The Journey to Discovery

In 2006, Dr. Sam Totten, professor at the University of Arkansas and Director of the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project (NWAWP), proposed a book idea to several of us teachers. He asked if we were interested in exploring how teachers became good writing instructors. We all taught writing and were teacher consultants with NWAWP. The idea was fascinating. The four of us, Sam Totten, Anne Lane, Jamie Highfill, and I embarked on a journey that would give teachers an opportunity to tell their stories—how they developed into excellent teachers of writing.

The first year of the project was sending out requests for proposals nationally to journals, publications, and teacher associations looking for those teachers who would like to share their stories. Then came the hard part—looking for a publisher interested in hearing about the struggles and journeys of teachers across the United States who taught writing everyday in their classrooms.