Writing Workshop: One Teacher’s Journey

The shaping of my writing self began at a very early age. My mother, as a teacher, knew the power of positive feedback and encouraged my creative writing with her time and focused attention. I grew up feeling proud of my writing abilities. I would write story books with illustrations on typing paper folded over and stapled to form a booklet and share these with my mother who would tell me I might grow up to be an author or an artist. My family has never been particularly good at praising, so these comments were embraced and encouraged me to write and draw more. As an early elementary school child, I remember writing a poem about my dog in the form of a Haiku. I was asked to read my poem in front of the class as an example of how to write Haiku. The teacher’s praise and the experience of being singled out as “special” for my writing surely built my confidence and contributed to my continued love of poetry as a way to express myself.