As you know, Ruth and I got together to work on our presentation for NCTE this past week. Now that I’m back home, I’m marveling at the fact that we got SOOOOO much accomplished. We started out at Courthouse Coffee on Wednesday Morning with nothing more than what we sent to NCTE when we proposed our idea. By 9:30 p.m., we had our entire PowerPoint Presentation put together with just a few pieces of student writing missing (since those are in our schools and can easily be added later).
There’s something to be said about working hard with someone who pushes you to do your best work. Though we took a few breaks (I had to try some frozen custard!), we worked efficiently for the better part of 12 hours.
So, if you’re going to be in San Antonio in November, we hope you’ll join us when we present:
“’I HATE WRITING!!!’: A Discussion About Inspiring Reluctant Writers By Writing Alongside Them.”
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I wish I could be there. As a natural writer, I find it so hard to do much more than stare blankly at kids who won’t/don’t write and say they “hate” it. I tend to say helpful things like “well, just start.” and “just pick up your pencil and write . . . it’ll happen.” Uh-huh. Much the way I couldn’t memorize my times tables no matter how many people told me over and over again that I just had to REMEMBER them.
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