Making Writing Great Again

Today in my graduate class, a literacy institute on writing, I met an amazing motivational speaker and author named Anne Schober.  As Anne shared her very personal story, a painful story that she had written down, I was moved to tears.  Her story made me cry for several reasons.  For one, her writing took me to the place she was physically and emotionally in that story -- a painful, lonely place of brokenness, despair, and shame.  For another, there was story of healing and empowerment that came from telling her story.  And I realized I was not only crying tears of both sadness and joy for her, I was also crying for me.  I was thinking of my own story right now and wondering if I could experience the kind of healing she has through writing.  During one of the writing exercises she had us do, I realized that the majority of the words I used to describe things about myself -- things on the outside that others can see and my thoughts on the inside that I hide--are negative.  And while Ann

Returning to the classroom for the first time in about 20 years.  Now that my daughter is a teenager and is becoming independent, even working herself now, my summers are mine again.  I'm taking two classes this summer, and sitting in one of them as I type this.  Starting this my own blog was actually an optional assignment, and since this is a course about writing that stresses the importance of teachers of writing being writers themselves, I thought I'd give it a try.  I've always enjoyed writing.  Maybe this will encourage me to be more intentional about it.  Anyway, in some ways things seem to have come full circle for me in the sense that a lot of what I am learning is about using writer's workshop and mentor texts, which is how I taught early in my career.  I find this fits my core beliefs and philosophies about how children learn best and it is a more authentic way for students to use writing in the classroom.  And in other ways, so much has changed with the use