Don't think. Write.

I had my first meeting with my English methods class tonight [Um... last week]. This semester is looking to be a lot of free writing/journaling. Nice, but kind of new for me - believe it or not. My prof had us write "where I'm from" poems, after looking at some models. I had a tough time figuring out stuff that I would want to share as my introduction to the class, and yet still write something that actually sounded poem-like. The professor asked for some feedback on the experience after we had written and shared our poems. Most people shared comments like "this is great," "great way to get kids to share about themselves," all happy stuff about how nice this was. And I don't disagree, I really don't. But I did find the experience challenging. I shared my thoughts on how it was kind of an intimidating experience.

The professor had some good advice -- "Don't think. Write." I like that. But it's also hard, and I think the experience of understanding how this type of exercise can really be challenging is good to have in mind when asking students to do the same. We also talked about a bunch of strategies and other ways of approaching student writing in the classroom, including addressing confidentiality and creating trust. But I really want to remember those words of advice -- tempered with the personal challenge of feeling vulnerable in classroom writing and sharing.