Teachers as Writers

I firmly believe that writing teachers need to write, and they need to write what their students are writing so that they can teach from personal experience. It is powerful to say to a student, “Something that works for me when I’m having that problem is…”, and so I have tried to maintain an active writing life for the past fifteen years.

Notice the verb “tried” in that last sentence. I cannot yet say that I have achieved the active writing life that I know I should maintain. My writer’s notebooks are full of spurts and gaps. My entries range from rants about my husband (not often, but helpful at the time), to observations about the scene in front of me, to poetry drafts, to character sketches, to thoughts about my children, to travel writing. My portfolio of pieces matches the genres and deadlines of my units for students. I seem to be writing because I “should” and not because I feel the urge to voice my thoughts.

This summer, I signed up for Kate Messner’s Teacher’s Write “Writing Camp”. A teacher and author, Kate posted a series of mini-lessons, prompts, and encouragement on her daily blog. She invited guest authors to contribute, and allowed participants to share their writing. In mid-June, I had all the best intentions to follow the blog daily, to write daily, and to write at least one finished fiction story (my most difficult genre) by the end of the summer.

Can you guess how it’s turned out, now that we’re nearing the end of July? Yep, best laid plans…. I have done some of the prompts in my writer’s notebook, such as written a couple of scenes and character sketches. I’ve written other entries in between. I haven’t written daily, nor have I written a complete story. Sigh.

But wait! I actually HAVE been writing (almost) every day. I got my blog up and going again—that’s writing! I wrote in response to articles for the blogging course I’m taking—that’s writing! I wrote reviews for the books I read this summer for my Shelfari and Goodreads pages—that’s writing! I emailed and chatted and posted on facebook—that’s writing!

Maybe I should recognize and celebrate all the writing that’s in my life. I will still try to stretch myself by trying new things, either through prompts in my writer’s notebook or working toward a finished piece in a specific genre. But perhaps I need to let go of the guilt and let me be the writer I am: a full time teacher/ mother/ wife who fits writing into the spaces left behind. Some of that writing is full and thoughtful (like this blog) and some is quick (like a facebook post), but it’s writing.

And as I sit down with my eighth graders this fall, I can say to them, “I know what it’s like to be a busy person. Do you know what I do to fit in time for my writer’s notebook?”

image from scribifile website