Linger Longer

Managing a Writers Workshop can be one of the most daunting tasks of the entire workshop experience. Planning is easy...you make these great focus lessons, writing prompts, activities, and creative ideas that you type up and just hope everything works out. Actually implementing what you plan is another thing altogether. One of the points I liked most in chapter 7 was about the teacher holding a strong presence in the classroom. As I read, I imagined a sweet perfume moving around the working students. No one wanted to perfume around for too long....it might suffocate the writers and their creativity. But, if the perfume was absent for a prolonged time, the writers might forget the sweet smell and thus lose motivation for their task at hand. The perfect teacher presence is that that you can always smell the sweet perfume, faint as it may be, but you are never overwhelmed by its scent to the point you need to crack a window somewhere QUICK.
Writers Workshop Kits: The Easy Way Out. I do believe that the idea behind Writers Workshop kits is a good one, but the actuality of it is not. Recently, I've been struggling with my feelings about different organizations that place untrained college graduates in high-risk public school classrooms. This chapter reminded me of this. I see two sides of the story: 1. Just like these organizations, teachers that are buying and using Writers Workshop Kits are trying to do a good thing. They are trying to bring creativity into the classroom. They are trying to give their students options and possibilities in their writings. But, what they're really doing is cheating the students. They're cheating the students because they are giving them a instant Writers Workshop that doesn't take into account anything about the actual students and their likes, dislikes, strengths, weakness, etc. In this same way, organizations are cheating students by placing unqualified young graduates in classrooms full of kids who need help the most. Yes, I do believe these organizations are trying to do good for these children and trying to fix what is so broken in our educational system, but why place unqualified people in the  most desperate places? I agree with Ray when she says that writing workshop kits are highly insulting. They're saying that we can just buy our way into a successful and meaningful writers workshop. It's insulting that these organizations think that any random graduate can effectively educate children when there are people, like my classmates and myself, that have been studying elementary education for years. I digress, I digress...

Talking It Out on Valentines Day

Who doesn't like to feel special? I can answer this question with pure confidence....absolutely no one. Everyone wants to feel special. Today is a perfect example. Valentines Day is one of the most loved and hated holidays of the year. People love it when they have someone who thinks they're extra special. People hate it when they don't. Writing conference are like little special meetings we can have with our students. They are a time when our students get the individual attention that they need and want. They are a time that we, as teachers, can connect with our students on a personal and academic level. During these special times, we can give direct instruction on issues that particular students are having that day. Sometimes, students learn more in these short one-on-one moments than they might during the entire writing workshop. I believe that we owe it to our students to make time in our day for these conferences. Every students needs a little extra help and lovin' every so often. And every teacher has a time where he or she feels disconnected from a few students both personally and academically. Writing conferences are the perfect time to get a feel for where each child stands and how you can help your students' individual needs. Maybe if we have writing conferences more frequently---Valentines Day can come more than once a year...

"We're not leaving this room until everyone is silent". How many times have you heard that? We've all said it. I probably said it last week. As teachers, we are groomed to dislike talking. In the ancient days of teaching, talking was a direct indication that students weren't paying attention and therefore weren't learning. I have to disagree. Talk is an important part of the learning process. Discussion, debate, and questioning are all important aspects of a student's learning process. Sometimes we just need to talk it out. It's very easy for teachers to think that the classroom must be silent in order for students to be productive. But, if students are silent, how can they bounce ideas off one another, learn from other's writing techniques, comment on classmate's writing topics, or share their problems or concerns with todays possible writing topic? 'Writers Workshop is a place where students learn how to live as writers and how to do what writers do'. Well, I know for a fact that writers talk. Writers think out loud, ask questions, search for answers, bounce around ideas, confer with peers, and share what they've come up with so far. So why shouldn't we? Sharing is a vital part of writers workshop. Sharing lets us learn about our writing communities and those that are a part of it. By sharing, students can learn together and help one another. They can develop personal relationships and connect with one another's work. They can seek advice or comfort when stuck on a certain idea. Writers block?? No way. We've got 24 brains on the job. Yes, talk can sometimes be a bad thing (like in the middle of the CRCT), but in writers workshop, it's not. So, let's just talk it out.