The things we don't pay attention to...

So for today's interesting and somewhat stressful event, we had to put together a digital piece that was in some way related to our journey or life as a writer. There was so much I could have said and didn't. Part of that was from not wanting to reveal too much personal stuff about myself. But really, you have to reveal something about yourself when the piece is about you.

Interesting, many of the responses I got to my piece were about a particular phrase that I used to describe the time in my life where I wasn't writing. I used the phrase "seasons of nothing." I'm so interested that so many people responded directly to this phrase since it didn't seem all that significant to me at the time that I wrote it. There were others things that I said which would have been more likely choices (so I thought) to be commented on. This experience makes me wonder about writer and reader as roles. Does this happen a lot? Do writers write things that they didn't really think were terribly significant and then their readers latch on and surprise them? It makes me wonder how many times I have done this while reading. Of course, I'll never know.

This was a positive experience for me. I am hesitant to put myself out there and this was a good step in that direction. I also really liked to learn about what other people were thinking about writing and where they were in that journey now. Not to mention that everyone had used some different piece of technology that I got to experience!

My post-it responses! I love post-its!

 

 

 

Also, have I mentioned the most important part of this entire day? We got to use post-its of all different colors and sizes! <sigh> It was a beautiful thing.

I did do a lot of good thinking about my demo too. I don't really want to write about that now because I'm still basking in the glory of the post-it image above. I have this feeling that if I start to write about the demo I will lose the post-it glow that I imagine I have about me right now.

Later...

Where do I fit into this? Finding my way non-traditionally...

Day 4 of UNCCWP SI leaves me wondering about my non-traditional environment and how to bring certain great ideas and practices to them in a way that both meets the needs of students in the self-paced classroom AND gives them the quality I want for them. It's not that I think that it can't be done. The feeling is that of taking in so much information and putting it through a particular filter with a very small opening. I'm squeezing ideas through this filter and hoping that the refined product that comes out will work for me and for students. For instance, the guest demo this afternoon is not something I could do with my students. They will never be working with me in a large group like that. The most I could hope for would be 2-3 students who are in the same place at the same time and can collaborate in that way. However, I would still do this type of activity. It's just that the adaptation would have to allow for minimal to no group collaboration. Is that what I would prefer? No, not really. This is when I have to hold these opposing feeling in my mind at the same time.

1. I like seeing that the non-traditional format works for my students (many who have not be successful in a traditional environment.

2. I like to do whole class activities and guide them in working with their peers.

It will continue to be a give and take. I will continue to see success with my format and sometimes wish for more time to do other things with them.

A great aspect of working at my school is the time I get to spend with students on an individual basis. I would imagine that many traditional classroom teachers long for more of this! If I focus on this, I do appreciate it.

My thoughts about my non-traditional setting directly relate to my inquiry topic because my question isn't "how to use daybooks" it's "how to have students take ownership of daybooks in a non-traditional classroom." How do I motivate and encourage them to make this idea work for them? Will it work for them? I really think it will, although they may come up with some surprising ways to make that happen. More later...

Day 3. We're in the thick of it...

I began my morning journey into the land of other teacher/writers by being stuck in traffic on 85. Great. I was bringing part of breakfast and now I was going to be late! But it all worked out, and after fueling up with some yogurt with granola as well as a delicious cupcake (omg), I was ready to get going.

So where does inspiration come from anyway? We watched a short video about this and it really gave me an opportunity to evaluate where my inspiration has come from, as well as how I feel about collaboration with others. As usual, I learned a lot about myself. The video also made me think about places where creativity blooms--as in time in history or locations in the world. It does seem like inspiration gravitates toward other inspiration. Perhaps this has to do with the energy involved?

Which leads me to my next thought about inspiring my students. I truly run out of energy during the course of the school year. I need energy to sustain inspiration, and I can't generate it all myself. How do I better manage this area of my teaching? And this leads me back to my inquiry: How will I plan well for inspiring students to take ownership of what *I* know a daybook can do for them, not only as writers, but as human beings. I need to begin the process with energy and have a plan for sustaining enthusiasm.

Here's where my enthusiasm of the day began:

 So now here I am at the end of day 3.  As I review my notes and responses in my daybook, I notice that I have more questions than answers, more rabbit trails than decisions. And I think that's OK right now.

SI Day 2: no less tired

The timeline I made about my journey as a writer.

A map showing the flow of writing in my classroom and school.

Day 2 of SI has been no less challenging than Day 1, although I feel like I'm starting to hit a creative stride. Yesterday, I made a timeline of important events in my writing life. I used pictures and words to illustrate emotions and poignant moments in my writing life. While I knew my writing life has been mostly about me avoiding a writing life, I really didn't synthesize the why until I worked with my writing group on a video interview. What was revealed to me was that my non-writing life wasn't just about avoidance or not wanting to be like someone, it was about fear of exposure. I have always worried that if I exposed how my mind works I would be vulnerable. Yet, I am so unhappy when I'm not living a writing life.



Another activity we did was to draw a map of both our classroom and our school and mark where writing happens and where it is display. Next, we put overlays on top and used markers to show the flow or process of writing. Once writing occurs, where does it go? Does it only go to the teacher? Do students share writing? Does what they've written in my class go into another classroom?  I observed a few key things on my map:

1. I do not display enough student work
2. I do not model writing by posting enough of my own work
3. I need to have more assignments that are meaningful to an outside audience
4. I need to encourage others outside our school to contribute writing in some way
5. I need more time to do all these things!

I do think that it's very important that my students see me as a writer, struggling for the best words, making mistakes, feeling unsure. I did start to do that a bit last year and it was successful.  There are so many thoughts and ideas swirling around in my head...

On to the INQUIRY! If I'm remembering what I was thinking yesterday correctly, I wanted to inquire as to the best ways to make daybooks a part of my non-traditional classroom. Since I do not direct the flow of activity in a self-paced environment, how to I help students to grab on to the habit of using the daybook as a thinking tool? I also think this ties into the idea of the flow of writing in the classroom. Where are their ideas going once written? How do I show students that writing is an extension of the thought process? I think the most basic place to start is by modeling. I need to show them my book and talk about how I use it and what the possibilities are. Then, I need to use it all the time as I work with them...write about our conferences and their questions. I also think it will be important to model the process of going back to notes and writing and culling for information and ideas.  This is a starting point. I know there is more!

 

UNCC WP 1st day...

I am so tired. My brain is just exhausted. The only inquiry I'm doing at this moment is about walking to the car and driving home--safely. Not really! I'm actually thinking a lot about everything we've been doing today and the personal challenge that some activities presented to me. I had to confront my reluctance to think about "place" and my feelings of the lack of place. I also had to confront feelings of deep insecurity about working on an idea for my demo. Although I knew I could do it and muscle through those feelings, it was tiring.

At this moment I'm considering having my inquiry project be about how to authentically use the writer's notebook/daybook in my non-traditional classroom to support inquiry, writing, synthesis and my new challenge: to support the Biology classroom. 

I think that using the daybook in my own process during SI will enlighten me and give me ideas. I have already decided that I do not want to grade daybooks, but I want students to take ownership of them as a tool which will help them to perform better on other assignments. In this way the daybook is not THE assignment, but the TOOL to produce an assignment. 

Tonight I plan to practice this idea by using my daybook to generate ideas for my self-selected piece of writing.

Until later...

UNCCWP Book Review

I chose to read and review a book that I thought was not only challenging to me personally, but would help me to impart ideas and strategies to my students, particularly those taking creative writing. To this end I chose “Breathing In, Breathing Out” by Ralph Fletcher.

A first glance, the book might seem like nothing more than a piece to encourage what all writers promote as the good habit of keeping a journal, daybook, diary, or other pen to paper work somewhat similar. Yet, on further reading, the merits of this author’s approach begin to reveal themselves. Fletcher combines sound advice to acknowledge one’s own voice and experience with example texts from various authors, including himself.

Validation. This is the one word I choose to word to sum up the emotion I felt after reading this book. Writing is a lonely task at times. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person who looks at life the way I do, asks the questions I do, or listens to the snippets of conversations around me. Fletcher’s encouragement to not only pay attention to these things but to also record them in the writer’s notebook made me feel much less stupid! I suddenly found myself recalling several strange bits that I had tossed aside as merely things my brain strangely turns to. After reading Fletcher's work and examples, I chose to write them down, although I felt a little silly. I wrote about standing in line for a Disney World ride and watching a young girl intently studying her grandmother’s arm skin as she made it wobble back and forth. It made me think about how confusing and fascinating this must be to the young girl--her arm skin so right and firm and full of youthful elasticity long since gone from her grandmother’s arm. Yes, I felt validated to write about this.

And this is where Fletcher's advice really starts to get interesting. Not only should we write about these bits or snippets that we observe or hear, we should later go back to them and mine them for use in full length pieces. Again, he practices the idea of the mentor text and demonstrates how he has used items from his notebook in full-length pieces. So maybe this image of a young girl and her grandmother will show up in my writing later. Maybe it won't. Either way, I captured it, I validated it, I wrote it down. This is what keeping a writer's notebook is really about.

Getting Ready!

Well, July 5th is nearly upon me and I'm getting geared up for the UNCC WP Summer Invitational. I feel a mix of nerves and excitement. Nerves because of all the challenges I know I'll face, and excitement over all that I learn and think and do.

I can't wait to be surrounded by other teachers as interested and dedicated to the teaching of writing as I am. I've been missing true collaboration with teachers of writing and I couldn't be more excited to share that with this group.

I should really finish writing my book review and get that posted!