Friday, July 11, 2008

Troxell's Action Plan 2008

Okay, I'm having a memory loss of sorts, so I have to use Casey's sign-in. :-)

As I wrote to my small writing group, I plan to write everyday at the end of the school day. The first thirty minutes after the bell rings will be mine to reflect on the day. Last year my principal wanted us to keep a reflective journal, writing in it once a week; however, most people forgot. You'd end up writing four or five entries at once. Not only will I reflect, but I will use that time to write what I want to write. Sharing my writing with my students to model, show them I write too, help create a writing community is important. Writing, writing, and more writing with my students will be shared, shared, shared.

My plan in action is to use all of these demonstrations. I have to sort through the demos I will do with my department grade level groups to inspire them. For example writing territories will be in every binder for my students and hopefully for our students as a department. Dana's and Michelle's demonstrations will probably be passed on to the freshmen teachers because they really focus on those skills then, and I shouldn't be selfish, keeping these great ideas to myself. Rachel's, Katrina's,part of Casey's (the stories for the t/f test) will be shown to the Applied Communications teacher to help those students. For my classroom, I'll remember what I learned from Keri the first time- having small writing groups and author's chair to begin and add more explicit teaching of peer review, conference and edit. Debra's demo, especially the book, The Cube will be sprinkled liberally throughout the year until I get my film and lit class, and Elise's examples will be great to show my older students the power of manipulating grammar. I'll use Genesis's and Sarah's ideas with the whole department. There are so many ideas that I wanted to keep, but again, I can't be selfish. If your name was not mentioned here, never fear, I just haven't decided where your demo will be used yet. :-)
Before school starts, I will organize my writer's workshop notebook to include the things I'll keep for myself. Building a community of writers and small writing groups is the primary focus. For the fall renewal I'll probably bring Image Grammar examples from student writing, writing territories examples, and stories as Faith had us do. That's just the beginning!!
Creating my demo, which I'll have to do in the spring, made me so much more reflective about the actual practice that it will be so much better. I am inspired to do that for my other writing assignments and units of study.

I have an idea about a writing camp/project for secondary students because I just love the little stinkers. I also have an idea to do that for struggling writers coming in from 9th grade to help boost them before they start high school. I'm also really interested in community writing. I'm thinking of presenting my demo at Write to Learn. Hmmm.... Nominations: For best actress...best phrase.... Oh, it's not that kind of nomination. Debra would be a fabulous recruiter. Everyone here has so many talents, but I'm not sure where to place them.

This has been a fabulous experience. Thanks to everyone for inspiring me to be a better teacher and a better writer. I look forward to seeing you all in the fall.

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