First Writing Workshop - Success!!

What an AWESOME day! I had my first writing workshop with my students (all seniors). I decided after the Summer Institute to dedicate every Friday of the year to writing workshops. That's all my "literature teacher" conscience would allow!

I started the class with a Quick Write, which is what I have come to name the prompts that I give at the beginning of every class. Today, we started with "If I only had the time..." I was inspired to give the kids this prompt because time if one of the things that I worry about with this whole writing workshop idea. Here's what I wrote:

"If I only had the time to do everything that I want to do with these kids this year, I would be a happy camper. I'm already starting to feel a little anxiety about writing workshops! I'm going to have to take out content in order to do them every Friday, and I thought I was okay with that - and for all intents and purposes, I am - but I keep thinking about things to cut from my curriculum.

I've already decided to cut the ballads assignment - I may forgo ballads altogether (not even sure if that's a word) and replace it with writing workshop, which I consider to be a much more purposeful activity!

I'm a little nervous about workshops with the SL kids. They have so much to learn before they're ready for the IOC's that I worry that taking a Friday off twice a month would kill time that needs to be spent another way! Then again, if we look at the IB rubric - it pretty much tells me that writers appreciate OTHER writers and their craft better, so that's one rationale for including workshops in the curriculum."

At that point, time was up, but I'm just going to hit the highlights of what I wrote for the rest of the period.

"Alright - we've picked up our writing folders. Only one missing... I'm kind of looking forward to doing "Writing Process on the Wall". It should be very interesting - maybe - only that I forgot to make one for myself. I'm really surprised that they're so into this writing thing - they're ACTUALLY WRITING! Hurray!"

This is an excerpt from the second workshop of the day:

"If only I had the time, I would do writing workshops EVERY DAY! It went SO WELL with my kids today, I can barely stand it! They seem so receptive to the whole thing, it's ridiculous!

I wish every day were a Friday - it even makes blue days more tolerable. Two writing workshops in ONE DAY! So much time for me to write and take notes on what's happening in class! When the actual writing really starts, I will be able to do some stuff with my writing too!

Here's a (short) list for what I want to work on:

• Writing Group Wikis: Post your writing and get feedback from your group
• Reserve the Elmo and show my writing process from a first draft to a finished piece that was sent off for publication."

As if Fridays weren't good enough already...