From October 2013:

com•pen•di•um [kuh m-pen-dee-uh m]

noun, plural com•pen•di•ums, com•pen•di•a

1. a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject; concise treatment: a compendium of medicine.

2. a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3. a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.

Marie at Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer does a very cool Weekly Roundup of posts. Nursing Clio puts together a “check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news” in Sunday Morning Medicine. Two Nerdy History Girls put together a list of weekly Breakfast Links, while Eric Barker at Barking up the Wrong Tree sends out a weekly post of his most popular articles. Brain Pickings does a Brain Pickings Weekly. And the list goes on.

I don’t know if I will get to a weekly post gathering the posts that had the greatest impact on my world, but I do think I can put together a regular collection. Monthly?

I started reading Marie’s weekly roundups at Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer before I started Searching for EMWA and frankly, I think that she is the reason that I became a blogger. Her regular compilations and postings–compendiums–over the years have given a platform and exposure to so many writers in a nurturing, supportive, and positive way. This helps to build confidence and develop voice in new writers, while continuing to motivate those of us who have been around for awhile to keep writing, knowing that our voices will still matter.  She has created a community of writers and readers who share ideas, resources, space, and hope (and our shared grief when someone passes) and I am truly grateful to have had my writing included in quite a few of these weekly posts over the last 12 years. The way Marie has continued to put her posts together so consistently and with such care, is incredibly inspiring. However, she has also shown that we can all evolve and move in new directions with our writing, advocacy, and use of social media, through her own example. She nudges us through her Health Care Social Media site, as well as her contributions to LinkedIn where you will find tons of advice of how to stay relevant on social media through Social Media Savvy. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Marie!!!!!! You are a rock star!!!!!!! 

I thought that I would try out a weekly compilation of what I found interesting 12 years ago when I created two Compendium of EMWA posts, one in October 2013 and one in January 2014; however, a lot of transitions took place in 2014 and I didn’t have the head space to continue the practice. There have been a couple of times where I thought I would restart, but life happened and the focus of my writing didn’t really lend itself to that type of posting. However, I’m really feeling the need to start the practice again. This post is an attempt to create a framework for myself of what I want to include in these Compendium posts.

One of my main strengths as an educator and public historian has been as a resource, someone who is a bridge to information and knowledge that seems valuable or interesting in some way. While I’ve taught a variety of high school social studies and English classes over the years, a course in Chicago that I’ve taught yearly for the past 6 years, has been Civics. Here in Chicago, many of us have been using a curriculum called Participate Civics, which was designed by CPS teachers and has a very multicultural, student-centered approach. It helps students find their voice and think differently about community, government, activism and advocacy, rights, and their own place in a Democracy.  In a nutshell, it was designed to build engaged and empowered students. What I didn’t expect when I started teaching this course, however, is that this curriculum would also give me inspiration, new insights, and resources, as well as nudge me to do more–even if I don’t consciously know what that ‘more’ is. 

This past year or so, as I’ve been engaged in what is going on politically in our world, I’ve been absorbing A LOT. Sometimes I can share these resources, thoughts, and ideas with my high school students, but I often can’t. Last (school) year, as everything rolled out with the election and new administration, I often struggled to filter and organize my thoughts for my classes in real time.

***Case in point, when the Class of 2028 graduates, I bet all of my 1st period Civics class students will remember my reaction to the 2024 Election results!!! I was caught totally off guard and in reactive mode, which they of course filmed and shared with their friends in my other classes!!***

Frankly, I was missing an adult outlet to help me filter, organize, and share my thoughts and what was catching my attention.  Between the nature of a teacher’s schedule and my added caregiving responsibilities this past year, I’ve been isolated. Blogging with Searching for EMWA has helped me connect and process my life over the years. However, should I include that ‘political’ processing here? Did I really want or need to create a whole new blog to deal with all that I want to cover, though? While this blog started to help me process breast cancer, that has never been my only focus. It’s taken time–and a summer to unwind from such an intense period of my life–to recognize that I’ve yet again been overthinking things. Just bring back Compendium of EMWA, darn it! Since school starts tomorrow here in Chicago for teachers (kids go back on the 18th), today feels timely to wrap this post up and formally kick this new direction off. Yes, for those of you who have been following, I am returning to my new school from this last year! 

So, let’s see how this goes! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are some recent pics of my time at the Lake, where I tried to spend as much time as possible during this last week of my summer vacation. Lake Michigan’s water temp is up to 70 degrees and has been perfect to swim in! Might just have to try to go in the evening after school and on the weekends a few times this next month or so, until cooler weather sets in.