Over at Two Writing Teachers, they do a tremendous job of talking about ideas. Strategies, ideas, examples, and just good old fashioned writing, all of it helping us (me) to become better as we teach writing with our students.

In a recent blog post, “Should Teachers Be Writers?” , the question is posed: “to write or not to write?”  Honestly, why wouldn’t a teacher be writing? We ask our students to follow the process, to do rough drafts, to edit, to publish, to comment on each other’s work.  Why do we not expect the same of oursevles? We have wonderful stories to tell! There are tremendous things going on in our classrooms, why don’t we write about them? We have questions and thoughts, why aren’t we putting them to paper (or to blog)?

I’ve always believed in writing as a part of our reading class. My students roll their eyes as we do writing prompts and other quick writes. This is something I’ve done for years. What’s changed in my own writing, I’m starting to put my writing up on our big screen. I want my students to see my own writing, my editing as I compose at the keyboard. This blog has been put up from time to time to show examples of good writing and not so good writing.  They need to know that as writers, we need to share that with the world, to seek feedback, and to let our voices be heard.

Should teachers be writers? YES! Should our collective voices be heard? YES! Do we hold great power in our writing, the power to change our classrooms, our profession? Absolutely! Do we use it? No. 😦

That where our profession has to start changing it’s “oh, I don’t have anything to share” attitude. Honestly, a lot of what I write, not many people care to read, but I keep writing. Why? Because eventually, I’ll hit a topic people do enjoy!  Some days it’s education, others, my own kids. The variety is what keeps my own writing fresh and new. I do envy some of the “thinkers” in education who come up with these deep topics, but that’s never been what my writing is about. We need to share that with our students, that writing sometimes is just fun, and we can have fun while doing it.

Should teachers be writers? Without a doubt, we all should be writing, if only to prove to ourselves that we can do the same things we expect from our students.

And if we can have a little fun with it, why not? 🙂