The Journal

thinking, writing, learning

Working together

July 20, 2012

Snacks, water bottles, white boards, and time to chat–all this made a difference in the success of our week-long writing camp, which ended today. What a gift to work in such a small group, sharing ideas, reading our writing, and talking about ways to improve. The boys, good sports both, worked hard on two different pieces of writing. And I wasn’t surprised to find that the conversations we had helped the most. This is, of course, the way to work with writers. You can’t be at the front of the room. You must sit with the student, talking about the strengths, asking questions…..nodding and encouraging.

One of the boys had brought a MacAir, so before I could say “sure,” he had set up his iphone as a hotspot, pulled out and set up his iPad for another boy, and opened Google Docs to start typing. So much the notebooks I’d purchased:)

He also texted me this, which I hadn’t seen but seemed so appropriate for the week:

I sure love middle-schoolers.

 


Filed Under: community, teaching, writing

  • Instagram

About

About

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end.
–Gilda Radner

Archives

Categories

Books I’m Reading

Bittersweet
The Antidote
Cassandra Speaks
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb
The Kindness Method

Get the Posts

Loading

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2022