On a sunny Tuesday morning last July, I found myself sitting
in a graveyard in Winchester Virginia, two hours from my house, writing the
first poem that I had written in almost 20 years.
I have been writing for the WIDA blog for almost 2 years,
but I never thought of myself as a writer.
I am an ELL literacy teacher. I work in an elementary school teaching
students to be critical viewers, listeners, speakers, readers, and
writers. I am a teacher. That is what I
am because that is what I get paid to do.
A writer is a person who writes books.
They are writers because that is what they get paid to do. At least that is what I thought, before I
participated in the Northern Virginia Writing Project's Invitational Summer
Institute (ISI).
The Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) is an affiliate
of the National Writing Project (NWP), a non-profit organization of almost 200
university based network sites. The NWP
is focused on the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators
on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners (nwp.org,
2015).
I have always believed that teaching students to write is an
essential part of any literacy teacher’s day.
I also knew that good teachers of reading were avid readers themselves,
but I never translated that to writing.
One of the core beliefs of NWP is that good teachers of writing write
themselves. This was a new concept for
me.
Most of the other participants in my ISI were Secondary
English teachers, for whom writing was already a normal part of their everyday
lives. This was not the case for
me. I only wrote when I had to. It never occurred to me that I should or
would want to write just for myself.
Through engagement in a Writing Group and a Writing Marathon
this began to change. I found that I
could write for enjoyment, rather than just to perform a task. This was the change that I brought with
me
into the classroom when I went back to school this fall.
Certainly, participating in demonstration lessons presented
by master teachers was great professional development and expanded my
repertoire of concrete techniques for teaching writing. Of course, getting to
know current and former participants has helped me to expand my professional
network. But what has really revolutionized my teaching has been the change in
how I think of myself when it comes to writing.
Now, I think like a writer.
When I look at the world I look for important ideas that I want to write
about. I write regularly to convey those
ideas. Most importantly, I analyze my
own process as a writer.
This allows me to talk to students about their writing in a
completely different way. I can share in
their challenges and successes as a fellow writer, rather than as an authority
figure. There is more honesty in my
teaching. When I talk to students about
their writing I no longer use words that I’ve lifted from teacher resource
books. I can speak honestly and with
conviction about my real experiences. I
know the struggles my students are facing when they are writing, because I face
them in my writing too.
I am a teacher, but I'm also a writer. I am a writer because I have something to
say. I am a writer because I believe
that my ideas matter and deserve to be heard.
All teachers have important ideas to share, and all teachers of writing
need to be writers themselves.me
into the classroom when I went back to school this fall.
