Being a teacher-writer is new for me. It also hasn’t been easy to form a writing habit. I do know two things. One, writing has allowed me to share a part of myself that was hidden from before and it excites me to have finally found an outlet. Two, my audience is clear and hopefully, my writing reaches them.
One way becoming a teacher-writer has made me a better teacher of writers is that I understand that the process is not the same for any one person. I admit I am a distracted writer. I type one sentence; daydream a bit. I come back a few minutes later to that very same sentence, revise it, delete, find another place it would fit in my piece, and love it all over again. My process is messy but I’m learning how to work through my flaws. How can we get students to fall in love with that process if we ourselves struggle to manage it? Model. Model your struggle. Allow your students to see your vulnerability. It may be surprisingly refreshing to see your students enjoy helping you fill in the gaps.
Teaching children that writing is therapeutic perhaps isn’t a concept younger writers can developmentally appreciate yet. One way to help them learn this is by teaching them their writing journals are not just for the writer’s workshop. I believe modeling real-life examples of using writer’s journal throughout the day is key. Model. I’ll say it again. Model. We as teachers must be consistently writing in our own journals to show students how we think. If we’re happy about something, write it down. If something has inspired us, write it down. Write it down but also let your students know you’ve written this down. Allow them to see where you get your inspiration from. Who knows? It may one day also become their source as well.
Jowan Nabha is a student at the University of Michigan - Dearborn studying Early Childhood Education. Her prior educational background is in Managerial Accounting in which she received her Bachelor’s degree in. Now, Jowan dedicates her life to being a full-time stay at home mom of her three children. Jowan can be reached at jnabha@umich.edu or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jnabha
I love everything about your post! You have captured the importance of being a teacher-writer. We all have different processes, and as you said, modeling those processes is one of the best things we can do for our students. And yes, hopefully we will become a source of inspiration for some of our students! Thank you for writing with us this month!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I appreciate your kind words. TeachWrite has definitely been a source in helping me continue my writing. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
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