Kate Messner, who was a speaker for All Write!!! last week, has a writing challenge on her website,
http://www.katemessner.com/announcing-teachers-write-a-virtual-summer-writing-camp-for-teachers-librarians/#comment-21518. You might want to lurk or actually jump on board!
When I signed up, one of the questions asked was, "What are your goals?" (as a writer)
At first I thought, "Yeah, right." But then I started to realize that almost every goal I have somehow involves writing!
WRITING AS A TEACHER:
- I keep a writing notebook for each class/grade level with whom I work. Over time, this has provided a picture of the "spiral" of work that we are asking of our students in grades K-5. I can see how we have launched and sustained notebooks across grade levels as well as how we utilize notebooks for ideas in our writing pieces. The result has been the "Promised Land" of teaching writing that I have heard/read over and over again in workshops and professional books: If you write, you will be able to provide your students with an "insider's" viewpoint. You will be able to anticipate the glitches they might encounter, enabling you to quickly troubleshoot with your writers. You will also be able to accurately describe the process that the students will go through during each writing journey, sharing credibility as a fellow writer. This will help them to find purpose and meaning for their own writing and to understand that writing is a process with intrinsic value--not just something you do to please your teacher or to "be finished." You end up creating a community of writers, connected through meaningful, shared experiences that can never be replicated, as our notebooks and writing pieces showcase who we are at any given point in our lives; we will never be this exact person again (as we evolve, live, and experience).
- I keep notebooks from various professional experiences, including workshops and often side-by-side with professional texts. I give myself permission to scribble as needed, to tear out a page when it becomes overwhelmingly disheveled, and to recopy only when truly needed to sort out/clarify thinking. I still have my notebook from my initial writing workshop training nearly 15 years ago. I misplaced it for a number of years (10 to be exact) and recently found it when going through boxes of photos and scrapbooks. My first reaction was to smile and hold it to my heart. My second was to re-read the pieces inside... notes on starting a writing workshop (all still true but now part of my being)... pieces about my family, my children, and my own childhood. I could see how much my writing has improved, recognizing that it was because of all of the writing--and learning about writing--I have done since, particularly in classrooms with students. Like the scent of my mother's perfume or her Molasses Sugar Cookies baking in the oven, these writing pieces transported me to a different time and place, causing me to yearn for the chance to re-live them... yet to celebrate how far I've come in life's journey (and teaching's journey) since then.
WRITING AS A COACH:
- At first, I thought that writing served the same purpose for me as a coach as it has as a teacher. While partly true, a critical realization has occurred: I now possess a written record across years, documenting the facets of who I was as a teacher, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, and a friend. I can see how I have changed and can contemplate the causes and effects of these changes and recall the steps taken through each transformation. This is pivotal in my coaching work, as coaching is all about change--about setting and reaching goals, analyzing what is working (or not) and adjusting thinking and instruction to thoughtfully catapult our work forward... all the while, we celebrate what we know while looking forward to learning and applying it to evolve into our new teaching selves--and then we celebrate who we have become... always growing, never the same. The notebooks help me to honor who I was, my ongoing journey in "becoming" who I am, and to have faith in who I can be. This is key as a coach: I believe it helps me to recognize where teachers are in their teaching journeys and to honor them for it, knowing that they have come so far and yet are willing to re-pack their bags to include some new things to move forward into the unknown. At first the bags may feel heavier; but over time, they will feel lighter--I can help carry them for a while, until the unneeded things fall away or are left beside the road and the bag becomes lighter and the path well lit. This is a never-ending cycle for all of us, as long as we choose to learn and grow. We honor who we are and what we know as we look forward to the future and know that honing our skills is always within reach, always desirable.
- Writing has helped me to reflect more deeply. I hope it helps me to recognize when someone has more advanced skills than I in any area of life or teaching. It is then that I hope to honor their process of learning and attempt to emulate it in my own journey.
WRITING AS A HUMAN BEING:
- I think of this quote from Ursula K. LeGuin, "We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real and imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become." I would add to this by saying that the same is true about writing... "We write to find out who we are... to remember and honor who we were, and to seek guidance and articulate who we might become."
How does writing serve your life in the various roles you play?
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