What is your plan of action in the fall?Teaching Writing – I will keep teaching. J -except now I will be teaching writing so much better while using all of my new ideas from OWP! There is at least one idea from each demo in my must try folder. I am excited!
Your own writing – I will continue to write proposals for 4Cs and TYCA, but will be adding NCTE and Write to Learn to my list as well. I am pushing myself to publish this year – something I have been afraid of previously. I have three pieces that I am working on with this goal specifically in mind. I am excited!
How will your classroom look differently daily? Weekly? Monthly? My classroom will look much more like Summer Institute – more consistent in our schedule allowing for students to find a routine that will allow for writing surprises but forging foundations for better writing, small writing group work, and a safer writing/sharing environment. Also, my classroom will be messier – stuff on the walls and paint on the fingers! I am excited!
Discuss the process of creating your demo and what you discovered through that process. How will you incorporate your demo in the fall? My demo comes straight from my classroom. It changes every time I do it and changed even this time – thank you for your input. I will be adding the Newsweek article this time and talk about what the media wants us to know today…hmmmm interesting slant I think. I am excited!
What kinds of student writing samples can you collect? I will be collecting everything this year – looking for patterns, inconsistencies – things I can write about as I try new ideas and revise old ones. I want lots of burning questions! I am excited!
How has your writing project experience affected your plan? This summer has rejuvenated me in teaching, learning and writing. I feel confident as I step back into my classroom and out into the writer’s world. I am a writer. I am excited!
How will you use other demonstrations? Please list several demos that you saw that you will integrate into your classroom. The poetry ideas presented this summer by Teri, Hayley, and Laura has changed me as a writer. I tried poetry and love it! I am even willing to write a ton of bad poetry to enjoy it further! How cool! It seems to me that poetry can be used to generate topic ideas, flush out details, and help gain control of emotion when writing personal narratives. I can’t wait to try it and then come in next summer with a demo showing how this works! Woohoo! I am excited!
What is your plan for your own writing? How has your own writing progressed? Describe your writing process and productivity during this institute (as related to freewriting, reformulation, journaling, revisiting pieces, etc.). It took me a little while to get to fluency, but I think I got it! Like my running, I think I had to get to that place of pace, euphoria, the wow-I-feel-good-about-keep-going place. I am in this place with my writing. I hope to write for an hour every day – I feel a need to. I practiced what I preached this summer while writing – there are proposals, letters, fun stuff, freewriting, personal narrative, writing about teaching – all of this in my daily writing. I am excited to keep writing. I am excited!
What do I want to do?
- Participate in small writing group – can I help organize?
- I will help Laura with Fall Retreat – you will find me there
- I am planning on the NWP Annual Meeting and NCTE– already requesting funds
- I will be submitting writing for publishing in professional journals
- I want to learn to write grants.
- I would like to be on a list of consultants who go out and help other teachers/schools with professional development – portfolios, writing-writing-writing, service learning, teacher reflection and change, handling disclosure in the writing of our students/writing as healing (I love this topic).
- I will be participating in my own school’s professional development program – sharing what I am learning through NWP.
- I want to find ways to help promote NWP and OWP.
- I want to find my niche in NWP and immerse myself in it. I have found my professional home! I AM EXCITED!
