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?

Blog Post # 2 Multi-Modalpiece+ Readings

What I loved most about my "Who Am I As a Writer"Who Am I? piece is when I talk about how "I am catching up with myself". I love the photo I used to represent that. The cat is headless and desperately trying to gain the part of his body he needs the most--his head! I totally resonated with this picture because it described my writing process so much sometimes. When I write I feel like I'm on an adventure, desperately pursuing all that is within my head. My imaginations, creative juices, passions, thoughts etc. They all reside in my head but sometimes I feel like I hit a ceiling. I can be transparent can't I?

Words are so powerful. So powerful that they can speak through images and inanimate objects. A picture really does speak a thousand words. "Bold" "Touching" "Beautiful", these are all the things pictures can say to us. The music, the images, the pictures will transport you to another "place". I chose the song "Celebration" because after finishing this assignment I began to celebrate all of who I really am.

What I loved most about the multimodal piece is that in the process of making the video, ironically all that I was declaring about myself was being manifested in the process of making the video. For example, In my found poem I spoke on how I am very creative. The more I started to craft the video, the more I was able to see truly the range of my creativity.

The reading exeprt I chose to speak on was from the article by Sondra Pearl. She wrote, "My disjointed style of composing is very striking to me. I almost never move from the writing of one sentence directly to the next. After each sentence I pause to read what I've written assess, sometimes edit and think about what will come next." I L O V E D this quote for so several reasons. One, me personally, I love transparency.  I love that Pearl is so absolutely honest and humble within her process. Secondly, I love that I can resonate and relate so much to this process. Words like "disjointed" "pause" "assess" those three words clearly portray the writing process for me. I think quotes like this help me to stay humble. As a teacher, I think we should always understand that we ourselves are STILL learning. With this humility, our students will be able to see us as approachable instead of seeing us as "grammar gods" or "Zeus" ready to strike them down with our lightning bolts of precision and incessant critique.

Who Am I? (Found Poetry)

                                                 I Am 
                       
                                    I Am a Logophile
                       
      I like to play with words
                      
                                 I Am a writer
                                        I Am not YOU
                 I AM pulling you into my world
                                
      I Am catching up with myself
                       
                     I AM proud of my creative writing 
                                     I Am amazed
                                 I AM a unique soul
                       

For as long as I can remember, I've always been a logophile (a lover of words). In being a lover of words, it has always kindled in me a desire to play with them in the way I write. I admired author's like Lemony Snicket and C.S. Lewis. They were intrinsically gifted to wield lofty and intimidating words in their literature. I wanted what they possessed. The ability to suck people in "your world". 

I am a writer. I believe a writer is one that writes understanding that he or she is not "them"(other writers) but is uniquely cut-out to be YOU! Many people may have your experience but not your perspective. Your beginning, but not your end. Your friends, but definitely not your family. Being a writer is pulling people into your mind and your world. That is why I consider myself to be a writer. 

I L O V E writing. When I write I feel like I am catching up with myself. "Hey, Kevin! What's up?" 

The writing that I am most proud of is my creative writing. I am literally always amazed at my final, polished product when I'm done. :) 

I believe everyone has a unique soul. No one is the same. When you truly tap into this soul of yours, creativity is birthed. I want to be the writing teacher that taps into the places in my students' souls that they never even thought were there. :)