It's Contagious

Last week my corporation held a conference at my school. Mindy Hoffar and Kathy Douglas led these professionals through the workshop that will hopefully send them back to the beginnings of Writer's Workshop. During that time I had the opportunity to teach my own students a lesson while these primary teachers watched us go about our daily business of writing. I then went and debriefed them and their questions. They had many! We talked about many things but so far all of the comments that I have heard have been very positive. I so want for those teachers what I get to be a part of everyday. I was so proud of my kiddos and their willingness to teach teachers. They did a phenomenol job and the teachers were impressed with their procedures, and routines. Mostly, they respected the way we treat "writing," with high esteem.
My favorite questions was from a teacher who asked, "what if a student approached another student to confer with them and they were busy writing? How would you handle that so that they didn't interupt the writer?"
This was a no brainer for me, I said this, "You know I would never say that they would never bother someone who is writing, but I think that if you would ask them they would say that you should never bother the work of a writer! We hold writing with such honor in our room that they would probably find someone who wasn't busy!"
At that moment I felt the proudest of my kids. They truly feel that they are writers, that their words matter, and they respect each other as writers.
Today, during collaboration I was asked, "Sarah, what has lit a fire in you this year with regards to writer's workshop?" This is a hard question to ponder... I guess that I just know more, and I feel more purposeful about what I want to accomplish. I feel like I have really honed my skills over the summer, and I was and am still armed with much to share.
I enjoy sharing!
Still to come... Debbie Miller...here I come!!!!!!