Do you teach writing?

Although I am not an English teacher, I teach writing.  My students write a lot, and they used to complain, “this isn’t an English class, how come we have to write so much,” but I don’t get too much of that any more.  We write letters, advertisements, promotional plans, business plans, book reports, scripts, and my yearbook class writes stories and captions for its pages.

Not only do I teach writing, but I love to write.  That’s the reason I started this blog, so I could write even more than I normally do.  Twelve years ago, I attended  a Summer Institute put on by the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project. I was able to meet other teachers who also liked to write and for 4 weeks we shared lessons and ideas.  It was a great summer project.  I would love to recommend the Summer Institute to other teachers, especially NON English teachers, so that you too can share your ideas, pick up new ideas, and just get to know some really great people.  If you are in California, the California Writing Project is where you want to look for a local chapter.  Others can look at the National Writing Project to find chapters in your state.

Another plus for this project is that most sites pay the participants a stipend and offer college credits.  It’s not too late to check with the Writing Project near you and say, “I want to be a part of your summer institute.”