The assignments have forced me to stretch my skills. I have been reminded that the process of writing is hard work, and takes time. I have learned from the response groups, and have been privileged to hear the writing of others as well. I also enjoyed having the opportunity spend a morning with Ingrid Wendt, to learn about teaching poetry to children, to listen to the writing of my peers, and to create my own poems. Another valuable part of the Oregon Writing Project was the peer presentations.
Teaching can be a very isolated profession.
During the school year, most of our time is spent inside our own classrooms. Rarely do we, as teachers, have the opportunity to see each other teach. Although many of the lessons presented were for higher grade levels than I teach, I benefited from learning what other people do in their classrooms. The quality of writing instruction across all grade levels has improved a great deal in recent years, and as a result, we are expecting our students to be more sophisticated writers than ever before. As I read what professionals have written about children and literacy, I was reminded of the important social aspect of their writing.