The CTLI is a provincial training institute tasked with providing in-service teachers with professional development opportunities. Most of these opportunities are aimed at strengthening and developing teachers understanding of curriculum and pedagogy. The CTLI offers a wide range of courses that teachers can voluntarily attend throughout the year in a face-to-face environment on a beautiful campus.

The new COVID normal, however, saw all of these opportunities for teachers move to a digital space and all of the CTLI's courses are now presented online.

About the Writing Project

The Writing Project has been presented as a face- to-face course at the CTLI in the past. Teachers attended a series of workshops aimed at strengthening the knowledge, expertise and leadership of teachers to promote and improve the writing skills of all learners. The goals of this project are to:
1. improve the learning and achievement of learners by improving the teaching of writing
2. concentrate efforts where literacy is most in jeopardy
3. support teachers as they prepare to meet the requirements of the curriculum
4. emphasise approaches to writing and reading of learners and
5. recogonise that teachers are the key to educational reform and that experienced teachers are the best teachers of other teachers.

The 2021 Writing Project: Writing for Healing

The writing project of this year was slightly different to previous years. It was a direct response to what teachers have experienced over the last year or two. It aimed to acknowledge that teachers are part of greater society and the pain coursing through society very much affects teachers and their experiences.
The coordinators of this course felt that teachers needed a safe place that would allow them to put what they are going through and what they have experienced in their own lives onto paper. The theme was carefully selected and each online webinar session was carefully crafted around the healing power of writing.

The project's original objectives remained in that , although not explicitly, teachers were given tools that they could use, not only in their own personal writing, but also in the classroom. Teachers were encouraged to write and to share their writing at each online webinar. An Author's Chair where writing was shared was a significant part of each session.

This anthology contains writing pieces written by the participants who attended six different webinar sessions in August 2021. Each piece is personal and different. Each piece provides insight into the pain experienced by different individuals and also the hope and healing that writing can bring.

The 2021 Writing Project: Presenters

We were extremely privileged to have experts in the field of writing present at each webinar.

Thank you to the following keynote speakers who brought their light to all our sessions centered around a specific theme:

Listening to my soul
Professor Irma Eloff (University of Pretoria)

Caressing my imagination
Magdalena Benn

Exploring my world
Cheryl Logan (Columbia University-USA)

Re-imagining my world
Carla Hanson & Tom O'Hara - Great Valley Writing project(California) 

Conquering my darkness
Dr Hanlie Dippenaar-Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Dr Roxanne Henkin(University of Texas) & Gladys Jacobson

About this book

Book 2 of the CTLI Writing Project Anthology Series.
The authors represented in this book are as follows:

Luzaan Jacobs
Mariana van Zyl
N.Solomon
Nicole Linders
Nolusindiso Mbali
Regina Thobela
Riana M Hall
Loretta Basson
Rozanne Calitz
San-Mari van Heerden
Tertius Bruwer
T.Mandviwala
Tauhirah Adams
Paula Marais
Zenneline Louw

by Luzaan Jacobs

Treasures

TREASURES

The blessing of a new day. How grateful and thankful I am to live again to do God’s work to the fullest. Having one more chance to do my best. Helping everyone that cross my path to look at the bright side of life. To be there for someone gives me joy, and hope. At the end of the day, I will feel that I can crown myself if I have reached one soul and made a difference in one life at a time.

To have happy smiles and share what life is all about. Grasp every opportunity that comes our way.
To achieve things or strategize methods but also share what you have learned.
All of us have beauty inside of us and we need to bring the best in each one of us. Focus on the good of people and see them grow.

About the author

I am Luzaan Jacobs, 54 years old. I was born in Paarl and currently teaching at Cavalleria Primary, located in Scottsdene Kraaifontein.
I have a son, Abraham William Jacobs.  Reading and writing is always part of my healing processes.
I have a creative mind and I love new challenges. In my life journey I always inspire others 
to read and write and I will continue to do so.

My writing piece Treasures I dedicate to my son Abraham William Jacobs. May you also be   inspired to read and write on your life journey!!!

My Lavender leaf or Life?
by Mariana van Zyl

The size or look does not matter. It is small, soft, deep green with plenty of petioles with the familiar lavender smell - beautiful. A perfect plant organ, except that it has been removed from its life source. In an hour or two it will become wilted and not be able to fulfil its vital role in life: to supply food and oxygen to all that live.

I look closer at the tip of the leaf. I see a very small bud and all of a sudden I realise that the bud will not turn into a lavender flower as it is supposed to. The life artery was cut and all the essentials, like water and nutrients, can no longer be transported to the leaf for the growing bud to bloom.

My life with Covid is a picked leaf. Cut off from family, friends and colleagues means a possible wilting and loss of a life as it was. And as the picked leaf, my life sometimes feels like wilting, losing its fragrance and beautiful colour.

Fortunately, my family, friends and colleagues are still alive with a wonderful promise that they still are connected with me and my life. It is the quick “hello” on WhatsApp, the voice note that says “sleep well” and a quick facetime that confirms that we are there for one another.

The picked leaf had no option but to die, but I still have a choice to be patient and to believe that better days will soon be part of my life again. My family, friends, colleagues and learners will always be there for me, to water my soul with love, loyalty and friendship. If I allow this connectedness to fail, my life will be nothing else than a picked leaf that will wilt and die. Family, friends and colleagues are the crucial anchor to survive and get through Covid - a privilege.