Are you up for one more challenge?

When Ruth and I developed Two Writing Teachers last year, we wanted it to be a place where teachers could be fueled with a passion for teaching, writing, and living. We also wanted it to be a place where we shared our own writing and reflected on our teaching: celebrating when it went well and thinking it through when it didn’t. Hence, when Ruth and I were going back and forth with the idea of one more challenge each week, we wanted it to be aligned with our mission statement.

Ruth came up with a brilliant idea for a new Challenge, which is based-off of the writing Penny Kittle did in The Greatest Catch. Essentially, this new challenge, STUDENT STORIES, will be a chance for each of us to reflect on a story + a lesson learned from a student. This new challenge reminds me of an essay I wrote entitled “My Student, My Hero” for Scholastic’s Instructor Magazine in early 2007. (It was a contest and my student was selected as a runner-up.) We hope the Student Stories Challenge gives all of us a chance to reflect (weekly) on students and the lessons we learn from them and/or the way that a particular child’s presence has shaped us as teachers.

We hope you’ll join us for the
Challenge each and every Thursday, here at Two Writing Teachers. We look forward to celebrating the impact our students have had on us and on you in the weeks to come. (Note: The first “Student Stories” Challenge will be on Thursday, June 12th. Please leave a comment on this post if you’re going to partake in this Challenge.) 🙂 We hope you join us.

PLEASE NOTE: For the safety and privacy of all of the kids I write about, I will not include their real name or any other identifying details.