Thoughts, Ideas and a lot of Writing! (Write Beside Them, Ch: 1-6)
                     
 

"...teachers are more powerful than parent pressure, any textbook, workbook, curricula, or central office directive...Teachers make the difference, not tests. What power--what opportunity--lies in our hands." (Page 3, Chapter 1)

I believe the whole book resounds off this one quote from Kittle. This one quote from chapter one gave me courage, looked me in the eye and told me I am more that just a robot, teaching kids a discipline. I am more than just a body instructing kids to be test-takers. I am more than average. I love the boldness that Kittle emits from her writing. It's almost like, "Yea, I'm a teacher and I take my job very seriously and I could care less of what you think", of course in a more respectable way though!

Kittles bold remarks caught up to my own soul as I was convicted by some of her protest against educators and teachers who teach writing, "You can't teach writing unless you write yourself". I thought to myself, "When was the last time I wrote?" And not just an essay or reflection for class but seriously pouring my heart out on paper? I was totally condemned but my condemnation didn't lead me to despair. Instead, I used those feelings to fuel my desire to write. I MUST write. Writing won't be easy because it is a discipline. However, the lives changed and impacted are far worth the sweat.

Speaking of discipline, I love how Kittle allows us as readers and teachers to look at her own techniques and models. "I believe that the only way I'm going to be able to teach writing tomorrow is because I did it today." I connected with that. If you prepare to fail, you fail to prepare.
What I found pretty cool and comforting was that Bomer said, "We are the stories we tell". For students that claim they can't write, I love how Kittle dismisses that excuse with saying, "Anyone cam write because everyone has a heart." Beautifully poetic yet so true. I love how Kittle makes room for growth. Yes, everyone can write however, it all takes time. Habit makes writing easy as well as risk-taking and fluency. When you have a lot of playful writing it leads to a comfortable voice.

I thought all of that information was needful because everyone is bound to have students that are just not confident and don't believe in their own writing abilities.

Chapter five gave me insight into a lot of thoughts that wouldn't have even begun to cross my mind on its own. On page 39, she speaks of talking to a friend who has twenty-five students, and six lost a parent before the age of fifteen. That made me think. In writing, teachers will have to reach outside of their own experiences to understand students. That is not an easy thing. It could actually be quite painful. I remember my creative writing teacher from high school having us do a piece of work from our hearts, by the end of class everyone was crying because someone shared a "piece" of their childhood scars of molestation and abuse. "Emotion is the engine of the intellect: we write more powerfully when it is from the center of we are."

I think most of my questions come out of chapter six because I believe its the cloudy sticky arena of "Writer's Workshop".

First question of mine: "What are we to do with students in Writing Workshops that are drastically off their reading and writing level?

Second Question: Kittle states that students will perform better when they are interested in what they are reading and writing. What do we do about the times when the work assigned might be "uninteresting". Does this also mean we bend our plans to suit their fancy?