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Jun 30

Why I Teach: to give power to words

By Brenda Krupp

Several weeks ago I was asked to write a blog post on “Why I teach? “ I remember being asked that by a newer principal during a get-to-know-each-other-better faculty meeting. I sat and stared at the paper, stymied.  I struggled to articulate my thinking. During the obligatory share out the principal came and asked what I wrote. I showed him my blank page. “Don’t you teach because you love kids?” he asked.  When I shook my head he looked at me and walked away, as if something was wrong with me, like maybe I shouldn’t be a teacher. But I knew then, and now, there is more to teaching than just a love of kids.

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Jun 22

Grateful to Be Traitful: Reflections on a PAWLP Day

By Janice Ewing

On the first day of summer

with much on our plates

a group got together

to discuss the Six Traits

For PAWLPers a day

of immersion in writing

is our kind of fun

our kind of exciting

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Jun 15

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Creating a Writing Identity

By Lynne R. Dorfman

Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery.

– Henry Miller

We all want our students to think deeply about their writing and reading, learn how to assimilate information, and in some way take the new learning and make it their own.  In writing workshop, the teacher becomes the facilitator of creative options and the students become innovators, applying knowledge in new ways.

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Jun 9

Ongoing Reflection

By Maryellen Kenney

There is never enough time in a teacher’s life.  We are highly functioning, incredibly dedicated professionals who, at some point, come to accept that there are only 24 hours in our day and we really need 25. Over time, we hone our craft to include only the most important, most valuable practices that best serve us. Reflection is one of those essential practices.

Most people think reflection occurs after the fact, at the end of the unit, after the first marking period is over, during semester break over the summer.  It can and does happen then, but not only then.  Reflection is ongoing.

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Jun 1

“Writing Naked”

By Judy Jester

      The first time I wrote a piece for Voices in the Middle, I intended merely to document the nuts and bolts of the annual poetry slam I run at my school. It was fun. Here’s how you do it. But that’s more of the Instructor magazine type article. NCTE expects you to explain why such an endeavor is worthwhile. In attempting to clarify this for others, I discovered it myself. The poetry competition isn’t only fun; it fosters better writing as well. In what eventually resulted in Audience and Revision: Middle Schoolers Slam Poetry (Feb. 1997), I documented the results of interviews with students who said that they revised their poems far more because they knew they would be performing them in front of their peers. Read more